Develop Your Own DotA Team (Defense of the Ancients)

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I started my own DotA team when I heard about a tournament in one computer shop near our University. The team I made was composed of friends from high school. I was only an average player being taught by my DotA Teacher, Mark Bernardo. He exposed me to his DotA friends who happened to be the best team back then, the Inzane. I observed how good their team play was. Individually, they may experience defeat but when it's time to play as a team, it's quite impossible to defeat them. How did they develop that kind of team? I asked myself. I didn't stop studying how to have a solid team. I had a notebook of strategies I've formulated myself. I didn't want to be copy cat because I know if I'm going to copy their strategy, there would be no chance to defeat them. We had join several tournaments to improve our team. I asked Mark if we could get a chance to fight against his team and I'm willing to pay for their PC rental. We had fail a lot of times. We would have talks after every defeat we experience. One thing I love about my team is that they never lost their trust in me. Though we always fail, they always follow my plans and never complain. It was after a year, when we reached the top. We managed to defeat the team we admired a lot, the Inzane. Thus, we end up winning every game. Now, I already retired from this game and I just play when I have time, I want to share some things I have learned in developing your own DotA Team.  This is a Dota guide on creating and improving your own team in Dota Allstars.




Be Open Minded

The key to improvement is understanding. Seek first to understand the factors what made a strategy effective or ineffective. You should also learn to accept facts. Accept that you and your team mates can make several errors in the game. Don't whine on them and show immaturity. Instead, praise the things they've done good. Discuss generally the errors made in every game. You should use your mind and learn from the game, not your heart to feel frustrated for weeks. It is alright to lose games. Better strategy and execution really would win. It's not that you're dumb. They can tell you you're dumb but you are not. It's just that you need more experience and you have to know the game better. 

Know Each Player's Potential

After several games played together, you as a leader, should know what are the things your players do best. Study their game and decide which role you can ask them to have. You only have 4 team mates, it's not that difficult to detect what they do best. You'd see if a player who already know how to farm, let him improve so in that field. Players who are sneaky can play gankers or setters. Players who are already a team player can play support role who can be the savior of the team. Experiment on the effectiveness of the team after giving their roles, playing games against different level of teams. Again if you fail, decide what adjustments are needed to be done. Maybe the player just needs more practice. Don't change his role at once or remove him from the team.

Lead, don't Manage

If you want your team to stick together until the end, Lead.  Don't manage them, they are not things.  Leading is different from managing. Leading is making your team want to follow you, managing is forcing your team to follow you. You can lead by telling them what your plan is and how will it be effective. Example: "I'm planning to try pushing early so that we can have more gold." They would want that. Who doesn't want more gold, right? They would obey you whenever you say push because they want it too. In managing, you are the only one who know what your plan is and you just tell them to obey you. Once you fail with your plan, they'd lost their trust to your command. Leading inspires them to contribute more ways on how to attain the goal. It's way better than simply following commands. The ability to play as a team depends on the leader. One of the best way is to lead by example. If you play carry, show them how to play carry effectively. Whatever the outcome of the game would be, always play at your best. Do not show any sign of lost hope for they would do the same.

Never be afraid to try Something New

I remember one time, we were all used into having 3 farmers and 2 supports. Then, I was curious as to what if we would only have 1 main farmer and 4 heroes would be moving around the map to kill opponents making our carry farm more gold than usual. Then my team mates agreed and didn't mind if we will lose. After the game, we did lost, but they found it exciting. We practiced that kind of strategy for about a week. Then, it came to be our solid strategy that can knock off any team. We usually use it as surprise tactics in tournaments. I shared this because I want you all to try different things and never regret doing it. Experiments often start with failures. From those failures look at how great our technology now.  Same thing with DotA. Don't simply go with the flow. There are a lot of heroes and a lot of strategies to counter every play styles.

Watch Professional Replays

Learn from other team's error.  You cannot make all the errors in the world.  In watching replays watch their play style and acquire the skills needed for the improvement of your team.  Hero picks are not to be copied totally.  You should start with having your own formulated play style. It is essential for leaders to plan original play style for the team because most players today are already watching Professional Replays.  Plan strategies that would push your team's full potential.  I usually watch professional replays and I, honestly, imitate some strategies made by a team but not all of them.  I usually make it a hybrid my own.  Doing so, you'll be unpredictable to other teams.


Be Flexible

You have to be flexible to make the necessary adjustments from games lost. To improve is to change. Thus, changing is not easy for majority of people. If changing is necessary to have an effective team, then change. I was trained to be a carry hero player but when I realized how bored my team mates are in supporting, I switched to being our main support in our team.  I make some adjustments to make the team more effective. I find it obvious most of the time what are the things that wont work or fit in the game plan, then I tell my team mates what game plan adjustments I'm going to make so that they would know what to do.

Be Patient

This is somewhat implied in the other statements I made. But I just want to emphasize this more. Be patient. Never lose hope. Never think that you cannot beat the best team in the world. May it be Ehome or LGD, you can be better if you work for what you desire. "I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying." -Michael Jordan.

Watch Your Games

The best way to improve your team is watching your games. You have the ability to clearly see the errors made or how the opponent managed to defeat your strategy. If you totally understand the things that lead to your defeat, you wont do that same thing again.  Eliminating errors made by your team is another way of saying that your team is really improving.

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