I assume that we post here to sign-up. Bring it on guys/girls/others!

Fun time playing with you last night, and I agree with Kree... please no teeth.

Welcome to the community, hope to see you on the TS3 server.

Merlini has spoiled me, to the point where if he isn't streaming and I want to watch a stream I would rather watch a VoD of his than whatever else is current. Except for BearHug and Kree of course.

Welcome to the community mate!

Wait, when I saw the youtube title I thought they were playing in the same game... not the same hero. Oh wow.

It would indeed be hilarious, but I doubt I will be able to convince Mrs.Polak to join in the fun. Watching a Kree/Mr.Kree stream would be memorable, though. ;-)

This is definitely one of the most frustrating aspects of not having a visible MMR, and unfortunately I don't think there is an ideal solution. It is natural that as you improve the mistakes that you used to make become obvious in less skilled players. The effect that this has depends on the specific person, but can range from frustration to teaching (and eventual burnout). One of our goals in Dota Noobs is to be that place that people can learn, but we do have to respect the reality that our players are also interested in having fun and relaxing during the games.

The only hope that I see on the horizon is the (eventual) addition of the in-game coaching system. At that point we can have experienced people available to teach others in a way that does not put a burden on their own gaming because if they are in a teaching mood they can coach, if they want to play then they focus on playing. Adding additional MM channels may help a bit, but it definitely isn't the silver bullet.

Hey all, there is a free weekend for Ravaged on steam. Preload now and we can have some non-Dota fun... or feeding.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/96300

Hey man, glad to hear you are sticking around. It can definitely be trial by fire as the skill range varies pretty drastically and we are constantly brainstorming on how to improve that. Cheers!

He is obviously hacker elite. Welcome to the community Snuffles, we will have you an admiral hat in no time.

Pre-game
I see a few possibilities for their lanes. The first is solo Tidehunter top, TA mid, trilane bot with AM/CM/Sven. The Sven would be focusing on stack/pulling leaving CM to babysit and harass out the opposition. This is what I would consider as the "best" lineup, although the most skill intensive so if we are saying low/mid skill I would put it at 30%. The most likely (60%) for a low/mid skill game would be Tide/Sven top, TA mid, AM/CM bot. The CM should still be able to secure farm for the AM, and the offlane with two tanky heroes should not give up early kills. The problem with this laning is that although the offlane will not give up kills it should be incredibly easy to shut down the farm for it. A remote possibility (10%) is to have Sven/CM top, TA mid, AM/Tide bot. This would work quite well if it is a solo BH against the AM/Tide, since the BH cannot contest AMs farm. The Sven/CM actually gives some potential for kills (triple disable) and the ranged harass from CM may allow Sven more farming space.

What are the needs for my team? BH and DS both need levels quickly. BH can sacrifice early lane farm in order to get a fast level 6/7 and hope to recover with track gold. DS needs to get to level 10/11 as quickly as possible so that he can contribute. This means that we need to put BH in a solo lane, and DS in either a solo lane or in the jungle. The LD is going to be our carry, so ideally we want to get him some early farm. We also need to be concerned about TA snowballing mid, and giving AM early free-farm to transition into jungle farming. If AM gets an early BF he will outfarm our LD.

So here is my lane-by-lane setup. First, I put DS middle. TA is really strong in lane due to her refraction, and the usual way to deal with this is some DoT. Another way to deal with this is to keep her mana too low to use refraction (its mana cost went up) so putting Lion here with an early point in Mana Drain could work but I opted for the safer bet of DS. Now we can contest mid and secure DS his required levels early. My choice for offlane may be quite controversial; I put an offensive trilane of LD/SD/Lion there. I except to see either a defensive trilane of AM/CM/Sven (30%) or AM/CM (60%) there. If it is trilane vs trilane, we are going to have issues since they have the stronger nuking supports and disables. Even in this case some good play from the SD can save whomever they focus (disrupt after disables). The reason that I want to do this is because I want to shut AM down early. SD is incredibly useful against AM early if AM levels his mana break. LD is also useful for early lane harassment and Lion gives you some disable and nuking power to get aggressive. That leaves us with the solo BH which won't be able to contest a dual lane of Sven/Tide, but will still get early levels and the farm is much less useful on Sven/Tide than on AM.

Early game
Already discussed above. I will get only exp on BH top (which is fine), DS and TA will be up to skill, and I think my aggressive trilane will be able to secure farm for LD if not completely dominate AM/CM.

Mid game
This depends a lot on which heros have what items to be honest. The radiant has the much stronger Rosh lineup with double minus armor (meld + gush) and I would also give them the stronger teamfight especially if Tide/TA/Sven have blinks. For this reason I would prioritize keeping vision up at Rosh but not trying to take it before the Radiance is up or we had track/vision on a few of their heroes and could smoke in. In order to take Rosh quickly we would need a Medallion on BH. Once the radiance is up and there is a resummon on the spirit bear I would try to take the radiant T2 bot by pushing the spirit bear right up, perhaps even past the tower a bit to disable blink dagger initiation and have the BH/ward vision covering the approach from mid. The T2 bot is important to try and establish map control to not allow the AM to freefarm his jungle. The ideal situation would be to slowly establish map control to the point where only AM is comfortable split pushing, but the radiance bear can slow down those pushes and be quickly resummoned for seiges. If things go poorly, well we have an excellent turtling lineup for the T3 with DS wall and the SD illusions of AM. But really, map control is the key to giving your carry the farming space that you need so getting those important T2 towers near rosh and radiant jungle are the keys. Denying vision with a gem would also be good for both teams.

Hey all! My steam ID is UnoPolak and I am generally online between 6pm-12pm EST. I am curious to know what types of roles you feel most comfortable in, what type of team strategy you are interested in (early push, ganking and fighting, late game etc) and what you would like to get out of this tournament.

I usually play the 4/5 supporting role, a 3 offlaner or jungle. I would like to focus on drafting and in-game strategy rather than trying out a new role, so I will probably be playing the 4/5. Cheers!

EDIT: Also, how do you guys feel about getting some practice in together this week? Some teams are doing it, but I don't know how busy everyone is. If you think that you will have time, give general times you should be available.

Thanks for this man! I have been jealous watching other Doobs play it and may break down to buy it. Only time will tell... :-P

Cheers mate, looking forward to playing with you.

Haha, just caught a bit of you on the All Zeus All Mid game that Kree was streaming. Welcome :-D

Dzien dobry! Unfortunately that is the extent of my Polish, I am sadly only half-Polish. Cheers and welcome :-)

It is indeed satisfying, and here is a close second: http://www.puffgames.com/bubblewrap/

I tried Googling for an example of an amazing one-armed elderly woman, but I failed. Welcome to the community mate!

Set a time, I'll be up for it.

"I have the voice of an angel" shameless self promotion :-P