The Reset

It is EVO 2016 and Juan “Hungrybox” DeBiedma has just made a deep run into the loser’s bracket culminating in a best-of-five against Adam “Armada” Lindgren in the grand finals. Those not familiar with the fighting game tournament structure, it is usually a double-elimination bracket proceeded by a group stage known as ‘pools.’ This may sound similar to the structure of major Dota 2 tournaments, but there is one major difference: the ‘bracket reset.’ The winner’s bracket finalist has a distinct advantage over the loser’s bracket finalist in this style of grand finals. If the loser’s bracket finalist wins the first set of games the bracket is ‘reset,’ which means the winner’s bracket finalist is ‘knocked down’ to the loser’s bracket and a final match is played. 

Spoilers for a five year old Grand Finals below (I think you should go watch it before. If you have not already, it is one of the greatest grand finals I have watched across all esports tournaments.)

The grand finals begin and Hungrybox immediately goes up two games riding the momentum from his lower bracket run. Armada holds out to take the first match to game five. Hungrybox ends up winning, forcing the reset.

So, what does any of this have to do with professional Dota 2?

Hungrybox and Armada themselves have nothing to do with Dota 2, but the bracket reset does. As an avid watcher of tournaments in the fighting game community, or FGC for short, nothing gets me more excited than the possibility of a bracket reset. Watching someone make a dominant run in the lower bracket only to face the seemingly impossible task of winning two sets against the player having the best weekend so far elicits emotions from me that very few Dota 2 grand finals have ever done. 

It’s time for the Western Europe TI10 Qualifier Grand Finals and Tundra Esports has made a dominant undefeated upper bracket run while knocking off names like Team Liquid and OG in the process. The grand finals is a rematch between the loser’s bracket finalists OG (who lost to Tundra in the winner’s bracket already) and the winner’s bracket finalists Tundra Esports in a best-of-five series. Tundra musters up a 2-1 lead and is looking to secure their spot at The International 10 with one more win. OG ends up winning games four and five, knocking out Tundra Esports. The tournament is over. There are no second chances for Tundra. Their season is over just like that. 

Now back to EVO 2016. Armada has been dominant in the singles bracket, only dropping one game to Lucky in round one. He is having a great tournament and has a great advantage coming into the finals. He has been rewarded for his hard work and great play up to this point by being given a match advantage over the eventual Loser’s bracket finalist Hungrybox. Hungrybox would go down 2-1 early on in the second match. The same situation OG would find themselves in five years later. He too, would go on to complete his comeback and win EVO. Armada had two chances and lost both, while Hungrybox overcame the impossible to prove that he deserved the trophy more than anyone else that weekend. 

Now I don’t want to come off as an OG hater, so I’ll preface what I am going to say with this: Having TI10 without OG there to not only defend their title but to try and three-peat would have been awful. They won and deserved to be at The International 10. With that said, however, watching OG win the Western European qualifiers was one of the few times that a final result of a tournament left a bad taste in my mouth. Tundra had made a powerful upper bracket run, but for what? Essentially nothing. OG lost to Tundra and got a second chance. Why not Tundra too? So does Dota 2 need a bracket reset? Probably not. 

Let me explain. I think bracket resets are awesome and an integral part of the FGC tournament experience, but it isn’t feasible in Dota 2. If every game goes to an average of 45 minutes and the two series go to 5 games each; that would be nearly 8 hours of Dota (and that doesn’t even include panels/drafts/and other breaks)! I like watching Dota as much as the next person, but there is no way I could sit through that. I do think, however, that there should be a distinct advantage to being the winner’s bracket finalist. One that would award them for being the best team up to that point. This could be achieved in a bunch of ways: a game advantage, a not-so-feasible bracket reset, a new pick order, the list goes on and on. I think two options stand out and are feasible inside the Dota 2 tournament framework. The first is that there is no coin flip for game one, the winner’s bracket finalist gets to choose both side and pick order. The second is the winner’s bracket finalist starts a game up in a best-of-five series.

While both of these are feasible, I do not believe that starting a game up on the loser’s bracket finalist is very good from a viewer standpoint. A finals series that lasts all of two games would not be enjoyable to watch, and I would think not to play in either. Starcraft tried the one-game advantage, and the community was split on it at the time. Looking through the grand finals matches during that time, almost all of the matches were also short, with the winner’s bracket player winning. As much as I like the idea of the winner’s bracket finalist having an advantage, this is too far in the extreme for the highest level of Dota 2. 

I think the best option would be to implement a side and pick order advantage to the winner’s bracket finalist for game one. This gives teams a solid incentive to compete in the winner’s bracket and gives them a decent advantage in the finals. Looking through old joindota.com threads and liquiddota.com forum posts there seems to be a consistent rebuttal of ‘X team had to play more series than the winner’s bracket finalists, that should already be an advantage!’ The winner’s bracket team is surely more well-rested, but I think we forget these are professional players. These players do this for a living, they are used to this much Dota 2. This argument also ignores the fact that the loser’s bracket team can also ride a wave of momentum into the finals, nullifying much of the ‘advantage’ of rest that the winner’s bracket team has. This large game one advantage would surely set the winner’s bracket team well on the road to success while giving the loser’s bracket finalist a final uphill battle to face. 

If you guys have any interesting ideas on grand finals formats or just want to let me know I’m an OG hater, I would love to hear it in the comments below!

Practical Application of the Growth Mindset in Dota 2

In my last actual article I wrote about the mentality that I believe players need when approaching Dota 2 (or really any ranked ladder). I also discussed having a growth mindset and what that meant. I have the wonderful opportunity to coach new and low MMR players on a discord server called Dota University, and after my original article came out I had a few players ask how they could apply this mindset more practically. Over the last month-and-a-half I have spent a good deal of time trying my best to apply what I have learned from Carol Dweck’s Mindset: The New Psychology of Success into developing and improving as a Dota 2 player (I can’t recommend the book enough, as I learned a great deal from it). After a few revisions I think I have an easy to follow system that will help you cultivate a growth mindset when it comes to learning and improving in Dota 2. 

“This growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts. Although people may differ in every which way in their initial talents and aptitudes, interests, or temperaments, everyone can change and grow through application and experience.”

Carol Dweck – Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

First I want to go over key points from Dweck’s book I will be implementing in my self-improvement system, and exactly how we are going to achieve each of these. If you want to skip over what basically boils down to development notes, and just want that juicy guide scroll down.

Different and malleable learning tactics are the key to an individual’s success:

No two Dota 2 players are exactly the same, or will experience the same problems at any given rank. Rather than create one-size-fits-all guides for improvement (I’m staring at you mugiguideto3k.doc in my trash right now), I tried to create a flexible system of guidelines to help players identify their specific problems and fix them. 

Imperfections should be acknowledged and embraced:

I see players I am coaching try to ignore imperfections in their games or play styles all the time; whether they notice it or not. This leads to thought processes like: ‘If I can just do x-actions better, then y-actions will no longer matter.’ Players and students need to look at all their imperfections holistically and tackle them one by one.

Replace “failing” with “learning:”

When a player attempts to correct a bad habit they often get discouraged when they make the mistake they are trying to eliminate from their play. To encourage a positive mindset this system does not punish or negatively focus on bad habits.

Emphasize growth over speed and have a realistic mindset about time and effort:

So this one is actually a few points in one. It is fairly easy to gain a reasonable amount of MMR very quickly, but it will not last. To gain and keep MMR you must focus on improvement first. For some great insight into time and effort going into gaining MMR I recommend you watch this video about climbing by Arch3r. This system will focus on small improvements in gameplay over time, instead of focusing on hitting lofty MMR milestones. 

Reflect Regularly:

Regular reflection on any task (in this case Dota 2) will help accelerate the learning process. Players will do this by reflecting on each game played, and starting each session with reflection.  

Make small and clear goals for yourself that are easy to attain:

Instead of saying things like ‘I want to reach immortal,’ or ‘I want to farm better,’ set simple and easy goals for yourself. You can always set more. This system asks players for new goals every single day, or couple of days, to better track or progress. Reaching smaller goals drives enthusiasm and promotes a positive learning mindset. 

Okay, so you have humored me and my thoughts going into this guide, but here is the actual stuff you want to see. You will need to physically or digitally track your progress (I use a physical notepad because it is easier for me than tabbing in-and-out of Dota 2), so keep this in mind and set something up for yourself. This is my system to promote a growth mindset when it comes to Dota 2.

Set up a main page as follows:

Date: 


Goals:

Set no more than three easily attainable goals here

Remember, easily definable goals with a simple path to success. No ‘die less,’ more ‘stop overstaying on side lanes when pushing so I get caught out less often.’ Set no more than three goals at a time. Having a long list of to-do’s or goals actually makes you much less apt to work toward any one goal in a focused manner. 


How:

As concisely as possible find a fix to this problem (through a coach, YouTube content, wherever).

eg. ‘As soon as enemies are no longer showing on the minimap, stop pushing immediately.’

Why:

Why is this goal (or goals) set, what do you gain from achieving it.

eg. ‘Dying less leads to more net worth and more map pressure, allowing me to hit better item timings.‘

This ‘Home’ page will be an easy to track list of goals and the achievement of them. This page will be set up every day (assuming you play every day) or every session if you play irregularly. 

Next set something up to track your games. You can do this however you want as long it contains relevant information, but I will show you how I have mine set up. 

  • Game 1:
  • Hero: Your Hero Choice
  • Lane: What do you think your lane matchup is and how should it play out?
  • Actual: What was the actual lane matchup and how did it play out?
  • Role: What is your role in the game? What do you need to accomplish to win?
  • Actual: What did you actually accomplish in the game, did you do what you needed to in order to win?
  • Goals:
  • Learn: What do you need to do to improve upon what you did this game?
  • Celebrate: What did you do correctly that you should continue to do?

Please do not try to type or write all of this in the pick screen, focus on your game. Think about these things, it will promote actively thinking about the game you are playing. Come back and write this stuff down at the end of the game.

After the game is over reflect. Think about the game, fill out the information about the game, and don’t forget the match ID (especially if you are going to look at it at a later point).

Okay so it is Day 2 of the patented (not really) Mugi training regimen. How do I start the day? Well, set up your home page first off. Copy all of your unachieved goals from the prior session (there is a good chance you will have to rewrite the same goals for a few days). Cross through any you have achieved (you will no longer move these completed goals forward). 

After having set up your new home page, it is time to reflect. Either by yourself (or with a coach), choose one game from the day prior (or previous session), and watch it through. Make mental notes of things you can improve on, or that you need to learn about. Add a section to the bottom of your new home page called ‘reflection.’ Add your thoughts here. 

Rinse and repeat. Continue to set small goals for yourself and achieve them. Improve and learn. The MMR will come with progress in your gameplay. Focus less on the number and more on yourself. 

I am sitting here formatting this for my website and giving it a final read through. Some of this really feels like common-sense. This article may be completely pointless. I really hope it helps somebody achieve what they want from Dota. I may, or may not be, taking students to help test this system out with more people. I want to revisit this system and its potential flaws in a future article. Until then, I hope you improve. I hope you grow. I hope you learn. 

Also thanks everyone at Dota University for the encouragement. 

An Interview with bgod

This interview is the first in a planned monthly series of interviews with players and talent in the tier two North American DOTA scene.


For anyone who doesn’t know, who are you?

Yeah, I’m bgod. I play position four for Team Plasma. I am a 17 year-old NA player.

So you are playing in the BTS Pro Series Season 2: Americas. How has that been so far?

It’s been pretty cool. I wasn’t really expecting to be invited. Another team dropped out so we got to play in it. It’s been a cool experience.

So when you found out that you were invited, was there a team you really wanted to play against and maybe take a game or series off of?

Yeah, definitely [Evil Geniuses]. EG has been considered NA’s best team for a while. We didn’t win the series, but it would have been cool too. I kind of look up to the org as the fathers of NA Dota or something.

So for a while the community was complaining that the Tier Two scene, and specifically North America’s, was unsustainable or not viable. What do you think about the scene as it stands right now?

It’s definitely not viable… there are very few tournaments. Like, Underdogs (League) is the biggest tournament I think, and it’s only like $400 (per player) for first. Then, on top of that there are only, like, two sponsors in NA: EG and CRaZY, and CRaZY is an EU org sponsoring an NA team. 

So Valve shared information* back in February about a new DPC season, obviously this has been delayed due to COVID. Has the break made it easier to find tournaments to play in? Has it helped or hurt your team?

*Information about the new DPC changes can be found here.

Well I don’t think it has really effected the tier two scene because most tournaments were already online. It kind of effected the tier one scene though because there are no open qualifiers. You have to be lucky and be invited, like we got invited (to BTS Pro Series 2) because another team dropped out and we were the next best thing or something I guess. 

So assuming this new DPC season happens, do you think the new prize distribution will benefit tier two teams like yours? I think last place in the league is a few thousand dollars or something.

Yeah, like adding more money will always help. There are less than five tier two NA teams right now. Maybe more teams will develop for this; maybe there will be more tournaments. There would be more streams. Like, you could be a really good mid player, the next SumaiL or something, but it’s so hard to get noticed unless you get invited to a big tournament. There are tons of good players that aren’t pursuing DOTA because it’s too hard. I think they see it as a waste of time almost. 

So that’s all the serious questions I have for you. Ice Frog did say we were getting a balance patch in about two weeks. If you could tell ice frog to buff a hero or nerf something would you?

Yeah for sure. I would buff Skywrath Mage. He is my favorite hero, or that I play a lot. I am hoping Lycan and summon heroes get nerfed so they aren’t so good. Maybe a techies buff [laughs] but definitely Skywrath. 

Is there anyone you would like to mention or anything else you would like to add?

Sure, shoutout to my sponsor plasma1337x.

The Solo-queue Mentality:

The best only way to get good.

Way back in 2015 when I first calibrated my rank I was certain I was a 2,000 mmr player. You can imagine my shock when after playing ten games, I was met with a three-digit number. I was not a 925 mmr player. I was convinced of this fact. I did not play well in my calibration games. Yeah, that must be it. I continued playing, and after twenty more frustrating games, it became glaringly apparent what my problem was: my teammates were the problem. I was so much better than my teammates. They held me back.

This is a problem that plagues, not only a vast portion of the DOTA 2 player base but most competitive games. What is this problem exactly? I think the best way to address this problem directly is to take a look at something known as the ‘growth mindset.’

I am not a sports psychologist so my description will be basic. If you would like to read more about growth and fixed mindsets I suggest you read Carol Dweck’s book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Most players stuck in their respective climbs in the DOTA 2 ladder have a ‘fixed mindset.’ People with a fixed mindset experience the following behaviors: they avoid challenges, they ignore feedback that is not positive, and they thrive on the failures of others. These flaws in mindset lead to getting ‘hard stuck’ at an mmr. As you have probably already guessed, the opposite of a fixed minded is known as a growth mindset. People with growth mindsets meet challenges head-on, accept critical feedback, and most importantly look for lessons in the behaviors of the more successful.

How does someone apply or develop, a growth mindset for DOTA 2? As someone who struggled to develop this mindset, I created a solution that I think most players can apply to themselves. I sat down and wrote out all of the challenges that I faced when attempting to climb in mmr. If that is struggling with last hitting, missing out on fights, or making bad teleports around the map write them down. Now you do not have a list of things you are bad at; you have a list of obstacles to overcome on your climb. I kept my list next to me whenever I played, and when a mistake was made I would put a tally mark next to that behavior. This helped me develop a more conscious recognition of my mistakes. Instead of being frustrated every time I was caught out of position and died, I began to tell myself: ‘You made a mistake that you are trying to improve on, you should have just nuked the wave and left immediately.’ Developing this behavior through repetition will slowly promote a better mindset that in time will lead to improvement. You may make the same mistake the following game, but you will make it one time less. Improvement is a process. Deal with it.

“But Mugi… all my teammates were just hitting jungle creeps, so I had no space to push safely…”

Every single hard-stuck player ever

Okay… Remember when I said there was just one problem players had when they are hard stuck? There are two. The second big problem I see when I am coaching players stuck at their current rank is not understanding negativity bias. When two things happen in equal amounts, with one being negative and one being positive, one will tend to focus on the negative side rather than the positive. This means that you will focus much more on a player on your team feeding than the enemy’s team. Focusing on lessening the effects of negativity bias is important to your personal development as a player. If you look at your games objectively, you will find that the enemy team has just as many griefers and smurfs as yours does.

This concept of negativity bias has led to a theory that I call the 20% theory. A friend of mine and I came up with this idea a few years ago, and I still think about it every day. The numbers have moved around a lot over the years, but I think that I have them right finally.

In any given sample size of games in DOTA 2, I believe that 20% of your games are impossible to win through no fault of your own. 20% of your games are free wins, even if you feed relentlessly. This leaves you with 60% of your games. The outcome of this remaining 60 % of games relies solely on your performance in them.

Adhering to a philosophy like this one can help keep you more sane during an extended period of grinding ranked games. Every so often you will lose games that are out of your control, and you have to let it go. I just mentioned this, but it is extremely important to remember. Sometimes your Sven will die with no buyback at minute 50. Sometimes the enemy team does have a smurf. On the other side of the same coin, you will get free games 20% of the time. Maybe your mid ember goes 20-1. Maybe the enemy carry deletes their items. It is so important to recognize this. Do not focus on those games, or at least the outcomes of those games. You will continue to make mistakes in them, just focus on you. If you just focus on them being ‘free wins’ or ‘impossible games’ you will lose your mind.

This leaves 60% of games, give or take, that you can directly influence. You have to accept the blame entirely for these losses. It is easy to look at a teammate’s mistake and blame the loss on that. You can always play better and play in such a manner that doesn’t create a situation where your teammate is even allowed to make that mistake. What could you have done to get more from the map before the enemy comes high-ground? Could you have won an additional lane by rotating? Did you not join a critical fight and your team lost?

These questions are so important to ask yourself because if you are focusing on these instead of your teammate’s mistakes you will find yourself solo-carrying games more often. Maybe you find yourself splitting people to death on AM, while your team feeds and you win anyway. It’s all in the mindset you have.

No guide will make you better. No amount of coaching will help you to improve.

Nothing matters until you have the right mindset.

Don’t focus your energy on the 20% games. Focus your energy on how to win the other 60% of unwinnable games, and I promise you will find ways to win them regardless.