Jake, I thought that I could offer some perspective on whether you could watch TI4 and get something out of it.
My consumption of Dota 2 is almost entirely via watching pro games. I started by watching during TI2, having only played a few bot matches to get a better handle on the mechanics. I was pretty lost for awhile, but I kept picking up enough to keep me going.
The biggest thing which helped me was watching the game via the Dota 2 client, which lets you:
- Mouse over the skills of a hero and get the tooltip information. This helps to quickly inform you of what its effect is.
- Move the camera around yourself, which helps when the commentators are flipping around a lot and you're having a hard time following the action. You'll likely miss some stuff, but you'll learn a lot about the map.
- Follow a particular player, which gives some insight into how the hero and/or role they're playing works.
- Show the gold/exp graphs, so you can instantly know which team is ahead.
- Hover over items to figure out what they do.
A lot of that can be found by browsing a wiki, but it's not nearly as convenient.
If I could recommend anything, it would be to play a few bot matches and watch a few games
before TI4. That way, you've got a little bit of knowledge under your belt before the big games start. When you first start, you will likely say to yourself: "I have no idea what is happening." Don't let this get you down. You'll figure it out.
It's about 1.5 years later and I still only really watch pro games. I've tried playing with other people a few times, but I just don't think it's for me.
