DotA 2 is making me RACIST!

Ok, ok.  I'm not really getting racist but like most Canadian/USA citizens who are too lazy to learn a second language, I get frustrated when non-English speakers are on my team.  I ALWAYS select the option to English only when I'm searching for a game but time after time I get teammates who cannot speak English or can only formulate a few broken words.  Then the rest of the game I hear them yelling "PUNTA" or "MUERTO" through VOIP as they tower dive 4 heroes and die.

It's not that I think that South Americans or Asians or any other non-English speakers are bad players, or stupid, etc.  I've had my butt handed to me by skilled players from both of those categories many, many times.  It's just that in a game like DotA 2 teamwork is so important.  If even 1 person isn't working with the team and is dying repeatedly, or not being there when there's supposed to and causing their teammates to die, then it snowballs into a huge advantage for the enemy team.  When a player dies, it gives the opposing team money, experience, and freedom to be more aggressive than they normally would if you had 5 players alive on your team.  That means they can take towers, kill Roshan, kill more of you, or even just spend more time aggressively farming your area.

I remember hearing something back in the day that s2 removed access from South Americans from playing on North American servers (in HoN) and thinking wow that seems kind of harsh.  However, I really think it is a good idea.  If people cannot communicate then they cannot work together.  If a team cannot work together then they're going to lose.

Here's one game where 3/5 of my team could not speak english.  I played my heart out but still could not win because we couldn't formulate any proper plans: Furion Game 3 non-English

Another one where it was even worse where 3/5 were non-English speakers.  I did poorly this game and wasn't even able to carry us to an almost win: Jugg Game 3 non-English

The sad thing is the other English speaker in these games, both times, is my fiance.  So for some reason Valve kept pairing us up with non-English speakers despite having English only checked when we were searching for a game.  Does anyone else have problems like this or are we just really unlucky?

-HellFire

Stats will not be recorded... JUST KIDDING!

So last night I was playing some late night match making (DotA 2) with my lovely lady, and the opposing team had someone disconnect.  Like the well mannered man I am, I convince my team to pause and wait for the poor beleaguered gamer to reconnect.  One of the other guys on the the opposing team said the DCer was his friend and he was reconnecting.

Minutes go by with the disconnected Nature's Prophet not returning and eventually we decide to just unpause and play on.  Low and behold the NP never does reconnect and abandons the game.  A huge message pops on the screen in saying:

GAME IS NOW SAFE TO LEAVE AND STATS WILL NOT BE RECORDED.

3 of my teammates immediately disconnect making the game 2v4 in the team with a leaver's favour.  My fiance says "let's just quit, stats won't be recorded anyway".  It's starting to get pretty late and the last game I played was super satisfying (Divine Rapier Weaver) so I agree and we quit.  When I logged on this morning and opened up DotA Buff and DotA 2 (Yes I'm a loser and start gaming as soon as my eyes open), I see a big LOSS decorating my stats.

Uhhhhhhh, WTF?

It distinctly said that stats would not be recorded but then I got the big L tossed on my record anyway.  It's not a huge deal or anything.  It's actually not my first loss, but it's still annoying that the team with a leaver won and we lost.  Why even say that stats will not be recorded if they still are?  I'd rather have just played on for another 10-15 minutes in a 5v4 game or had the other team concede instead of getting a loss for no bloody reason.  I think it's time for Valve to re-evaluate their leaver/abandon system.

-HellFire

TPG League opens amateur DotA 2 league

It looks like I picked the perfect time to start a DotA 2 team because amateur leagues are popping up everywhere.  I already signed up my boys for CEVO and now TPG league. TPG describes itself as:

"TPG is a gaming organization that hosts amateur leagues for multiple games. TPG League started back in 2002 and we are very active with the first person shooter game Day of Defeat. We have grown into a large gaming community with players from all over the world. TPG has over 8,200 registered users over the course of its existence and we will be celebrating our 11th Anniversary this September."
 

I've personally never heard of TPG before but the more amateur leagues the better.  Back in the early days of DotA many of the North American teams would compete in CAL to gain experience and a bit of bragging rights.  I know I'd eagerly await Wednesday night each week (That was the default match night) and try my hardest with the team I was leading to bring home the W.  Other than SECS there really hasn't been any good leagues for burgeoning teams to make a name for themselves.  

My team is slowly coming together.  We had our first round of try outs on Tuesday evening and I'll be holding more try outs Friday and probably Saturday.  I wanna have a good roster of around 7 people I can rely on by the time these leagues start.  Keep your eye on this blog to witness the glorious rise of Bottle Rush (BR)!

-HellFire

 

 

CEVO Season 3 Placement Tournament (DotA 2)

CEVO's third DotA 2 season is going to be starting soon and to kick it off they're hosting a placement tournament to divide people into their Open division or Main division.  The Main division will be for the highly skilled teams that are competing at a near professional level whereas the Open division is for new teams that are just starting to compete in tournaments.

I've registered a team for the placement tournament called Bottle Rush!  I made the team with my RL friend (anti-pro) and a few of our internet comrades.  We've got a bit of time to do some TMM and brush up on our teamwork and will hopefully do fairly well in the tournament and the actual CEVO season 3.

I suggest that any North American players looking to start playing competitive DotA 2 either as a hobby or something more should try this tournament out.  CEVO is a long standing league that's done a lot for e-sports and the competition shouldn't be so overwhelming that you don't have any fun as a newer team.  Read more about the CEVO placement tournament here.

-HellFire

Coast City is now FREE and Wonder Woman never looked so TRASHY!

I recently made a post talking about how Turbine really screwed up by not releasing the Coast City map to all Closed Beta testers for free.  It seems like the good people at Turbine either frequent my blog or were planning all the time to eventually release it for free, but wanted to make a quick dollar on their Founder's Program.  Either way Coast City is now released to all of the Closed Beta testers and I can't wait to play it!  I'm on shift the next couple days but on Saturday (assuming I can access the beta then) I'm gonna do a marathon session on Coast City and post a review. 

There are a couple new innovations on this map that aren't in the classic maps for DotA/HoN/LoL.  They are Power Relays and the Doomsday device.  I still haven't played this map but from reading descriptions it sounds like Power Relays are going to be super important.  If you control them they can give you the following:

• One relay gives your team increased damage to drones.
• Two relays add Elite Drones to your top lane.
• Three relays add more Elite Drones to your bottom lane.

This is incredible!  I'm not sure how difficult it is to capture or control these but holding them makes it seem like you've already "raxed" your opponent without having to do an uphill battle through a choke point to destroy their buildings.  I'm definitely going to take advantage of what I hope is other peoples ignorance and cap these as fast as I can every single match I play.  The map hasn't been available long for mass consumption so I should be able to take home some free W's using this.

They also recently released a new champion in the form of Atomic Wonder Woman.  I'm a huge fan of the Prime Wonder Woman so I'm hoping this champion doesn't disappoint.  The previous WW was a tank type character but this new one is an assassin.  Assassin heroes are near and dear to my heart and after watching her champion profile, it looks like I'm going to be spending hours playing this hero and watching angry nerds furiously type excuses as to why they're dying in all chat.

I'm glad they released this hero but I really do think that Turbine needs to man up and release a Superman champion already.  I realize that Superman is a really difficult character in that he needs to be powerful but can't seem imba.  That's kind of always been the problem with Superman since he's basically a god, and can only be defeated by some stupid green rock or magic.  However,  please Turbine!  Release a Superman champion next!  Like most boys I've dreamed of being Superman since I was a kid sporting red gitch over my blue long john's and pretending I could fly.  Make this happen for me!

-HellFire

Lack of Competitive Spirit in DotA 2

Yes, yes, I know.  TI3 just happened and it was the biggest e-sports tournament of all time.  I watched every game I could and loved every second of it.  I'm talking about a lack of competitiveness for amateur gamers.  The pubbers who are skilled but maybe don't have the patience to compete on a team or in tournaments.  I think that Valve's decision to hide each players ELO was a big mistake.  One of the best things about LoL or HoN is watching your ELO go up and seeing yourself rise on the ranks of the player ladder.  It's even more aggravating when you go on a loss streak and hemorrhage away ELO, but it comes with the territory.

So far DotA 2 doesn't have any visible way to gauge who is the best of the best based on match making.  Yeah, you can look at the live games and see which ones are on page 1 or who is playing in "Very High" skill level games but that isn't enough information.  I play in Very High pubs and I definitely shouldn't have anywhere near the rating of actual great players.  I think in order to give more attention to skilled players, who aren't currently on a team, and to foster the amateur DotA 2 scene, there needs to be a player ladder and visible ELO or MMR.

DotA was birthed in WC3 and the player ladder was a huge deal in that game.  Valve's decision to cater to the mass population of casuals, who will get upset when their ranking doesn't get as high as their ego demands is a mistake.  You already see a lack of new players entering the professional DotA 2 scene.  The only way to make a real name for yourself right now is by playing in IHL's which isn't always the best atmosphere.  I've had mixed experiences playing in IXDL, where you can lose a game in the lobby when ego's start to clash.  I realize this can happen in match making as well, but IHL's seem to attract people with huge ego's since it's these confident players that want to show their skill and try to make a name for themselves. 

DotA Buff created their own MMR algorithm back in the early spring and right away its popularity soared with people talking about who was at the top and who was playing in what division.  It became so popular that DotA Buff was going to start charging for premium access to their site.  This prompted Valve to turn off automatically sharing of stats to 3rd party sites, effectively ruining any legitimate chance that DotA Buff had of running a player ladder.  The fact that so many people immediately started discussing the Dota Buff MMR and ranking system shows that their is an actual desire for for this in DotA 2.

If Valve wants to keep the game casual friendly, they can always go the route of League of Legends and have ranked match making and non-ranked match making.  Non-competitive players can stick to the un-ranked games or people can play it when they want to try out a new hero.  People that want to get better and prove themselves can play in the ranked games.  This would be an easy fix that would foster the growth of the amateur scene and hopefully bring in new blood to the professional level.

-HellFire

Turbine's Greed Destroys Coast City

This post is a little late coming but I've been so wrapped up watching Ti3 that I've been neglecting Infinite Crisis.  For those of you who don't know Turbine "released" IC's new map Coast City.  However, saying it was released is a bit misleading.  It can only be accessed by people who are lucky enough score a key through some sort of key give away or pay $20, $50, or $100 for a Founder's Pack.  I can't believe that Turbine are monetizing the beta testing of this game.  Beta testers who are there to try to find all the bugs in their game and make it ready for mass consumption are expected to pay money in order to properly test all the aspects of this closed beta game?  That's ridiculous.  Let me say right away that I have a full time job and could easily afford to pay the $100, but there's no way I'm going to pay these greedy bastards to test their game.  Especially not when there are many other finished free games on the marked such as DotA 2, HoN, LoL, etc.

The thing that really annoys me is that the $100 Founders Program gives access to all future maps that are released.  So if you don't buy this you're going to have to pay the $20 to get access to each new map they release.  What's next?  When they implement wards in the game you'll have to pay $5 to use them?  When they give new items you'll have to pay $10 to access them?  I'm all for having micro transactions for cosmetic items, but I am not in favour of having transactions in order to access key elements of the game.  One of the main turn offs of LoL for me was that I had to either play the free heroes they were offering, save up tons of IP or RP or whatever it was to purchase them or fork out the cash.  This takes that nickle and diming to a whole new level.

I can't help but smile when I see complaints of the queue for Coast city taking 10+ minutes at times because there's not enough people around queuing up for it.  I can only imagine how much fun it is playing against the same 30 people over and over because there's such a small sample size of people playing.  I personally can't see myself paying to access any of these maps in Closed Beta and I really hope that they offer them up to us for free in the future because I really do enjoy IC and would like to see what it's like playing it with a more classic MOBA style map.

-HellFire