The Secret Ingredients of Best DotA Teams

Thinking outside the box is the reason for most success. The simple logic that lies behind this is: if you are just a copy cat, how can you ever defeat the original ones? One of the best Dota team as of now is GGnet. Puppey would spend time analyzing and discussing heroes' potentials, strategies, counters, and line ups with his team mates, particularly Kuroky. I am always surprised with their new strategies almost everytime I check their uploaded replays. There are a lot of strategies in Dota and the best one is still to be discovered. Creativity mostly comes from having a good imagination which I discussed in Hero Picking Dota Guide.

Best dota teams also have the best Dota support players. Supporting is often the role underestimated but most of the games are won because of them. Observing pro teams, you'll discover that successful teams have great supports. Ehome, the recent SMM Champions, have 820 and 357 as their supports. DTS got NS and Dread. GGnet have Puppey and Miracle. They are the ones who would disrupt opponents early game. Once they are successful, the game is almost over. Unselfishness is required because supports shouldn't be thinking of itself farming, not saving, and not buying necessary items for the team. Coordination is also important, both with the carries and the co-support because of the need of perfect timing for correct execution.

"Talent wins games, Teamwork wins Championships" - Michael Jordan

Teamwork isn't only for basketball. This is a skill that is useful in any field of interaction. Dota is one of these team work oriented game because, in order to be an effective player, you have to consider not only how you play as a member but how you play for the team. The 2 is different. You may have a godlike streak but if you only stole kills and escape while your team mates die because you used your ravage to kill a venge, dagger out and teleport to base. A team mate with 0-10 score but is joining the team fight, baiting, initiating and saving the team is way more useful than that godlike chicken sh*t team mate. Most of the great teams I'm watching would respond so quickly in clash. Once a small fire is created, the whole team would be around in no time having a great advantage over the opponents.

When you believe at something, your mind unconsciously become more focused at attaining a goal. On the other hand, if you don't believe you can't make it, what happens is you are scared to exert effort thinking that it will all end up to nothing. Kuroky, for example, appreciates Asian teams but he's not afraid to face them. He even said in an interview that he can predict almost everything that LGD will do in case they face them.

Kuroky: "Well, Puppey and I try to create new strats to surprise our opponents for a match. Mostly we think about different styles, patches and heroes etc. For example, against LGD, I watched their last 20 replays to predict their picks and style, and I actually had a 100% accurate prediction on their bans, and 80% on their picks, and I guessed their lanes again 100% right. After Puppey and I figured out the aura strat it became easier to "abuse" it against them, as we knew exactly how they played. We put the correct lanes, and it was just a matter of time till we won. It's just about analyzing, predicting and being decisive."

How advance do you think while playing? Do you know why you got killed? It's because of not thinking 3 steps ahead. May it be one player or all the players in the team, thinking 3 steps ahead is a must. A player, for example, should have the ability to tell whether going for roshan would contribute to winning and cause the team to lose. 1st step, thinking about going to roshan. 2nd step, thinking if the opponents will know attack you while attacking roshan. 3rd step, knowing whether you can win the fight or not. Limiting your team's ability to thinking 2 steps ahead is still not a Best Dota team material.

If you're given a role, the first thing you should know is how to be comfortable with it. If you're already comfortable, be skilled at it. Being skilled with your role isn't that hard anymore today as replays are all available. For example, if you want to be a skilled farmer, watch how Burning find ways to farm effectively and safely. Observe his actions and implement it in your game. Chances are you'll be able to think on how to even improve the farming strategy you acquired. It takes determination.