So, fellow word-nerds (if there are any here). What words bother you the most, and why?

Slacks - They're pants. This word doesn't need to be said, ever. Its useless and it both sounds and feels terrible to say.

Irregardless - Its just "regardless".

Moist - Apparently everyone hates this word

Remarkable - The word is meaningless, if you think about it. Anything that you describe as remarkable is remarkable because you just described it as remarkable.

I'd argue that late game he can be shut down easily by heroes of similar level. He has two abilities with a finite amount of damage, and his right-click is really slow. He can only cast avalanche+toss once per fight and I'm not sure but I don't think it goes through Black King Bar. He can be used as a tank, but he can't hard carry like anti-mage or faceless since his right-click is too slow. He's most useful as a ganker with an advantage in levels.

Although perhaps a mask of madness would solve the right-click problem, giving you fast attack speed + cleave with aghanims scepter.

It'll help his survivability, sure, but not enough against a strong right-click carry of similar level.

It can work, in some situations, but they are niche.

Ironically the use of "basically" in your last sentence isn't entirely necessary. "It's a smarter sounding way to replace 'umm or uhhh'" works.

Underwater Bimbos from Outer Space by Every Time I Die
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1gi_aOe334

Since I doubt you'll understand what he's saying:

I want to be dead with my friends,
I want to be dead with my friends.
Wide-eyed, brilliant, dynamic rest.
I want to be dead with my friends.

When the iron sharpens the iron.
When the iron sharpens the iron.
When the iron sharpens the, when the iron sharpens the iron.

I want to be dead with my friends. A vulgar, loud, unforgettable end.
Let boredom cease the beating of our purple hearts.
Against this, even gods fight violently in vain,
What chance could we have stood?
We're the last of the lost, but now we're the first of the fashionably late.

Loved ones decompose,
You'll dance around their bones
Most of us are wholly ghosts
All of us are wholly ghosts

We made the scene when we made a scene
And though it was brief, it meant everything.

Oh what a pity, now they're bound to make us saints.
Against this, even boys fight violently in vain,
What chance could we have stood?
We're the last of the lost, but now we're the first of the fashionably late.

I refuse to be the only man put to rest in a mass grave.
You were all there with me.

I'm pretty irritated about the gem of true sight change.

http://beastieboys.com/
Adam Yauch • 1964-2012

It is with great sadness that we confirm that musician, rapper, activist and director Adam "MCA" Yauch, founding member of Beastie Boys and also of the Milarepa Foundation that produced the Tibetan Freedom Concert benefits, and film production and distribution company Oscilloscope Laboratories, passed away in his native New York City this morning after a near-three-year battle with cancer. He was 47 years old.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Yauch taught himself to play bass in high school, forming a band for his 17th birthday party that would later become known the world over as Beastie Boys.

With fellow members Michael "Mike D" Diamond and Adam "Adrock" Horovitz, Beastie Boys would go on to sell over 40 million records, release four #1 albums–including the first hip hop album ever to top the Billboard 200, the band's 1986 debut full length, Licensed To Ill–win three Grammys, and the MTV Video Vanguard Lifetime Achievement award. Last month Beastie Boys were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, with Diamond and Horovitz reading an acceptance speech on behalf of Yauch, who was unable to attend.

In addition to his hand in creating such historic Beastie Boys albums as Paul's Boutique, Check Your Head, Ill Communication, Hello Nasty and more, Yauch was a founder of the Milarepa Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting awareness and activism regarding the injustices perpetrated on native Tibetans by Chinese occupational government and military forces. In 1996, Milarepa produced the first Tibetan Freedom Concert in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, which was attended by 100,000 people, making it the biggest benefit concert on U.S. soil since 1985's Live Aid. The Tibetan Freedom Concert series would continue to stage some of the most significant benefit shows in the world for nearly a decade following in New York City, Washington DC, Tokyo, Sydney, Amsterdam, Taipei and other cities.

In the wake of September 11, 2001, Milarepa organized New Yorkers Against Violence, a benefit headlined by Beastie Boys at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom, with net proceeds disbursed to the New York Women's Foundation Disaster Relief Fund and the New York Association for New Americans (NYANA) September 11th Fund for New Americans–each chosen for their efforts on behalf of 9/11 victims least likely to receive help from other sources.

Under the alias of Nathanial Hörnblowér, Yauch directed iconic Beastie Boys videos including "So Whatcha Want," "Intergalactic," "Body Movin" and "Ch-Check It Out." Under his own name, Yauch directed last year's Fight For Your Right Revisited, an extended video for "Make Some Noise" from Beastie Boys' Hot Sauce Committee Part Two, starring Elijah Wood, Danny McBride and Seth Rogen as the 1986 Beastie Boys, making their way through a half hour of cameo-studded misadventures before squaring off against Jack Black, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly as Beastie Boys of the future.

Yauch's passion and talent for filmmaking led to his founding of Oscilloscope Laboratories, which in 2008 released his directorial film debut, the basketball documentary Gunnin' For That #1 Spot and has since become a major force in independent video distribution, amassing a catalogue of such acclaimed titles as Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy, Oren Moverman's The Messenger, Banksy's Exit Through The Gift Shop, Lance Bangs and Spike Jonze's Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait Of Maurice Sendak, and many more.

Yauch is survived by his wife Dechen and his daughter Tenzin Losel, as well as his parents Frances and Noel Yauch.

I really just shouldn't be allowed near children.

http://www.gosugamers.net/dota/thread.php?id=504119
Basically pushing > turtling, turtling > ganking, ganking > pushing.

Any of those strategies can backfire quickly in a number of ways. Learning proper application is absolutely key to winning.

I just found this information out though, and it makes a whole lot of sense now that I see it. I wanted to share because no one had showed it to me and I only found out about it by catching it on a Shred_kid post.

I'm trying to get together some people to help analyze the underlying creep push on Reddit, but I need to get past the downvote new squad. Want to toss me an upvote so the post will at least see the light of day?

http://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/tda2l/analyzing_map_balance_in_creeponly_games_data/

I'm down, AND SO ARE THE FUCKING SERVERS.

I'll be editing this as I think of more ideas. Feel free to provide input.

Getting just one hero to counter one other hero will not win a game, but picking a hero to fight against an opposing heroes strengths can be beneficial to a team. Team coordination is more important than counter-picking, but here are some ideas on who to pick against who. Remember that just because you picked a counter doesn't automatically mean that you win.

Death Prophet < Lifestealer
Death Prophet is dependent on her ultimate and her tank-ability in most cases. She will pop off her ultimate, which deals a ton of damage as well as heals her. Lifestealer deals damage based on a heroes max health, and has lifesteal, so he will be able to walk through her spirits and regain life upon hitting her.

Huskar, Pudge, Dazzle < Axe
Axe can take a lot of damage and his ultimate will allow you to deal an instant killing blow to anyone with hitpoints lower than 300/450/625. His ultimate also goes through shallow grave. Huskar and Pudge are heroes that typically run with low health. Huskar to aid his damage output and Pudge because rot damages himself.

Anti-Mage < Faceless Void or high HP and armor heroes
Faceless can, one on one at the same level, outlast AM head to head. He has both a bash ability, one that allows him to evade attacks, and an ultimate that allows him to lock targets down and deal damage. AM only has a magical resistance buff, which is useless against Faceless, and his ultimate is dependent on how much Mana has been spent by the enemy hero, which faceless doesn't really need to spend. If you want to go late game, and you can outfarm an AM, Faceless is a good option.

AM will absolutely rip through your intelligence heroes. He struggles against beefy tanks with high armor, and can be rendered useless with a good silence. Remember that his name is "Anti-Mage" and not "Fucking bulldozer." The reason he was a strong pick in the competitive scene for a long time was because the strongest competitive heroes were those who relied on mana and spells. He has become less of a rock avalanche now that there are heroes than can push down his lane and stand up to him in team fights.

Any invis hero < Slardar
His ultimate which has a very short cooldown provides a damage amplification as well as true sight. Slardar is an excellent way to counter any invis hero.

Tidehunter < Brewmaster
Tidehunter is basically a walking ultimate. He is much less useful if his ultimate is rendered useless. Using Brewmaster to counter Ravage isn't easy, but its possible. While Brewmaster is casting his ultimate and shifting into three brewlings he can't be damaged by ravage. You can counter Tidehunter if you can initiate on him and get him to use his ultimate on you instead of the whole team, and you might have a shot at negating the damage entirely. If you do get hit, just shift into brewlings, which spawn with full health. Once you are back to brewmaster form, you'll have whatever health you had upon shifting, and since you have lots of HP, ravage shouldn't have taken more than 1/3-1/2 so you can still escape. This does take positioning and clever thinking.

Heavy burst-damage teams (Lina, Queen of Pain, etc) < Skeleton King
Skeleton king is a tank with Resurrection. If you can bait the team into hitting you with their burst damage spells instead of the rest of your teammates, you will have essentially negated all of those spells in a teamfight, because if you die, you'll be back shortly, and all of their spells will still be on cooldown, and they will have used a lot of their Mana. Skeleton king is weak when he is focused down on, but when he is a distraction, he's very powerful.

Started to cast pro MM games, which is exciting. Dotacinema.com gave me a daily spotlight feature for my mouz SingSing VOD.

Here's my youtube channel if you want to see what I've got:

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvndR2My8_TEa2uIxhPk9OQ?feature=mhee

Sure, if you want to provide it, but I'm aware of a lot of the things I need to practice such as not getting jumbled up with my speech during teamfights and recognizing and memorizing abilities.

Working on the "big picture." The thing about getting the big picture is that I have to first recognize the big picture. It takes a LOT of knowledge and experience to be able to pull up any 10 heroes and make guesses as to what the overall strategy is going to be. Even describing a single lane takes a lot of experience. What I'm doing is reading through every ability on dota2wiki for every hero, and once I've done that I'm going to read them again.

Its also hard to switch gears between big picture and action-ganking which is fairly heavy in the games I casted. Often you'll get interrupted by a teamfight as you try to describe something else, and then have to remember what you were talking about to finish it after a team fight, that is, if the whole strategy hasn't changed as a result of the fight.

Anyways, thanks for the encouragement.

You should subscribe to my channel, since I don't want to spam the forum with daily updates.

They do split it up a lot of the time. SynderN is much better at big picture predictions than Tobi, but Tobi does play-by-play the best.

I like the combination. Tobi is more of an exciting guy who needs to be in the front, and no one can announce teamfights the way he can or with the same level of excitement. SynderN is very intelligent in his suggestions on theory and compliments Tobi's more sort of reactionary mode.

I have a thread started over in the coaching session about this. People post matches intermittently, so your best bet is going and looking up a player to find a game.

I also have to disagree completely with your statement that its harder to cast random pub games. I haven't been invited to cast a pro game but from what I've seen its much more difficult to piece together the strategies of pro games, as well as the more complicated teamfights. In pubs people are mostly predictable once you get a feel for it.