How to play ANY position 5.
How to think about the middle game.
How to roam with ANY hero.
How to punish Greedy picks.
OR
I was born in a small town in Greece in the early 90s. It wasnāt the greatest area but I remember the very first day that an internet cafĆ© opened and every kid in the neighborhood jumped in, to unlock this new world. A month later, I remember when my best friend asked meā¦
āWanna play Dotaā?
āWhatās that?ā I responded.
It didnāt take me long enough to get hooked into the game. Years later, sitting and typing all this, this very āsimpleā game is part of who I am, and itās part of my personality, itās my hobby. Being from a kid to a high school student, jumping into University, and now working full time, this very thing has accompanied me all the way. There was only one simple problemā¦I was not good.
For years, I was pretty mediocre. When the MMR system first got introduced I was calibrated at the
Ancient level. I would hover around the 4k bracket since I recall myself. I was actually stuck there.
Literally stuck. Occasionally, I would hit 5k and thenā¦BOOM.
Lose
Streak.
I was playing at the Ancient bracket for years with zero improvements. I would play the game, without a game plan, walking around the map clueless about what I was supposed to do. I would blame smurfs and boosters for beating my ass on the Midlane. I would blame my position 1 dying when I was to pull as support. And every single night, I would play a few more extra games, to compensate for my daily lost MMR.
At some point, I was watching my Dota buff profile when I realized that only in Dota 2 I had over 4000 thousand games. Having less time at that point my only thought was ā4000 games and I am still here?ā This has nothing to do with me going pro, or having great expectations. I was following the meta, I was watching content and pro games all the time. Why am I still here? This only meant two things and only ONE of those two things was going to be correct:
1) The Ancient Bracket was my peak. I would never get any higher. If I were, it would be exclusively due
to lack and I would drop down immediately. It was a matter of games.
This is the highest I would ever be able to get, and I should accept that.
2) I was doing something wrong. It could be in my middle game, in my hero selection, my game approach, my
thought process, my laning stage, or all of the above. But overall I was the problem.
I chose to make one last try grinding, but this time I would be responsible for everything. The hardest thing is that I felt I had to figure out everything on my own. I didnāt know my problem. People were telling me to have more CS and āfarmā more. This is not the big picture of the game.
How to see the game globally, understand the fundamentals.
How to think properly and always make the correct decision.
I watched my MMR skyrocketing to 6k and eventually to 7k, once I was justifying everything that I was doing. A fellow suggested starting helping others achieve better results. This is where the idea of @RC Coaching started growing its roots.
Watching the wrong mistake and realizing it is way more important than watching the right play By watching the correct play, you usually cannot identify it and apply it to your games. Focus on your replays rather than watching pro players executing at itās finest
As I was progressing I realized that some information out there is completely garbage. Example: Having 25cs at 5minutes in is great but it can be unrealistic when you are Phantom Lancer and you get to play versus a Beastmaster/Legion Commander + Skywrath Mage or a Sand King + Lina Combo. Something more beneficial is...
Think about the games consciously and do NOT play on autopilot (SUPER IMPORTANT).
Let's take the example above.
-> Beastmaster and LC have a level 6 power spike. With a hero like Lina, Skywrath mage,
Dark willow (any fine combo), the moment they have level 6, the safelaner is in big trouble.
-> Phantom Lancer has a level 6 power spike as well. This will allow him to go to the
jungle and dodge the Beastmaster's big level 6 power spike. This whole laning stage is all about who is
going to hit level 6 faster.
Phantom Lancer should ask his position 5 to stack and pull the small camp to deny as much EXP as he can
while he leaches the minimum amount of exp while at the same time he should also give the call to body
block
the big camp.
In case Beastmaster gets the level 6 before Phantom Lancer most likely he will kill him or force him
to
go to the jungle at level 5 which is really slow and ineffective.
Pre-acting is having a plan based on questions you apply to yourself such as: How do I die? Who hero am I good against to face after the laning stage? Who do I want to kill? Who do I want to be with me?
Re-acting: The constant ability to adapt your pre-act plan to the needs of the current situation. That is Thought Process.
Here are some examples of feedback from my students in video format.
OR