Since we are a noob forum and this game uses a LOT of common acronyms, would it be a good idea to implement an autoreplace list so that some acronyms such as BKB are automatically written out as Black King Bar?

I think people would get lazy with using the item tags. I was more thinking that if someone types BKB we replace it with BKB (Black King Bar).

If you can put together the code I can make the database of acronyms. Just let me know the format you need them in.

Oh okay, I thought you were saying to leave the images completely manual.

Game 6 is up! Game 5 is encoding, and will be up shortly. Take a look!

Great work man. I'm glad to have a place to post the videos in a formal way.

You know you love them:

http://i.imgur.com/92JJn.gif

http://i.imgur.com/OVtKv.gif
Any real meaning? Screw you automated message man.

I tried drawing Lina for a different logo yesterday, but failed pretty miserably. I've been learning how to draw people, but its not coming along as fast as I'd hoped. I'm trying to think of something that I can draw that we can use, but I haven't had any real solid ideas yet. I'll keep the wheels turning in my head.

I also started thinking about graphics that we could add to the main site now that it has been fleshed out a bit. Will see what I can do there on my free time as well.

I do have the font downloaded. I'll see if i can think of a design for a logo separate from the official dota logo. Perhaps I can design something with DN that will look cool.

We certainly do like cold copies here.

...I'll be here all week.

Also, I noticed that the DOTA part of the logo has some fuzziness around it likely due to scaling and jpg compression while the NOOBS part is crisp. Yes, I'm that much of a pain in the ass about this stuff.

www.joindota.com then click on VODs. He's the official commentator for professional matches. Loves the community and the game, very good at what he does.

I was thinking of having a dotanoobs logo embedded in the gem of true sight saying that we are the one true path to true dota learning.

In DoTA, skill level generally increases with the amount of time you
have spent playing the game. If you consistantly play with other
players who are of a higher skill level, or players that are going to
constantly challenge you, you will get better at the game. This isn't
really groundbreaking news, but it is something that we all should
consider as we continue to develop this community.

As new players come into our games, we need to remember that although
we identify ourselves as noobs, we are on a fairly sophisticated level
of play as compared to the general low and sometimes mid tier players.
The realization of how far I have progressed personally was made
obvious to me last night when I grouped up with four other doobs and
played some matchmaking. Our level of play wasn't really even
challenged too much and we were able to basically stomp the three
games I played in.

This may all be obvious, but I just want to remind everyone that we
are a community based around two things, improving our level of play
as well as helping and mentoring those who are not on our level.
During our in-houses we must remember not to get frustrated with those
who are playing with us due to their lack of experience. This can be
amazingly difficult, but we all must remember how we felt when we
first started and help out new people as much as possible so that we
can build a strong community.

Our increase in skill also brings about the dire need for new members.
In order to be welcoming to noobs, we have to be able to host games
where all players or at least 6-8 out of 10 are on the same skill
level, as people are generally most comfortable in an environment of
peers rather than an environment of teachers. Even if we are
incredibly helpful, it is frustrating to play in a game and get killed
every time you try to do something, or know that you are hindering
your team. If one new player is playing against 9 other more seasoned
players they are likely to feel left out.

So, do whatever you can to put our name out there! If you play an MM
game and you enjoyed playing with some of the people, try sending them
a message to join the community. If you find someone in chat
somewhere that is looking for in-house games, invite them to join
ours. It probably won't work most of the time, but it will work some
of the time, and the community will grow.

We are going to be looking at trying to contact key people in the DoTA
community to see if we can get a shout-out, but we shouldn't count on
that for our only source of players, as it may not work out.

I'm glad that we have a section of the board dedicated to hero guides and discussion, as that information is imperative to effective play. I appreciate everyone who has posted their input on the board as well.

I think, though, that we need a better method of organizing the section as people usually learn best when they follow some sort of organized learning structure. I'm thinking that it might be best to turn the "guides" link on the main site into a wordpress page. From that I would be able to develop a static section of guides that everyone could refer to in an organized manner rather than just having important stickies of have people searching through various threads and posts for the information they want.

Alright. Let me know if I can help out gathering data and setting up the text doc.

http://www.dotapickup.com

I just came across the site and it looks like its a group of players that have set up a s ystem by which you can automatically find other more reliable people to play with. They might be above our skill level, but it might also be a good place to find people. Anyone have any experience with them?

When talking with BrosephJones and Alverez last night we came up with the idea of hosting a last hitting tournament, so I wanted to put the idea to the community to see if there is enough interest to get one started.

This would be a good opportunity for us to get some experience using BinaryBeast for tournaments. Since we don't have enough people to run a full 5v5 tournament, I thought this would be a good way to work out the kinks. Here is how it would work:

1v1 mid-only games. The game is played until the game timer reaches 10:00. The player with the most last hits at that time will be considered the winner and will advance in the braket.

Pretty simple and straight-forward, and I think these rules are fair, but reply with any input you have. The results would be submitted via replay and reviewed then entered into BinaryBeast. We could probably manage to host 2 rounds per week rather than 1 since the games are so short and only involve 2 people in order to complete them. That will speed the tournament along.

I'm willing to put a few bucks for a prize in the form of a steam gift credit, or amazon gift card.

I also think this would be a good way, if we offer a prize, to get people to sign up and join our group. However, this will attract the attention of higher skilled players, so we should be careful how we choose to advertise.

Let me know what you all think, and maybe we could get this started soon.

I'll need some input from BinaryAtrocity to figure out the best way to get people signed up for the tourney.

What do you all think of this shit?

A strong Texas Hold'em poker player is a rock. Effective poker play, if you read up on it, is all about only making plays that you estimate will, over a long period of time, net you positive winnings. A player who has memorized how to play a given hand for each position on a 9-person table is immediately better than any other player who does not know these rules. What complicates the game is the human factor. After the first three community cards (out of 5) come down and bets start being placed on the table a poker player must be able to predict his opponents' movements on the table. Is he betting because he has a better hand? Is he bluffing me? What do I know about this player from the time I've been playing with him? What is he likely to do?

Very often a poker player will go up against another and lose terribly. The effective poker player remains a rock and brushes the loss off of his shoulder, telling himself that he must stay consistent to his play style and not succumb to the emotion of losing a significant pile of money. A player who does the opposite and tells themselves that they are going to bust out the next person that goes up against them is on tilt. This tilt can break the player's concentration and often they make predictable moves that everyone else at the table can capitalize on.

DoTA 2, like any strategy game, is also one of calculated risk. Everyone must know and play their part in order for the team to be successful. In poker everyone is playing solo, but in DoTA 2 you have 4 other teammates that are relying on you. One player going on tilt in DoTA 2 can bring down an entire team. There are many ways for someone to go on tilt, and I probably don't need to explain them here in detail as everyone has done it and seen it at one point or another. Through experience, though, players are able to understand that sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, and if they hope to play a better game they absolutely need to keep their composure.

I urge everyone in this community to understand that each game is a learning experience no matter what the outcome. You learn at least one thing from every match, whether you recognize it or not. The more you learn to observe, the better player you will be since you will learn more with each match, and your experience gained with each game will snowball. If you combine effective observation with calm and collected composure you will put yourself in the very best position to be able to win matches.

I'll start cracka-lackin' on this bitch.