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Dota 2 |OT11| $400 of Support and Passion

iamblades

Member
Shadowfiend is pretty OP in Hearthstone IMO:
NGjX588.png


On par stats if you top deck him, super cheap card if you can start with him.

#notmyshadowfiend
 
D

Deleted member 325805

Unconfirmed Member
Well after that horror of a game, I just played my most fun game ever. Both teams were friendly, back and forth team fights throughout, no rage quitting. If every game was like that I'd play all day. I did a couple of massive Witch Doctor ults with AS as well which didn't hurt my mood! I'm literally smiling like a Cheshire cat after that game. That takes me to 1 - 5 in my casual Dota career :D
 
Well after that horror of a game, I just played my most fun game ever. Both teams were friendly, back and forth team fights throughout, no rage quitting. If every game was like that I'd play all day. I did a couple of massive Witch Doctor ults with AS as well which didn't hurt my mood! I'm literally smiling like a Cheshire cat after that game. That takes me to 1 - 5 in my casual Dota career :D
Now here's something you might need to think about, is that one game worth all of the crap games you had to endure? If so, you need to keep going until you eventually get matched up less with assholes(though there will ALWAYS be gameruining assholes in any skill bracket, not because the MOBA community are assholes but because people in general are assholes).
Yeah data is a fuck up at this point
oh well
invoker-romance.gif

Relax, you're doing fine!
 

inkls

Member
Ya, I remember that one time a bloodseeker on my team used bloodrage on the enemy gyro and he ended up getting the both of us killed.

And then he started raging in dutch. People online are the worst.
 

Hylian7

Member
http://zippy.gfycat.com/WellgroomedFrequentDunnart.webm

First of all, I'd like to take a moment for Stevewinwood. He was a good poster in this thread, and unfortunately got emotional in the wrong place at the wrong time. I can empathize with that, as I know I've done it a few times myself and should have just not posted while angry. Yes, that's what happened for this most recent ban. I actually deserved this one.

How are Gofu and Steve permed and yet the Hylian,and the fake Meeru get banned evey other month smh.

I want to address this post in particular for a few reasons. First of all, I'm really sick and tired of the vendetta against me some people here seem to have. I really don't get banned as often as you think. Hell I would say two of my four bans were unnecessary and uncalled for in my opinion, and I know a lot of people agree with me on that. So maybe drop the silly vendetta, as it's really fucking childish.

Anyway, onto more positive things...

MOTHERFUCKING INTERNATIONAL 5

Yes, I went to it in person this year and had an absolute blast. There was an actual bandits photo this year. Bounch posted it a few pages back.


I'm on the right in the bottom picture. I know some of the people in the picture aren't GAF people but actually workshoppers. Thursday night was the workshop night and we were invited. More on this later of course.

I can easily say without hesitation, that every dedicated or even semi-dedicated Dota player should go to a TI at least once in their life. So here's my TI5 experience, starting from the beginning.

I arrived in Seattle on Sunday, and oddly enough I saw guys holding up signs with the TI5 logo on them. I was curious about that so I asked who they were looking for, and they said something about "beta testers". Not exactly sure what they meant by that, but it's possible they were just drivers and didn't know what they were talking about. I got into Seattle pretty early, by about 1pm. I gained about two hours since I was going from Austin to Seattle, so that threw me off for about the first day. I decided once I got checked into the hotel to walk down to the Secret Shop, and even if I couldn't pick up my preorder early, I could at least socialize with the Dota people that would definitely be there.

First off, my hotel was a mile from Seattle Center/Key Arena, on the way back I realized walking was a mistake and it was totally worth it to take the bus. I wasn't in shape for this shit and about halfway on the way back I was pretty exhausted and my feet hurt. The Secret Shop was great though, I asked if I could pick up my preorder that day and despite it being scheduled for Monday, and they let me do it. Line wasn't very long, the Secret Shop employees were there talking to people in line. It was very interesting, they talked about last year how they didn't have the preoders and the line was 9 hours long at some points. The Secret Shop area itself was really interesting this year though. There was an entire building outside of Key Arena dedicated to it, and not only that, there was a huge lawn with a projector screen set up that was showing the player videos on Sunday, but the rest of the week showed TI.


I picked up my preorder: All five demiheroes. This gave me three packs of Emoticharm pins, as well as one of the big loot bags, and the preorder bonuses (sunglasses, poster, Team N0Tail shirt). At the exit of the Secret Shop was something that was particularly cool: A bunch of tables where people were opening their stuff, trading emoticharms, plushies, and more. You all probably knew this, but there was a card that had spaces for all of the Emoticharm sets. With each set you got a sticker that goes on that card, fill the card and you get the Crystal Maiden emoticharm, which also contains a code for a courier and Golden CM and Enigma emotes. Anyway, I opened my demiheroes, and was super lucky this year.


Yep, that's a golden Veno and golden BH. All the figures are of nice quality this year, but the gold ones are much better than last year. I like the gold as the accent color rather than just full on gold. Entered my codes and got the Golden Rubick staff and Golden Venoling Courier. I also got a regular Huntling Courier.

On the way out of the Secret Shop, I saw a familiar face: SirActionSlacks! I approached him and said hi, talked to him a bit and got a picture with him. I know he doesn't get universal praise around here, but he's a nice guy in person, and I do enjoy his "stupid" humor. I walked back to the hotel, and chilled out for the rest of the day, eagerly awaiting the next day.

Monday came, and I got there pretty early. The line on the fountain side of the arena was already wrapping around the first corner by the time I got in it, but then before they opened the doors the line wrapped around two more corners and started spiraling into the fountain.


I got inside, found a seat, then saw Steve's post saying where he was and went and found him. We were right in front of what looked like an Orchestra forming.


At first we were a bit worried we chose the wrong seats that would be in front of a loud Orchestra the whole event, but this quickly dissipated as the Orchestra played and then left.

On that note though, despite what people on the stream thought, the opening ceremony was AWESOME. I love seeing live orchestras play game music like that, and it was really cool to see this in person. It was definitely more of an "opening ceremony" than they had at past TIs, and I think it was something it definitely needed. It used to be some videos, then Gabe coming out and saying "Lets play some Dota" and the first match starting. Gabe spoke after the orchestra finished their set, and the Aegis was revealed. There were lots of videos shown, and I really liked the fact that they took the time to make the "This is Dota" video along with the Purge role videos that were released seperately. I think it's a great thing for people completely new to the game that were just interested in watching TI.

After all of that, the matches began, and right away, you could tell that Valve really went all out this year. I'm sure most of you saw it on the stream, but the stage was really cool this year.


It was in the shape of the Dota logo, but not only that was a screen that changed to a Radiant/Dire thing during matches. Not only that, when many big spells were cast, there would be those spell effects on the floor as well as the lights in the arena. For instance, Gyrocopter's Call Down would have orange lights everywhere and you would see the target in the middle of the stage with the two bombs falling on it. It was a very nice touch.

The matches themselves were great, and very entertaining to watch. The crowd was energetic and really into it. If anyone said there was "no energy" there, they were completely and totally wrong about that.

Early in the week I decided I wasn't done with the Secret Shop, and decided to go get in line again to get a few more things. This times I wanted four of the microplushies, as well as a jacket, because I forgot to pack one and it got cold in Seattle sometimes. Nothing like I was used to in Texas, that's for sure. I only had to wait about an hour and a half in the line, and most of it was when the DDoS's were going on, so I really didn't miss much of anything.


This picture right here was one that really struck me about TI. This was right in front of the Secret Shop where the projected screen was outside. Lots of people were just chilling here on the lawn watching Dota, some that actually had TI badges and some didn't. They just were interested when passing through the area and watched. It was really cool to see.

I also met plenty of personalities from the community. I already mentioned SirActionSlacks, but I also got to meet Sunsfan, Merlini, Sheever, and Prove. I didn't bother waiting in the extra long autograph lines, I usually just got in the much smaller lines that formed when these people just happened to be in the hallway.

Many of you might be unfamiliar with Prove. You can check out her YouTube channel there, but basically she's a smaller time caster and also makes two video series' I really enjoy: The Dota Difference and History of Dota. The Dota Difference takes a hero or element of the game (neutrals for instance) and shows all the differences between WC3 Dota and Dota 2 for that hero. They are very well researched, and that kind of stuff is extremely fascinating to me. I tweeted to Prove to try to find her, and she told me where to find her in the press area. She doesn't have that large of a following, so for her it was really cool to see a fan actually wanting to find and meet her at TI. She was awesome, and I think she'll catch her big break at some point and make it much larger in the scene. She remembered me and I ran into her a few times during the week.

I had already met Bounch in person a few times, but I went to his signing at the workshop area and got a signed Earth Spirit print from him. I had been looking for Anuxi, and found her just standing around in the workshop area later in the week. I introduced myself to her and suddenly she was like "Oh, I know you! How are you doing?". She's really nice in person and it was awesome to get to meet her.


There were tons of awesome cosplayers, that I got plenty of pictures of and with. Some of the cosplays were extremely unique and creative. This one was pretty unique and unexpected.


Yes, that's a Crystal Maiden with a Clarity and Tango.

The all-star match was amazing, and I loved the 10v10 twist with audience members. Unfortunately, the section DotaGAF and I were sitting in was 108, right next to 110 (there were no odd sections for some reason), which was a section that did get called. All in all, the match was fun to watch, and the player's antics were great. The Dendi Pudge was a pretty cool moment, and I really have to hand it to Dendi for still keeping in good spirits like that, putting what was probably a hot, sweaty, and uncomfortable Pudge costume, even long after their team got eliminated from TI. Kaci was even better than previous years this year. I'm so glad that someone like her from the mainstream gets why the players play Dota, and why so many people come to watch this thing every year. That to me is still just amazing.

When they were bringing out the tables of laptops and chairs, we were like "What's going on?" I made jokes about how it's a massive sacrifice to Pit Lord, but unfortunately that didn't happen.

Also that day something interesting appeared where the orchestra was on the first day. Something that looked like a miniature stage with a box that was covered in a cloth. I joked again that it was a sacrificial shrine for Pit Lord, but a more common and realistic guess that it was DJ equipment. On Saturday that's what it turned out to be.

I was in agreement with the common theory that it was for deadmau5, since his pack was released in Dota recently. We just weren't sure how it would come up.

As for the matches, not too much left to be said about those. All the matches at this TI were excellent, even C9's "tilt" draft when they went out was at least entertaining to watch. I would say TI5 is easily #1 now as far as match quality goes, with TI3 being #2. The last day was probably the most exciting. The crowd was extremely into EG's amazing plays, and holy shit when the crowd just exploded during the "six million dollar echo slam".

Then the final match ended, there were fireworks, and everyone was so happy EG won. I was thrilled to see this team come up and win TI, and also see Fear finally win a TI. That was incredible.

Then deadmau5 came out. Now, I know many of you and people elsewhere on the internet that watched the stream said that performance "killed the mood" or whatever. You're totally wrong about that. I watched the VOD and I could see how you might think that, but it was a completely different experience there in person. The crowd was moving, cheering, and everyone in there seemed to enjoy it. It was a really nice surprise and a great way to cap off TI5. Also, what the fuck was that camera guy doing that kept doing the rapid zoom-in/out thing? Then there was the final interview with the players, and you could tell they were exhausted, and honestly I hardly blame them. A job well done by EG!

TI5 was an absolutely amazing experience, and I know I still didn't even cover every facet of it in this post. I would say that even beyond the tournament itself, it's basically a Dota festival, where so many people come together that just love the game. It's truly amazing to see all these people that love Dota together like this. Again, it's an experience that every Dota player/fan should go to at least once in their life. It's completely worth it. I definitely want to go again next year, assuming time and funds allow, which is most likely they will.
 

Madouu

Member
Great post hylian, thanks for sharing. I really enjoyed reading it.

also where the fuck is TUSR on the pictures, why you no show up at bandits
 
hylian <3


Well after that horror of a game, I just played my most fun game ever. Both teams were friendly, back and forth team fights throughout, no rage quitting. If every game was like that I'd play all day. I did a couple of massive Witch Doctor ults with AS as well which didn't hurt my mood! I'm literally smiling like a Cheshire cat after that game. That takes me to 1 - 5 in my casual Dota career :D

Now here's something you might need to think about, is that one game worth all of the crap games you had to endure? If so, you need to keep going until you eventually get matched up less with assholes(though there will ALWAYS be gameruining assholes in any skill bracket, not because the MOBA community are assholes but because people in general are assholes).


Relax, you're doing fine!

^ This is good advice. Eventually you'll skill out of the smurf-and-dumpster tier where nearly every game is a frustrating mess. Games like the one you just played are rare, too, but communicating effectively with teammates (even randoms, if you're solo queueing) and not being snarky or mean can go a surprisingly long way.

Just keep going and focus on what you need to do to improve.
 

Hylian7

Member
Great post hylian, thanks for sharing. I really enjoyed reading it.

also where the fuck is TUSR on the pictures, why you no show up at bandits

We kept losing TUSR throughout the week. He was probably with the other two people he brought with him.
crazy.gif
 

TUSR

Banned
We kept losing TUSR throughout the week. He was probably with the other two people he brought with him.
crazy.gif
Couldn't get a reliable wifi signal on my phone, and I got dicked by Canadian telecomms on international rates.

Long story short, I have an old business plan with 6GB of data and Telus is trying to get me to switch to a 1GB plan for the same cost by removing the ability to add reasonable international rates to old business plans.
 

Emerson

May contain jokes =>
Yep TI5 was fucking incredible aside from the technical issues the first two days (which were quite bad).
 

Chris R

Member
Yep TI5 was fucking incredible aside from the technical issues the first two days (which were quite bad).

Seriously, Valve needs to have some alternate setup ready by TI6.

There has to be some way to allow LAN play locally while "broadcasting" it to a computer connected to the external internet. Yes it would suck if you were at home unable to watch, but at least the players wouldn't be interrupted.
 

Strider

Member
Cool post Hylian.

Everyone always has great things to say about TI. I really wanna go at some point but I just don't see it being a possibility any year soon :/
 
Welcome back hylian.

Can someone answer how long we get points for challenges in the compendiums? I've seen it asked multiple times with no answer. I'm not surprised if no one knows and it still seems to be working. I had thought it was ending on Thursday but only need two more wins in reborn for the fifteen.
 

TUSR

Banned
Welcome back hylian.

Can someone answer how long we get points for challenges in the compendiums? I've seen it asked multiple times with no answer. I'm not surprised if no one knows and it still seems to be working. I had thought it was ending on Thursday but only need two more wins in reborn for the fifteen.
You probably haven't gotten a reply because no one knows.
 

shira

Member
Welcome back hylian.

Can someone answer how long we get points for challenges in the compendiums? I've seen it asked multiple times with no answer. I'm not surprised if no one knows and it still seems to be working. I had thought it was ending on Thursday but only need two more wins in reborn for the fifteen.
Nobody knows. Shit expires October 1st, that's about the only clue
 

Emerson

May contain jokes =>
Seriously, Valve needs to have some alternate setup ready by TI6.

There has to be some way to allow LAN play locally while "broadcasting" it to a computer connected to the external internet. Yes it would suck if you were at home unable to watch, but at least the players wouldn't be interrupted.

There's no reason they can't, Valve just hasn't yet bothered to put the resources into solving that particular problem. It was a big enough issue that I'd expect them to work it out before next year, maybe even before the Majors.
 

Hylian7

Member
There's no reason they can't, Valve just hasn't yet bothered to put the resources into solving that particular problem. It was a big enough issue that I'd expect them to work it out before next year, maybe even before the Majors.

I wanted to comment on this issue back when TI was happening.

The way I see it, there really wasn't much more Valve could have done. Every time caster feed went out, you could see the players on the stage still playing for a few minutes. They were clearly on LAN.

Part of the point of the tournament like this is so people can actually see it, that's why pausing is necessary if the casters can't get in.
 

Emerson

May contain jokes =>
I wanted to comment on this issue back when TI was happening.

The way I see it, there really wasn't much more Valve could have done. Every time caster feed went out, you could see the players on the stage still playing for a few minutes. They were clearly on LAN.

Part of the point of the tournament like this is so people can actually see it, that's why pausing is necessary if the casters can't get in.

The players were also experiencing lag and there were DDOS issues. I don't believe they were on LAN at all.
 

Emerson

May contain jokes =>
Did one of them say they were? I was sitting pretty close and it looked like things were fine from what I could see on the screens.

There were multiple times when the lag was visible and the players did mention it in game chat. Also they confirmed DDOS issues.
 

Hylian7

Member
There were multiple times when the lag was visible and the players did mention it in game chat. Also they confirmed DDOS issues.

Ah, okay then. I mean it's possible the server that was hosting it was being DDoS'd. It was likely located in Key Arena, but of course has to still go outbound to be able to ticket the game. I'm not really sure of all that behind the scenes stuff.
 

aeolist

Banned
cool shit hylian

i really want to be able to go sometime, hopefully if i move to the pacific northwest like i want in the next few years it'll be easier
 

1.09

Low Tier
feels good to be a pretty boy
aint nothin short of a city boy
feels good to be OG
everyone wanna be me
HUCK FYLIAN
 

Vade

Member
I want to address this post in particular for a few reasons. First of all, I'm really sick and tired of the vendetta against me some people here seem to have. I really don't get banned as often as you think. Hell I would say two of my four bans were unnecessary and uncalled for in my opinion, and I know a lot of people agree with me on that. So maybe drop the silly vendetta, as it's really fucking childish.
I hope you had that post added to your favorites do not want to miss the chance to respond. I can help with some more links if you need to add to your folder "shit I got to respond to because ..... I got to respond to" No one cares, you are a reference when it comes to people who are soft and respond to every damn thing and think they are the center of the world.

You drag up more shit than a necrophiliac
 
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