A Great Dota Leader's Goal

"A good leader inspires people to have confidence in their leader, a great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves."
~Your Dota Quote for the Day

A Great leader doesn't aim to be popular, he aims to make his team mates better to have a better team.  He understands that he cannot win championships alone.  To make his team mates improve their Dota games, he needs to make them build their confidence first.

Leading a Dota team is fun but it's not easy.  It is different from being just a captain.  Leaders need to consider having good conceptualization, sufficient knowledge on the game as well as on team mates and they need to be mentally tough.


Here are some tips on how to help your team mates build confidence:

1. Power Talk

Before the start of the game, start by giving them a phrase they can run into their minds that gives them confidence.  For example, "We are a complete team, we have good carries, supports and we got good team chemistry" or "We practiced for enough time already, we should just execute it again today."  Those phrases will be stuck on their minds before playing rather than negative thoughts that would make them nervous.

2.  State their Advantages

Once the game starts, tell them what are their advantages against the opponents.  On their lanes, for example, tell them that they have stronger combo than the opponents (if it's true) or you can tell them that they can easily survive opponent's attacks but they should have enough mana.  Tell other things if these things aren't related but never lie to your team mates.  They would lose their trust on you and your words won't have any effect on them anymore if you do.

3.  Compliment their good actions

Praise them when they do good.  You can say a simple "good job" or you can tweak it to make it more personal.  For example:  "That was a perfect timing."  Complimenting isn't bad if it's true.  Most players though they appear to be confident enough already still need affirmations.

4.  Thank them

Be humble to thank them if they saved you.  Thanking them doesn't make them feel like robots made for destruction.  Once they saved you and you said "good job", it's like saying "it's your role, you've done it well robot."  Know when to praise and know when to show gratitude.

5.  Reward their efforts

When they come to gank your lane, do your best not to waste their ganks.  When they are trying to dominate their lanes and you see they're about to lose, teleport and help to make sure they win.  Don't let them feel that they're efforts are useless because they would be lazy or afraid to do those things again.

6.  Find the remedy for their faults

They would normally commit mistakes because they are only human, just like you.  Once they made errors, think of the best way to minimize the disadvantage for the team and don't whine on them.  Once, our main carry had a crucial death being ganked, I know they can destroy middle lane though we defend 4v5 so I told them to give the middle lane.  I, then, destroyed their top lane.  This is one of the best strategy to defend a push.  You have to make them choose to push or defend other lanes.  When one of them teleport top, I'd teleport back to our base and we would fight 4v4 with them.

7.  Make them have fun

One way to remove their anxieties is to let them enjoy.  I often talk to the heroes on my monitor commenting on my opponents moves and making it funny.  They would see me so relax and they would be too.  I've tried this sooooo many times and it's really effective.  Once your team mates are relaxed, their minds will be clear enough to think properly.

8.  Use the "try" magic

The word 'try' is useful when your team mates isn't that experienced enough.  This word lessen the pressure on your team mate.  They wouldn't be so afraid of failing.  You can use it mostly in ganking where perfect timing is really important.  Once they start doing it often, they would be used into it and you don't need to type the word try.  It would now be "G".  Check out why "g" is also important in my previous Dota Quote. 

There are other things you can think of in giving your team mates confidence.  These are just the most common techniques in this aspect.  Just always remember that your team mates, no matter how poor their performance was, also wanted to win.  Never put them down because of wrong moves.  Just help them learn from their errors because you are his leader.

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Posted in: Mindset,Quotes