Dota is not an easy game to wrap your head around. It’s fast, the map is huge, and at any given time, there are several things to keep track of. That’s why we’re here to break down Dota’s fundamentals and make sure you know what’s going on the next time you watch a match.

The Draft

Laning Phase

Mid Game

Late Game

Dota is a game of strategy. Two teams of five players face off on a three-laned map. Each lane is lined with powerful towers that defend a main base. The goal? Knock down those towers and destroy their main base, which is called the ancient. This is the origin of the Dota acronym, Defense of the Ancients.Each player controls one of more than 100 heroes, and each hero has its own unique abilities. Every game starts as a clean slate. Nobody has any items, and the heroes are all at level one.Heroes can fulfill many roles, but the most common ones to think about are supports and carries. Supports tend to be strongest early in the game, and they can help set their team up for victory by being useful from the moment the match starts. On the other hand, carries start out weak, but grow incredibly strong with more levels and items.Before a competitive match, both team’s captains will pick and ban five heroes each. Some captains might pick a lineup meant to push hard and win the game early, whereas others might build for late game dominance. The variants are endless.When building a team, captains will try to ban heroes that counter their own. For example, Nyx Assassin turns invisible and has an ability that damages a hero based on how much mana it has. If you’re using a squishy mage like Invoker, banning Nyx is a great idea.If one team performs exceptionally well with one hero, captains also often ban that hero to hinder the enemy team’s momentum.There are no official “phases,” in a match of Dota, but in general, the first 10 minutes of a match make up the laning phase. At this point, core heroes – like carries –try to earn as much gold and experience as possible. They do this by killing creeps, which are automated minions periodically released from the base. The creeps march toward the opposing teams’ base, and where they meet in the three lanes is called the “creep line.” This is where the early action takes place.Meanwhile, supports try to harass or kill the enemy heroes, which sets the enemy back and gives their own carries space to level up freely. Good supports will also rotate from one lane to another to score early kills on core heroes and help win multiple lanes.At the professional level, the laning phase tends to be far more hectic. It’s not uncommon to see multiple fights break out and towers fall before the ten-minute mark. Amateur teams are usually more content to stay in their lanes and farm.The mid game starts around the 10-15 minute mark, and it’s often the last phase of the game. This is the point where carries start gaining traction, and more full team fights start to break out. Losing a big fight will probably give the enemy time to take down one of your towers. This is also usually the point in the game where you need to start thinking about Roshan.Roshan is a gigantic respawning dragon located near the center of the map. He’s powerful and often requires most of a team to bring down. For killing him you earn gold, experience, and the Aegis of the Immortal. The holder of the aegis will be regenerated to full health and mana upon death, meaning a 5v5 team fight becomes a 6v5 team fight. It’s so important that you’ll often see teams stall or buy time until Roshan respawns just so they can nab an aegies.Past the 45-minute mark or so, Dota enters the late game. At this point, certain carries are powerful enough to wipe out a team single-handedly. Supports tend to be less useful, and their contribution to the game relies more on which items they’ve purchased.Teams are so strong at this point that towers are mostly a non-issue. Also, because the heroes are at such high levels, their respawn timers are incredibly high – often well over a minute long. Losing even one team fight can give the enemy enough time to barrel down a lane and do significant damage to your base.This is also the time when buying back into battle becomes hugely important. If you have enough gold, you can buy your way back into the game after death. But the price is hefty, and buying back means you can’t do so again for several minutes. If two people on your team are defending against a four-person push, having two members of your team buy back and save some towers and make a huge difference.

This video doesn't cover Dota's infinite possibilities, but you should have an understanding of the most important things to know when watching a match: Who are the characters? What is their goal? And how do they go about completing that goal as the match progresses?

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Brian is an associate editor at IGN. He's learning how to play Tinker in Dota 2 . You can follow him @albinoalbert on Twitter.