Why do you think riki is so lame?

While Riki is used to counter certain carries, he is considered to be a real bad hero in general because he is squishy and so easily countered by very cheap consumables.

Sure you might say, a Riki on equal footing as the enemy carry can just carry the game himself, but if Riki falls behind, there is no coming back unless you struggle really hard.

In higher matchmaking riki has three amazing abilities and a useless ultimate. I can't think of any other abilities countered by 180 gold.

Well, his ulti isn't completely countered by dust, he's very good at picking off AFK farmers like Anti-Mage and Morphling who are reliant on their escape abilities. Even then thou, he needs a farm advantage and ideally another gank who can be there on short notice - Spirit Breaker, Nature's Prophet and Nyx Assassin come to mind. They can provide the stun/entrapment to make him deadly.

Some useful team fight abilities, but very reliant on BKB and having other heroes present to tank for him while he DPSs.

tbh i dont think that Rikimaru is a bad hero... he simply is a ganker and not a carry. I have seen him work in higher level matches as well....and he did quite well. his invisibility makes it easy to gank single heroes in the early and midgame, which makes him a nuisance to play against. But i also have to agree with the previous posts, that once the teamfighting starts, he is utterly useless as his whole "sneakyness" can be countered by merely 180-200 gold.

If he gets his Black King Bar and Diffusal Blade quickly he can become quite a threat in the midgame though. And this is exactly were his low level "pub dominance" comes into play. in pubs (and especially the low level ones) players / teams simply arent able to play from a disadvantage! Your whole team can be wipped 5 times in a row, and it still would seek 5 man teamfights, whitout even thinking about turtling or having their carry farm... which creates somewhat of a vicious circle.

I remember the days i was still a noob and the usual "rikimaru teamfight participation": never once cast Smoke Screen; stand at the sidelines never even intending to reveal yourself until every one of your teammates is dead and the enemy heroes are all into oneshot range >.>
And this is exactly the kind of gameplay that i (even now, in "higher" skilled matches) expect from a player who picks rikimaru, making me frown every time i see some1 from my team picking him up.

Anyway....i dont think he is lame. Just think about it: all you need in order counter him is 200 gold and a team that once in a while checks its minimap (and actually carries a TP). Speaking of which, if up versus a riki....ALWAYS CARRY A TP, as he cant cancel it by himself! (which makes him inferior to something like Bounty Hunter or Nyx Assassin)

Riki is a great pubstomp hero because he can capitalize on typical low level behaviour.
New players typically don't know how to effectively counter invis heroes, and also dont have a good sense of whether to fight or run in particular situations.

Dust of Appearance and just generally "support" items are a rarity in low level matchmaking, or only one person will pick up dust and cant do anything as their solo farming Drow Ranger gets killed across the map.

Most just dont know that if Smoke Screen goes up and riki starts hitting, to just stand there and fight back. His damage output hitting you upfront is nothing compared to in the back, you should survive until the smoke clears (if you don't, all hope is lost as he is way too fed) and from there you can stun/slow and escape, or even kill him if your strong enough ( Slardar)

Hmm, if I understand correctly, you guys are saying that choosing Riki is quite a risk if you are facing experienced enemies, which leaves very little margin for any mistake. Actually, that motivates me for choosing Riki a bit. Or at least, I feel a bit less of a 'douche' as people like to call me.

He's still annoying to play against even with an experienced team. Riki forces gold starved supports to buy sentries and dust on top of their usual items, and means that unless your sitting under a tower or next to a sentry, your never sure that your safe.

Bounty Hunter and Clinkz are the same to an extent, but their invis abilities aren't permanent, they consume mana and have a casting animation and noise. So with good ward placement you can generally tell where they are, and they cant keep up a permanent invis unless they invest in mana regen.
Broodmother and Templar Assassin have invis limited to a specific area, while Nyx Assassin's Vendetta has a long cooldown. Sand King and Slark have invis but its still pretty obvious where they are.

Riki when compared to the other invis heroes just feels cheap.

Not to mention, well-placed Observer Wards are enough to spot any other invisibility heroes except Riki, who can passively dodge detection unless a Sentry Ward is placed. I take advantage of this fact whenever I do pick or random him. I even place wards for the team in spots people can't afford to be seen.