DOTA 2

[pkirkner]

Last year you also got compendium points fairly frequently as drops when playing matches. I imagine that will be the case this year, though I've only seen coins drop so far.

[sclpls]

The coin drops feel a little stingy too. I just played a match with 4 people that had a compendium, and we all hit our challenges, and got about 132 gold out of it.

 

Valve is totally willing to recalibrate this stuff though so I'm sure if enough people are complaining about it we'll see a change in a week.

[Henroid]

132 isn't that bad it seems. Just under ten matches and you can get an item set?

[Twig]

No, you get 100 coins for completing your challenge, and like 14 for other people completing theirs. It might also be based on compendium level. You also have to win the match. You also only get three challenges every five days.

 

Once again I find myself being annoyed by all the negativity. I'm enjoying it. The compendium is super rad for lots of reasons and they give extra cool shit on top of that and still people complain. Whatever. Fucking whatever.

[Reyturner]

Conspiracy theory: the invite predictions are actually a vote because valve are tired of getting yelled at for inviting the wrong teams.

That being said, who are your predictions? I did mine and checked joinDota to see how NiP compare to VP and it turns out I basically transcribed their top 10 ranked teams

You foresee any surprises?

[Twig]

I really don't follow competitive Dota at all (in no small part because of the lack of structure throughout the year - which may or may not be addressed with Valve's seasonal tournaments?!), so I honestly don't know. I don't even recognize 90% of the team names, and those I do recognize don't have the players I'm used to seeing there (from last year's TI).

 

I just picked from a list of what my friends who do follow told me.

[Reyturner]

I don't much myself, but I started following EG after the Aui_2000 interview on Dota Today. They are a really fun team to watch, and they've got a nice cross section of characters. PPD the raging HoN trash. Sumail, the wunderkind with a bad attitude, Old man Fear, Aui_2000 with his crazy knowledge of the game (him, Blitz and Lumi did a great run down of 6.84) and Universe... who at least seems like a good sport, judging by the music videos he's made with Aui. They're arguably one of the best teams in the world right now and have a real chance at winning. 

 

Beyond EG, Alliance (Loda, AdmiralBulldog), Cloud 9 (EE) and Secret (all of them) have the personalities to make watching dota fun. 

 

NA dota is mostly a battle for 2nd place after EG. I kind of hope Union Gaming, the all Peruvian team, does something big in the qualifiers, if only because they're an all Peruvian team. 

 

SEA dota isn't as clowny as it used to be and Team Malaysia could do something big. 

 

I don't know anything about Chinese dota, beyond IG promised to wear Maid cosplay on steam if they got the redemption vote to get back into The Summit 3 and recently delivered. 

[Mawd]

I was safe in the knowledge that I was skipping this years compendium but now I'm playing Dota 2 again and the games seem more fun (with this patch I guess). Now I'm still going book less but feel more weird about it.

But at least I found the two hero playstyles I was born to play - off lane Axe and any lane Weaver.

[sclpls]

The new items are so great. Glimmer cape was so good until it got nerfed (although it still might be good I think, but probably not on any of the heroes I play whereas before it was good on all heroes basically). I just played a game as Omniknight and got the guardian greaves, and I love the sound effect for that item.

[Twig]

leshrac bloodstone octarine core i said gat-damn

 

I love Silver Edge because it gives me a way to counter passive-heavy heroes like Huskar or Phantom Assassin and it is just the bestest.

[n490]

I haven't toyed with the Solar Crest yet. On which Lord did you try it yet and how well did that go?

I love Silver Edge because it gives me a way to counter passive-heavy heroes like Huskar or Phantom Assassin and it is just the bestest.

Silver Edge in every one of my game. Dragon Knight in every one of my game.

To be fair... I kinda love this. The rise in invisibility items I have experienced made me deward more.

Also, DK and Lesh were some of my favorites when I used to play every day. Good to see them back.

[Twig]

Yeah leshrac has been one of my favorites for so long and I love seeing him more often. This also brings back the high impact non-support leshrac (in pubs, at least, no idea how he's doing in pro games) (also which has actually been on its way back for a while with all the lightning buffs - god that spell used to suuuuck!). Super stoked about this last push!!! These items are really doing a lot to the game. I love new items. :DDD

[sclpls]

leshrac bloodstone octarine core i said gat-damn

 

I love Silver Edge because it gives me a way to counter passive-heavy heroes like Huskar or Phantom Assassin and it is just the bestest.

 

Oh man, I hadn't thought about that item vs. Huskar. I can't wait to try that out. I feel like Huskar pickers deserve a special place in hell. There are some games where he is the most obnoxious hero to play against, even more than Troll last patch.

[Twig]

Yeah stopping berserker's blood or pa's crits or drow's massive agility buff is pretty awesome. (Although the last one mostly doesn't matter as much since in a lot of cases the invis initiation will get you close enough to disable Marskmanship anyway.)

 

Only downside is it doesn't work through BKB and also BKB will purge it. But that's not a huge deal since BKB has a much longer cooldown.

[sclpls]

One nice thing when Glimmer Cape was OP was I didn't see anyone building BKBs in my pubs. It was nice to play games without coordinating BKB mind games, but I guess now we'll be getting back to that part of the game.

[Henroid]

I haven't played since July but I think it's time I start swinging back into things. But I'm gonna practice-round a lot on lords I used to play as first, at least, to see what's changed (in context of playing) and what sorta guides have shown up. All I can figure out, looking at things just super briefly, is that Legion Commander can actually jungle now? Technically could before, but I mean it'll be easier and make more sense.

[Twig]

She could always jungle and she hasn't really changed to make it better.

[jennegatron]

I don't much myself, but I started following EG after the Aui_2000 interview on Dota Today. They are a really fun team to watch, and they've got a nice cross section of characters. PPD the raging HoN trash. Sumail, the wunderkind with a bad attitude, Old man Fear, Aui_2000 with his crazy knowledge of the game (him, Blitz and Lumi did a great run down of 6.84) and Universe... who at least seems like a good sport, judging by the music videos he's made with Aui. They're arguably one of the best teams in the world right now and have a real chance at winning. 

 

Beyond EG, Alliance (Loda, AdmiralBulldog), Cloud 9 (EE) and Secret (all of them) have the personalities to make watching dota fun. 

 

NA dota is mostly a battle for 2nd place after EG. I kind of hope Union Gaming, the all Peruvian team, does something big in the qualifiers, if only because they're an all Peruvian team. 

 

SEA dota isn't as clowny as it used to be and Team Malaysia could do something big. 

 

I don't know anything about Chinese dota, beyond IG promised to wear Maid cosplay on steam if they got the redemption vote to get back into The Summit 3 and recently delivered. 

 

Aui_2000 & PPD makes me go all heart eye emojis.  Peter went through a breakdown of his 10 picks last night on his stream & said he was going to put on his youtube. I'll add it here after he posts it, because I think he was actually really thoughtful.

 

After he finished that ranking, he was in a game where it was so bad and he was so angry that he ended up muting his mic for the stream and flaming his teammates in chat for being trash. It was kind of impressive how long he tried to kill them with kindness before just mentally breaking.

[BusbyBerkeley]

I really hate seeing pros acting like babies flaming teammates and generally being abrasive jerks.

Also, octarine core is so good on dark seer! It makes him tankier and let's you crap out ion shells all over everything and then they just heal you forever.

[natellite]

She could always jungle and she hasn't really changed to make it better.

 

Allegedly. I've never seen a Legion jungle that wasn't fodder.

[jennegatron]

I really hate seeing pros acting like babies flaming teammates and generally being abrasive jerks.

Also, octarine core is so good on dark seer! It makes him tankier and let's you crap out ion shells all over everything and then they just heal you forever.

 

1. I think ppd is a bad guy to watch if you don't like that.

2. I'm honestly not always thrilled with his word choice as he too easily slides into unnecessary name calling.

3. I think he's made a conscious effort to not have a short fuse in the past year, but I don't know how successful he's been in that.

It's something I think about a lot, actually, as I scold my boyfriend whenever he talks shit to his teammates, mostly because it's really annoying to sit next to. I think being able to opt in (or out) of ppd's feed that makes a big difference. Obviously his teammates don't have that privilege, but his teammates ostensibly should understand the game at a level that my goofball boyfriend does not.

The games that he gets mad during are usually games where his teammates don't think about team composition, and roll out with 4 cores and 1 support. Or, in the case of the game he got mad during last night, one guy consistently telling their teammates what to do, only to get them killed over and over. PPD tried to tell them not to listen to him, and just became increasingly frustrated by his teammates following a man with a butt for a brain into battle and them being confused about how they died. (For example: constantly initiating fights where butt-for-brains was outnumbered, deciding that if he just went for it the rest of the team would follow, which they would do, and then they all die.)

[Twig]

Allegedly. I've never seen a Legion jungle that wasn't fodder.

I do it pretty frequently because I pick random LC and then a bunch of people on my team pick laning farming carries and I have no choice.

 

You just farm up a blink and start killing everyone. Easy.

[sclpls]

I think part of the reason I watch so many European streamers is because for whatever reason a lot of those guys are way less likely to flame their teammates. the only streamer I really watch that seems to regularly flame his team is Blitz, and he's funny about it and will apologize later if he crosses any lines. In general though I hate it, it just makes an already inaccessible game that much more unapproachable, and it doesn't make anyone play any better.

[jennegatron]

Here's Peter's TI invite predictions.

[Reyturner]

RAVE vs MVP was a toss up for me. I picked MVP just because I think they're better known.