indiefinch

@Rattle618: I think that Dota 2 will be better then Dota 1 because the matchmaking system. Because like you said it is unreasonable for everyone to get into the deep complex stuff Dota has to offer. In Dota 1 you had people who were die-hard players playing it for years and years being match with guys who played a week. With Dota 2 people of similar skill are put together so you have less of the "I have spent 1000+ hours on this game are you spent 50...get out noobie!"

People really won't give you shit unless you really go out of your way to ruin the game. Most people are reasonable and will offer advice if you ask for it.

@blueduck said:

I think when its comes to dota people tend to get worked up more because one bad person can wreck the whole game.

One person can ruin an hour+ game. So many times I have been in games that have gone past an hour then all it takes is one guy to wonder into the woods without sight...dies...then we lose the game. If you ask questions / be willing to learn / play safe, most of the time people wont give you crap.

The community in Dota 2 has actually been really good so far, once it is open beta I bet it will get worse. But for the most part I only find a rager every 5 or 10 games.

I loved the game, a PC version would be sweet. But the thing I would really like to see is Sony come in and give these guys a big amount of money to port it to the Vita.

The Defense Finals happened yesterday, did anyone get a chance to watch the matches? (If you missed them, the VODs can be viewed here: http://www.joindota.com/en/vods)

There was a lot of lag / disconnect problems due to so many people trying to connect to the server. But outside of that the games were some of the best Dota 2 games to date. It also shows a real promising future with 35k+ people on Tobi / Purge stream then I believe it was also streamed in different languages but am not sure the numbers on those streams.

Don't want to spoil the outcome just yet since it was really recent but was there any gameplay stuff that stood out to you guys? The biggest thing I saw was neither team fearing the Anti-Mage and didn't even pick up OD. It seems that most teams have done a really good job working on dealing with AM and now are using those bans for Invoker / Chen or any other hero they fear against their lineup.

I paid for it, 20$ really isn't anything to bother me. A 2 hour movie costs at least 14$, up to 20$ if it is 3D or IMAX. For the amount of content you got for the 20$ was amazing. Lots of great matches, great analysis, solid player interviews, and a decent VOD system. I watched most of the main stream matches throughout the weekend but am now starting to go through all the VODs.

Overall I think that this is the model we need to move to for eSports. Maybe 20$ isn't the sweet spot, but anywhere from 5-15$ could help make this a sustainable business. They won't have to heavily rely on sponsors and could possibly do more things with events that would previously be impossible. But if we want to move to the "next step" PPV is that next big one that we can make which gives these companies that surge in money to push their product to be the best it can be.

Hell yes, should be a great show.

Good write up Patrick. I think this is a touchy subject which people can view things a certain way. However you need to realize that this guy has been so deep in the FGC for the past 15 years that this stuff becomes common. Sure it would be great for them to act super professional and see a bunch of money being dumped in. But if you follow these event (seasons beatings, evo...etc) you can see it from their point of view.

It comes down to the figureheads learning what they should and should not say while in the public spotlight. But for the bad things this guy said, there are many guys who do great interviews and make you want to jump into the FGC. People shouldn't start calling for this guys head, he said some dumb things, but let him learn what he should and shouldn't be saying while on a Capcom stream.

@FluxWaveZ: Just find a friend online and get into a custom game. Have him 6 pool you over, and over, and over until you feel comfortable. Do different maps, have him try different variations such at a 7 pool with 1 drone for spine crawler, 6pool lings and drones all in, 9 pool with 2 drones for spines...etc. Do different maps and try different builds yourself to find what your are comfortable with. After a few hours you shouldn't have any problem stopping it. You could even do that same thing for other early game problems such as cannon rushes, pylon blocks, bunker rushes, proxy rax / gateways...etc. All stuff that is very common with players who don't know how to play the game.

You could also go 14 pool before gas, scout, then go 15 hatch after if they are doing a normal build. Or if you see the early pool, drop the gas and you have the pool 30sec earlier. Just mess around with a few different builds and find what you are comfortable with. I mostly go hatch first in ZvZ, but I don't see many 6pools anymore. It could possibly be that masters players learned that people know how to crush that stuff so they stop doing it.

@FluxWaveZ said:

What the fuck? Every single time I go ladder against someone who plays 'Random' and they end up with Zerg, I always end up getting fucked by a 6 pool or some similar crap. How am I supposed to prevent this? Do I scout extremely early to see which race they are (with one of my first drones, for example)? Do I just make an early pool just in case they turn out to be Zerg? Those are probably the only solutions I can think of.

Go a safe ZvZ build. Go 14 gas / 14 pool. Build the OL on 9/10, then send a drone to scout. Once you get to their base and you recognize it is a 6 pool (you will be around 14 supply) it should be the time you are dropping your spawning pool. Build an OL on 14/15 when you get the money then you begin to save larva. You should have 3 larva stocked up when the lings get close in which you build 6 lings and be prepared to move your drones. Don't just box the drones and go "ATTACKKK!" you need to mineral path them back and forth (if you right click a mineral patch the workers path through enemies). So you will group them up away from the lings and continue to move around. If your opponent is bad, he will start attacking you in which you mineral path on top of his lings and surround them. About this time your own lings should be done so between your lings and drones, you should easily stop it. If you feel like your micro is awful, just start a spine crawler in your mineral line while waiting for your own lings to pop. It will force him to attack the spine in which lets you get free ling attacks or he ignores it and the rush ends when it finishes.

The main thing is scouting it, recognizing it, then staying calm and stopping it. He has 0 economy so if you hold with more then 10 drones left, you will win the game. Also it is a reason why your builds must be tight. You need to build that 9/10 OL EXACTLY at 100 minerals, and drop your spawning pool EXACTLY at 200. If you drop it at 250, you might die to the attack. It just takes practice and sooner or later you will see a 6 pool and say "thanks for your ladder points!"

Hopefully Valve is that much closer now to blow the doors off then thing and let everyone in. I doubt the current population will be able to support quality matchmaking on both the test client and live client. I bet they did it so now we have a complete stable version, there won't be any bugs that ruin peoples experience (when Alchemist game out with no cool downs and crushed people for a day). Plus it is way easier for tournaments to rely on the stable client being up because everything on it will be thoroughly tested before hand.