I don’t feel like looking at all the teams, so I’ll just talk about my matches and opponents.
Week 1 – Dartboard Draft (2-6)
Team Name: 1/10. Recycling names is frowned upon, and this one is non-recyclable too.
We went 1-1 against them, and they’re now 2-6. I still don’t quite know how to counter treant-veno. I personally always liked that combo myself and picked it a lot in in-houses years ago (around when earth spirit was OP). I still think my Timber-Medusa draft is theoretically acceptable, it’s just a matter of “these heroes aren’t that good right now, and those are.” In hindsight, I think lifestealer match-ups have completely changed since his rework, and maybe that would’ve been a good try too. Maybe Burrahobbit is right and the answer to everything is always just Death Prophet.
This team has a lot of mmr but isn’t doing well. I’m taking this as supporting evidence of the inaccuracies of mmr this season.
Week 2 – Team Snek (5-3)
Team Name: 5/10, an extra point given for the logo. The name is a little plebeian, but it passes. There might be some inside joke I’m not privy to.
Another tri-divine team, with good players. They look solid on paper, and they have solid results. One of their members streamed our match, and I casually listened to the audio of the game we won (there wasn’t a lot to watch, because this player doesn’t look around much :)). During the game, and immediately afterward, I was surprised by polo’s positioning and feeding, because I had an image of him as a somewhat stable player. Listening to the stream, it became clear: he was under directions 🙂
I’m sure polo is a fine lad. I slightly admire, from a distance, able people who can humble themselves and follow others, who may be wrong. From a young age, this was against my own programming. Polo is probably a hufflepuff? (https://www.wizardingworld.com/)
Week 3 – Sports Anime Protagonists (4-4)
Team Name: 7/10. Tag yourself.
Losing game one was a little sad for me, as I rarely win mid like this these days. Some people have an image of me as an able drafter, and I agree with that in general, but truth be told I’m not too happy with my drafting this season. Of course, I’m not playing dota that much anymore. I will continue counterfactual regret minimizing.
Everyone on this team is probably valuable, or at least not anti-value.
Week 4 – Staylin Gulag (4-4)
Team Name: 7/10. From their display pics, you’d think this team were a bunch of donkeys.
….which they still might be, + staylin %)
Not happy with losing to naga, I decided to play it myself. I’ve been wanting to pull out a mag all season, and xshal wanted to try it on support, so it came out game 2. Then we got omni’d, which has no counters. And I let 4leks play DP, which he is apparently known for, and brain-farted and didn’t ban drow.
Honestly, I don’t think banning staylin heroes is correct. I think against this team you need to ban the team. You need to ban their strategies.
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So far this season, I’ve somewhat abrogated my rights and duties as captain. This is partly out of lack of confidence (I’m not that close to dota right now), and partly out of an evasion of responsibility. However, I still don’t feel comfortable blaming my woes on other people. So if I’m going to take responsibility for what happens, I might as well exercise my tyranny too.
I may miss week 5, unless I reschedule, which I probably won’t. So my team can enjoy a week without me, and we’ll make a final turn into the homestretch when I’m back. It’s kind of suspenseful to be a middling team.
不怕不識貨，就怕貨比貨
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