Disclaimer:

A few months ago, I have bought a Herald 2 account with 90 MMR

I did this because I've played this game for 15 years and it's literally the top 3 most important things in my life. I love to understand things, to feel them and to experience everything regarding Dota. Since ranked was released in 2013, my MMR never dropped below 4,5k and I have never had the chance to experience what solo queue is like in lower ranks.

It's very important to know that I was a soft smurf which means that I tried to keep my winrate at 52-53% and never more.

One game I would play with my right hand, the next game I would play with my left hand to force myself to be half disabled and play worse.

The games I won I didn't stomp. If I had a bigger kill streak, I would accidentally get caught of in enemy jungle and die etc.

I didn't ruin the game experience.

Out of the the 1000~ games that I have played, I have met around maybe 5-10 smurfs that were way above their rank. Even If I noticed that enemy has a smurf, I didn't go all in to defeat him. I wanted to stay true to my 52-53% winrate.

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Toxicity:

The level of annoying toxicitiy is extreme.

1. Pinging when a teammate doesn't like something.
2. Supports taking lasthits when they doesn't like something.
3. Supports stealing jungle farm when they don't like something.
4. Telling me what I should pick.
5. Textual flaming of each other.
6. Absolutely not listening to suggestions.
7. When I asked them why they flame, since they are only 150 MMR, they said they are 150 MMR because of teammates.
8. I saw legit players with 13000 games played. They are the worst from the flaming perspective.

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THERE WERE 0 CASES OF PEOPLE TRYING TO MAKE PLAYS AND POSITIVE ENCOURAGEMENT.

ZERO. ABSOLUTELY NONE.

In the post game screen, no one would ever say something positive to each other, commend each other.

Opponents have never ever commended me, even though some games one could say I solo won (despite holding back of course).

Almost 70% of the playerbase is muted.

From 100 – 700/800~ MMR it was exclusively russians on the EU servers. After that I've noticed more people who use English for communication.

Smurfs:

I have met almost no smurfs. 1 out of 100 games had a smurf that was above his rank. I haven't noticed anything special that was out of the ordinary.

Even when I dumbed my play down, there weren't super special smurf games.

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Conclusion:

It's living hell to play down there. I can't imagine someone who soloqueues enjoys playing in those brackets.

The players are extremely toxic to the point of questioning my own sanity.

90% of the players think they deserve more MMR and that their teammates are holding them back.

When I asked them "How do you explain that a booster could boost your account by +1000 MMR in 2 days?" They said that their accounts are cursed and that even boosters can't do it.

There is 0 positive reinforcement. Only negative.

You will never get commended for good plays.

(A pos4 Chen with Q first told me that Sven is not a good carry)

If you meet players with 10000 games, you are in for a fun time.

1% of my games had smurfs.

I have played 1000 games. I have won around 540 and lost around 460.

How was I holding back?

I was playing with my opposite hand, did watch Netflix during games, I was playing bad in general. I didn't grief.

One game I went 32/0 with Morphling because my team was ultra annoying and I couldn't hold back. I super carried 9v1. No one said a word about me. They have kept flaming each other (my team too), they didn't even notice that I killed the throne. Sorry for everyone.

Imagine a Herald 2 with 100 MMR. There is literally almost no one worse than him. Right? Yes.

Well, you would be surprised how much they flame even though they are literally the worst players in the world.

I really don't understand why… 🙁