Solo Ranked

Hi all,

I just need to vent a bit, and then I'll ask a favour, haha. Apologies if this is shit people have already went over in detail before.

I recently played enough ranked games to get an actual MMR. I started at 3000. At the time I received it, I wasn't sure if this was good or not, but I just rolled with it. It turns out that 3000 has consistently landed me with people who are not very good at DOTA. That was OK with me at first, but it started to get on my nerves as my team would feed, and I'd play support and still beat out our carries. I don't need people to be awesome, god knows I'm not, but there was no semblance of team play at all, and it seemed, to me at least, that I was consistently playing better than other people on my team (I've played probably 15 games at this MMR).

This might've been OK if it weren't for the absolutely awful, disrespectful bullshit that happened almost every game. Besides being called a noob and getting "EZ" all the time from the other team (which feels like the DOTA equivalent to teabagging), my own teammates almost always freak the fuck out at everyone else. Being called a "noob" isn't really a problem, despite it being childish, but it's another thing when people start calling me a "Peruvian ni**er" or some other crazy, bigoted bullshit. And if that doesn't happen, people just blame everyone but themselves for losing, even if they're playing horribly. There are always a lot of rage DCs or rage AFKs in my games, even when we're not that far behind.

So, a few things. Is this everyone's experience playing ranked at this MMR? Is there a way to stop this from happening, besides just not playing solo MMR ever? And, lastly, if you're not a fucked up miscreant, can you please, please, please friend me on DOTA so we can play together? http://steamcommunity.com/id/egadss/

For one join the GiantBomb chat channel in game there are always people looking for games.

3k solo mmr is about average for mid lvl players but from my experience mmr is not a good judge of skill at that level. I've gotten to a point where I never play solo in Dota, it's just not fun, and for the exact same reasons you listed.

The giantbomb community is amazing in dota and always looking for players. You'll rarely if ever have trouble finding a full 5 stack of competent and kind people to play with there.

Look for me I'll be on later tonight!

squiDcookiE

still not as bad as the league of legends players.

buts its a moba. either get used to the douche bagness or dont play mobas.

it doesnt get better.

also the MMR you get to in dota 2 when you first get yours is not even close to where you actually belong. they do not give you enough games to see. youll either move up or down quite a bit over the next 25 games.

that said my steam name is tunaburn and i play dota 2 pretty much every day.

@dusker: Solo ranked might the most toxic of the match making modes.

Best advice I got is to play with friends, really it's the only reliable way to avoid bad team experiences.

If you are 3k mmr that means your teammates are 3k mmr. You think they are bad... but you are just as bad. Don't act like you are hot shit and are where you shouldn't be. Switch to carry if you feel you cant trust others to do it themselves.

I've played both for years at this point and they're both equally as toxic.

Well I don't think the OP was acting like hot shit from what I've read .

Also back to the OP: I'll reiterate what other duders have said and just join the GB chat or clan if possible (i think the guild might be full now though). I can try ccing if there's additional slots available @crispy@brad

Just curious: Have there have been any instances where anyone has said "GET BOPPED, SON" in chat? I wouldn't be pissed if that happened to me. :P

Outside of GB chat channel guys? Not in my experience, people tend to go for more vulgar language or get wrecked.

There is a good reason for the ranked system to exist... Because I never want to play with the kind of proper who want to play ranked. My small exposure to it mirrors yours, ranked is where the toxic community resides.

Play with friends or a stable group! That's the best way to learn, form strategies, and build teamwork. It is by far the most rewarding way to enjoy the game. Solo is nice to have when you're short on time and just want to get a fix, but DotA is a team game at its core and you're never truly playing as a team if all you do is solo queue.

Solo MMR will always have its problems. Pugs are pugs and there isn't much that can be done (the current rating system is okay, but it's not without its own set of issues). If you're insistent on continuing down this path, I'm afraid you're going to have to take the good along with the bad.

Can confirm, I've played & quit both due to the Worst Community In Gaming™ somehow existing in two very different places simultaneously

While you may be playing well individuallly, it could be that your making some poor choices in regards to helping your team to actually win the game. I'd suggest keeping an open mind to peoples criticm. As was said, it's easy to say "im better than these scrubs" but ultimately if thats where your mmr landed (and especially if its where it stays) that's where you are at.

Then again, yes solo matchmaking is full of fucking assholes sometimes. Try and pick your time of day when your not getting arrogant kids or basement dwellers - usually like afternoon and evening. Sometimes it's just worth muting everyone - even your team.

My advice (as someone playing in the same sort of mmr dealing with the same shit) is to try and choose good support heroes that transition well into mid game (such as mirana or ss). Lane with your hardest carry and do everything you can to secure their farm as far as pulling and harrassing the enemy. It seems like its 50 50 that your carry will farm effectively so in the case that they are hopeless you can catch up on farm going into the mid game by strategically and carefully pushing outer towers (but make sure to defend if its needed) while everyone is screwing around being inefficient mid game. Rarely expect any thanks or glory as most of your team wont notice good support play they will just assume they are playing awesome.

If your efficient with your last hitting you should be able to catch up on farm and help pick up the slack for your carry while also giving them some space to catch up themselves. Try and take on map awareness for your entire team and call missing and ping if you see your team in vunerable positions.

In my experience if you decide to hard carry you put yourself in as vulnerable a position as if you support. Your supports (if anyone even picks any) are probably not going to ward, they will probably push your lane and autoattack your creeps. The worst part of this is they will probably blame you when it all inevitabley goes to shit in the mid game because you got no farm. Your lack of map vision will probably lose you the game (especially if the other team is warding effectively.) So if you are playing carry and noone is warding, just buy the fucking wards. If you can get one pickoff from them or they save you from a gank, they paid for themselves.

Some games you just aren't going to win, and there's nothing you can do. Accept that and recognise that you played your hero correctly, and did everything you could.

The draft is one of the most important aspects of the game, pay attention. While you dont need to agonise over counterpicking every member of their team, just pay attention to the important stuff. Do they have a lot of sneaky gankers with burst damage? Dont pick someone squishy and/or needs to jungle a bunch. Have they picked a bunch of carries that take forever to come online? Pick good early game pushing heroes to make them suffer the early game. The entire game is about countering and disabling the enemies lineup (items choices play a big part in this.) Dont buy a high damage item if they are just going to kite you or chain stun you to death anyway, pickup some utility items - the whole game is positioning.

For god sake, if you are playing invis heroes, dont go off alone and CARRY DUST ALL THE TIME. There is very little excuse that a team should be able to snowball out of control on invis heroes such as riki or clinkz.

The biggest thing that will make a difference to your mmr at that level is effective farming (and smart item choices), so practice and work hard at your last hitting.

Maybe a slightly off-topic but related question; what's the appeal/benefit of playing ranked? I have yet to give it a try, not because I fear words on a screen but more because I am not really seeing the point.

@pezen:

I expect it's because you have another meter to look at. Leveling up and improving, and seeing that in a tangible way, is addictive in any format, I imagine.

I play exclusively party, unranked games. I do not encounter the bullshit you seem to encounter. Sorry to hear you're getting matched with such nobs, though.

@gaspower: Haha, if someone said "Get Bopped, Son" I wouldn't have written this post.

@flacracker: Yeah, definitely don't think I'm hot shit, haha. I think I said that I'm not very good. If I suggested I'm great at DOTA, then that was my mistake. I guess I'm just saying that I don't think that 3K MMR is where I should be, given what other 3K MMR people have been doing. A good example is actually that I don't feel as though I can play as a carry, because most of the time that means we never have a support, never have wards or a courier.

@rowr: Thanks duder, this is great advice. I've been trying, for sure, but I think I could be better about supporting the hard carry. I was watching some Purge videos, and he played this crazy, roaming support alchemist that seemed to wreak havoc on the other team. I might try that kind of thing too.

Honestly, I started playing ranked because I thought that once I got to a high enough MMR, that I would be playing with people that mostly knew what they were doing. I didn't realize that solo ranked is where a lot more of the toxic community resides. And, yeah, I like the other meter too ;-)

@dusker: Hahaha! Yeah I would have probably replied back with a clever Dave Lang reference and hopefully the other guy gets what it means.

Ranked matches enables people to find matches that are ideally more competitive since it also "ideally" matches you with those of similar skill but really MMR isn't the most accurate measure. For example: there can be people who have just recently gotten into Dota 2 who have a low MMR but they'll be going up against people who have recently got into Dota 2 who have a similarly ranked MMR but have been playing the original DOTA-Allstars WC3 mod FOR YEARS. Of course, if we assume that one team is composed more of the latter and the other team the former, the latter will completely stomp the former despite having similar MMR. In a way, this is like an example of "smurfing" in the context of Dota2.

On a different topic: I was never that great at Dota but I've played it back in 2006 and stopped around 2010/2011 and I've only gotten back into somewhat following because of Brad and Daily Dota a year ago. I still don't play much Dota 2 even if I know how to play it since even in a LAN setting where I played the original WC3 mod Dota, I was still somewhat stressed out during matches even though I enjoyed it but eventually I reached a skill wall that I could never overcome unless I devoted a hell of a lot more time to Dota and being a college student at the time, I didn't have that luxury...unless if I wanted to deliberately flunk my classes which did happen to some of the people I knew.

Now that I am 2 years removed from college, I still have to devote more of my free time to reviewing for my certification exam. Dota 2 despite being enjoyable can be very stressful to play so I don't even play highly competitive games as much even on my free time. I do enjoy watching them though.

Roaming support can work, but if it doesn't pan out it can backfire if you don't find the ganks because you don't get the levels and money you would in lane. It really depends on the teams composition, if you have someone who is a good offlaner and can be left to solo lane, or a lineup that requires a single farmed carry (like a spectre or am) then you can trilane/roam more effectively. Generally you will want someone with a good stun, like a venge, sk or tusk. Just being off the mini map can help your lanes out for the fact every one has to worry in their lanes that you could suddenly pop up, especially if you manage a few successful ganks early.

Also to answer the other question, i've found ranked to be much better in general as far as toxicity and especially abandons because people care a lot more about winning. Thats probably where a lot of the toxicity also comes from though as people hate to lose and will generally pick others to blame when it goes down hill. People are likely to get upset about smaller parts of the game also because they care more, where as unranked is just whatever.

@dusker: Yeah I am in the same place as you dude. I just can't trust my team mates to not be truly terrible. If I play carry there's usually no-one warding, the pseudo-support heroes will be constantly dying and then blame everyone else, and if I play support then there is usually no-one carrying 'cause it seems that ~3k mmr dudes don't know how to effectively CS. The only time I seem to win in ranked solo is if I play a carry hero and either have someone truly awful on the other team in my lane so I snowball out of control, or if I am actually blessed with someone I can rely on to play their role.

As you say, I don't think I am overly great at the game either, I am merely competent at farming efficiently/placing some goddamn wards/watching the map at all times. All I ask for from my team mates is the same in return.

I'm in the same MMR rut as you and I can empathize with you. There are a lot of assholes out there and people that don't want to play as a team. The things to keep in mind are that those people suck, you can win with assholes, and at some point you were and are going to be the worst player on your team so try not to speak down to people.

I have a few of suggestions that may help.

In the picking phase of the game there are two main things you can do. You could try to let all of your team pick before you do. This would allow you see who would synergies with the rest of your team and fill in the missing role. Or you could wait for the other team to make all of their picks so you can counter pick.

If you're playing support check and see if you're the only one. If you are you might end up having to get the mek and wards. If no one is getting drums build them as the active ability and aura are good for the team (you'll likely build a bracer early on as a cost effective way to get some hp). Also, put wards in key offensive or defensive locations depending on how the game is going and the objective your team is going for (search on Google or Reddit for warding guides, they can help find great warding spots).

Avoid Captain's Mode and Draft. I've had enough captains that suck or troll to make me thing that this is better if you're in a stack of people that you can trust or maybe at a higher MMR and your potential captain is more knowledgeable.

If you are playing All Pick I would suggest trying captains draft. I'm right at the same mmr and I have started playing CD. The queue time is much longer but the people playing seems to have a better understanding of the game. I'm not saying I haven't ran in to the occasional asshole but for the most part it has been a pleasant experience. An added plus of captains draft is that it makes both teams be creative with the draft. Yesterday I played Jugg support and we murdered the other team. The limited hero pool every game makes things very fresh and exciting. I also recommend that you mute the entire enemy team the moment you get into the game. Nothing they say will help you team win unless one of them types in all chat by mistake. The slim chance of that happening isn't worth all the BS. Feel free to add me on steam VoodooTatum.

Yeah, I mean, it's just everything in ranked that's a problem. The worst is when I pick last, say I'm going to play a specific role, ask everyone if that's OK, get silence or partial confirmation, buy my items, move to the lane, and then someone decides that they actually want that role. I've bought courier and wards while playing mid and done all sorts of other crazy things.

Anyway, I've just scrapped playing ranked, and my experience has jumped from 90% horrible to about 30% horrible. I also played a few games with GB folks, which has helped a lot.