"why do I want the closed beta keys so bad?"

Well, I would want to try out this game, and see whether its a worthy predecessor to DotA. As its a standalone game, maybe there's a slight chance that this game can make it into WCG?
And, since the game is still in beta-testing, I'll do my part to report any bugs/glitches that I may encounter in the course of playing to the devs.

Thanks.