Wood's PtC Review

There is no way I'm gonna be matching up to Charple's review (it's the epitome of memes) but here it goes anyway.

General Team Stuff

As you all know it was my first season, and I had no idea what to expect going in. I heard about RD2L on the r/ dota subreddit and wanted to stop being a filthy high 2k/ low 3k casual and figured the best way would be to play with people better than me. Que getting drafted by Beast - which I am almost positive he only drafted me cause my name is almost the same as his:D. I never figured I would have such a fucking amazing time with this goddamn league. Though never getting any recognition for our skill in any of the weekly predictions to being C O M E B A C K - B O Y S, I know that PtC quickly gelled and rarely got down on a loss. I personally feel that this is why our team was so successful - we just loved dotes and wanted to win no matter how we did in prior matches.

Strategy

Just gonna comment on how we played our games. As we figured pretty quickly, we played best to our name. We ran lots of pseudo 4 protect 1 strats where Curry would farm and we would run around and make space causing the other team to have to react to us. Charp's active mids made space in the early to mid game with the supports generally being stronger early (ogre, jak, lich) to allow for strong starts out of the gate transistioning into Curry and Beast mid to late. We played a strong game, though I did notice many times that we really only had this one strat. It was an awesome strat which got us far, but as we saw in the finals, the best of the best
can play many styles of dotes. This is a team thing - suggestions for the future would be to practice not just other heroes in scrims and pubs, but whole other styles of play. Pick a style like split push and just try it, even death ball. I honestly feel we could have run drow strats if we just tried to practice it a few times.

Player Comments

You guys all made some great points, and I will try to focus on improvements you all could make (as I can see it from a mid 3k perspective):

BeastWOOD

You gave a lowly 3k a chance at proving himself and I thank you for that. You play an amazing offlane no fucking doubt; I don't think I saw anyone I would rather be in the offlane no matter who we faced. Your attempts at tactically feeding often turn into kills for us which I'm sure was the plan all along. You have great game sense and great focus - which sometimes killed you. If you are getting dived or are getting even half health and feel you could turn it around, just call for a support. I know there were a few times I was focused on mid and could have rotated on a kill had I heard a call from you. Very minor though. Your hero pool is quite large which is awesome - one thing you could try doing, which relates to learning different styles of dota, is practice more of a farming role in offlane with a dedicated support since the offlane is safer now. It would make drafting a little more open ended because you could pick a carry that people wouldn't be able to know if it was offlane or safe. In terms of being a captain, Charp said it well - you can definitely be more assertive. I have a thick skin and if I make a bad play, PLEASE call me on it. I want to do everything to win so if I'm doing something that's not right shout out. In game calls you were strong - I know I was often the one making suggestions but generally the best plays came when you called em. As per drafting, you can always improve. I've personally been trying to get better at this aspect of the game and it's hard as fuck to do. We generally went into drafts with no plan - making a short plan before the game such as "we want to end early with lots of team fight" can centre a strategy and put the draft on the right path before the game even starts.

Chef Curry (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2bBZvSPpOo)

Chef Curry with the (e-Blade) pop, BOI. I swear I saw more people die to E-Blade pops than I ever want to see again. You were the first to truly give me suggestions on how to improve (as I sat in lane and stole your exp... whoops) and that was what I needed. I saw tons of improvement in your style over the season - "i hate morphling" and then it becomes your go to. You have great farming patterns and have a great grip on when you reach your power spikes. As a player learning the game, shout out to your supports when you grab a big item or you got that level 18 so not only do we know in this game that you are stronger, but also I can know that a morph reaches his spike when he gets e-blade (obvious example is obvious but you get the point). I notice you play a very quiet game, not talking much which is fine early - though late game it would be beneficial to get a little more active and begin making calls (though you did do that a bunch). Tilting can be a problem but I never saw you tilt yourself out of the game so that's not as important to me. In terms of play style, you could try learning some split pushers (as much as you hate them, sometimes the game calls for them) like naga or bring it the other way and learn some super active carries like storm or safelane DK. You had mentioned you were trying to farm in more dangerous locations but didn't feel like you were doing that - I can tell you there were many times I was thinking
"holy shit curry is wayyy too far out" but then I realized that's what you needed to be doing. To me, your farming was the perfect balance between aggressive and defensive but you should talk to some carries like lala about that.

Charple

My mid buddy :D. I enjoyed sitting in your lane this season and whacking people with clubs. I feel that your active and aggressive playstyle is one of the key reasons we made it far. As Joaney noted, you definitely played off of us the best. Up against 5-6k mids is no easy feat and you pulled through with some fucking weird ass heroes that work. The biggest thing I want to see you do is to learn to play farming mids. Storm, alch, jugg, SF would be an asset to the team and your pool. Mid is not my forte at all, honestly probably played like 5 games mid so I can't comment on mechanics but I think you could benefit from playing different matchups in ranked/ in houses and making notes on what went right AND wrong (maybe watching footage of the finals would be a start?). Your active playstyle is amazing - one suggestion could be once you hit your timing, tell your supports where you want to start taking over on the map so we can ward appropriately. A lot of the time I was just placing deep wards but knowing you want to take over the middle of the map can allow me to focus the ward game there.

Joaney

Honestly, I thought you were a girl at the start of the season cause you wouldn't talk. LUL. I felt our play style meshed very well and that's part of the reason we were so successful. Our roams were generally on point and space making early won us a lot of the games. I know you aren't planning on playing next season but i'll still give you some suggestions if you ever decide to come back. Warding is a game that us supports can always improve on. Learning some ward spots that are unconventional that still give great vision would be strong - not sure if you have it or not but here is an interactive ward map if you are ever bored and coming back to dota (http://devilesk.com/dota2/apps/interactivemap3/?mode=observer).Getting more vocal and making calls would help, but that also isn't really your style so that's just a comment if you didn't have a support partner like me who wouldn't shut the fuck up. Farming was neither of our strong suites so trying to eek out farm wherever you can would give you that little boost to get that key item. We often neglected to get items which fucked us in games that went late. Other than that, it was a pleasure being the 4 to your 5 (or the 5 to your 4, whichever idc).

Patch

Didn't get to play too many games with you, but you definitely played an integral role on our team as a stand-in when me/Joaney were gone. It is super helpful having a player who is knowledgeable of our style of play to fill in and you played it well. You have a ton of knowledge of the game, you just have to get into translating that knowledge into gameplay. Keep up practicing - I would suggest
picking a single role for awhile and sticking to it so you can be comfortable and just focus on learning dota mechanics better. Im hoping that next season you can get drafted to a team that you will be a starter so you can get some real experience - maybe try spamming solo ranked to get your mmr up to 3k or something like that.

Last but not least, CODY MY MAIN MAN
Dawg im so fucking happy you no showed cause then it woulda been real awkward trying to fit us all into a single team. Luv u bro.

That's a wrap boys. Had a god damn great time diving towers and shouting NO PUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSYYYYYYYY - hope we get to dive more in the future. You can find me spamming micro heroes in solo ranked now that I think I've fixed my goddamn wood PC (maybe). Peace out.


Wood