Adventures in Low MMR (Part 2)

Introduction

This is a series of articles on my adventures on a low MMR account. My main account is at 4200 rating from playing mostly support. This is an experiment to see what the experience is like climbing the ladder while supporting from a low MMR account (2200). Here's the rules I am playing by - Declare I'm supporting at the start, control map with wards throughout the game, buy the courier, don't take farm from any other heroes, obtain detection as necessary, item focus will be healing and defensive in nature. I do not play a solo lane of any kind.

Series 2

I score 5 straight wins, bringing me from 2386 to 2509. Overall there was only 1 game with an abandon.

Game 6

I won the sixth game as Crystal Maiden (duo safelane with Necrophos) at 2386 rating

Warding: The enemy team did not buy a single observer ward.

Summary: The Necrophos plays very passively and is very poor at last hitting, so we don't accomplish very much in lane at all. Our Axe and BH offlane creep cut against an Ursa and Earthshaker, who are helpless to prevent it. They score first blood on top and an early tower, propelling our Axe to an unstoppable midgame.

Game 7

I won the seventh game as Crystal Maiden (duo safelane with Windrunner) at 2411 rating

Warding: The enemy Death Prophet kept the map warded, with even some sentries to catch out BH and Kunkka out. This is the second game with enemy wards.

Summary: The enemy sent the Death Prophet to solo offlane against us. Her item choices were extremely perplexing - she bought a Blades of Attack and nothing else to start with. She gets harassed out at level 2, walks home, heals up and... still doesn't buy any regen consumables, and instead buys a set of wards. She comes back to the lane and is instantly killed. She respawns, and comes back to the lane, and dies again pretty much instantly. Windrunner and I are both level 6 at this point and we take the tower and then go help the rest of the map, while Death Prophet is still level 3 with no items. The enemy has a split push lineup (NP, DP and PL) and at low MMR levels I suspect most players have no clue how to deal with it and wasted a lot of time running from lane to lane trying to defend against the split push only to have the enemy withdraw before they got there.

Game 8

I won the eighth game as Dazzle (duo offlane with Death Prophet) at 2436 rating

Warding: The enemy team did not buy a single observer ward.

Summary: There's a particular trend where at low MMR people are allergic to picking heroes with disables. I get a typical ally Death Prophet who isn't able to contribute anything in the laning phase. Things start out very badly. Our mid lane feeds first blood, and our top lane counterpicked themselves by getting two melee heroes against a Dark Seer who maxes ion shell first. Unsurprisingly they're unable to get any farm and end up feeding the Dark Seer a double kill. I decide to rotate while refreshing the wards and score a few kills mid and top, but it takes until well into the midgame until we manage to stabilize the GPM and XPM deficit and start to pull ahead. I've decided to buy a Bloodstone from now on because I might as well try to blend in.

Game 9

I won the ninth game as Crystal Maiden (duo offlane with Naga Siren) at  2460 rating.

Warding: The enemy team did not buy a single observer ward.

Summary: The enemy picks a very gank heavy lineup (Doom / QOP / Bloodseeker / Bounty Hunter) while our carry Alchemist starts the game by maxing his passive. Naturally we get crushed in the mid game, with multiple team wipes for our team. But eventually the Alchemist farms himself to victory. This is also the first game I have seen with a BKB.

Game 10

I won the tenth game as Crystal Maiden (duo offlane with Brewmaster) at  2485 rating.

Warding: The enemy team did not buy a single observer ward.

Summary: Finally a lane partner that can do something in the early game! Brewmaster is a deadly hero at low levels, due to his above average stats and powerful thunderclap. I grab the starting haste rune and immediately score first blood with it. We manage to score 8 kills on top lane in the first 9 minutes to set us up with an unstoppable advantage. At this point the demoralized enemy team starts disconnecting.

6.80 Hero Pick Rates and Win Rates

Working from the data collected by Phantasmal at Dotametrics in this post I've put together some more infographics on the pick rates and win rates for 6.80 by skill bracket. The estimation of Very High corresponding to >4000 rating and Normal corresponding to <3200 rating is a bit iffy: I remember seeing some DOTA2 stats site make that correlation, by cross referencing players (added by a bot to survey ratings) against their matches and how it's flagged in the system. The flags for Normal / High / Very High are still present in the system but no longer accessible to players via the in game GUI. That being said the estimation I'm using "feels" right so far, and I'll continue using it until I see evidence to the contrary.

Enjoy!

Hero Pick Rates

Hero Win Rates

Note: Terrorblade and Phoenix are going to be highly picked this month because they've only just been introduced to the game, so they're anomalies.

Adventures in Low MMR (Part 1)

Introduction

This is a series of articles on my adventures on a low MMR account. My main account is at 4200 rating from playing mostly support. This is an experiment to see what the experience is like climbing the ladder while supporting from a low MMR account (2200). Here's the rules I am playing by - Declare I'm supporting at the start, control map with wards throughout the game, buy the courier, don't take farm from any other heroes, obtain detection as necessary, item focus will be healing and defensive in nature. I do not play a solo lane of any kind.

I will attempt to point out some mistakes made by both teams in the post-game analysis, which may be helpful for players at that particular skill bracket, and also because it will be interesting to see the evolution of play skill from low to high skill.

Series 1

I score 5 straight wins, bringing me from 2265 to 2363. Overall there was only 1 game with an abandon.

Game 1

I won the first game as Crystal Maiden (duo safelane with Lycan) at 2265 rating

Warding: The enemy team did not buy a single observer ward.

Early Game: We lose our lane, as Lycan is unable to farm well against an Axe and Ursa. Eventually we decide it's more profitable for Lycan to go jungle and for me to leave and go roam other lanes.

Mistake 1: The enemy team had 4 heroes which don't come online until they get their Blink Daggers. None of them did, which is why their kill potential was very low. No more than 2 heroes should require Blink Dagger, so you can prioritize farm to them.

Mistake 2: They try to counter the Shadowblade on our Sniper with sentries. This is the wrong use-case. Sentries are used to prevent invisible heroes moving towards you, while dust is used to prevent invisible heroes from escaping. You would buy sentries to protect yourself against a Nyx or Shadow Fiend. You would buy dust to help you secure a kill on a Sniper.

Game 2

I won the second game as Venomancer (duo safelane with Spectre) at 2290 rating

Warding: The enemy CM kept the map well warded, but neglected detection for our Riki.

Early Game: Our bottom lane feeds the enemy Juggernaut 5 kills in the first 9 minutes, giving them a sizable gold and exp advantage. My lane was a loss, as the Spectre I was babysitting had constant lag issues for the first 10 minutes and was unable to farm. I was unable to even leave the lane to stack and pull. The enemy ended up with a 3000 gold and exp advantage going into the mid-game.

Mistake 1: My team picked 4 melee heroes. This is a bad idea. It is however an extraordinarily bad idea when the top lane has an Axe, mid lane has a Sniper and bot lane has a Juggernaut + CM combo. Naturally we lost all 3 lanes.

Mistake 2: Bloodseeker should not build a late Radiance, as the burn damage is a non-factor late game. If his farm won't allow him to get an early Radiance then he should go for cheaper items like a Basher + Orb of Venom rather than walking around with brown boots 30 minutes into the game.

Mistake 3: The enemy Juggernaut had a fantastic start, scoring 5 kills in the first 9 minutes and getting the double the GPM of any of our heroes. However, Juggernaut's power falls off dramatically in the late game. Teams that utilize Juggernaut need to be push oriented to turn the early kill advantage into a tower advantage, or run him as a secondary carry so they still have a primary carry that will win them the late game.

Game 3

I won the third game as Dazzle (duo safelane with Centaur) at 2315 rating

Warding: The enemy team did not buy a single observer ward.

Early Game: I secure first blood for my lane with the starting Double Damage rune, and get another kill a minute later, winning us the lane easily.

Game 4

I won the fourth game as Crystal Maiden (duo offlane with Tidehunter) at  2339 rating.

Warding: The enemy team did not buy a single observer ward.

Early Game: I don't know what to say, we got 6 kills in our lane in 5 minutes, we were facing a Wraith King, Bounty Hunter and a jungling Lycan who ended up dying when he dived our tower.

Game 5

I won the fifth game as Crystal Maiden (triple safelane with Bloodseeker and Earthshaker) at  2363 rating.

Warding: The enemy team did not buy a single observer ward.

Early Game: I help secure the first few kills of the game, first blood on bottom and then ganking their mid Invoker as he comes for the rune. We did not intend a trilane but the Slardar and Storm Spirit demanded solo lanes, it's ironic that those two heroes did not end up doing very much.