Look, Don’t Touch: The Casual, Non-Playing Dota Community
It’s pretty common for people to spectate a sport they don’t play. The major American sports, like baseball and football, require organized play, equipment, and sometimes its physical requirements are restrictive. But when it comes to Dota, the game can adapt to everyone who wants to play. It has less physical demands and automatically fills in your game with other players of similar skill level. You can play at any time, under any weather condition. Yet, like any sport, there is still a section of fanatics who watch, but don’t play. They’re still very well part of the community. They spectate, chime in on meta discussions, attend LANs, and create art. From talking to some members of this community, there are a few reasons that have kept them from playing the game, but still keep them attached to it.
Anxiety
Anxiety stems from our worries about the outcomes of a future event. In one form, it’s the ladder anxiety we feel when every game can potentially set us back -25 MMR. But beyond ranked and the outcome of win or loss, playing Dota can be a stressful process in itself. It has such a high learning curve that it’s only natural for players to make mistakes, yet each mistake is put under a spotlight for others to blame, or flame. Dota’s complexity is what rewards players who invest time into it game after game, but it can be quite deterring for any newcomer to Dota. Some quit altogether, but others, still intrigued by the depth that Dota presented, stay and watch. Spectating is frustration-free, except when you’re watching your favorite team throw, but at least it’s not from your own mistakes.
Skill Level Dissonance
The dissonance this part of the community feels is that how they play does not match with how they think they should play. This is the standard case of thinking you’re better than what your MMR is. The dissonance is between cognition, “I’m a good Dota player,” and action, “I just fed two times in a row.” Because Dota is an Esport, it’s easy to think that your Dota IQ is easily translatable to Dota skill. Not everyone can dunk a basketball, but it’s seems within reach to execute plays as Dota pros do. However, we tend to overrate our knowledge, our reflexes, and underestimate the requirements to play good Dota.
One way of resolving this tension is to blame your teammates. Another is to blame Valve’s MMR system. Rarely do people adjust their self expectations, acknowledge their shortcomings, and set small, discrete goals to improve their play. It’s far easier to avoid this conflict and recede from playing. Unlike players who quit playing early, players in this group have invested considerable time in Dota and hit a wall in their skill level. For them, there’s no looking back to the early days of Dota, where you just played to have fun, and winning was only a byproduct. There comes a day where you can’t win them all, Dota becomes frustrating, but watching Dota is still fun.
Casual Interest
For some, there’s just not enough time to get better at Dota, and certainly not enough time in a day to commit to a game here and there. Playing a game of Dota is certainly a non-trivial time commitment, with an unpredictable endpoint, but so is watching a game of Dota. There’s the commitment to watching an event and tracking the progress of teams. Often, people who consider themselves casual players are only casual in the context of playing. In fact, they tend to be the ones most knowledgeable about the game, most equipped to talk shop about meta and the ongoings of the professional scene. They’re devout to their favorite teams, even if the last game they played was when Sniper’s Shrapnel dealt damage to buildings.
What is common among people who only watch Dota today is that they’ve all played at some point before. At some point they stopped, but still were pulled to Dota. Beyond what happens inside the game, they’re attracted to Dota’s lore, its characters, and its fantastic community of artists, cosplayers, casters, and gamers. Watching competitive Dota can inspire people to play, but it also invigorates the community of non-playing fans. Dota is coming to be known for the depth of people who love the game.
true stuff right there
first
ya 3. CM lol)))
is that tape on the cm's forehead?
4head
FailFish
I'm noob i will never be good, i hate playing hard carry, and love pro move, so i love watching pro game!!!
Zappa!
I watched DOTA2 videos and tournaments for over a year before I ever played the game. I stumbled on it by accident. I didn't own the computer/mouse/keyboard that I felt was needed to play, so I never tried.
That girl is cute
PedoBear
i watch some tournament while sleeping....
I honestly play like 5games a week, but watch dota all the time.
You better fix site loading issues dudes, its slow!
That is a new perspective. Nice article, far better than my thoughts about it.
Skill Level Dissonance. I began playing like 5 months ago. I was stupid to calibrate on role supports + I didn't know much. So the result is really low MMR. Nevertheless, my mmr is growing now and it will grow despite that I have shitty teammates sometimes. For example, I played with sven. I stacked ancients with HoM. Three of my teammates decided that they should farm that. In games like that I can blame my teammates.
I also noticed. That it is better not to notice my teammates mistake and especially not to point those mistakes. Cause the flaming start when you try to point out the right direction. Dismorale and that's when I do the most mistakes. What I am learning right now is another aspects of META game (psychology part, you mood, how you feel, etc).
Nice article. I agree with the part that I would rather watch a pro do something on an another level, than playing low-level dota myself.
Also agree with avoiding toxic players, whose number is rly high.
But maybe someone would also agree on another point: I spent 7 years playing this game and I still suck badly and that makes me sad and envious of all the players who have been playing since lets say 2014 and have much higher MMR than myself. How is that fair, that someone with less than 1 k games and has never heard of Dota 1, is so much better? Its frustrating. But I still love the game, so to keep the contact with it I keep watching pro games on the regular basis. I am also excited of every new patch and read all the articles, although with no interest to play the game. Just cant get it out of my life cause I suck
You can calibrate high on support roles. MMR calibrates not just on buying courier and wards, but assists, number of deaths, checking enemy inventory, spells cast, smokes, denies, detection reveals, dewards, healng etc......have a look at 6k/pro supports then look at your game. If you calibrated low, there's is something you aren't doing
i played alot 2015 but stopped someday... because i was playing alot of the time alone with 4 randoms.. and thats sometimes just stupid :D
but i really love the game so i watched the Pro Games very often!
You can't change four people with very little knowledge playing with you.
Also, a large number of DotA 2 players don't understand that, at its core, it's an RTS game akin to Starcraft 2 or Warcraft 3.
It's very noble and optimistic to theorize on why people *only* watch DotA 2, but the truth is we over-value how smart gamers are.
no BTTV LUL
I have a long commute, work 9 to 5, and want to spend time with my girlfriend when I get home. Even if things break well and I have time to play, I only have at most 2-3 games before I have to go to sleep. Sometimes the number I put to MMR is just a number and in X number of years (or ever) no one is really going to care (possibly even me). So I have started to just play one game of 10 v 10 because its often quick, chaotic, and fun. It scratches that itch for Dota. Luckily I can stream the International or Major games at work or watch YouTube highlights of pros, which I really enjoy.
Its important to always step back and realize what makes you happy and enriched. I used to spend far too much time grinding for a higher MMR and at the end of the week I wouldn't feel good even if I won a lot. Play Dota for fun.
"similar skill level" yep because volvo is great with match making
>Get supernoob team who drafts to lose
>Play well
>They dont
YOU OVERESTIMATE YOUR DOTA SKILLS, YOURE AT THE MMR YOU DESERVE
this article is really fit to my situation
I want some worthwhile article :(
IMO not always u overstimate urself. ppl are mostly tard and have no understanding abt game they just have a recipe for some heroes and they play it (casual players)
if u happen to b someone with higher IQ that most ppl in ur bracket (maybe cuz u didnt know how to play correctly when calibrating to get ur true mmr at the time OR..) u will cry when u see teammates repeat the same STUPID mistakes over and over again..
im not expecting 2k players to be anything more than 2k mmr players but teammates mostly make u think that u can NEVER mark a skill zone saying this is 2k! and thats why u can never climb the mmr ladder. i play pub now. duck mmr.
very nice article btw. gj
Well, I don't blame Dota 2 MMR system. And I'm sure I have way more MMR than I do. Put me to play on a decent team with decent reasonable players and you'll see it for yourself. I do blame that f*cking motherf*cker support that I needed to ask for wards 30 Thousand times!!! AND YEA OK VALVE I COULD BUY 'EM MYSELF! F*CK THAT! I DO PUNISH AND NOT PARDON THE F*CKERS WHO PLAY POORLY. AND F*CK THAT I DON'T NEED TO F*CKING PARDON SOME KOOKS. THEY SHOULD COME AND BEG FOR PARDON THEMSELVES AND APOLOGIES. F*CKING LOSERS.
Oh sweetheart! Everyone has other people to play with, sometimes bad sometimes good. Do you really think you are that special? Countless times people prove they can climb mrr. You know you can't calibrate higher than around 4k-ish? So then how are there people with 5k/6k/7k..? Gaining MMR is not about winning every game but winning more than losing. If you can't do that right now you should improve yourself. And I don't mean just play game after game and everytime you lose you cry about how bad your team is. You will never improve this way - and that's ok! If you enjoy flaming/blaming then you can just stay at your MMR, after all it's just a game and you can do what you want.
*For everyone Judging by your comment it is impossible for you to be on a decent team with reasonable players, simply because the team would be miserable as soon as you join it. Again this is not about your skill or anything - just attitude.
It is true that luck play a huge part of how well you are able to climb MMR, as well as your teammates' general understanding on what kind of role you will be playing.
If you queue alone, chances are high that your random teammates won't know or care enough to adapt to your playstyle, so the safest way is to pick heroes that are all the rage in current meta, and everyone knows what to expect from them, and put down at least one stable point in your lineup.
The problem starts when you play heroes that are not in the current meta, or play them differently, pile that up with mates that don't communicate, or can't/be bothered to read English (looking at some russian players), and chances are you will confuse even your own team.
So in short, picking strong and meta heroes, like Spectre/Invoker or OP heroes in pub like Omni/OD are the safest bet if you want to climb MMR.
Every different method might be more up to your luck with mates than anything else.
Though I agree, toxic attitude will further ruin the chances of winning, and it doesn't help it's usually the most arrogant and weakest players that start doing so.
I'm a guy who hasn't even played 80 games but I have probably watched around 600 or so hours of Dota. I truly do love watching Dota. So why don't I play it more? Simple really, I can't stand how toxic people are in-game. As someone who suffers from high levels of anxiety, I can't deal with people whining and flaming on top of an already stressful game.
There's also the problem of having a low profile level and getting teamed up with newer players. My understanding of the game is extremely good having watched so many games, so when I get paired with people who have a lot less understanding of the game, and I mean a lot less, it feels very frustrating (I'm talking about people who don't know that MKB counters PA). When I do play, I play with friends to avoid these complete trench tier games.
I dontvever mske paodt before but im reasding at a bar and a bit )(pers not fool realy drink) and i forgot wher u was goinf but i freak inf love sand king and idk if its just md but i fear to play my favorites heros si much cause ibdont want to lose with them esp when playing solo, someones (slor) i pick heros i dont care if i loss with so maube in set myself up for faliure but isk , and i love dotabuff always really good reaf i love you all thany toy writers .. Aldos side notes i haf that corn gamr as razor on dota wtf with the hacking pbots i hope value put s stop to that they hack their calibration then sell theaccoounts for monts and i ts resly grinds my geats cause j chrck and t comes up at like 4,5mmr which i bullbalcraps cause its hacked and y solo mmr id only loe 3k ehichs isny thta gtest butblikl mu psrty mmr id 1900 lool idk know es that mean maybe i playe better whihc rbados ornmaybe when im with party i corn aroujd more r somisnj like that but ik rptoh jus corrbing atound tsi to din offf ild like to say i lovr dtoa bufg one of the bedythings out der inlove you all
Let's report an incident! The API is down!
'm working on it. Sometimes I just mute all, or sometimes I just mute all heroes Speechs or both, So any voice or irrelevant sound feature won't bother me and distract my attention. You know, it sucks when some player on the opposite team is doing good at the start, and then your teammates just start to say that automatic mesages "****" is missing! And then, anytime the guy appears at the minimap, they're already signing like crazy. You know these kind of attitudes de-stabilize a team, and makes you all lose attention focus and drive. So, yeah! I guess you're right! The solution I found to this is MUTEALL and most likely NEVER CHAT. Neither stupid microphones. I don't know how can someone play with it. It always lags and your mind is connecting to someone else's mind via microphone, voice and words, it just gets your attention to everything but focus at your play. So mute voice is like standard to me. I don't wanna make friends when I'm playing this, don't want no distraction. If I would, I would go outside and talk to someone or even call my friends from out side life to play this. Not that I have something against you, or don't wanna make friends with anyone. But chances are that I'm most likely to solo (just) play not anything at all. I lot of times when I used to get crazy, it was not because of their skills, sometimes, but just a few, but most likely was the words and acts they' were pronouning implying something not good for you gaming and winning attitude at all. SO F*CK THAT! MUTEALL! I already made an other account, btw, 2 more. And they all have plus 55% of winning rate, which I think it's not good at all. I fooled around a lot, and I'm just looking forward to get better and better. I just keep this one to play sometimes cause it has nice cosmetic features.
If you can't communicate with your team you are at a disadvantage. I only mute players when they are repeatedly really rude.
Communication is an important part of Dota, well, for me at least, even typing with 4 strangers is extremely useful.
What héros to pick, who will support? what lane do you want? would you like me to stack? where did the enemy ward?
shall I de-ward here? smoke gang or wait? push out or roshan? lets split push?
These are small choices, that win and loose games. If you just play in your own world, the team that talks wins.
Nice dobavlyaemsa
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https://youtu.be/KF2IPu8p4gg
automatically fills in your game with other players of similar skill level
LOL
It's not that casual. After playing the game for seven years, including DotA, I've been only a spectator for a year now, but I get really worked up, especially when I bet on games, but even when I don't. It's just like following sports, people should accept it already.
I'm in it for the plot Kappa
I noticed your performance is also heavily linked to your physical state. When I come home from a long day at school I can usually play my first 2 games pretty well. After that i start losing focus. Get tired, ... Also playing all night is a bad idea. Dota is all about fast reactions and making the right calls in milliseconds. Always knowing whats going on. And the moment you lose focus. You lose the game.
Sounds pretty obvious. But you should really keep small things like this in mind. And just play against bots if you feel you're not focused. So others don't have to suffer from it ;)
Dota isn't a sport.
BEEN PLAYING FOR 3 YEARS, PAYED FOR COACHES; AND EVEN MADE A SMURF THAT WAS 4K MMR!
YET ON MY MAIN I CAN'T GET MY MMR UP, I PLAY WITH THE FUCKTARDS OF SOCIETY, AND TO BE PERFECTLY HONEST VALVE HAS FUCKED UP THE GAME AND MADE ALL THE FANS FUCKING LEAVE!
FUCK VALVE
the lower the bracket the more chance you can winstreak until your limit of skill because 3-digit mmr is not a problem if you can encourage and drive your teammate to win easily or harder cuz there may be a low bracket toxic then you can force urself to carry the game together with ur teammate although you pick hard support... thats why i pick mostly semi carry than hard carry. a carry that can support him/her-self is a overpowered draft
Great article! I faced all the three issues and have decided to quit playing and just watch the pros and my friends play.