4Game

It's the dota 2 caste system.

What i'm talking about is MMR. This is what i think the root of most of the toxicity in the community stems from. "Why should i let them play core when my number is bigger than theirs" "Why should i play with these people their number isn't close to mine" "You wouldn't understand how to play dota because you're a low number." This and many more. There are even posts about not allowing people with lower *numbers* review overwatch cases because they might not know what griefing even is. Even though it's pretty obvious as i stated in a comment on said post. And whenever you see a post about an overwatch case that is on the fence, there's always the common thread of "Oh well people with smaller numbers just play bad, because they're bad, not because they're griefing. If this were high number match stepping one toe out of line and making one mistake would be griefing." It's elitism. This is what's stopping new players not that there is no tutorial.

​

I have been playing this game since 2013, and i have never been calibrated. Not once. Because i don't like the culture. Never have. To most people that play dota 2 their personality is their number. All they worry about when they play is their number, and the numbers of their teamates and enemies. Before a match they base expectations not on player attitudes in game, but on their number. I know this game in and out, i know pretty much every trick in the book i can play every hero well in any lane, due to my experience and history of playing single draft I have watched every guide to dota 2 imaginable from *Asshole's guide to techies* to more elaborate purge guides. But if i joined a ranked game, someone on my team would think i was a fresh install because i have no number, and base their expectations of me as a player without even seeing me play because of it. It's as simple as that.

​

If i was a pro player i still wouldn't be calibrated. If i was as good as your favorite pro dota player, which i'm not, i still wouldn't be calibrated. It's a toxic system that only breeds toxicity. How do we solve this issue, you don't ask? It's just as simple. Relax about it. So much of dota now is player advantage and not game advantage. There are in game apps that tell you what players most pick to ban against them instead of just picking a hero you're naturally good with and trying your best with it in the game. The problem isn't MMR the problem is expectations. When you see someone's MMR you throw the human element right out. They're a robot they're supposed to have certain levels of skill and knowledge of the game and play a certain way. And if they don't have it, they don't meet your expectations that you have set for yourself. You can see this every time BSJ does a coaching video where he coaches a high MMR player and he yells at them about something as simple as tread switching for 5 minutes.

​

Dota isn't a game where 10 robots play optimally the entire game making zero mistakes coming in with the same mindset every time. There's a human element. That's why dota is never over until an ancient falls. An antimage with free farm all game will be a greedy motherfucker that will dive you and overcommit. A midlane invoker will underestimate the TA he dumpstered in lane, after she gets her blink in the jungle. And when you don't see your team as human beings the toxicity comes out, every time, "Their mid has a higher number than our mid we already lost why try".

​

The reason the new player experience is bad isn't that there's no tutorial. It's that in every media for the game there's too much effort being spent discouraging low number players from improving and continuing to play. Everyone shits on the asshole that buys shadow amulet and sits in the trees but they ignore his constant chat ramblings about his MMR and how he's better than the game he's currently in and doubly so, the players within. No one likes the invoker that picks last and goes mid even though someone was already there all draft and forces that person to the jungle to get something from the ruined game their stuck in, but they ignore his chat messages about his number being bigger that's why he has to mid and he couldn't dare thinking someone with a lower number would be their mid hero, because that is the community mindset. And it's honestly disgusting.