I Don't WANT To Suck...

This seems like the best place for this... Here's my DotaBuff profile:
https://www.dotabuff.com/players/104776484

I've played this game for 600 hours, as something that my mates and I do for fun and to keep in touch (usually play as 3, 4, sometimes 5 stacked). We've mostly been playing against bots for a year or so but now they want to move into pubs and get more competitive... I have only won 14/24 recorded games. I feel like I'm holding the rest of them back...

I feel I know how the game works, I know the general theory of being adaptable, but my mistakes adding up plus poor luck in MM means we never win our games and I end up being the common denominator, and it's getting hella demoralizing... At this point I just don't know how many more things I can pay attention to or keep improving on before acquiescing and "uninstalling Dota (n00b!)"...

Do I just not have enough games on record...? Have 500 hours of bot matches taught me bad habits and skewed my Winrate for matchmaking...? Do I just need to go through the front-loaded ******** until the system is able to slot me where my mates and I belong and that 50% win-rate, which seems like such a sweet and distant reward from here, can finally become a reality...?

I don't WANT to quit, I WANT to git gud and have fun with my friends, but I really don't know at this point...

You just need to play more.

Bots are good for nailing the basic mechanics such as last-hitting, and getting a very basic understanding of the flow of a game. But they are terrible for most other things, because people play much much differently to bots.

Your first few hundred games of DOTA will be riddled with mistakes, and bad plays and poor decision making on your part. And you can only improve that through practice against other people, and experiencing match-ups and game stats you'll never encounter in bot games.

Likewise look back at the replays of your games, be critical of your performance. Likewise look at some competitive games, and look at what they are doing differently to you, and ask yourself why they do these things.

I'd advise the rest of your friend to do the same, because if you all have similar problems from bot games then it's probably a problem shared.

I'd like t0 congradulate yoyu on being a noob but not using Sniper. A+ keep going ur doin okay. Try to use more heroes.

I'd say my biggest downfall has been lack of patience. You're right, bots are ultimately predictable after awhile; expect 5-man ball-of-death between minutes 10-15 and plan accordingly. So when I go into pub, I get blindsided by, you know, real people playing real strategies, and not only do we fail to adapt but I panic too much to attend to my own playing and get so frustrated and demoralized that I it's not healthy for me to go back in and learn something.

If I can think of one thing I have yet to do, it's not something mechanical: it's being able to master my own emotions and expectations to the point where I go in with zero expectations and pay no attention to anything except my own play and my own role. If I can do that then, win or lose, I can try to play the best game possible, pat myself on the back for doing my best and critique what I could have done better without applying any kind of emotional or metaphysical weight to a stinking 45-minutes that no one else cares about.

... Sadly I haven't managed to do that yet.

[P.S., My SO and I play together a lot, and she was way more experience, so I'm sure the feeling of "holding her back" or not being able to keep up is playing psychological gymnastics with me and part of why I take this way too seriously...]

Also, @Bubbles, you are a saint. Thanks for that.

Hey, you might really find either this or this useful, those are blogs written by Smuggels (really nice writing btw) about what you've been saying – psychological problem. Hopefully those can help you on finding a solution! Good luck! :D

I didn't even know someone had bothered to talk about this sort of thing. Thanks so much!

You're welcome :D
Oh, and by the way, if you want to get some technical pointers, I'd suggest checking Sando's guides, he has TONS of guides, just check which one you need most. I'd actually recommend on checking this and this for now, but just check around his guides and I'm sure you'll find some that help you!

I'd be willing to coach you if you'd like, since I can play on US East and West. You can find me on steam under the name I use on this forum.

If you'd like anyway. Here is my dotabuff:

http://www.dotabuff.com/players/177350326

It's pretty much this ^ . As you play more, you'll start to learn the intricacies of each Hero and Item, as well as how they interact.

For example https://www.dotabuff.com/matches/1658716232

I could tell you that getting a 2nd point in Return at lvl4 is nowhere near as good as a 2nd point in Double Edge, and why you may believe me if I explain how Burst Damage takes priority, you won't truly understand it until you play enough games and feel the benefit of skilling Centaur this way. (This isn't just you, I've mocked a 3.6k friend for Maxing Hoof Stomp and Return without taking a single point in Double Edge 8{D ).

For now, don't worry too much about whether what you are doing is right or wrong, just experiment and have fun with it. For example, you see a lone Hero walking around...you aren't sure if you can get the drop on him, whether you'll be able to Kill him, or even if there are other heroes around. Since you're new to the game, put it out of your mind and go for it, just to see what happens. As you get more experienced, you'll learn to calculate your Damage output against another players and develop your map awareness to know whether he know you're there as well as where the rest of his team may be.

This is also a good technique, but don't just watch, actively watch! For example, if you're watching yourself get Last Hits in lane, ask yourself "why?" whever you see you missed a Last Hit. Was it because you got the timing wrong? Were you doing something else? Wwere you afraid you'd be Ganked if you took it, and with hindsight, was that what would have happenned? etc