March 26, 2015

The Lesson's taught to us by DotA: Why to play?

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Once upon a time...

there was a bloke called .... smuggels

and he was introduced to a fantastic game called "Defence of the ancients 2" by a friend of his. Now he used to play DotA1 a lot back in his more juvenile days so he though HEY i remember this game and was ready for fun times to be had. (*CARRY LESHRAC FTW*)

now after many many hours and a lot of games it was safe to say he had no idea how to play but he persevered and was addicted in no time.

then with a new update big shiny letters RANKED gameplay was introduced being level 16 or so and having a couple of hundred games under his belt ole smuggels thought he was the **** and went i could totally do this.

sadly he was not the **** NOR was he in particular any good. thus he got a 1.1 or 1.4 something MMR ... *fuzzy on actual number*

thinking this was the best thing ever he was quickly disabused from the notion by reddit and fellow dota players.

thus he didnt touch the RANKED section for some time BUT it was always there in the main menu mocking him for being a noob so

he said

NO MORE

and got serious

he got a coach and then another, he made friends with better players and started to read and read and read until he knew "SOME" stuff which was a lot more then he did previously.

he practised a lot and he finally felt ready for the ranked arena ...

over the next 3-4 months joyous smuggels grinded his way from the low 1K MMR trench to the low 2k trench with little or no losses. he was loving life.

then he started losing. until he wasn't progressing. until he was just ... losing.

then he knew... this is my skill level now. so he stopped at 2.4kMMR.

ole smuggels was "at the time" quite satisfied with his progression he did well and was proud of what he had accomplished but ... he wanted more.

so he paid 50$ for a coaching session with PURGE and was pleased with the result.

he sought out 5k australian players and got tips and tricks to improve.

he scoured the intranets and found guides on improving your play.

he started to specialise in a certain role "offlane" and found he enjoyed it immensely.

then after many months and many games he felt ready to tackle ranked again and he did so with a gusto. he raised his mmr to close to 2.9k and was thinking to himself 3K here i come. little did he know he was in for a rude shock.

he started losing again and this time it was his fault his "mindset" wasnt right and when he finally realised this it was too late. he was having trouble rising out of the 2.6k bracket.

he would win 5 then lose 5 he was hovering right around the 2.7k mark and he was not happy.

so he tried everything like before. he got a specific lane coach he watch games and practiced and he found no matter how well he played in the game... it was always down to who he was matched with. if he was matched with nice guys he won if not he didnt.

he was not happy.

why is it that he was at the mercy of these people.

so he thought

*** THEM

and created a smurf account

he grinded it hard spamming meta heroes storm sf jugg wind troll and achieved level 13 with a 68% win rate.

he did all 10 calibration games without a hitch and won 8 out of ten.

old smuggels waited with baited breath for his calibrated MMR

3552 was what he received.

JUSTIFICATION WAS ACHIEVED.

oh how he was so happy.

so he played on his smurf thinking ill be playing with my fellows im at my skill level YAY YAY YAY

he played ranked only.

he won and lost and he raised it to 3.7k

then he lost some and it went back down to 3.6k and he was angry and mad and annoyed

he wasnt having fun he wasnt enjoying himself all he thought about was his MMR and raising it.

he had little to no friend requests on his smurf

little to no commendations

in fact he had 4

3 for teaching and 1 for leader ship.

BUT BUT BUT he thought im in my skill level im where i SHOULD BE

I SHOULD be HAPPY HERE....

so he went back to his main account at his measly 2.6k mmr and as soon as he logged in

he got 4 messages from mates saying "hey"

6 party invites for a game or 2

and a phone call from a friend in america wanting to chat about a game he had....

and he smiled and felt good.

then he remembered all those times he was playing with mates and did something stupid or they had a great game or they played amazing or those dumb conversations about random ****..

he remembered why he started playing the game

a friend

he remembered why he enjoyed the game

because he played with mates

he remembered what was important

having fun...after all .... its a game.



MMR might seem important.

it might seem an indication of a how good u r at this game

it might seem like its all that matters...

but just rememeber...

whats good about having a good MMR if you cant tell a mate who will appreciate it?

why to play dota?

because your playing with friends ....