LeTAD #1 : Backstories about me playing this ‘game’

It’s been a long time since I wanted to make content about Dota. I like to do random analyses about Dota sometimes. I hope in this series of posts I can share anything that I found interesting about this game. I am going to name this series “Let’s talk about Dota” (LeTAD). In this first post, I wanted to share about my journey with me and this game.

First Encounter Dota

My first encounter with this game is in 2012 (I think ?). The first time I play this game was when in my middle school there was a competition about gaming. Of course, as a competitively natured-person, I like to play a game and win something. I remember back then that my best friend invites me to play this game together in the school’s computer lab. He asked me if I played Warcraft 3 before and I said I do. But I didn’t know at all about Dota. So my friend explains to me that Dota is one of a map or arcade in Warcraft 3 where you only play 1 character. Of course, I am really interested in that idea because I am not a big fan (or clueless) about microing units. In the end, I only play the game for fun after class is finished and we ask for the teacher to lend us the computer lab for “practice”. We are making excuses about practice because there are different competitions such as typing speed contests (not sure this is the right name) as an excuse to use the PC.

Because this gaming competition is not happening anymore after 2012, I spent my time on my different hobbies and did not play Dota at all after 2012. I still play Warcraft 3 occasionally just to finish the campaign.

Back Again Playing

So in my high school, we used to have a competition against different classes after every final exam. We called this “void week” because it is the time for teachers to grade our exams so in 1 full week we don’t have anything to do but we still need to come to school for anticipating a resit exam if we have failing grades. Well then because of that, our school students organization (OSIS) created “class meetings”. In this competition, Dota is one of the categories in this competition. Because back then almost no one played Dota in my class, my class representative ask everyone from my class that is there was anyone in my class had ever played Dota before to avoid “punishment” for not registering the player. So I said that I just “touch” Dota before so I played the competition. Nevertheless, my class is getting destroyed in our first game.

In my 11th grade, I have new classmates again because every year, every class is shuffled (strangely enough between 11 into 12 grades, there are no shuffles). In this class, 3 of my friends actually played Dota a lot. Especially in this year of 2014, I am really interested playing Dota again. Almost every week I hang out with my friend and have a sleepover while playing Dota all the weekends. So in this year’s class meetings, we achieve a kind of good achievement in the tournament placing 2nd place.

Then in the last year of high school, I stopped playing Dota again to focus on my study and final national exam while considering my future after graduating. So during this period of time, I stopped playing Dota again.

Better Community and Better Game

Finally, the best moment to start addicted to playing this game. In my university especially in the Computer Science community, most of the people here have similar characteristics and hobbies as me. That is why I really enjoy my life at University. Also at the year in 2015, one of the best Dota 2 documentaries called “Free to play” has been released (you can watch it here). Also this year, 16 years old cocky kid named Suma1l won The International 2015.

You should watch the documentary. It is so fucking good

Anyway, move on to that because this year Dota has a new version called Dota2 Reborn. It has some interesting so it is easier to customize your hotkeys (in Warcraft 3 you need to use Warkey or some shit) and I think this year is the final update of the Dota 1 patch. But to be fair in my 1st semester I’m still busy joining a lot of organizations and activities (I regret some of them but it was fun anyway). On the 2nd semester, my biggest reason came out. Similar to the class meeting, at my university, we have an event called Computer In Action (CIA). So basically this event is about a competition between 4 different class years and you can guess what is one of the competitions? You goddamn right, there was a Dota 2 Competition. But in this period, shit gets serious. Unlike the competition from the high school, everyone played this competition more seriously, and the player was not as clueless from high school.

Well actually, in this 2nd semester of CIA I did not play at all. But holy moly, my friend is so good at playing this game makes me hyped watching this game. Unfortunately, my class only finished in 2nd place (again). But at this point, I played a lot of Dota and had once or 2 games every weekend with my friends. I also enjoyed playing together even though it is getting toxic at first. After this period of the year, I continue playing the game and even buy the Battle Pass in 2017. I even play as a stand-in in the next tournament and won 1 or 2 games.

Till now, I still play the game only on a different server. A lot of things happening since then. I learn to play a different position and have fun grinding alone. I used to be so nervous playing in solo rank but now I am really chill and relaxed because in the end, the virtual point in the game does not matter that much. It only matters to the quality of your opponent and your team. In the end, you can keep blaming your teammate like a bitch, blaming smurf, getting outplayed, etc but you need to realize that the only one who can carry the game is yourself no matter what is the position.

I learn a lot of stuff from this ‘game’. Learn to adapt to new patches just like adapting faster in real life, learn how to communicate, learn how to understand others and how to express yourself, and learn about everybody having a contribution no matter how many people can see your contribution.

Anyway, I think this post is a good start about what is the story of how I started playing Dota2. Thanks for your time reading (I am not sure if someone going to read this) and please feel free to leave a comment below. Hope you have a great time reading this story for the next post I think I am going to share more technical stuff on how I play the game and maybe share news about competitive Dota 2.