All in all, I would say we are having a successful season, wouldn’t you agree?
After sneaking into playoffs, thanks to Nifuji assisting with a 2-0 over gronaldo, we justified our slot with an upset over 5th seed zombies.
Is it a good time for a season review?
Going by the objective I set for myself, mmr maximization, I did quite well in the player draft. We were either top 2 or top 3 by average mmr. So by that metric, I succeeded in the draft.
However, when my team was struggling early in the season, I wondered to myself if I should conclude that having the strongest tri-core you can get is just too important.
Fun fact, one season long ago I made my week 0 power ranking by only looking at the 3 cores, ignoring supports completely. (And needless to say, my power rankings are always relatively accurate, unless I’m memeing with name lengths or something).
But in the end, we are still doing at least above average, so the strong tri-core or higher-mmr balanced team question is still inconclusive.
It’s like in Catan. Your preferred strategy might be Wheat/Ore, but sometimes you have to play roads and settlements. You can’t always get your first choice.
I will say that, I think I pretty much got what I paid for with all my players, more or less. I might not have a nosebleed polo or hobo, but I definitely see that I am getting some value out of having stronger supports. I remember having 2ks where it’s like they’re just tomes of exp for the enemy team, idling in some random spot, and in fights they aren’t pressing any buttons (share control for the love of god). But steil, for example, often dishes out some damage in fights, or helps win the offlane, or shows up with a surprise hex.
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I used to fantasize about having a Dota team where it was just 5 of me. I thought we would own. See, my background is single player RTS, and even in my early days of Dota, my friend group was graduates of RTS, and I called all the shots.
The thing about “KDA players” is that we learned dota back before rubber-band mechanics, when it was possible and completely usual to 1v5. If I went 10-0, we win. If I died once and we lost, well, I told myself that I could’ve made fewer mistakes and then I win. (I’m not exaggerating.)
There is a deep-seated mistrust of teammates, and an ingrained conservatism. And really, I consider older players like waifu and ultra part of the same school of dota, whether they will agree with my assessment or not. (The new school, itachi, eli, etc., etc., play really “pepega” to me.)
My philosophy was after Sun Tzu: first, make no mistakes. Then, wait for an opportunity for victory.
But over the years I’ve come to realize that it can be beneficial to play “looser.” It’s like in poker, a table full of conservative “nits” is terrible, but looser play can get people to make mistakes.
Some Dota examples:
- When Yawar and Sumail first came on the scene, I favored Yawar. I thought Sumail played like a hothead. But now I realize that playing closer to the “edge” is “correct”.
- It’s often beneficial to have a teammate who will go in and start fights. Really, as I see it, this is one of Vuvu’s sole “virtues.” I myself am absolutely loath to go in first, typically.
- In losing games, you will often see supports on top teams (such as Puppey, and in the recent Lima major, one of the Chinese supports) start feeding in aggressive positions. The commentators, and the stream chat, make fun of them, but I suspect a reason behind the madness. If you play stably in losing situations (as is my wont), you are really just waiting to stably lose.
I once read a book on contract bridge, and a quote stuck with me: If you aren’t going down one out of three or four tries, you are underbidding.
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Anyway, yada yada. Blogging steam has run out, time to wrap it up.
Timber Hearth
Value: As advertised
Super great teammate. Bonus spec. point in laning, I think.
Steil
Value: As advertised
Already talked about above. We played him more like a position 4.5, but he seemed open to playing lots of other heroes, I just wasn’t letting him, tbh.
ryan
Value: As advertised
Okay NGL I thought I was getting a carry with a huge traditional carry pool but lots of the heroes he didn’t want to play. The stuff he did want to play though he was boolin’ though.
stonks
Value: As advertised
Vuvu told me stonks would keep rosh timer for me, and he does.
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