The Possibilities - Counter Picking in Pubs

Now we know that Captain's Mode games involve a lot of strategy even at the picking phase. When playing CM, you concentrate on choosing a balanced team that will out perform the enemy's team, and also assign lanes to the correct heroes for the job. But some people forget that this is also half-true in normal public AP, SD or any other mode really.

I am sure that a lot of games you lose are because of team match-up and lane choices. Because unless the enemy is extremely bad, if you have the wrong hero for the wrong job you are faced with being annihilated before you've even started.
To illustrate, let me give you an example. Let's say you see the enemy picking up a Drow Ranger, Warlock, Silencer, Witch Doctor and a Dragon Knight.
Quickly analysing the line-up can significantly increase your chances of winning.

The first thing we see is a Drow. We all hate and love this hero for her amazing damage and slow. Although fairly nerfed, she is still a significant hero and needs to be countered early game to shut her down. Another thing we know is Drow usually takes mid, and considering the line-up, it will a mid between Drow, Warlock and Silencer, and Drow would probably take it. So, you know you need a strong mid-laner or a hero to shut him down.

The rest of their team is fairly squishy (Silencer, Witch Doctor and Warlock), so a good choice would be in this case could be Nyx Assassin. On mid with Carapace he can survive fairly well, get early levels, and shut down either Drow or any of the weaker heroes in ganks.
Because of their fairly weak-hp team and Int heavy setup, a Anti-Mage can also murder them even in early-mid game, because they will all have a lot of mana to burn. The only one that will cause a little trouble is Dragon Knight, because Nyx can't do much to him even when lower leveled. To take him out you need disables, and that's why any stunner-support will be an excellent addition (such as Lion, Lina, Leshrac, etc).

This isn't the only choices of course, but it shows you what I mean when I say counter-picking. Another thing is lane choices. Giving Drow the mid-lane is a good idea because early levels while soloing will make her a great ganker mid-game. Putting Dragon Knight and Warlock in the safe-lane will help push it out and keep them safer than the hard-lane, with Warlock supporting DK effectively.

That leaves Silencer and Witch Doctor to take the hard-lane, which gives them a lot of early-game damage and stun, also a double ranged lane.

This is just some examples of heroes, but the point of my way too long article is that choosing the right hero for the right job can win you games. Phantom Lancer may be very powerful, but counter-picking Medusa, Axe, or a fair amount of AoE will help shut him down before he can farm too much.
And placing Tide Hunter in the same lane as Centaur Warrunner might create problems when your Hard Carry Spectre is on the hard-lane struggling to get farm.

So try and see what the enemy chooses and choose heroes that will both benefit the jobs missing in your team (support, carry, ganker), and counter those chosen by the enemy.

Thanks for reading!