The following content was created by MR.SLIN in his video titled “How You Can Become The Best TF2 Player” (link); all credit goes to him and this piece of content was pretty much created by him. I watched the video and found it very informative, and thought of translating the terms to Dota and have it presented to this different group of people; so what you are about to read is pretty much the transcript of the video’s core ideas into Dota terms, plus some added comments I might add here and there. Please make sure to at least click on it, even if you don’t watch it, as a way to credit SLIN for this piece of content. Thanks.

I recommend you check MR.SLIN’s stuff out, on YouTube; I think his Vlog type videos usually have very good ideas and stuff that are not only useful for Tf2 but overall for anyone interested in playing at a higher level on any game. He deserves more views and that’s not something I go around saying a lot.

SLIN starts off by telling the story of a professional tf2 player known for his ability to outplay anyone on a 1v1 situation, and he created an alternative account, OTRice (On The Rocks Ice); in which he recorded himself stomping lobbies, and uploaded a frag movie/compilation into the forums. Apparently everyone who saw this video (and even other Invite level players) thought that this OTRice player was hacking: “The crosshair locks from player to player”, “The tracking is impeccable”. “Who is this OTRice guy and why did he upload a video of himself hacking at lobbies?”.

OTRice’s real identity was later revealed and then everyone shut up; because he was actually that good at the game, and then the video made sense. He was so good it looked like he was hacking, even to other players at his level.

This one time, said player offered coaching/mentoring services and while everyone was wondering what would his advice be, it was actually very simple: “Play DM for 5 hours straight, every day, and only play scout”. For those unfamiliar with Tf2, DM is a sort of unofficial gamemode with instant respawn and endless rounds just to practice mechanics, and scout is a rather straight forward class that can be boiled down to “shooting and dodging”. Repeat this for 5 hours, every day.

Basically, if you wanted to be the best Tf2 player in the world, you would just have to follow those steps.

SLIN says that mastery of a skill is generally very simple at it’s core, but it’s overcomplicated by teachers (I am very guilty of this myself, you probably know that), and a lot of the new players that look for guides online will be overwhelmed by the information and once ingame will have a bad time determining what’s right and wrong on a basic level, and that’s where the struggle is.

The big secret to become the best Dota player in the world is that you are mechanic’s king.

You can be taught strategy and game knowledge; but if you have very good mechanics, some top team will invite you and you’ll be playing on a top team instantly; you’d just learn the rest once you are with that team; because you can teach strategies, you can teach game cohesion; but you can’t teach mechanics.

Imagine someone trying to coach you how to CS, or how to land your razes better; it makes no sense. Sure there’s little tips here and there but the general idea is that you just need to get on it and practice.

If you wanted to be a better golfer you’d spend time at the driving range, if you wanted to be better at StarCraft 2 you’d practice your macro. For Dota you must perfect CS, and any hero specific skills (spells and comboing spells).

It’s the small boring fundamentals that get you where you need to go; but it’s also the boring fundamentals that everyone struggles with. Most beginners struggle at learning the game because they want to skip the fundamentals and jump into “the fun part”: Practicing hero strategies and lineups, enlarging their hero pool, analyzing builds and opponent’s builds and outplaying them; but none of that is worth knowing if when the time comes you are unable to execute the play itself.

Imagine if you have the perfect opportunity to get a kill on the enemy carry, and you miss your hook or mistime your setups and stuns. How embarrassing would that be?

It’s your mechanics/fundamentals that are the basic building blocks that you need in order to be successful. Fundamentals are the reason pro players in their time where held to such an standard; these guys never miss anything, they never lose their lanes, they don’t miss CS or mistime their stacking. They make sure that their mechanics are kept at that level, to maintain that level of skill as well.

There’s no substitution for proper practice. There are people who understand this, and you can’t cheat your way into 7k. And that’s the reason skill is so highly valued.

Anyone can improve at a skill. Anyone.

SLIN puts himself as an example to explain that genetics and predisposed skill is bullshit, says:

“You don’t see me being a football players anytime soon, but if I really wanted to be a football player; and I really put my mind to it, I can potentially be a good football player. There’s a 5’7 NBA player who won a slam dunk contest. A blind man who beat Ocarina Of Time. And last October a transgender woman won Holland’s next top model.”

These are some extreme examples of people who achieved their goals despite genetics, but for most people is as simple as “I have bad eyesight so I’m going to wear glasses”, it’s nothing too crazy. For the most part we are all given the same things: 2 hands, 2 eyes… and go play videogames.

You shouldn’t let genetics get in the way of something you want; if you really want it, you can get it.

So, if genetics are not the primary factor of determining success; what is?

There’s two keys that affect your ability to improve:

Your ability to invest resources.

And your discipline.

Resources:

Your most valuable resource: Time. Once you spend your time, it’s gone. You can use money to free up time; but money is not a direct substitute for time.

Let’s say you have unlimited money, and you wanted to get as good at Dota as possible. What could you spend money on that would immediately “make you better” at Dota.

Upgrade your computer. Upgrade peripherals. (For example, a high refresh rate monitor is key for Tf2, but for Dota not so much; you could try gaming mice instead, and change keybindings for better micro or more efficient camera control). Upgrade your ergonomics. Chair, desk, etc; at what angle your hands are on the keyboard, how high the monitor is, and so on. Hire talent as teammates or coaches. Purchase performance enhancing drugs (such as aderall or crystal meth) (Not really though, please don’t) And since you have unlimited money, you could invest to research the biomechanics field and turn your arms into robot arms.

SLIN does make clear that he is not encouraging anyone to take performance enhancing drugs or to turn your arms into robot arms.

You must understand that the larger amount of money you spend turns into diminishing results. So, the most expensive mouse isn’t always going to represent a difference in use. You need to spend a certain amount of money to get a baseline of equipment that everyone else has, but once you are there, money really can’t buy you more than that (unless you buy better robot arms than someone else).

Once you get over this, you are only left with time as a resource. Valuable time that must be spent wisely, and if you are going to invest time into something you must learn how to spend it as efficiently as possible, because once you spend it, it’s gone forever.

And that’s where discipline comes into play.

Discipline:

Preparation is they key to success. For example, being a student: Given that everyone has the same “equipment”, so say, the same textbooks, pen, paper and desk. All you really need to do is make the time to study. Let’s say everyone has the same time to study as well; then why does everyone in the class not get As.

Putting this into Dota terms; all players have the same two hands and eyes, generally the same reflexes, let’s say also the same computers; then why is one guy getting perfect CS and the other guy is missing significantly more, and the reason this happens is because people like the latter have not put in the time to prepare; they lack the discipline and they aren’t focused on the task at hand.

If I tell you to go on a lobby and practice CS for 10 hours straight as my main advice, it is understandable that most of you guys won’t be happy with that answer. But you must understand that if you put in the time, you will see improvement, and you must have the discipline to follow through in your goals.

Discipline, defined as: Training someone to follow a certain code or behavior; so basically, making a plan and sticking with it, avoiding temptation.

Making these plans is easy, but keeping them is extremely difficult. The difficulty arises because we tend to have a hard time weighing the pros and cons in short and long term investments and payoffs. People skip classes to play games, people cheat on their diets, lazy people skip workouts when they are tired, etc. It’s only natural for you to avoid the hard times; and if you are really desperate you can even try to cheat (that’s why we mention performance enhancing drugs).

But some people do have the discipline; they sit down and get the work down, and the rest just goof off. This is what really separates adults and children; as an adult you realize that the long term benefits will out way the short term benefits of giving in to those temptations.

Adults think this way because they have learned from the mistakes they made as children, such as procrastination; it’s experience that provides you with that sense of discipline.

I guarantee you that Miracle has died more times in Dota than you ever will.

It comes down to how badly you want something and how disciplined you are. It’s only when you want something for yourself that you’ll push hard enough to get it.

If you want to be the best cook in the world, you’d go out and cook food; and if you want to be the best Dota player in the world, you should practice until your eyes bleed.

Go to Shadow Fiend and click on demo hero, then practice CS until you hit level 25.

Go on a lobby and stack every camp in the map at least three times.

Practice double pulls until you can do it without looking at the clock.

Play unranked until you can outplay everyone at your mmr.

Never miss CS, never die, never lose your lane. Go for 1k Gpm, go for 100% kill participation.

5 hours of DM a day. Every single day.