From Pub To Pro - The Hard Transition
Pubstars, for the longest time, was an expression that had a negative connotation to it. It pointed to players who could only succeed in pubs, but would look pale in a competitive environment. The word pubstar is still used to some extent today.
And there was some truth to it, as players who made a name for themselves in pubs have had difficulties establishing themselves in the pro scene. Not every one of them wanted to go pro, but the pubstars who did, didn’t have an easy time. That was the case anyway.
Hero spammers
It has usually been the public community who singled out a player and assigned them the quality of a pubstar. Famous examples include Alliance’s Edge of Hell, who first received public attention as a player who would almost exclusively play
Lone Druid.
He was the first Dota 2 pubstar who would be called a hero spammer. While many, even the pro scene, recognized his talent and skill with Lone Druid, there was always and still is the misconception that he was only capable of playing a single hero--or two, now that he has also established 
Nature's Prophet as one of his signature heroes.
It has gotten even worse nowadays, where the race towards MMR milestones, such as 7k, 8k or 9k, has become quite the ordeal in the community. Players are now judged for reaching their current MMR simply based on what heroes they achieved it with. bad is a prime example, as a player who has made a name for himself by using
Spectre to climb the ladder.
Unlike many other pubstars however, Badman has not taken the route of streaming to gain even more attention, which makes his fame and popularity all the more surprising and interesting.
Many other pubstars choose to increase their popularity and appeal by becoming more of a personality and increasing their presence outside of the game. Bulldog, w33ha and many others have streamed a lot to increase their value as player or a brand.
Different mentalities and approaches
Being a hero spammer is however not always the disqualifying factor. In fact, many pros have shown that being proficient at certain heroes that are not popular in the current meta provides you with a drafting advantage. AdmiralBulldog’s Nature’s Prophet and Lone Druid have been banned in matches and games where neither hero were “meta”.
Often times however, pubstars are said to have mentalities that aren’t suited for professional teams. Even if the individual skill is undeniably there, the lack of experience in a team, bad communication and an overall negative mentality will weigh a pubstar down. EHOME's 纯爱战士 is a prime example here, as a player that, while his skill was undeniable, had issues transitioning into the professional scene. "6-Minute-King" was his nickname, as he was able to dominate his opponents during the laning stage with pure skill but failed to perform outside of that.
Maybe even worse than that, pub players, not just the stars, generally have different approaches to the game. Item builds and movements around the map that work in pub environments, where it tends to be much more chaotic and less organized, may or may not work in the professional scene, or are at the very least very unconventional. It took a while for pros to adapt to Badman’s Spectre build and some still don’t utilize it at all. Similarly, Bulldog’s Null Talisman build on Nature’s Prophet or Guts’s Blink build on
Kunkka also were considered unusual before other players started to adapt them.
These differences in ideas and game philosophies -- when to group up and fight, when to farm, when to push -- often create tense situations, where a lot of disrespect between pros and pubstars exists. In fact, Badman allegedly has a bad standing amongst the CIS pro scene, for not respecting them and in fact being dismissive of their skill.
Dota has always been a rather closed off community, which accounts both for the general community as well as for the pro circuit. For the longest time, roster shuffles would disregard any new talent and the veterans would shuffle amongst themselves.
The new trend
“[...]Pros that think MMR n hero spammers don't matter are delusional”
In the past few years, but the last year especially, that has changed a lot. You don’t need to know someone who knows someone in order to get a tryout, or an invite to an inhouse. While the inhouse culture has fostered great talents, especially in North-America, there is another, maybe even more straightforward way to receive recognition. The likes of OG’s Miracle or Secret’s w33ha have shown that grinding MMR and climbing the ladder does indeed draw the attention of the pro scene, regardless of what hero they used to get there. In fact, EternalEnvy stated in an ask.fm response, that they were explicitly looking to acquire a player of high individual skill. Scouting players through leaderboards or rankings, such as our own at Dotabuff, is a real thing and might become a more standard approach in the future.
w33, bulldog, and Jerax. Pros that think MMR n hero spammers don't matter are delusional
— EternaLEnVy (@EternaLEnVy1991) March 13, 2016
Just because these two, and a few others, have succeeded, doesn’t mean the issues don’t go away or aren’t there, but it shows that it’s very well worth working on these issues. As the Post-Shanghai Shuffle takes form, the Chinese scene is currently facing a bit of a reformation, where some of the younger and newer talent will be able to shine alongside the veterans. Will this trend continue in the future? Success stories from Miracle- and w33ha give hope that it will.
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Man I can't even hero spam correctly :(
hmm but spamming an OP hero is kinda annoying and ppl will start to hate U when they play with or againts U, for example i even hate some of my own friends cause of spaming OD, that srsly pisses me off
There's a missing "p" in the first "Pubstar" of the article
Fer me, spamming heroes regardless of winning or loosing is a good way to establish master to the hero and learning his position in gameplay...
@roadto9k
whoops thanks!
Pudge spammer boys
sing was doing blink on kunkka before attacker's fame
I find hero spamming boring as hell. I'd rather learn how to use a broad selection of heroes, so I can be versatile. F##k mmr.
K then, from now on ill spam spectre and reach 8k MMR. All hail spammer!
Best thing, if you spam heroes, is to have about 3-4 meta favorable heroes to spam. For me right now that OD, Spec, Enchantress, and then I play some Shaker and WR and CK and whatevs for best teams. It's all about best teams. But the meta heroes matter a lot IMHO.
Interesting.
I've been hero spamming but for the sole reason that it becomes much easier to find exploitative strategies but I've never considered "pubs" to be comparable to 5 stacks. Part of the pub matches seems to be _betting_ that your enemies and your own teammates are not coordinating with each other. Hell when you play support, you talk mad crap to get your enemies fighting with each other ;)
There's also the advantage that chain spamming one hero gets you VERY familiar with the heroes swing time, move speed, turn speed, etc.
Like I've been spamming prophet a lot lately (outside of working on quests) and I've been finding getting 6 mangos in the start lets him pseudo tank in the line while your treants are on the easier camp.
It also makes it much easier to know when I'm falling behind if I know that I average a maelstrom at the 8 minute mark and I'm not near it - I'm probably gonna lose the game :)
really just use dotabuff to figure out what is meta, play unranked until you are good at at least 1 meta hero for every lane, because often people will steal your lane or fp it out of spite.
As of a now a few heroes you should consider learning are;
Spectre (safelane carry)
Sven (safelane carry)
Lich (offlane OR safelane if carry has a stun)
Undying (offlane or somtimes used as safelane support)
Enchantress (offlane)
Vengful Spirit (safe lane support)
Zeus (middle lane)
OD (middle lane)
Invoker (middle lane)
And there are always the healer heroes, who rarely leave the meta. Most primarily Omni, Abbadon and Necro
I m in a winning streak with mirana (10 ranked games), i didn t think that was possible, but it works. Often everybody wants to carry etc... so i have a bad sup, (i like spectre a lot). Taking first pick mirana, saying i m semi sup', the vibes is already better.
I know it's good to use your favorite hero once in a while but spamming it,is a total cliche' (depends on the situation),why won't you give another hero to try? So you can be versatile in terms of countering your opponents.
I think Hero spamer is not bad for up ur mmr, bcz its about ur mood in game. I actually always use same hero also for up mmr
Теперь в кратце, что проиходит?
I've spammed Chaos Knight a bit until I had 500 more MMR and then kinda stopped doing it.
You really start getting the hang of it like how hard he hits on first few levels, how fast he turns, runs and most importantly if I can win or lose based on the farm i got first few minutes.
If I'm lvl 10 and I still have no armlet drums and treads, then that game is hard to win. But if I do have that item around that lvl I can win in <30 min. It really sticks to you on how to play him correctly
This game is about the picking. Sure playing a single hero in each of your games gets you good with that one hero, but when you got 3 hard counters already on the opposing side, it is time to pick something else. I have played a few heros more than the others and the main lesson Ive learned is to when to NOT pick the spam hero of the week. There are no uncounterable heroes in the game, so you have to know your picks... You should have about half a dozen different types of heroes you are good with so you are not throwing the game before a single tick is made on the game clock.
Solo MMR reflecting pretty much your skill in dota, whether you are spamming hero or randomize hero, this is the hard cold truth that many people tried to deny. To be able to constantly climb mmr you can't just slightly better than everyone in your mmr, but you have to be much better player than everyone in your bracket. If you think Badman reach 8k and become numba 1 in the mmr leaderboard only because he pick spectre, then why he is the only famous spectre spammer? should there be another if it really is an EZ win. I am not his fanboy or anything, i am just saying this because many people denying his talent hard work.
Cool article - potato
"Complain about hero spammers, spam extremely only heroes considered OP in this patch by your own"
~W33 trashman
100 ranked matchmaking games
66 injokers
22 outworld destroyer
12 windrunner
good game, well played
I often spam Sky Wrath Mage and What I have found is that utilizing taunts and heroes out of the meta can really confuse and make your enemy woozy. Especially if he thinks he is naturally your counter, for example AM and Sky. Since am naturally melts mana and his ultimate takes advantage of you spending mana he would think that as soon as an enemy picks sky it would be an ez win. However I have accepted that with my -0.6 armor gain I am basicly countered by everyone and just decide to fuck everyone before they get close to me hence silencing and veil ulting that AM.
"Similarly, Bulldog’s Null Talisman build on Nature’s Prophet"
That's a pub creation and bone7 was the first pro to use it in an official match.
The pro scene sounds inflexible. Being jacks of all trades and masters of none seems to have made them resistant to comprehending, or even incapable of fathoming, strategies that someone who exclusively masters one hero is able to identify.
Badman's spectre build isn't his. Loda has used that before him in pro's.
VG.CTY not EHOME. C'mon DB, this was confirmed before your article was published...
Spamming riki here.
I need to play diff heroes in order to not get bored, i have 2-3 heroes which i can prob spam hard but that's it.
'Hard' transition. It was hard in 2012, now it's impossible.
Миракл?
@Turkuaz nice sb
check this guy dotabuff: @bragspring . From 3900 he went 4500 and has only 4 lost games in his past 25+ games. So not anything becomes like hero spammer. Everything depends on luck, to calm yourself not to rage and play the meta heroes only. And to try to play less gaes and tryhard. And look only to be +1 game to achieve 5k. And he's not a 6 or 7k booster. Just a normal 4k pub like you.
I am a spammer myself, disregarding if I play solo or witha team. My heroes are Zeus (over 1k games) and just started Venomancer cause I find some similarities between the 2 heroes. And ofc mid lane :). What I enjoy most is making my own builds and learning how to counter different oposing heroes. While is better and much forgiving do hero counter picks, I value much more adapting, ignoring stupid locked builds (like Agh+ Refresher vs high HP and magic resist/invisible teams). If anyone thinks that you can get to know a hero after 100 games......you are so wrong. You only start to know a hero when you can predict actions and situations and actually make your own luck (so damn true in case of Zeus, no Dota feeling compares with the right Thunder Bolt on a running invisible hero who also embraced treelines)
from pubtrash to money paid trash = %90 of pro players
I remember spamming the hell out of faceless void even if he wasn't even in the meta back then,I benefited alot in farming skills from that,other than that,I learnt from playing other heroes and discussing with irl friends
actually I watched sing's stream when he try out blink kunkka for the first time. it was long time a go.
also Mirana kinda great to spam (IMO), I am having a 8 win streak using it. XD
I also doing Mirana offlane and oftenly shut down safelane spec. Although I know I am in 3K's MMR so that thing could happened :D
Badman's very existence confirms that MMR does not, in fact, matter at all. It's time for Volvo to implement annual mmr nullification system.
Before they got to pro scene they came from pubs.. Pubs are like the breeding ground the place where you can find real skill.
Spammers are the players that wanna master the said hero. In real life example when a kungfu guy masters a certain style are they spammers?
IMO, there ain't nothing wrong with spamming if it wins you most of the games. AA spamming got me 3rd place on dotabuff haha.
Not boasting tho but I could easily reach 3k if I spam Juggernaut in ranked match. It's just that I don't and I am still learning new heroes by trying them. I hate it when someone on my team or in my opponents pick Invoker, OD or Spectre and they just feed. I give them automatic report if they do, ally or not.
I'm trying to keep my versatility at a minimum of 0.60, or 0.50 at worst. I just don't get the feel to spam heroes at ranked (Maybe I'm just paranoid of getting countered hard, so I usually pick last and counter the enemy as best as I can, even though sometimes it's a bad idea) :p
Just enjoy the game!
I never enjoy the game where I know that I will always win.
Anything that is redundant will become boring in a long run . .
imho.
9kmmr is my ticket to the pro scene