The game has been released for a while for all intents and purposes. It's not complete but it's been more or less at a release status since TI2. They just didn't officially say "Eh this is released" yet probably because they're Valve and they'd rather wait 2-3more years but when a F2P game has a store fully running and free/easy access(I think you still need keys but it takes like 30secs to find one), it's release status.Its amazing how competitive this game is and it still hasnt officially been "released" yet.
With all the tourny's and pro players its kind of mind boggling. Valve must be happier than a pig in shit with this title, and it hasnt even got started yet (they still have what, 5-6 heroes left to put in?).