I tried, I learnt, I got 1k1 MMR

Of course, I read all the *****ing posts about MMR and I didn't believe them.

Calibrated on my 1st account and got 1k9 MMR. This was probably a fair representation of my dota epeen at the time.

Calibrated some 150 games later on a smurf account got 1k1 MMR

It turns out that learning a **** ton about the game, watching youtube vids and practising to get 60 last hits in 10 minutes.... does not matter.

If someone would like to invite me to stack in high tier, I'd like to see, no sod that, I DREAM to get the chance to see how the rest of Dota plays.

Enjoy the game.

edit: I'm going to make another smurf, I'll update this in a couple of months time. By then I'll be at 500MMR

Higher MMR players are extremely different. I noticed from playing with 3.5k MMR players when being 2k myself. Considering I play ranked extremely rarely my hidden MMR could be higher since I have no problems playing with and against 3k players (I often do so in stacks), but that 500 MMR difference is very noticable for me. The players have better map awareness, positioning and make less mistakes which makes playing an aggressive style like I like to do much more difficult.

i like to watch my friend nInE who has a 4.8k mmr and i ask him questions after games like

"why did you do that there?"


"how did you know that would happen?"

his respoonse... i dunno i just did.

they seem to do a lot of actions subconsciously with out having to consciously think about making them. you will find that this comes from practice.

KNOWING something is better then UNDERSTANDING something in dota. i understand how much damage a cleave from kunnka does but KNOWING to use it correctly in game with out thinking at the right time.... just completely reflex. that i think is the difference

The best thing that happened to my rating was me watching my own replays, and discovering how much time I spent doing nothing without realizing it.

how much games do you have on your main account?

It's probably how efficient you're able to use your knowledge in a given situation, maybe mechanically slow? Without any games for reference can't really help you out.

It's like a cadet doing training on a combat simulation rather than the real thing and when tested in actual combat, the cadet is unable to use his knowledge as efficient compared to seasoned fighters. Cadet is better off than those that haven't trained in combat but since his skills are straight "text-book examples" with "text-book responses", seasoned fighters can smell the freshness off of you.

All very good pieces of advice gentlemen. Especially relevant is the "instinct vs knowledge" observation.

I've switched back to my main for 6 games, the quantity of smack talk and general ****ty players at 1k9 far exceeds 1k1. Overall I much prefer lower MMR games, ah well :)


edit: I've got about 200 games on my main.

Hey guys, ive been reading a bit of what u say here, i've mentored about 3 players over a span over 5 years of playing MOBA games and it all comes from experience, no matter how much you watch youtube and competetive and read guides, it does not really compare to digging in and just playing ****loads.

In my first qualifier when i went from Heroes of Newerth to Dota 2 i got instantly almost 4k team rating and 3.6k solo mmr, and i couldn't really say it was to hard because all the things ive practiced in the other game worked here as well, i was Semi-pro there at a certain point top 10 world on the ladder.

What advice i have for you is to find three heroes to practice, which role i don't care. If i want rating i prefere heroes like Enigma, Sand king and generally heroes were a single person playing good can turn the tide for the team, heroes were you can make the team play good, and not heroes like a carry were u need team to make u play good. Dig in play them 100's of games and you will eventually become beast with it, its gonna be boring as **** but you will become so damned good with that char that u can almost single handedly carry it.
A friend of mine, started playing a hero no one played unique one called tremble, when he first went off he had 1600 rating... after only playing one hero he went from about 1600-2000 in a year (2000 is top 10) and can be compared with going from 3000 in dota to about 6200+

So find that niche hero you like, and get good!


PS practice to read the game, and the gameflow, when to push, when to farm, when to gank and then push, when to rosh.
Also Map awareness is important, but the thing that i would say separate good players from Really good players is that they weight the risk vs the gain, and never go for fail ganks, not going alone in enemy jungle etc, when they gank they are 100% certain (atleast 95%) that they will come out on top.
and if you carry scrolls of teleportation thats like insta 500 more rating right there, if u didnt before

i have to agree with smuggles on this. Almost all of my ingame friends have far lower MMR than me - no brag intended - and their decision making is (from my perspective i guess) sooo weird some times. for instance they take fights i wouldnt have taken but also run away from fights they could have definitely won. I guess this kind of gamesense comes over time as you are getting more confident with your AND the enemy heroes. To me its a matter of "what can i get away with and what CANT i get away wth" and you can somewhat "calculate" that by knowing AND observing the enemy: how does mine and their farm compare? do they have reliable stuns? are their spells on cooldown? do they have an escape? can they chase me down? etc. etc.

IMO making a smurf acount 150 games after getting calibrated is far too early, cause even IF the hero compositions change EVERY game (and they most likely dont) its still far too early for you to know what these heroes acutally are capable of.

Same...there's also the issue that less experienced players have trouble identifying which Heroes have more of an impact. They tend to think that having a big Ulti like Ravage, Black Hole, Freezing Field, Global Silence etc. is a good way to win games.

It's actually MUCH better to pick Heroes that can keep up constant pressure with low Cooldown Ults and Spells you can use at least twice in Teamfights. Take Skywrath Mage for example, he can put out more Damage than any other Support thanks to Arcane Bolt's low Cooldown, making him useful every 2 seconds, and Mystic Flare does an insane amount of Damage with such a low Cooldown that it's ready for every fight. With Arcane Seal he can also take an annoying Nuker out of the fight for up to 6 seconds.