Hey guys! Before I start, I want to give a bit of information about myself. I have been playing Dota 2 off and on since early 2012 (my dotabuff for those who care). Within the first year I started playing, I began to random nearly every game. I still random nowadays, but I rarely see anyone else. To be clear, I (most of the time) am playing unranked all pick and randoming as 1st pick. I will see someone else random probably every 10-20 games.

When it comes to learning Dota and getting better at it, I think that randoming is one of the best options. You are forced into learning to play almost (you can't get any of your 25 least player heroes more on that later) every hero which makes you play against those heroes better in the future. And because you are playing different heroes, you learn how to play every position.

When the changes to randoming came in 2018 that replaced the bonus random gold to currently getting a mango and faerie fire, it really upset me and lead to me taking an extended break from Dota. With this, let me get into what I think would be a better system.

Change 1: The Mango and Faerie Fire

I understand why they removed the bonus random gold. People complained about it for years about how they would be outlaned by a randomer who was able to buy an early wraith band, for example. Although I think that this was an overblown issue, I think the replacement was unsatisfying. There are many heroes that having a mango and/or a faerie fire are not ideal.

If people are really against adding back extra random gold, I think that there are better replacements than the current one. My best suggestion would be to allow the player to choose two of the following items to get for free after they random:

• Enchanted Mango
• Faerie Fire
• Clarity
• Tango
• Healing Salve
• Iron Branch (not sure)

Something like this would work better as it would allow players to choose the items they think would be best for the hero that they random. I understand that the issue is that people would buy stat items instead of regen and it seems like people don't mind a randomer to have extra regen.

Change 2: Excluded Heroes

I think that the 25 least played heroes exception is okay, especially as a default, but I think it could be improved. My suggestion is that, through game settings, players would be able to choose up to 25 heroes that they wanted to exclude for randoming. There are heroes that I would want to play, but are for example new enough that by process of randoming leads them to being my least played heroes. There are heroes that I haven't played at all yet. I understand the point of this exclusion, so that other players are not hurt because you are playing a hero that you have little or no experience playing, but this is faulty because of the fact that people choose heroes that they have little or no experience playing anyway.

Those are the biggest two for me and I would be very happy to see them changed. I think that other rules for randoming are good (AFAIK you can only random for the first two picks). I am of course in favor of good team comps and people playing to their role. I am not some randoming Dota anarchist. I think that randoming is good for learning and it has been heavily discouraged to the point that there are few like me anymore.

I'd like to finish this up by responding to some common claims I see against people that random.

"Why don't you just queue for all random?"

Besides all random being a bad format for any serious level of play because of the horrid team comps, there are not many people that queue for all random, thus it would take a long time to find a match. All pick is of course the main game type that people play and I already sometimes have to spend 5+ minutes queueing for a game. I think that Single Draft is a better game mode than all pick due to the fact that it makes people play other heroes and it still allows for good team comps, but it is what it is; all pick is king.

"Why not just spin to a random hero?"

Spinning to a random hero is fundamentally different than randoming. When spinning to a random hero, you can always just say no and do it again and again until you end up playing the same role every game. I think it is important to lock in the first hero you get so you are forced to play that hero and position that is maybe not the hero or position you are most comfortable with so that you learn. Should have said this sooner, but I am in favor of people reading guides or similar things. I use trackdota hero pages to know what the best items and skills builds are from the expertise of pro players.

If you have questions, suggestions, or complaints in the comments, I am willing to engage with any and all of you as long as you remain in good faith.

Thanks for reading!