I'd like to share this to make sure I'm not dumb for thinking this. So many times I see a team pick a hard carry while ours picks a soft carry (blood seeker vs medusa for example) and then someone on my team says "we can't let this game go late" or "we need to finish early". I think this is bad for a ton of reasons.
- You create a sense of urgency and pressure right at the start of the game. Dota is a game of patience. I've found that those that are aggressive early, try to chase kills, and focus on kills more than last hits end up making mistakes and causing an easy early game to become hard.
- Similar to point 1. People like to synergize with their team. They want to be on the same page. When you say that, you can have 4 other people that disagree and don't want to do that. But because you said it, they all assume everyones going to be on this same hyper aggressive, active game mentality. They don't want to cause a rift before the game starts so no one disputes. Even when I know I shouldn't and don't want to play active, I have a subconscious pressure to do so because I think the rest of the team expects it.
- You need to focus more on fighting around your own team timings and delaying your enemy timings rather than focusing on "ending early". If you have earlier power spikes then it's fine to play around them and take objectives and constrict map control by doing so. You don't need to "end early". You just need to take advantage of your early power spikes to increase the networth lead. Do not try to take high ground before 30 minutes because you wiped 3 of their heroes and feel like it's now or never. Take the t2's, ward, take over their triangle, take rosh, back off, and let your carry use the space to get his next item while their carry is afraid to leave base because they have no vision.
- I think it shows a total lack of awareness for what kind of game dota is. I cringe when I see it. Dota is about objectives and control. Ending usually happens as a natural flow of events when everyone does what they're supposed to do when they do it. It doesn't happen because you automatically will it into existence. Just play your normal dota and let the game naturally progress. Don't try to force everyone by saying "end early".
Ultimately actions are louder than words. If you notice your team will benefit from playing actively then set yourself up to do so. Let's say you're a wraith king vs a medusa. You're not going to be able to out farm her. So instead of doing treads, a hand of midas, or a radiance, etc. Buy a blink, phase, armlet, and play around your team early.
Don't tell your teammates how to play. They either
- Don't and get resentful for your patronizing attitude of knowing better than them or
- Do and make tons of mistakes because they're playing/building their hero in a way they're not use to and are going to make mistakes.
Instead, adapt your own play style to them and how you want the game to play out. Synergize with your team instead of expecting them to synergize to you.
I'm a guardian player, so please tear apart my points and pick out any mistakes or dumb examples I made. This is just an opinion I formed after seeing my team get rekt because they tried to take high ground at 20 minutes instead of establish map control. I'd just like to open it up to discussion to see if others agree or disagree.