Why can't I win anymore?

[Goofball]

The title might sound hilarious but it is true. xD

I cannot win a game anymore, sometimes I'll get a win once inbetween periods of 8 losses in a row. I don't understand what has changed. I am no pro player and I don't blame my teammates for my losses but about exactly a week ago my usual 'win a few lose a few' patten ceased completely. I expect to play with and against people of my level.

I started only playing supports because I have heard time and time again, just stick to support and be a team player and you will eventually get out of having back to back bad games. Unfortunately that didn't change anything. I used to think the match making system was very smart, it found me players who were at my level to compete against and have a good time with a chance of winning or losing (yes, I had fun on even games I lost!) but now I feel I am often against teams where the odds are either absolutely stacked against us or we are at some sort of disadvantage in terms of player skill on each team. Although I'll admit that might be a mental thing after losing so many games.

I have tried to stop having random pug games and started playing with only groups of friends and all I seem to do is take them down with me. We just lose every game of the night and we end up just quitting in utter disappointment. I have one friend who used to play Dota 2 daily with me thinking about uninstalling!! (Which will really suck because I know he loves this game too!)

I try my best to improve at the game. I used to make sure I'd play four games a day as well as watch high skilled dota players while at work. All of that together would make about 8 hours of attention I would give to this game. I love Dota 2! Although this past week has really killed my interest in wanting to deal with Dota 2 anymore. Every time I am about to queue up, I always ask myself why. I stopped having fun. I am trying my hardest to play through the unfun feeling of this game to get out of this slump so that it could be fun again.

I have also noticed the abundance of rude players springing up out of nowhere. I mean, this is an online game, there are going rude jerks but it is almost NEVER do I have a game where my teammates are at each other's throats. I am often not the target of abuse but still it ruins the whole game to have to look forward to people yelling at each other every time I queue up. I do my best by reporting them and I continually get messages saying actions were taken against the players, I really hope it affects the attitudes of players in this community, even by a little.

I have no idea where to go to get any clue on tips to do at this point, so I figured I'd throw this onto the forums here. Am I just having a bad week? Does that happen? Did something really change? Am I focusing too hard and should take a break from it? My experience with Dota 2 has changed on so many levels that I find myself at loss, all this time I've dedicated to it is just setting aside time in my day to feel bad and not have fun anymore. I have not gotten bored of the game or anything like that!

Thanks in advance to any kind individuals who respond to this.

[It's Alex]

I went from MMR 3500 to 3000 in just a few weeks.. This is Valve Balance..

Now I'm back at 3400, still too many ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and braindead people.

[Marokai]

there are people that wont get frost arrows on drow all game. no invisibility on riki. they will duell abadon 20 times until he has bonus damage worth an mkb.

those are people that played for more than 2000 hours

then you have new players with these mentioned players in your game. they dont even know how abadons ulti works. they dont know what a ward is. but matchmaking gives you those too.

then you have people that just dont give a damn and go yolo mid with a support every game

people that auto attack after 2900 hours

4 carry teams

4 support teams but no wards or courier for half an hour(if you dont buy it)





and you want to win by playing better? how?

[Shiny]

As you have said it's mostly psicological. Having lost a few games in a row, you start seeing mistakes everywhere (both real and imaginary), losing focus and developing tunnel vision. When you play with friends, the idea that losing may be your fault puts you under unnecesary pressure, which in turn makes you commit mistakes you normally wouldn't. You are frustrated and you won't play at your best until you get over it. My advice is stop playing dota for a week, play some single player game or anything without a great degree of difficulty then come back.

[gutsytoe]

I was having the same problem amongst othere things, what I did is take a week long brake from the game, and that solved the problem for me.

[Marokai]

however something that did work for me was playing super aggressive heroes, gankers and pushers. (maybe i am just good with those)

death prophet
axe
bristle
spirit breaker
lycan
and more

all of those are ready to go at level 6 at the latest, and can have a big impact

p.s: i had the same losing streaks. and the same thing happened when i teamed up ( getting super strong enemy stacks)

[Chilli Dog Dave]

Originally posted by kairobo:

there are people that wont get frost arrows on drow all game. no invisibility on riki. they will duell abadon 20 times until he has bonus damage worth an mkb.

those are people that played for more than 2000 hours

then you have new players with these mentioned players in your game. they dont even know how abadons ulti works. they dont know what a ward is. but matchmaking gives you those too.

then you have people that just dont give a damn and go yolo mid with a support every game

people that auto attack after 2900 hours

4 carry teams

4 support teams but no wards or courier for half an hour(if you dont buy it)


and you want to win by playing better? how?

this guy sums it up.

[POPSTAR]

guy just play with bot more and more
and in game pls help your team more and more
don t belive me try in real game

[Graypairofsocks]

If you are having a loss streak it is good to take a break I have heard.

[Goofball]

Originally posted by Random Dood:

As you have said it's mostly psicological. Having lost a few games in a row, you start seeing mistakes everywhere (both real and imaginary), losing focus and developing tunnel vision. When you play with friends, the idea that losing may be your fault puts you under unnecesary pressure, which in turn makes you commit mistakes you normally wouldn't. You are frustrated and you won't play at your best until you get over it. My advice is stop playing dota for a week, play some single player game or anything without a great degree of difficulty then come back.

Hey that sounds like some good advice!

Thank you!

[76561198078917864]

Add me 400 hours played only and mastered only 2 heroes so far lol.

I really want to see if you lose or not.

[iSnack2.0]

Once you get into trench tier there is no escape. I was once MMR 2600, but now I am below 2000. Match quality has decreased dramatically. When I play support, my carries will just feed. There is only so much a support can do to assist a carry before it just becomes a waste of time. When I play carries, I end up the only person on my team with a positive kill/death ratio.

It got so bad that I just decided "If you can't beat them, join them" and started picking pudge every game and taking middle (when I started doing that I was terrible with pudge). The funny thing is that I have now learned pudge while doing that and I have actually started winning games again lol.

But yeah, winning is hard when you have teammates that yell at you for WARDING (no joke, this actually happened; I was moving slightly away from the team to drop a ward on the cliff, it was 100% safe, but my teammates just got really mad for some reason. I was the only person to buy wards in that entire game. In the same game there was also a nature's prophet that justified his massive feed-streak by claiming to be a support. Yes, that's right, the NP said he was a support *sigh*).

I last-hit decently, I don't push the lane by autoattacking (in the laning phase), I never feed, I get kills as carries and assists as supports, but still there is nothing I can do about a team of feeders.

[Timberrino]

Try to play only one hero in several games in a row. You shouldn't play different hero each game. When you get winning streaks with that hero, either change its item build, change its role if possible (like naga can be supporter or semi-carry). If you get really bored with that hero, change to another hero and do the same. Also, if you are new to the game ( if you can't remember every skill of every hero, mana cost of its, or how every item works...), you should play every hero at least once. If you see an "OP" hero, try playing him/her so you can know his/her weaknesses. Also, you should watch your own replays, so you know what you did wrong, or your teammates were just bad.
If you keep losing every fcking game after trying everything, go play Ability Draft mode, watch some funny dota youtube videos, or go play a different game for awhile. I've been playing this game for 7 years, I really hated dota at certain points but I tried those and it worked. You can add me and play with me sometimes, you seem like a very nice guy and I like you very much.

[iSnack2.0]

Originally posted by Timberry:

If you see an "OP" hero, try playing him/her so you can know his/her weaknesses.

This is dangerous advice to give a new player. It results in either one of two things:

1. They become one of those people that insta-pick Riki or Drow or PL or SB or Terror Blade or something like that EVERY SINGLE GAME. I can counter all of these, but it just gets boring seeing the same heroes in every game.

2. They pick heroes with a steep skill curve and feed. For example meepo. A good meepo player can thrash the enemy team easily, but a new player picking him up is going to feed badly. Same goes for invoker and lone druid and other "high-skill" heroes.

If you are struggling I recommend just picking "activate ultimate for free kills" heroes. For example Lina, Lion, Death Prophet, Witch Doctor, basically anyone with a powerful ultimate. This has two benefits. Firstly, nobody can rage at you for feeding (but they might for kill stealing, so be careful), and secondly in trench tier it doesn't matter if supports take kills because the carries are probably terrible players anyway. A skilled Venegeful Spirit has a better chance at carrying your team to a win than a terrible feeding Lifestealer (at least in trench tier pubs).

[EST]

Im in the same boat. My MMR has gone from like 3300 to below 2700 so quickly.

I went from like 10 games over 1:1 to 15 games below 1:1.

[Timberrino]

Originally posted by Australia:

Originally posted by Timberry:

If you see an "OP" hero, try playing him/her so you can know his/her weaknesses.

This is dangerous advice to give a new player. It results in either one of two things:

1. They become one of those people that insta-pick Riki or Drow or PL or SB or Terror Blade or something like that EVERY SINGLE GAME. I can counter all of these, but it just gets boring seeing the same heroes in every game.

2. They pick heroes with a steep skill curve and feed. For example meepo. A good meepo player can thrash the enemy team easily, but a new player picking him up is going to feed badly. Same goes for invoker and lone druid and other "high-skill" heroes.

If you are struggling I recommend just picking "activate ultimate for free kills" heroes. For example Lina, Lion, Death Prophet, Witch Doctor, basically anyone with a powerful ultimate. This has two benefits. Firstly, nobody can rage at you for feeding (but they might for kill stealing, so be careful), and secondly in trench tier it doesn't matter if supports take kills because the carries are probably terrible players anyway.

You can always play new heroes in unranked or bot matches.