EPTThe Brindled Effect Presents.
Abandon All Hope: Adventures in MMR Hell pt. 1
Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate
"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."
-Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy: "Inferno"
Abandon All Hope: Adventures in MMR Hell pt. 1
Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate
"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."
-Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy: "Inferno"
I used to play Teamliquid Inhouses. I love them and hope to join them once again when a game opens up when I have free time. Because there, I developed a name for myself.
It was called "The Brindled Effect." No matter how good the team I was on, it would somehow one way or another (Hint: I fed) lose the game. My first 20 games were 5 wins and 15 losses. Back when we used the IXDL client, I was literally THE WORST player, stats-wise, in our whole inhouse league.
"Oh shit, I've got Brindled on my team. gg."
"Here come the Brindled effect..."
"The Brindled effect strikes again!"
It didn't bother me though. Because being the worst player among those folks meant I could remain humble by making fun of myself. But every time I played, I learned something. I loved TL Inhouses because I learned so much about the game.
Eventually, I improved enough to bring my record up to 50% by the time I hit 40+ games. I even had some good moments in pubs because of all I learned from inhouses.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Pc0Zsc6.png)
However, this is by no means a brag blog.
Oh God this is no means a brag blog.
I have 3 reasons why I suck at Dota 2:
1) I'm bad
2) I'm bad
3) I am also really, really unlucky at Dota 2.
Excluding the games where I lost because it was my fault by feeding or general poor decision making:
Have I won a game, only to lose the next one because someone fed? Yes.
Have I lost games due to disconnecting and teammates not pausing, giving me the abandon? Yup.
Have I gone on a win streak for a couple days, only for it to be completely undone the very next hour due to my team losing all of our lanes, or players who feed, or abandon games in rage? Yes sir.
Have I lost at Captain's mode 3 or more times in a row because the Captain "potato-drafted"? Check.
Has every possible positive progress I've made in Dota 2 Ranked been met by losses accrued by situations beyond my control? You betcha.
As Smurfinious once said to me (and I paraphrase):
"lol it's like...you're not that terrible...but this shit still happens to you."
You see my friends, my MMR, after almost 2 years of playing Dota 2, currently stands at 2415.
No no, that's not a typo of 3415. Literally, 2415. I placed into something like 2550 after 3W 7L placement matches, and this is where I remain. This is far, far below average. This is even below ELO hell, as far as I'm concerned. I think that at this point I am so low, that even if I play well, I will still be down here. I used to sit comfortable shuffling between 2500 and 2600, but I achieved 2415 after losing 6 games in a row just a few days ago, the frustration of which actually fueled this blog. But, this is not a whine blog either.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ws8Wbf7.png)
* Disconnected, no one paused. Can verify it wasn't self abandon because we were winning the game.
No, my friends. This blog is supposed to be comedy. A comedy of the types of hell one can experience in this Free-to-Play gaming masterpiece we call Dota 2. A comedy of the kinds of hell I have existed in the same plane with, continue to be suspended in, and...well...interacted with because I doubt anyone could call the things I have seen "experiencing." An "experience" implies something full of life and positivity. And I assure you the types of things I have seen here are utterly devoid of either one of those things.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/O2xpZhK.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/uFntpRJ.png)
And perhaps a comedy where you can shed some light on, develop insight on, and see into the minds of the scrub, the baddie, the truly "noob" player who languishes in Dota MMR Hell, from the eyes of one of their fellow denizens who is probably slightly not as bad (hey I made it to 2625 once!). You see, my time down here has allowed me to better understand these people, these people who create their own forms of hell in Dota. Allow me to be the Virgil to your Dante, ladies and gentlemen. Just a warning. This journey may not be pretty. But let us begin your visit to Dota MMR Hell.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/0kyNbDo.png)
This story requires background. It does not begins when our intrepid hero zatokar asked to be drafted Mirana. Nor does it begin when he gives First Blood to the opposing Mid Invoker less than 3 minutes into the game.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/qnuQqr3.png)
No friends, it begins about 7 minutes into the game on the top lane. Mirana comes to farm the top lane. Now having died twice by this time, the team urged him to be careful.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/TtTDbgf.png)
And yet...
At this point in time I, standing near the bridge as I did, implored him to > Get Back!
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/sh3id3r.png)
The results of our collective warnings: 3 deaths in less than 8 minutes.
I tried to heal him once and attempted to save him, but he was so far out of position, it was useless. The conversation shortly afterwards in party chat went something like this.
Dramatization (I used MSPaint)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/SaW5P12.png)
At this point, as I usually do when I play games at this level, I recognized a fundamental thing about this teammate.
In ancient Japan, Iga and Koga ninja abided by written documents called the "Bansenshukai," a training manual that laid out in detail how to make weapons and gear, use plants for medicine and poisons, and the tactics, techniques, and procedures of being a Ninja. However, it also espoused that "Seishin" or "Right Mind" was the most important part of being a Ninja. No matter how skilled you were, if you did not have the right mentality, you were nothing more than a common criminal.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Nw8ffv3.jpg)
"Stab them with the pointy end. If they do not stop moving, do it again."
It wasn't that zatokar was blaming me for not doing enough to prevent his death. Maybe my decision making was flawed. Maybe I should've immediately popped a Divine Shield on him when I saw the wrap-around by the other team instead of attempt to heal. Maybe I should've blown both my spells on him in trade for my own life. But regardless, It wasn't even the concept that zatokar was blaming a teammate for his own poor decisions that I identified.
From the poor positioning combined with the blame he placed on me, showed that zatokar lacked Seishin. He lacked the right mind for playing Dota, and It showed for the rest of the match. When others called him out on his death in the top lane and another one some minutes later, he refused to believe that his actions had anything to do with them. I do not understand why he refused to see this fact, even after this next anecdote.
We were trying to push their middle tower and had to retreat after the rest of their team teleported in. I had left a ward on their side of the river sometime while we pushed. We backed up onto our side of the river and dispersed as the enemy team pushed their lane up to more comfortable levels.
zatokar, however, had different plans. I imagine this is how his thought process went.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/YeuKvbA.png)
By this time the screen in party chat was filled with cries of
>Get Back!
>Get Back!
>Get Back!
>Get Back!
>Get Back!
What did our hero do?
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/07uGHja.png)
Now at a whopping 3 Kills and 4 deaths at 18 minutes, he decided to engage Twerk Team. Which resulted in him getting twerked on.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/L7pJupK.png)
Again, the refusal to take responsibility for his own action and the blame he placed on others did not stun me, but it did baffle me this late into the game. It had clearly happened before. How could he even refuse it now?
Common to all of its service branches, the military men and women of my country have a saying: "Embrace the suck."
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/TbSRllk.jpg)
"Suck" tastes a lot like sweat, mud, and cynicism.
Believe it or not, it is a mindset also applicable to most competent Starcraft and Dota players. The first step to becoming good is to realize that you suck. The guide by Purge, "Welcome to Dota, You Suck" illustrates this culture perfectly.
You are going to be constantly reminded of how much you suck for about 1-3 months (if you learn). If you read this guide and use your brain and be actively aware of how bad you suck, you can easily shave time off of your complete noob status.
It is a culture of awareness that the primary problem of why you are not winning is you. You suck. You can practice to play better, but you still suck. Even if you "become good" you still suck. Because knowing you suck is the only way you don't become complacent and actually regress back to being sucky.
People who I play Dota with in this circle of MMR Hell do not have any semblance of this concept at all.
This can be the only explanation for why nothing gets better for these people MMR wise. Why they do not learn. Why zatokar decided to attempt to get a kill with the entire enemy team nearby by himself and blame a lack of wards for why it turned out badly for him.
The truly horrible at Dota 2 lack the right mind: the mind that you suck. That when your team does not feed, does not lose all of their lanes, does not disconnect/abandon, you are the problem for your own defeats.
But how does one simply not see this? How does one not come into the mindset of "I suck"? An inflated sense of self worth? Narcissism? Perhaps, but the problem is most likely much more fundamental. Let me explain.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/xpEY63J.png)
I find myself with a "nack" for teams in this game too.
Another classic example of a game in MMR hell. Aside from the fact that I am playing with a guy who styles himself as "Soviet Cumshot," this is your common, run of the mill end of match "blame each other on All Chat" speech from the losing team. What Bloodseeker was referring to, however was our team lineup
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/qZhh2Nj.png)
This was an All Pick match. Lina was the final pick after the four of us were asking Blue to pick a carry for a better team composition. He ignored us and picked Lina because he "liked playing Lina." This is of course, coming from a Bloodseeker who went 2 kills and 7 deaths in the entire match because of zatokar-like problems, where he did not listen to teammate warnings and attempted to gank enemy team members with the rest of them nearby. He also went Force Staff first.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/6oaxs6p.png)
I shit you not.
Because our Blue fellow picked Lina, we lacked any semblance of a hard carry. The game quickly degenerated.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/vz0lEqP.png)
The end was swift. There was no inkling of listening. No listening to us when Blue decided to pick Lina without thought to team composition. No listening to us when Bloodseeker ran around the map without help. No listening when teamfights began and one of our teammates was nowhere near us.
There was no listening. This is the other problem with players in MMR Hell.
You cannot teach team composition, map awareness, or item builds to people who do not listen.
These are concepts that players develop when they listen to their teammates in game and decide to convert that information, if any good, into useful action.
There is no semblance of map awareness, builds, warding, split pushing, farming efficiency, creep pulling and stacking in MMR Hell because these players simply do not listen to others. They lack the Seishin, the right mind, to do any of these things because 1) they do not believe they suck and 2) they do not listen.
You can teach a player to do ABC steps in order to do XYZ action, but the above listed actions and concepts in-game depend on one's ability to listen. to. their. teammates. And their respective situations.
Warding is for map awareness, but it becomes useless when players don't listen to their teammates' pings and messages to >Get Back! These players will be killed whether or not there are wards. Their problem is more fundamental: they do not listen.
You, as a better player, cannot just simply say "Pick X every game, and raise your MMR" or "Play support" to these players. These players won't improve that way because they don't listen to others in the game to begin with.
Because they do not listen to others for whatever reason, they lack the right mind for playing Dota 2: the knowledge that they suck, and that other people just might hold the information needed in order to play better. And thus they are trapped with the likes of folks like me, the luckless.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/3x42xTZ.jpg)
Or am I locked in here with them?
I'm not so lucky as to play with people like my above stories every game. No...my curse is having to play with them every OTHER game, and having my hopes dashed from losing the MMR points I gained just 45 minutes before.
Admittedly, my own suck is a problem as to why I cannot increase my MMR, but sometimes the environment I play my games in cannot be ignored. Which was why TL Inhouses were so precious to me.
I only hope to pass the message so that others, may too, glimpse an understanding into such minds and why these kinds of players stay bad. Being a bad player is not necessarily a choice. It's a whole frame of mind.
Well folks, I do hope you enjoyed my story.
But as for my circumstances, I believe I have sunk to the 9th circle of Dota Hell, and there is no coming back from here.
You I can save, but for me it's too late. TAKE HEED!
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/fVgZcx7.png)
"I've been to hell and back, and back to hell…and back!"
