Hi! My Steam Name is Ursula, and I've been on DOTA for almost three weeks. I'm disabled and I live with my mom because she has MS, but still works. I get very scatterbrained in work places, and I forget to take care of myself a lot. Since I had to give up my dream of Professional Wrestling in 2005, I've been searching for another dream to get me excited to get up in the morning.

I heard how toxic the DOTA 2 community can be. I thought immediately that... well, I'm an okay gamer, so why not be a light in this community so that people will have someone cool to play with. I've been playing video games since I was 5 and have won several fighting game tournaments in my youth. I don't have the magic for fighting games, and I'm mediocre at FPS, but DOTA 2 has been a very pleasant experience for me and I'm catching on quick. I'd like to one day go pro or at least be a good enough player to be well-respected.

I have a long way to go, but my first goal is to complete the All-Hero Challenge so …
Read More

I just won with Undying, and I feel kind of bad because the opposing team rage quit... I was okay, I suppose, but I played him almost as my full support Lich. I didn't realize until the 40 minute mark that I totally forgot to buy him a blink dagger... x_X I also learned that his ult should be used for team fights and siege attacks. I completely poo-poo'ed it until level 9 when I could level up his Soul Rip and ... that circle attack... Decay? I'm really tired. Suffice to say, I tried to play him like a melee Lich and ended up underleveled for ten minutes.

Greaves are nice for a support, but trying to decide between the BD and the SB is one of my early game ponderings. Most people in pubs aren't smart enough to drop sentry wards unless their fighting a Riki. I don't want to get into the bad habit of relying on invis to save my bacon on a constant basis. None the less, that sweet attack bonus on the SB makes it more appealing to me than a bd, for the simple fact that I can use it when b…
Read More

Wow! Two in one sitting!

Man, Tiny really wrecks late game! I still like my previous build of him, and it worked out nicely. I knew how to properly stun in team battles and we mopped the floor with them.

Now, before going to Tidehunter, I decided to do a quest playing Lich in a match for my Intelligence heroes. Man... we got a really noob team. I really felt sorry for the guys. At the start at the match it was only Drow Hunter in the safe lane. I forget who my second was, but she was solo for about 5 minutes. I kept harrassing the heck out of her and my partner decides I can solo this lane. I'm level 6 fairly quickly because I killed DH twice... and then, Juggernaught appears! So now I'm soloing two! I back away, Jug stops and starts killing creeps... I spike him twice with my fully loaded Q and... he dies.

... Okay, I just soloed a Jug as a support...

He comes back! A little smarter this time! DH is nowhere to be seen, but I'm keeping the lane around the tower and Good old Jug app…
Read More

Wow, I got three heroes done in one run!

Puck was intimidating for me to use because I know he's a speedy character and I'm not into speedy heroes. Then again, it was a welcome change from Tiny who is slow as molasses. I started tinkering around with him on solo and the first thing I noticed was that he had fairly high damage starting out as well as a good mana pool. I practiced the concept of teleporting through the glowy ball, and it seemed simple enough until I had to use it properly in combat. Since I could never position myself very well and using it to run away was counter productive in the way I used it, I simply didn't use that aspect of Puck. He was a lot easier to last hit with than Lich and I thought he was just an adorable character.

... Then I learned how to farm with this monster. A fully-loaded glowey ball with his silence attack will two shot a normal creep wave very quickly. When I have items which grant me the ability to not care about my mana, the little punk tends…
Read More

OMG! The karma doesn't like the fact I did three heroes in one run. I've worked with Ursa before, and I've lost 6 straight matches with him! I'm going to take a break from all of this because I can't seem to catch a break on my lane. They always have someone with an obscene aoe that they spam like sniper, underlord, and CM. I got stuck with a sniper and phantom assassin on offlane twice! O_O

Range freaking owns Ursa! :( He has a small aoe with his Q, but it only seems to be helpful while jungling everything else is just "RAWR! I'm a melee bear!" I didn't even get one kill in my last match because of the wreckage!

I won't let this detour me, I'm just going to practice the art of the blink dagger. I know I haven't been using it right and I don't know it's range well enough to get the ganks off.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Peace!

Ursula
Read More

Ten losses with that bear. I'm not the worst player of the group, I just have a hard time gauging how much damage he can do. A friend of mine told me to rush Vlad's and do Rosh at level 6 at all costs, but I'm seeing the pros doing something completely different. Is it really that important to get Rosh ASAP? I think it's a timing thing because it seems to be a waste of an Aegis if it only lasts for 5 minutes. Having it mid game seems much more productive unless the team really wants Cheese.

I'm going to try Phase Boots, Poor Man's shield, THEN Vlads. I can get the Blink Dagger after I Rosh, then... I'm kinda stuck. I could go Shadow Blade or Bar. A wand is useless. Linkin's maybe? I need to understand the art of ganking, though. I chase too much and end up in the enemy's traps.

Venomancer on the other hand, I've been rocking fairly well. I notice that his wards aren't affected by most Area of Effect attacks and they make good "poor man's wards" when giving chase or trying to reveal t…
Read More

Hey all... I was messing around in Demo to get a feel for the distance of a Force Staff when I came up with a brilliant idea.

Troll Soccer

This is ONLY to be used on people who do bad things on purpose. Newbs don't deserve this kind of punishment. This is only a last resort to the unteachable or just plain mean. Nobody deserves constant verbal abuse. Now... give them one pass before deciding to do this. Some people just have a bad day. This is also ONLY to be used if there is little to no hope of winning (I.E. there is a high tier hero that has been fed, all your towers are down etc).

Step One: The rest of the team who has been harassed by the offender (and they have tried to reason with him, but he's being a jerk) decided unanimously to play Troll Soccer with the offender. If everyone is okay with this, you pause the game.

Step Two: Make your intentions known to the opposing team, citing why the offender is about to be humiliated. Tell them the rules of the game.

The Troll will b…
Read More

I have been getting tilted as I train with Ursa. I feel very uncomfortable going for a naked dagger because that's a lot of money to get that early in the game. I'm always leaning on my phase boots and Poor man's so much that knowing I can't run away from trouble that easily when I have to step up to the creep wave to get the money is a problem. If I don't have a ranged attacker on my lane to back me up, the task seems very uphill. I'm just going to set Ursa aside for a little while and expand my horizons so I can get out of just using Lich and Veno all the time in Pubs. Yeah, nobody else wants to play the support and if I choose anything else I might lose the match... but... not everyone is a jerk. So I decided to pick up Sniper.

I've cussed this character out in matches many times. The first thing I notice is that he has no animation time in his attacks. You point, you click, you first hit. He doesn't do a lot of damage when you are in the first levels, but that's okay. Once you get…
Read More

I took a day off after I got into a fight with one of my friends in DOTA who claimed I wasn't doing anything to help the team when I was playing support. I was so pissed I saw three enemies on mid. I was playing Lich so I TP'ed to the base tower, threw my ult and killed the Crystal Maiden and put their other two at half health. I then replied in chat "Am I helping out NOW, *******?!". I had been placing wards, making sure I farmed enough to get Mana Boots and Mek for our carrys, only underleveled by three levels with 5 kills and 2 deaths under my belt, helping out in team fights and my usually nice friend decides that my performance isn't good enough when he's died three times more than I have.

I try to be proactive... I ask him... what am I not doing? All he says is watch the replay and demands that I play another match with him. Now... this is a guy who has stalked me for matches because he claims I am a good player even though his level is higher than mine. I get tilted from his co…
Read More

I woke up late today, and got really tired after going to the gym. It came to my attention when I looked at my Steam Account that I have played 232 hours since I started about a month ago. Ten days out of about 30 that I have been spending playing DOTA 2.

I thought it was time to take a break from playing, but not from DOTA. I decided to spend the day making notes on You Tube Pros and trying to formulate strategies of my own from my personal experiences.

Here are a few questions I would like answered.

1) A few games where I actually got the drop on Pudge, he was able to pocket deny without a bloodstone. How?

2) Can you pocket deny with a Soul Ring?

3) Now... I've heard of stutter stepping where you click, move, click, move. But when I see the pros moving their heroes, the repeatedly click like morse code in a line to where they want to go. What does this accomplish.

4) Okay, this has been bugging me for awhile. I saw a pro Ursa in offlane, and he upgraded his Stout to a Poor Man'…
Read More

I'm not sure if I said this in a previous Blog, but I'm 35.

I've been making a lot of friends lately, and I managed to find a girl gamer streamer called Miha. She's also support and she was playing Omniknight. I went into chat and shared my dreams with the group and they said that 27 was the max that a player could be pro. They coach after that age. :/

... Now, I can understand if it has something to do with the stress involved, but video games can be mastered at any age. I know I have a long way to go, but this actually shocked me. What is the main reason people stop gaming at around 30? Is it because they want normal lives?

I... really don't want a normal life. I want to make this game my life's work. If they come out with a DOTA 3 or fail all together, I'll find another MOBA. I'm not worried about that. I don't want security, I don't want the mundane, I want to live a rich and eccentric lifestyle. That's just the way I roll.

I know this game has already been out for several year…
Read More

Play Video
I know this is nothing new, but here's the thing... if they won and Blizzard got the rights to the game would it really be the same game? I mean, Heroes of the Storm was just meh, and I really don't trust them to make DOTA anywhere as good as it is if it shifted gears. :P

Thoughts?

Peace!
Ursula
Read More

It's been awhile since I've blogged, but I kept getting tilted from the AHC, so I decided to learn other heroes and figure out what my play style was rather than trying to fit a circle peg into a square hole.

I found out I like Morana more than Sniper, but I don't think I've figured out how to properly play her. My tendency to go support has made me a very defensive player and I have gotten yelled at on more than one time for using her ult for defense. Now... I'm not a coward, but when it's four on two and my partner isn't smart enough to fall back, that's the time I see fit to pop the ult so we can both retreat for a better opportunity. *shrug* I think I'll watch some pro matches on her. One friend introduced me to the concept of Roaming Support and I'm still trying to wrap my head around how to perform that properly.

I also realized that, while I had a couple of damage dealers on my roster, the tankiest person I knew how to play outside of the cursed Ursa was Viper. I wasn't too ke…
Read More

After realizing that I have been playing support so much that I find myself panicked to find a hero or two that does decent dps and/or can tank as well as Ogre. I picked up Lycan because he seemed simple to use and I would learn more about micromanaging and melee.

I messed around on solo for awhile when I noticed that when you picked up the illusion rune while he's a werewolf, that his illusions are werewolves too, but if you get it, THEN morph, the illusions don't follow. So I decided to test this stuff with a Manta Style. It was then I noticed something very cool... his illusions gained his crit while they were transformed. So instead of going for Necro, I actually built him to hit more often. When I put on the Crystalis, the crit hell was more often. I'm going to see what why the Necronomicon is so bae on Lycan because I looked up the gold and exp those creeps give when they get shot down, and I didn't want the enemy to be getting that kind of swag.

Then it hit me... would that sa…
Read More

Hey guys, I know I haven't posted in awhile, but I have an update to make.

About a month ago, I was diagnosed with diabetes and took some time off to adjust to my new lifestyle. I played here and there and even decided to invest in a trip to TI to see the scene. I still had intentions to go pro until today.

About 5 days ago, I thought my hand had just fallen asleep, but as the week rolled along, the numbness in half my hand wouldn't go away. I went to the doctor today.

Diabetic Neuropathy in a main nerve all the way down my arm. The numbness is spreading and they said that big wrist movements on that hand would only aggravate it more. I see the neurologist in a couple of days to see how hardcore this stuff is.

For now, gaming on the PC is no longer an option until I get the clear from the neurologist.

I am still passionate about the DOTA community and I hope to start a stream someday if I get the clear to game again, or potentially get a special mouse which will allow me to move w…
Read More

Heyo! I know it's been awhile, but I got tired of waiting for the Neurologist and got a second opinion from a Chiropractor and a therapist. Both of them said I likely have a pinched nerve, so the massage therapist started working on it and confirmed that the majority of my neck, shoulder and elbow were filled with more knots than a boy scout rope.

The massage lady said that I should take physical therapy because insurance would cover it.

I've been spending the last month working with them and low and behold, I can feel my ring finger again. The pinky is still mucked up, but I've gone down to only going twice a week and I've been cleared to play DOTA for 3 hours max.

Still not good enough to be a pro, but at least I can play the game again. I'm thinking about starting a stream where I teach new players how to play the game until they're level 20.
Read More

Hey guys, I haven't posted here in a few months, due in part that I have tried to play DOTA for the hours that my doctor has limited me to and considering that I can only get about two matches a day in, I am bowing out of playing DOTA to focus on building an Entertainment company that helps people in independent entertainment niches which aren't often catered to do their thing.

I live in the Midwest, so actually catering to E-Sports isn't a good idea when I start up.

I am, however, still in love with the game and its competitive nature and would like to one day sponsor my own team and promote them through the use of my creative mind. While I am just starting up, I am slowly building my empire through tactical purchases and using my ability to think outside the box to get people noticed.

While E-Sports isn't entertainment in the same vein as music and Pro Wrestling, it is starting to pick up, and I would like to have some stakes in it once I start earning money from the current venue…
Read More