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Blizzard DOTA Trailer

2011-10-21T23:30:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged for a bit. Anyway, here's something new - Blizzard DOTA. What do you guys think? I do hope EA would do the same thing but create some sort of 1st person view. LOL Here's the video:

Heroes of Newerth Hero Spotlight: Cthulhuphant

2011-09-30T04:19:00.000-07:00

This hero was release last week in HoN.Garena. The first time I was able to play with this hero was totally amazing. This hero was our enemy and we're having a hard time because of his advantage early game which proved useful until the end game. He's so rich so I think his shield is so Imba.
Here's the hero spotlight from HoN:

The Cthulhuphant is a tanky strength beast that can charge into a battle almost fearlessly, wreaking havoc on nearby enemies with his crippling passive slow and large area effect damage. At early levels he's able to kill difficult neutral creep camps with use of "Hook 'em", and gain an early level advantage that he can gank frequently with, using "Trample" for the burst damage and stun. If playing him in the lane, he can charge into creep waves and send projectiles flying to stun enemy heroes from a far distance--giving allies an opportunity to follow up with additional disables and damage output.

Cthulhuphant's greatest weakness is keeping up with his foes and dealing lethal damage. After using Trample, he has no other disables aside from his passive aura and may find himself falling short of killing an enemy. However, even with no survivability items early on, he can withstand a great deal of damage. For this reason, ghost marchers are an important pickup to help boost his attack damage and allow him to keep up with his prey.

12 dota 2 beta keys to be given away - PlayDota launches its photo contest!

2011-09-21T00:26:00.000-07:00

I know everyone is going crazy to get involved in the Beta phase of DotA2. Well, here's everyone's chance to get a key! PlayDota - the official DotA website just launched its photo contest and guess what? The winners will be given a beta key. There will be only 6 winners in this contest.

Here are the details of the contest:

WIN-YOUR-OWN-DOTA2-BETA-KEY

PlayDotA U-Photo Submission

In this contest, you are required to take a photograph of yourself holding a sign that reads "Dota 2" and your "PlayDotA.com Username" in any creative fashion (interesting, wild, weird, funny, strange, conceptual or any other adjective you see fit) you can.

The primary target is to ensure that your photo reflects your love for DotA and give us an idea what it means to you.

Rules and Regulations:
All images should be above 600x400 px in size. Images smaller than the mentioned size will not be considered. You are allowed to submit only one entry. Multiple ID submissions will lead to a disqualification. You are allowed edit your submission until 48 hours from the time of your submission. No edit is allowed after the deadline is hit. Do not heavily edit your images digitally. You are allowed to do some basic fixes like contrast, brightness and etc but anything which has been manipulated far from original will be disqualified.

Contest Dates:
Begins: 12:00 AM GMT -8, September 21, 2011
Ends: 11:59 PM GMT -8, September 27, 2011
Submissions after the deadline will not be considered under any condition.
Submission Thread: dota-2-beta-key-u-photo-contest-submission-thread

Prizes:
12 Dota 2 Keys are up for grabs in this first contest. 6 winners will be chosen by the PlayDotA Staff and each winner will be rewarded with 2 beta keys that they can share with their friends.
So what are you waiting for? Get started on the planning.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q) How many photos may I enter?
A) Only one entry per member.

Q) How much photo editing may I use?
A) The only photo editing allowed will be minimalistic such as lighting. Any major changes will not be allowed. If you are unsure then do not edit the submission.

Q) Can other people be in my submission photo?
A) Yes you may have as many as you like. However you need to be in there and you need to be holding the sign displaying "DotA 2" and your "PlayDotA username".

Q) Do I have to be literally holding a sign?
A) If you can think of a creative other way to include the 2 requirements it will most likely be accepted.

Q) Where do I send/attach/upload the photo
A) Please use the dedicated photo submission thread that you can post an entry and can attach your photo to. No other posts must be made in that thread.

Q) Will you accept private photo submissions?
A) No. All photo submissions must be made in the dedicated photo entrant thread. We do it publicly to allow member critique and discussion. All discussion is to be kept in the original announcement thread.

Q) Am I allowed to post a gif or photo series?
A) No, this is a still frame photo competition, not a movie or story competition.

Q) Can staff enter?
A) Staff may enter but they cannot win.

Q) How will winner be decided?
A) There will be multiple staff members choosing the winners to give a well rounded assessment.

Q) But what about us die hard fans who have supported the game forever?
A) There are other ways to get a beta key coming very shortly. This is just the first.

Q) Are the PlayDotA staff just trolling us?
A) Maybe the best troll post ever! Or you could actually win a beta key.

Q) I submitted my photo in the correct thread but its not showing up!
A) You are more than likely a member with very few posts. As a safeguard against spam bots all new posts of these members need to be approved. Your entry will not be affected and your post will be approved within a short time.

So what are you guys waiting for? Submit your photos now. Here are some photos submitted by some DotA fans:

sources: http://www.playdota.com/forums/540954/win-your-own-dota-2-beta-key/
sources: http://www.playdota.com/forums/541248/dota-2-beta-key-u-photo-contest-submission-thread/

Geomancer and Midas released in HoN.Garena

2011-09-14T02:34:00.000-07:00

I was happy yesterday because finally, the new heroes were released in HoN Garena - Geomancer and Midas that is. I've played with some players with those heroes but apparently they don't know how to use them yet so they lost big time! lol

Redesigns in DotA2 Heroes

2011-09-14T00:37:00.000-07:00

I loved the way valve responded to the voice of the gaming community. To be honest, I'm not a fan of the artwork of Valve in DotA2. HoN and LoL hired various artist to come up with unique hero models. As for valve, their heroes almost look the same but it's a good thing they always want to improve on their graphics. These screenshots were from a DotA2 blog showing the new looks of the heroes.

Ancient Apparition

Antimage has new blades and made some changes with his face

Axe was introduced

Chen

Clockwork

Crystal Maiden with more colors

Dark Seer

Dazzle

Beast Master with more details

Doombringer with big ass horns and armor

Drow Ranger curves emphasized. More sexy look!

a more detailed EarthShaker

ES ultimate is more scary

Enigma

minor change in void - elbow bands!

Lina has new clothes. Sexy!

Mirana's tiger was slightly ammended

Morphling new model

Necrolyte

Night Stalker/Balanar with new pants!

Shadow Fiend looks more scary and intimidating. Added small wings and more detail in the eyes.

Puck

Pudge has a new hairstyle and added chains as well

Pugna

Razor

SandKing with more details

Shadow Shaman

Sniper oops wait, look at the inclusion of a shop keeper from the trailer >.<

Slardar with more details

Sniper

Spectre

Storm Spirit is a bit bigger now

Sven looking good

Leviathan

Tinker

Tiny

Vengeful Spirit

Venomancer

Viper has new wings

Weaver looks much stronger/sturdier

Windrunner has a new bow

Witch Doctor

Zeus with new clothes

So that's about it. What do you guys think about the changes? Are they good? Well, I believe valve cannot please everybody so if there's something that you want to say, just go for it. Communication will always be the key. It's not about them, it's about us gamers. >.<

Team Philippines (Mineski) reaped medals at TheGamesXpo Singapore!

2011-09-12T06:33:00.000-07:00

Mineski Infinity

I know this news is kinda late but when I heard about it, I was really happy. E-sports is not that famous in the Philippines and we've been considered as an underdog for many years. However, this year, our neighboring countries might view our e-sports teams as a threat because team Philippines won in three divisions - HoN, DotA and Starcraft 2. The other participating nations by the way are Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and India. That's 7 nations competing.

For Dota, here are the results:

1st - Mineski Infinity PowerColor (S$3000)
2nd - Orange eSports (S$2000)
3rd - MUFC (S$1000)

Caviar "Enderr" Acampado

For StarCraft II (SC2)

1st - eXo.Mski.Enderr (S$600)
2nd - NEO.RedArchon (S$400)
3rd - pRo.Cobo (S$200)

I've posted the results in HoN in my previous post.

Congrats to everyone!

Duskbin (Philippines) - the new WCG 2011 Heroes of Newerth Champion

2011-09-12T02:17:00.000-07:00

After days of HoN action, we finally have a winner. Congratulations to Duskbin for winning HON WCG in Singapore! They are actually the 1st WCG Singapore Heroes of Newerth Champions.

Here are the Final results:
1st: Duskbin Esports (Philippines)
2nd: Xtreme ChaotiX SG (Singapore)
3rd: MuFC (Malaysia)

Duskbin roster for the event:

Marc 'zekaykay' Parasdas
Kevin 'Ismification' Herrera
Marvin 'Lutan' Tan
Cath 'cd' Diaz
Jojo 'Dragon' Uy

DuskBin heads to Singapore for WCG Singapore

2011-09-10T05:30:00.000-07:00

DuskBin.HoN will be going to Singapore to join WCG for HoN. The prizes are not as big as the prizes compared to the recent DotA2 tournament.

Prizes:

Champion: $2000 SGD +WCG Trophy + WCG Medal
1st Runner Up: $1000 SGD + WCG Medal
2nd Runner Up: $500 SGD + WCG Medal
3rd Runner Up: $300 SGD
5th to 8th Place: $100 SGD per team

Malaysia WCG Singapore 2011 Finals will be taking place at Orange Internet Cafe at Kuala Lumpur this Saturday, 20th August 2011, from 0900 hrs onwards.

Here's a live stream. If it's not working, you can go to this url: http://www.twitch.tv/ghontv
Watch live video from GHoNTV on www.twitch.tv

You can also check the HoN Garena website for live updates and the stream as well.

http://hon.garena.com/news-article/179-day-2-wcg-singapore-2011-live-updates

The streams are brought to you by Team TrollCasting. You might want to check out their facebook page for some updates - http://www.facebook.com/trollcasting

Enjoy guys!

New upcoming Hero - Midas

2011-09-09T07:05:00.000-07:00

Midas is a new hero coming out this Friday in Heroes of Newerth. He is a ranged strength hero. The video basically covers everything. It would seem that you need to level all of the skills as all of them are important but you might need to prioritize the 2 aoe skills first. This hero has a strong potential as he could be a hitter who has useful spells. Not to mention a stun when he successfully hits two of his spells.

Need help? Check out Prodex

2011-08-27T01:28:00.000-07:00

Click the image to view the site

Nigma and Cawk did a very good job in creating a very useful website - prodex. It's graphically beautiful. It's flash based but is very fast to load.

It doesn't have too much information though to become a pro but it's a good start for newbies. I'm highly recommending for you guys to check out this project.

The site has a basic grasp of the heroes, item builds and their roles. What I love the most there is the warding guide. It's really really helpful.

Flux - a potential in tournaments?

2011-08-26T02:04:00.000-07:00

I'm seeing a very big potential of Flux in Tournaments. There are a lot of heroes that could prove a good synergy with his ulti. Some examples that I can think of:

Flux + Kraken + Bombardier

Flux + Plague Rider

Flux + Tempest

Flux + Pyromancer + Pebbles

Flux + Engineer

Flux + Bubbles + Hellbringer

There are a lot of options. What do you guys think?

Geomancer Hero Spotlight

2011-08-26T01:16:00.001-07:00

After months of waiting, the second community created hero, the Geomancer, is finally here! Designed by community members Phopis and Chibbi, the Geomancer is a mobile, subterranean hero with strong team-fighting and ganking abilities.

Get out of 1500 PSR/MMR! | How to increase your MMR/PSR to 1600-1700 level

2011-08-25T02:33:00.000-07:00

I hate playing 1500 games that's why I decided to write this post. This post is just a rough guide to get out of the so called black hole. Why black hole? There are a lot of noobs around in 1500 that are dragging you down baby! Hopefully, this article would help you get out of the black hole and play with better players in 1600 and 1700 psr.

Let's get started.

1. Check your ping. Typing the command '/ping' will show your ping. Why does this matter? Because your ping affects your game. If it's laggy, and you still insist to play the game, try picking heroes that are just support and not carries. Typing the command '/pa' will show everyone's ping. Make sure that you check this in every game especially in Match Making to ensure that you have a playable ping and of course so that you will enjoy playing the game smoothly.

2. Choose Wisely. Victory starts in picking your heroes right. In tournaments, even if the better team has a higher skill rating than the other team but if they were out picked by the opposing team, the outpicked team has a lower chance to win. It's the same in MMR and Public games, choose heroes wisely.

Some combo heroes/heroes that are really effective that has a high win rate:

Electrician + Swiftblade

Magmus + Pyromancer

Sandwraith + Thunderbringer

Devourer + Jereziah

Kraken + Soulstealer

Kraken + Flux + Bubbles + Dark Lady + Plague Rider

Anyway, these are just some examples that I've encountered. Feel free to comment below if you have better/greater ideas.

3. Warding and couriers. I know I've stressed out the importance of wards and couriers in my previous post.

4. Know your role. HoN for me is a role playing real time strategy game. Everyone has roles to play that they need to focus on while playing the game. Their items should also match the current need of the team complementing their roles. Here are some of the roles of the game. You may find yourself in one or two of these roles at the same time depending on the situation.

Pure support
Classic examples - Glacius, Demented Shaman

Don’t compete with the Carry you are babysitting for creep and hero kills. The gold many carries lose to their support can often mean the difference between losing and winning games. There is nothing wrong with taking a creep kill here and there but you should absolutely not be “farming” during lane phase under any circumstances.
Ward! I can’t stress enough how incredibly important this is. Your team needs map awareness to win. The earlier in your HoN career you can figure this out the better your win ratio is going to be, and in turn the better your MMR. No one else should be buying wards. It is your job. If the river isn’t warded nearly the entire game, most importantly after laning phase (when people start roaming) then chances are you will lose, assuming the other team is buying wards.
Counter-ward! If you notice the other team escaping ganks often, you should probably consider counter warding. All you have to do is buy a Reveal Ward and place it in the typical warding locations, then place a normal ward (if one isn’t there already) to give you site. Then kill the enemy wards.
Buy the courier and upgrade it! At the start of the game you should always be the one buying the courier as support. The alternative is to have a ganker or another support buy the courier and you buy wards, but you should be getting one of the two.
To add up, warding is not just for map awareness. It also has a timing. It's mostly crucial in early game so that you will have control with the runes and avoid ganks in mid.
Learn how to Creep Stack. If you don’t have a jungler you should be constantly stacking creeps for the Carry you are supporting. This means that at around the 40 or 45 second mark of every minute you should be attempting to go into the jungle and finding a creep spawn. Once you find the one you will stack you should throw an auto attack at one creep, between the 51 and 53 second mark, and pull the creeps out of their spawn until the fog of war covers their spawn. Drag the creeps behind you until the next creeps have spawned, and if you were successful you will now have two groups of creeps in that spawn. You can do this up to 3 times.
Pull! When the creeps in your lane are pushed far away from your tower you should be pulling. This is pretty simple, all you have to do is as you see your own creep wave approaching the last tower in your lane, you should go to the closest creep spawn to your tower (you’ll be able to tell which one) and attack a creep to pull it into your lane. This will cause your creeps to attack the neutral creeps in the jungle and pull them out of your lane. As a result the enemy creeps will be pushed closer to your tower where you can soak up easy XP and last hits, plus benefit from tower protection.
Stack and Pull! Trust me this is not a redundant bullet. The most successful way to pull is to first stack the pull creep spawn, then pull it into the lane. The reason for this is that many times with a single neutral spawn your creeps will simply kill the neutral creeps and then continue back into your lane severely diminishing the time you can spend under the protection of your tower. If you stack then pull the neutral creeps should be able to kill your entire creep wave, which will “reset” your lane so to speak. This will push the enemy creeps closer to your tower for a much longer period.
Did I mention how important it was to buy wards?

Hard Carry
Hard Carries are super useless early game. Classic examples would be Magebane and Sandwraith.

Learn how to Farm! This is the most important thing for a carry to do. Farm and don't get killed. Focus on getting last hits on creeps and heroes. Get a Loggers Hatchet to start out if you have trouble with last hits, or even consider installing a Creep Bar mod that will show you when you can last hit a creep.
Get the kill for extra gold. Ignore other players complaining about kill stealing, because you are the carry, not them. You need the extra gold from kill shots and 99% of the time the hero that would have got the kill instead of you simply doesn’t.
Stay alive no matter the cost! Don’t go off trying to save your support early game because it puts you in a very vulnerable situation. In Filipinos we say ikaw ang alay! The support will be the sacrifice for you. Unless you know for a fact that you can do so safely of course, but remember that one of the biggest reasons for having a low KDR as a carry is because of misjudging when you can and cannot win a fight.
Avoid ganking as much as possible. If you want to kill the person in your lane, ask a support hero to help you out. You can start controling the map more once you have your core items.
Encourage your support to pull and stack. Don’t scream or rage at them if they are not doing this or sound that you're just trolling. Just ask them nicely and in a very positive manner. Most of the time they will as long as you don’t tell them they suck at HoN 2 minutes into the game.

Semi-Carry
Semi carries are carries that can be gankers as well. Classic examples would be valkyrie and Wretched Hag

Here simply combine what carries and gankers do.
If you're a tanky semi-carry. Let's say pestilence or hammer storm, you still need to farm and gank at the same time. The question is when! well you need more coordination with your support with that.

Ganker

Dont kill-steal (ks) the carry! For example, if Chronos is one hit away from killing an enemy hero don't use Witch Slayers' Silver Bullet to kill it. This is a surefire way to lose games. The carry needs the gold to be successful, you don’t. You just need experience not gold.
Always carry a Teleport Stone. This applies to every role, but is extremely important for a ganker.
Shadow your carry. Sometimes witch slayer or glacius will just stick not far behind a carry who is farming. That's an antigank play. You keep your carry alive.
Feed your carry if you can. Lets use the Witch slayer example again. If instead it was you who was close to killing the enemy hero and Chronos comes in and starts attacking that hero and will surely be able to kill them, then let Chronos have the kill, don’t use your ult to take it before he can. It doesn’t matter if you were the one who did all the work to kill the hero, the carry simply needs the gold to win.
Don’t tower dive. Most cases of feeding on a team are due to either support, which is understandable because they need to protect their carry, or by gankers. If you can’t safely pull off your gank then abort the gank. Simple. It's all about wise judgement based on the burst damage that you can give.
Map awareness. You should be helping the support ward and counter ward if possible to have better map awareness. This will greatly increase your chances of having a successful gank without dying.

Initiator

Stay in the battle. With exception of the INT initiators like Tempest you should be staying in the battle always the reason for this is you should be the hardest hero on your team to kill. As the initiator the other team will target you first, so you need to be there to suck up some damage for your team while they focus down the other teams carry and win the battle. I hate it when a tree just farms in the neutrals and won't join team battles even if his ulti is up.
Stay out of battle as an INT Initiator. If you are playing Tempest you should place your Ult just right to initiate, use your other spells, then get out of the middle of the battle.

Tanker

Tankers are hereos that are meant to take damage while hitters are killing most of the team.
Don't be afraid to die in the battle if it means winning the clash.
Farm for early tanking items. Don't be ashamed to farm because you also need some cash.

5. Communication

HoN is a real time strategy game. Everyone needs to communicate with one another to reach the common goal - to win the game. Some ganks fail because of miscommunication. Some carries feed because no one advises if someone is missing. You might want to buy a headset for optimum game play. I've posted an article about it here.

6. Map Awareness

Most of the best carries that I know have this trait. They have some sort of 'spider sense' because they know where the enemies are. I think this is more of an experience thing. They already know the pattern on how most people play. But for very inexperienced players, you should simply ward to do this and become successful.

7. Jungling Strategy - I know I mentioned this in one of the roles of support heroes but I will write a more extensive post about this. Jungling strategy is all about:
-creep pulling
-creep stacking
-creep pulling and stacking
-picking jungling heroes

I think this is about it. If you have any suggestions or would want to contribute, feel free to do so.

HoN Garena Homepage Video

2011-08-25T00:53:00.000-07:00

HoN Garena is under maintenance so I decided to check out some updates from HoN Garena's website. I'm really hoping that they will release master of arms today! Anyway, I enjoyed watching the vide below that can be found in HoN Garena's website.

Dota2 International Tournament Championship Replays | Best of 5 between EHOME and Na'Vi

2011-08-22T00:55:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, here's the compilation of the replays in the championship matches. The championship is a best of 5 but there are only 3 replays here. Why? Well, the first game was not played because Na'Vi has one point advantage. And for the rest, just watch the replays and you will know why. :p

Anyway, I've watched all the replays and they're all fantastic! I love the way how Na'Vi chose their bans and picks and the way their support heroes help their carry.

Game 2:

Here, EHOME won a big victory. Doom + Tree sprout + venomancer's ulti = insta kill

Game 3: We'll Na'Vi kinda answered back.

Game 4: It's over. Na'Vi secured the crown.

So that is it. Let's all continue playing to be more competitive and be like them. I still wish Mineski could have won in the losers bracket though.

Dota2 International Tournament Results

2011-08-22T00:50:00.000-07:00

Hail to the Champion Baby!

The tournament ended yesterday with all the smiles coming from all the top teams. After 5 days of pure action competitive gaming, Na'Vi completely dominated everyone including the big EHOME from China. The team Na'VI started out with a big advantage since they're came from the Winner's bracket. EHOME won the first match to even out that advantage but then Na'Vi retaliated with two straight wins securing their victory in the tournament.

Most of the top teams won't go empty handed. EHOME takes home USD 250,000...Scythe from Singapore received USD 150,000. You can check how much the other teams received in the picture below. All in all, there's a total of USD 1,600,000 given to all the top teams. Congratulations! That's a lot of money. As a Filipino, 1M USD is like PHP 43,000,000! Enough to buy a house and a car! OMG WTF!

the runner ups. Better luck next time >.<

Dota 2 Hero List

2011-08-21T05:45:00.000-07:00

Due to popular demand, I will post the Hero List of Dota2.. This is pretty much the same as DotA 1 though. There's no big difference except for the portraits :p

Based on the image, the heroes are: (from left to right)

Strength Heroes:

Earthshaker
Sven
Tiny
Beastmaster
Clockwork
SandKing
Slardar
Tidehunter
Night Stalker
Doom Bringer
Axe
Pudge

Agility Heroes:

Antimage
Drow Ranger
Mirana
Morphling
Vengeful Spirit
Sniper
Shadow Fiend
Razor
Venomancer
Faceless Void
Viper
Weaver
Spectre

Intelligence Heroes:

Crystal Maiden
Puck
Storm Spirit
Wind Runner
Zeus
Lina
Shadow Shaman
Tinker
Nature's Prophet
Enchantress
Chen
Lich
Lion
Witch Doctor
Enigma
Necrolyte
Pugna
Dazzle
Leshrac
Dark Seer
Ancient Apparition

You might also want to participate in the open Beta. You might also want to sign up for your steam account now. :p Check out the official site in DotA2.com for more information.

Dota2 International Tournament Finals

2011-08-20T15:05:00.000-07:00

With Mith-Trust, ok.nv.int, M5, iG, and MYM eliminated, it only leaves EHOME, Scythe and Na`Vi in the finals round. Who will be the first DotA2 Champions?

As per the DotA2 blog says:

In the losers bracket MYM was eliminated by EHOME. MYM is sent home with $80,000 and EHOME advances to Sunday’s playoff against Scythe.SG – the same team that sent them down to the loser bracket with a resounding defeat on Friday.

Sunday will start with the best of three elimination series. The loser walks away with $150,000 and the winner will face Na`Vi in the championship match. In the final match the loser there earns a healthy $250,000 but it all pales in comparison to the ultimate champion and their $1,000,000 payday.

Can Scythe.SG turn it around after Saturday’s crushing defeat by Na`Vi and rise up against the two opponents that have beaten them at every meeting?

Can EHOME rise up out of the losers bracket and get revenge against Scythe.SG and then go on to defeat Na`Vi?

Or will the powerhouse of the tournament Na`Vi keep rolling over every opponent in its path?

Well, we will find out soon enough.

Watch Dota2 International Tournament replay - EHOME vs. Scythe

2011-08-19T21:17:00.000-07:00

Oh my God! I just can't believe that EHOME was defeated. Enjoy the replay below:

Watch Dota2 International Tournament replay - ok.nv.int vs. iG

2011-08-19T13:20:00.000-07:00

This is one of the most awesome games I've ever seen. OK.NV could have won easily but because of their carry's poor item choice they lost. He could have bought MKB for the weaver's Butterfly. Big win for iG. :)

Is it OK to lose? hell yeah!

2011-08-19T09:20:00.000-07:00

I was on a losing streak this week. Looks like I'm kinda stuck in the 1650++ psr Level again. sigh

*Let me just share with you how my psr went down. My psr used to be 1800++ then my friends kinda borrowed my account because I stopped playing for a year. Then Garena made a major reset on the stats so everything went to 1500.

You can easily get to 1600 in just around 10 games. But the thing is you will be playing with a lot of noobs so you need to step up. If you lose, it's more than OK. At least you learned something. We learn from our own mistakes. You can ask the same question to great players like AngryTestie, Yoda, H4nn1, Chu etc. They also experienced big losses in the past.

So why am I promoting losing games? LOL Everyone wants to win!

Well here are some of my points:

We lose sometimes becase we experiment. I also tried experimenting on builds in some heroes. The best way to learn is to try something and try to mess it up. If you won, then you try it again. If you win by doing the same thing, you can say that it's a 'core' build. When I say core, you can do it in every game. Like in pebbles, it's tried and tested that you need a Portal Key. Something like that. Or for casters in general, I would go Bottle + Blood Chalice. I understand that this game demands adaptation all the time. There is no constant item/skill build that would work in every game.

We lose because we value our stats that much. Everyone is afraid to lose because they care about their psrs and kdrs. Some would just play one or two games. If they win, they will stop playing. Some people would just concede because they're feeding because they chose all carry heroes. Some players when playing support don't want to sacrifice themselves for the team, thus not fulfilling their roles in the game. There is no downside if you will lose today but win more tomorrow. It doesn't really matter. You will find that if you're less worried about your stats, you will enjoy more, have fun and end up learning more.

I can site a lot of examples but there's one funny experience that I really want to write about. Here it is:

There's one game where we have an all carry lineup - Scout, Aluna, War beast, Gladiator and Emerald Warden. I was playing Gladiator that time. Everyone was feeding because our enemy is kinda balanced their heroes were - Fayde, Pyromancer, Zephyr, Dampeer, Flint beastwood.

It has been 30 minutes and Aluna still doesn't have items. Scout has a runed axe while our WB only has shrunken and abyssal skull. We're still losing in clashes, everyone wants to concede. I tried explaining to them how big our chances are when we are playing defensive. Good thing they believed me. Started warding and playing defensively. The other team is very cocky so by the 50th minute of the game, we were able to win two clashes. Two genocides. Got kong and won the game. :)

We lose because we don't wanna be blamed by others. All of us don't wanna be called noobs or to be blamed because we didn't do what was expected from us. But sometimes, it's ok to be blamed (just think that it takes 5 to lose). At least you know what to do next time. Some players don't want to be blamed so they just take it to the exteremes. E.g. you're playing carry and you will just farm for 40 minutes before hunting. Or you're playing support. E.g. Tempest. You will blink in if you can only get 4 in your ulti. But by the time you got in, your team mates already fell. LOL I guess, the moment you see the opportunity to help your team mates, just go for it.

So! I guess after reading this post, just go out and play and have fun. You may lose tons of games but the more you lose, the more you learn. By the time you lost a lot you've gotten better!

Watch Dota 2 International Tournament replay - MYM vs M5

2011-08-19T05:23:00.001-07:00

I've been a huge fan of MYM. I can't believe they lost to the Russian M5s.

Watch Dota2 International Tournament Replays - EHOME vs TyLoo

2011-08-19T03:50:00.000-07:00

This is already the Quarterfinals so these are really big teams that are clashing at each other. Here are their picks...

EHOME:

Spectre
Sand King
Lina
Beastmaster
Puck

TyLoo:

Lich
Venomancer
Doombringer
Weaver

Looking at the picks, it's obvious that EHOME would go for a 4-1 play. Let's see if the opposing team can counter it.

Watch Dota 2 International Tournament replay - EHOME vs Mineski.Infinity

2011-08-19T00:21:00.000-07:00

Just another match in the tournament. Mineski should really improve their game and adopt to the international gameplay.

My thoughts on this match:

Good picks from both teams.

Nice start for EHOME. Bloodlust on mid and then killed Sandking at bottom.

Bad choice from Mineski to just pressure top and let the other lanes be ganked. Every time Mineski is trying to gank, it's almost a failure.

We can really see a huge difference in the experience and how they utilize their picks. I guess Mineski is just trying to farm and evade clashes but EHOME has just too much experience in ganking and making the most of Keeper's teleport and Raijin's ulti. EHOME has just too much map control.

The score ended with a 44-11 score. This only shows how much difference there is between the teams. Mineski should do more LAN sessions or some scrims with other people in SEA or if possible in EU.

Dota 2 International tournament replay - Group Stage - TyLoo vs OK.Nirvana.Int

2011-08-18T04:34:00.000-07:00

It was fun to watch the replays from the ongoing tournament. I missed some matches and I will be sharing them here in this blog. Have fun watching these two top teams.