Player Shuffle and Dota Mentality

(art by gtande10.deviantart.com)

Teams changing their rosters after important events has been a thing since forever, and even more in Dota 2. People would argue, quite correctly, that this isn’t the best way to build a good and solid team. Success doesn’t come easily, and there’s no sure-win recipe. Even the best of the best will lose a few matches eventually.

On the other hand, I can understand that finding 5 people that are willing, both individually and as team, to work towards the same goal for a good amount of time, is anything but easy. So, some would argue that it can be better to simply remove the parts of the machine that don’t want to cooperate and replace them quickly before they do any more harm.

We could keep discussing forever which side is closer to the truth. Personally, I believe it all comes down to circumstance. However, both views prove a very simple point, which is a very clear attribute of the Dota player mentality.

And that is, people give up too easily.

It’s plainly obvious even in pub matches. For the simple goal of gaining +25 MMR, a large percentage of players prefer to AFK in their fountain at the first sign of adversity rather than try to fight till the bitter end. And all they MIGHT gain out of it is 10 more minutes to play a similar match.

I believe this very mindset is the same reason we see rosters changing at the drop of a hat. As outsiders, we can’t be sure each time whose fault it is, whether a player simply stopped caring and got removed, or perhaps the sponsors wanted better results and wanted them now, so they fired everyone in a fit of rage, but what’s almost for sure is that someone in this equation gave up.

I can certainly understand that this game can create tension and (un)healthy competition, which can get people a bit more fired up than they should be. Getting fired up may or may not work in one’s favour; surrendering however, is a one-way ticket to failure. And for a pub game, with or without ranking, there isn’t much of a price to pay really. But those who actually want to make a career out of this game should really reconsider.