Now we know that Captain's Mode games involve a lot of strategy even at the picking phase. When playing CM, you concentrate on choosing a balanced team that will out perform the enemy's team, and also assign lanes to the correct heroes for the job. But some people forget that this is also half-true in normal public AP, SD or any other mode really.

I am sure that a lot of games you lose are because of team match-up and lane choices. Because unless the enemy is extremely bad, if you have the wrong hero for the wrong job you are faced with being annihilated before you've even started.
To illustrate, let me give you an example. Let's say you see the enemy picking up a Drow Ranger, Warlock, Silencer, Witch Doctor and a Dragon Knight.
Quickly analysing the line-up can significantly increase your chances of winning.

The first thing we see is a Drow. We all hate and love this hero for her amazing damage and slow. Although fairly nerfed, she is still a significant hero and needs to be co…
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When you hit midgame, and teamfights start to break out, a whole new level of dota emerges that goes far beyond farming, harassing and ganking. Teamfighting requires not only good items, but also effective positioning, effecient focusing, and skill synergy. But, like any sport or even war, there are more to fights than just numbers. Players themselves get affected by being focused, disabled and being low on life.

So, today I will focus on teamfights, and on what could metaphorically be called the Morale Bar, which is actually the HP bar.
Consider a teamfight. Skills fly, right-clickers click, and pretty soon you see your HP bar falling below the half-way mark and still fall very fast. Your mindset at the start of the fight was, 'let's own them all'. Now, however, you start to feel a bit more 'scared'. Not real fear of course, its only a game, but you fear for the life of your character. This will make you more inclined to flee, and less inclined to stay in the fight. The lower life …
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