So, if you guys are expecting some trashy flame blog, this ain’t it. While I’m the least PMA player on my team, I’m only going to provide slight criticism. Also, I’m still riding the high of us winning last night.
General Commentary
I’m really happy I got drafted to this team. I generally approach draft day with a mix of existential dread and abject terror. I wasn’t sure what would happen other than the fact that I’d play five. I don’t think there have been many personality conflicts or issues with who plays what role. We’ve all settled into our positions well, and a lot of credit should go to Nick for drafting such a cohesive team.
While our comms are chaotic and we all have our quirks when we’re tilted, no one ever flames, and the mood is far more upbeat than any RD2L team I’ve been on (save for the Truckwaffle team). I’m really proud to have been on this team even if we lose next week.
Confession time: This is going to sound lame and sappy but I honest to god assumed everyone else on my team was around my MMR. There aren’t many grievous errors in judgment and I don’t have the issue I see in a lot of other blogs where I feel like xx lane is destined to lose. In a lot of games, we’d win both sidelanes and do well mid… then we’d piss it all away, but you know…
Roxy —
Roxy has been great at filling in the gaps in our draft. Whether he gets thrown on Clock, Phoenix, or some other hero, he tends to build correctly (and not overly greedy) and is there in teamfights when we need him. His laning presence with Jackman is strong and they’re both communicative enough that I can easily know when to tp top/abandon Nick to help secure kills. I really like how he calls out his skill CDs — especially on heroes like phoenix. Very PMA and always willing to play whatever.
I wish I had more to say here, but since I didn’t lane with Roxy, we were mostly paired up in the chaos of the midgame.
Nick —
My laning partner and the one who had to deal with me coming back to DotA after a very long break. (Sorry). While Nick has a smaller hero pool than some carries in the league, I really feel like he shines on the heroes he’s good at, especially in lane. If him and I lane Oracle/Drow into anyone, we’re getting kills. He does tend to go mode: farmfarmfarm in the midgame, but I’d rather have that than someone who hovers. My only complaint is that he will occasionally go in without saying anything (whether this is a teamfight or Rosh). Sometimes these end disastrously, sometimes he gets sick Omni kills. Other than that, he’s really PMA, and overall, I don’t see it as a huge issue. Nick is also great about keeping the team together/getting us to the lobby on time and encouraging us. There were lots of misplays on my part, and he made me feel like a rockstar. Get yourself a carry who believes in you like Nick (baselessly) believes in me.
Zach /Chad Farthouse—
Weird fucking names on Steam that I’m probably too lame/too boomer to understand. Also…
Get this beastmaster player off my team. What he did is PROBABLY against the Geneva Conventions, or something.
Just kidding!
Zach was a consistent threat mid that I could always count on to win his lane or go even. He plays a huge variety of heroes, even when Lone Druid is banned. His Wind shackles probably saved us from a loss last night at a couple of points. He knows the proper itemization and is always very vocal about where he is. No angry-sad-quiet-mid-player syndrome here! While he can be a bit hesitant to go in at certain points, I think that his calls are right a lot of the time and he’s a key part of our tempo line up. He’s not going to roam to lanes as much as other mids in FHDL, but I don’t really mind that. He does well in teamfights and can kite like no one’s business. PMA.
P.S. He played SEVEN games after our three FHDL games. Absolute mad lad.
Jackman —
I’m lowkey convinced Jackman made some pact with the dark gods to exchange his death count for more deaths for Roxy and I. Jackman was a great pick and probably the best surprise of the season for me. He shotcalls, he gets good item timings, and he makes the right calls in teamfights. His hero pool is a boon to any team, and having Dark Seer and some other picks open to us allowed us to play the higher tempo DotA games that our team excels with. Also very PMA, and I can’t say enough about his shotcalling — even Sasquatch says that he often makes the right calls.
Cerys
Perpetually less-than-PMA with a small af hero pool. I meme about our team not having stuns… but the only ‘stun’ heroes I play are WD/Jakiro. My Jakiro is also cursed, and WD is often banned. Whoops. I’m not thrilled with how I played this season, but my team has been great about being supportive and sticking by me even though I came back from a super long absence to play DotA again. No one ever made me feel like my hero pool was a liability, and that made me happy.
Not PMA, not care.
Sasquatch
The coach, the legend, and the type of support player I wish I could be. There are a lot of coaches that are really good at teaching mid, teaching core, or just providing general feedback (e.g. ‘You guys shouldn’t have taken that Rosh at xx minutes). Sasquatch has been invaluable since he can effectively coach all members of our team. He has great insights on supports, the meta, and drafting technique. Instead of trying to shoehorn us into some bizarre team comp type, he focused on our core team issues (communication) and blended that with classic replay analysis. Beyond all that, he’s constantly PMA (even if we lose) and a great grounding presence for the team. As far as coaching style goes, I’d rank him up there with my favorite coach of all time (Treebeard). In low MMR games, it’s really important to highlight the changes that will make the biggest impact, even if you tend to eschew mechanical feedback as a result. Sasquatch did this and highlighted WHY it was important by calling out specific fights where better comms/coordination lost us the game. A+ coach.