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Playmakers: More Than Just a Role

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Playmakers: More Than Just a Role

August 22nd, 2017 18:28 GMT
Text byjdc214
Graphics byNixer

More Than Just a Role

Everyone loves a playmaker. They’re the ones that you know you can rely on in a time of need. The player who, when the chips are down, will outplay the entire enemy team. Playmakers have the uncanny ability to make something happen out of nothing. Where a normal player sees an impossible task, they see an opportunity. These aggressive plays are often more likely to succeed just by surprising the opponents. Later, I’ll go over some specific examples of these plays, but for now, let’s talk about what makes a playmaker.

Playmakers have exceptional vision and awareness of everything around them. They know their limits better than anyone and use them to lure the other team into a false sense of security. They make the most out of their skilled teammates and often have strong predictive skills. These skills translate perfectly between traditional sports and Dota. Players like Andres Iniesta or Steve Nash embody this for soccer or basketball, while in Dota we have players like s4, JerAx, and GH. Some of these skills are easy to observe while others can be very difficult to quantify. Vision and awareness are easy to notice from the player’s perspective. Other traits like the ability to build up teammates or predictive skills can be harder to observe. Predictive skills are most often valued on skillshot heroes such as Mirana or Pudge, but they're just as important on initiators like Magnus or Axe. The initiator’s ability to know where the enemy heroes will stack together or where they will be in the fog of war can often single-handedly win games.

For example, here’s a stream clip where s4 calls out ahead of time that he is going to outplay the other team. s4 runs on top of his teammates to bait an Echo Slam, then uses Thundergod’s Wrath to cancel Earthshaker’s Blink and causes him to completely miss the Echo Slam.


It’s plays like this that separate s4 and other top-tier playmakers from average professional Dota players. The foresight to know what is going to happen early enough to call your plays out 2-3 seconds ahead of time is one of the most important assets these playmakers have. Just a few seconds of preparation time for teammates makes a world of difference in how a team approaches a fight. This ties into making one’s team perform to the best of their abilities. Knowing in advance exactly how to initiate will help get the best performance out of mid or carries (which depends on their farm, playstyle, positioning, and more).

These attributes are what makes the difference between players like Arteezy and s4. Arteezy is a very skilled player in his own right and is known to outplay opponents with extremely high-level mechanics (such as Manta dodging difficult-to-avoid spells like Glimpse). Despite both players being some of the best mid players in the world (when they still played the role), they could not be more different stylistically. Arteezy played the farm-centric, space consuming carry heroes of the mid lane (Naga Siren, Shadow Fiend, Outworld Devourer) while s4’s signature heroes were playmakers and space creators (Puck, Batrider, Magnus).

s4’s heroes are all archetypal playmakers, heroes that only need one or two major items to become huge threats. These items are usually Blink Dagger and another, hero-specific item. Puck, for example, has large power spikes when he picks up Veil of Discord and Blink Dagger while Batrider’s spikes occur with Blink Dagger and Force Staff. These heroes often have very high skill caps before items are considered but activated items like blink dagger raise their complexity even more.

That’s enough about general cases, though. It’s time for an example of what makes s4 one of the greatest Dota players of all time.

Here’s a clip from the Kiev Major finals, OG vs Virtus.pro, game 1. This is a very chaotic teamfight but try to keep track of s4 (Hint: he blinks left, off camera, early on).


OG starts this fight out at a huge deficit; they have been playing from behind for a long time and VP has built up a 17k net worth lead. Luckily for OG, Pasha’s Magnus completely whiffs his Reverse Polarity and OG is given one opportunity to make a comeback. Fly’s Supernova ends up completing with one hit left and OG manage to take the fight, earning them a 3k+ networth swing. At first viewing it’s easy to blame the outcome on VP, with Pasha missing RP and 4 heroes letting a Supernova complete, but there’s much more to it than that.

The fight begins awkwardly with JerAx’s Monkey King chasing Lil’s Tusk. Pasha sees this chase as an overextension on OG’s part and plans on initiating with his Shadowblade and RP. However, he isn't ready for s4 and JerAx's movements. s4 dodges the RP with a quick Force Staff forward and blink back while JerAx leaps away to a tree. Pasha was actually very close to catching 2 heroes in the RP which would have won the fight for VP. After this is where we see truly beautiful thinking from s4. His team is incredibly far behind in a chaotic teamfight with ultimates and spells flying everywhere and what does he do? He waits. s4 sits on the edge of the fight until Fly’s Supernova is almost dead before throwing a Flame Break. He then waits even longer for Supernova to complete before jumping in and Lassoing RAMZES666's Slark. It’s important to realize that this didn’t transpire over a few seconds. s4 sat on the edge and let his team fight with next to no assistance from him for a full 20 seconds. That’s an eternity in teamfight time. s4’s patience paid off and he was able to help his team make the first step towards a comeback.

All of this shows why s4, the ultimate playmaker, made one of the smoothest role transitions (mid to offlane) we’ve ever seen in professional Dota. Back when he played mid on Alliance, he played the role more like the position 3 player than the position 2 player, farming up his first item or two then creating space for AdmiralBulldog and Loda to farm. After moving to OG and transitioning to the offlane, he has continued to play many of the same heroes as before. Now he plays the same style from a different lane, just fighting against a carry and supports instead of a mid hero. This role switch has actually enabled s4 to play more heroes, like Axe and Dark Seer, that fit his style but are rarely seen in the mid lane. Despite only playing the role for a year, s4 is now considered to be one of the best offlaners in the world, mentioned in the same breath as players like UNiVeRsE and Faith_bian.

One of the biggest strengths of these mid and offlane playmaking heroes is their ability to start comebacks even if their team is at a major gold deficit. This comes from how these heroes only need a few major items to be effective combined with access to the farm needed to reach those items early. While the offlane shrine now needs 5 minutes to become active, the offlane jungle is more relevant than ever. If the enemy team dedicates a trilane to zoning the offlaner, heroes like Axe, Dark Seer, or Enigma can easily go farm the medium and hard camps every minute. These camps respawning faster allows offlaners to stay in their jungle and defend their tower if necessary, a much better situation than moving to the safelane jungle. The increased access to farm during the laning stage allows offlaners to get their first big item pickup at a reasonable time, meaning that even if their team is behind, they can still pick up the pace and start going on the offensive with their new high-impact item. In game 3 of The Summit 6 grand finals, OG were falling behind from the start of the game after their aggressive trilane didn’t work as well as planned. During this game Arteezy and SumaiL commented multiple times about how s4’s Batrider was the only chance that OG had to make a comeback. This brings us back to what makes playmakers great, the excitement of knowing that a comeback is possible.

Supports can be Playmakers too

As s4 has shown, there is a lot of overlap in playmaking heroes that can be played in either mid or offlane, easily more overlap than any two other roles. That isn’t to say that s4 plays every playmaker that goes into mid or offlane. Invoker is the primary example of this: while he is one of the highest skill-cap heroes in the game and has the toolkit of a great playmaker, he still isn’t a signature s4 hero. So, let’s explore some of the other playmaker heroes/roles.

A common theme among playmaker heroes is their relatively unique spells/abilities (spells like Sticky Napalm or Nether Swap, as compared to bland spells like Wraithfire Blast). If there is a player / hero combination that perfectly embodies the support playmaker it is JerAx and his Earth Spirit. Earth Spirit highlights the differences between the 3 and 4 position playmakers. While most of the offlaners require some major item pickups to be effective, Earth Spirit can begin making plays from minute zero. You also know if you’ve ever seen JerAx’s Earth Spirit that that hero has an incredibly high skill cap because of his mobility and versatility. This skill cap gets even higher when he picks up Aghanim’s Scepter and gains his Enchant Remnant ability. Earth Spirit, like most playmaker positions 4s, works very well as a roamer / ganker in the early game and functions primarily as a movement / tempo controller in the mid and late game.

Another thing to consider is the trend towards playing traditional offlaners as position 4 supports. Roaming Slardar and Clockwerk went from non-existent to reasonable options over the past year. These heroes are both efficient roamers thanks to the combinations of Guardian Sprint / Slithereen Crush and Battery Assault / Power Cogs, allowing them to easily gank the opposing mid or offlaner. Both heroes also serve as strong initiators in the mid and late game (though Clockwerk only needs level 6 while Slardar needs a Blink Dagger), giving their team additional scaling from the support role.

Let’s look a bit deeper at what sets the world-class playmaker supports apart. While s4 has his impeccable prediction and initiation skills to rely on, the support skillset can be very different because of how much less farm they have to work with. This means early game map awareness and movement are of paramount importance.

For example, here is a clip of Team Liquid vs Newbee from the Kiev Major.


In this clip, GH counters an enemy gank on Miracle and turns it around for a kill. At first glance it's just a decent play from GH that saves his mid, a worthwhile rotation with little opportunity cost. However, this play has a much greater impact than just saving Miracle’s Tinker. Every smoke in the early game is a huge commitment; it essentially means that this is a very big play or important gank that you need to succeed. Normally just breaking the enemy smoke and forcing their retreat is a victory for the defender, but GH goes even further by turning it into a kill for his mid hero and then setting up a gank on the enemy safelaner.

How does GH do this? First, he and KuroKy push the enemy Nyx Assassin out of their jungle and watch the Crystal Maiden and Nyx escape towards the midlane. Seeing the enemy supports running towards mid from the bottom rune means that, without teleporting, their only routes to attempt a gank involve either smoking or running through Liquid’s wards. This information allows GH to head towards the top rune while Kuro covers the south entrances to mid. From there, GH spots the enemy smoke at the shrine and positions himself on top of the ramp in order to break the dire smoke while pinging their possible smoke route through middle. With Miracle safely on his own high ground, the Crystal Maiden and Nyx must run up the ramp to get behind him (Miracle’s positioning stops them from running straight through the lane). All this sets up GH perfectly to break the smoke, stun both heroes, and give Miracle a free kill on the Nyx.

Unfortunately for Newbee, it doesn’t end there. With Crystal Maiden mid and Nyx dead there is nothing to protect the Juggernaut. Liquid takes advantage of this opportunity to move top as quickly as possible and gank the Juggernaut while the supports are out of position. Sadly, Crystal Maiden breaks GH's smoke as she runs towards top lane, forcing Liquid to settle for a Crystal Maiden kill instead. While this gank might have gone awry, it’s the idea behind it that makes Liquid’s supports so scary.

Similar to some of the defining characteristics that set s4 apart from other offlaners, this play shows off some of GH’s highlights as well. The movement, positioning, and map awareness from GH makes him a great playmaking support, one of the best in the world.

Here’s another clip from Game 3 of the same Liquid vs. Newbee series. This one is less general prediction and more mind games from Kuro and GH. The result is a big win for Liquid as they take an easy teamfight outside of Roshan and get themselves an Aegis. It seems like a pretty dangerous play, but Liquid’s next-level positioning gives them a huge advantage.


First is the build-up; Liquid just took a free kill on Sven with 5 heroes around mid-lane. Normally this could mean an easy, uncontested Roshan; however, Newbee can fight exceptionally well around the Rosh pit with their Veil Ember and Global Silence. The normal reaction would be for non-cores to sit just outside the pit, in position to break any smokes when the enemy team reaches the river.

This is where Kuro and GH’s setup shines. First, they deward Newbee’s river ward to deny them vision of the area, making any attempt at contesting much more difficult for Newbee. Kuro places a ward near the Radiant ancients, giving Liquid vision over Newbee’s two high ground routes to Roshan. The image below shows about the range that GH and Kuro can break smoke from.

[image loading]


Shortly after Liquid sets up, Newbee pushes in towards Roshan at full speed and are caught completely off-guard by GH. Normally Newbee would be ready for their smoke to break when they hit the low ground or got close to the Rosh pit, but Kuro and GH were prepared for this. With their two wards giving vision of the high ground and Kuro / GH positioning themselves right next to the cliffs, Newbee’s smoke breaks well before they expected it to. The Liquid supports’ positioning is even better because of the night time vision, allowing GH see Newbee before they could see him. Liquid created the perfect counter-smoke scenario here, managing to turn Newbee’s own smoke vision advantage against them. GH’s exceptionally easy Winter’s Curse gives Liquid a teamfight and Roshan that add another 2k+ gold and an Aegis to their lead. Plays like this are important to pay close attention to because there’s so much more to it beyond “GH got a 4-man Winter’s Curse.”

Traditionally, we as viewers put a lot of emphasis on the flashy high damage heroes, shown by how nearly every match MVP vote at TI went to a farming mid or carry. While mid and carry players can be great, support and offlane playmakers are overlooked more often than not. Next time you watch a pro game, keep an eye out on these playmakers and ask yourself “Does this player deserve MVP?” If you think a fight might break out, keep an eye on their movements; during a fight, watch for how long they hold key spells. Following the hype of the casters is always fun, but closely watching playmakers can help you appreciate pro Dota on a completely new level. In the end you’ll probably enjoy watching Dota even more than before. Maybe you’ll even find a new favorite playmaker.
Writer jdc214
Editor JanG
Copy-Editors OmniEulogy, Sn0_Man
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WriterSteam: IceNine - Check out my twitch https://www.twitch.tv/iceninedota/
hunter_x
Profile Joined June 2014
Germany2740 Posts
August 22 2017 19:06 GMT
#2
What a great read, thanks for this fantastic article!
ironcell
Profile Joined January 2010
Chile501 Posts
August 22 2017 19:31 GMT
#3
Really good article. Highlights how currently a game of dota is carried by the initiators and supports.
I remember how in the TI 7 finals when Kuroky removed the favored picks (playmakers mind you) of Newbee: Kaka's ES and Kppi Axe's they just struggled to control the map and the momentun of the games. In the end how strong or good are your carry heroes vs the opposing team matters nothing if you lost map control and momentun against your opponent "supporting cast".
OmniEulogy
Profile Joined July 2010
Canada2794 Posts
August 22 2017 20:24 GMT
#4
Amazing article jdc really enjoyed reading through this. Great insight into a very important way Dota 2 has been changing.
Front Page Lead
ShiaoPi
Profile Joined October 2011
TAIWAN NUMBAH WAN3143 Posts
August 22 2017 21:42 GMT
#5
Loved the article! Thanks jdc
Writer@TW_ShiaoPi
TL+ Member
sickoota
Profile Joined April 2010
Canada143 Posts
August 22 2017 23:04 GMT
#6
I don't think it's very apt to equate being a "playmaker" with having predicative skills. If I'm reading you right, going by the s4 earthshaker example, "predictive skills" means stuff like "keeping track of respawn timers, seeing es respawned knowing es has ult up, counterplaying it". It's absurd and objectively false to suggest that players like Arteezy aren't thinking the exact same thing when an earthshaker respawns. Watch how Artour use lycan wolves and tell me he doesn't have as strong or stronger of a grasp of map flow and "predicative skills" as any of the players you listed.

Same with breaking smokes. Given that the majority of fights in pro dota start from smoke on one or both sides, you best believe every pro dota player has a strong grasp of how to position themselves to break smokes. Who's going to do it in a particular instance comes down to the architecture of the fight and the heroes in play. Watch resolution break smokes with sven.

S4, GH, the other players you listed play a role called "initiator". It certainly has a unique skillset and I agree with you it's sometimes overlooked (though I think 9/10 informed viewers would call GH the MVP of this past TI), but I don't think "predicative skills" really maps onto what makes that role unique. You could call 90% of what separates a tier 1 pro of any role and a 7k pub player better "predicative skills".
I could spend a while with that smile
Adron
Profile Joined February 2010
Netherlands115 Posts
August 22 2017 23:56 GMT
#7
I think one of his points is that a playmaker doesnt have to be an initiator.
7EX1U5
Profile Joined August 2017
5 Posts
August 23 2017 00:22 GMT
#8
Wow, thanks! This gives me a new understanding of playmaking in Dota 2. That s4 is really awesome isn't he. I always thought Arteezy to be a better player than s4 but maybe not.
Fight every battle everywhere, always. In your mind, everyone is your enemy, everyone is your friend. Every possible series of events is happening, all at once.
DavoS
Profile Joined October 2012
United States2659 Posts
August 23 2017 01:42 GMT
#9
On August 23 2017 09:22 7EX1U5 wrote:
Wow, thanks! This gives me a new understanding of playmaking in Dota 2. That s4 is really awesome isn't he. I always thought Arteezy to be a better player than s4 but maybe not.

Re-read this article. They have different skill sets. S4 was just as good st setting up team fights/ganks as he was on Alliance, but if you're carry hasn't farmed or isn't in position then you won't have the damage to follow up a great initiation. Different skill sets. Bulba at TI4 said as much: for him it was easy flaming ixmike at TI3 ("wtf why are you 0-5 walking around without boots"), but when he played support at TI4 he realized he had no idea how to ward the map.
If you think efficient farming and knowing when to show up to fights is more important than disrupting enemy combos and predicting their movements, then you would still consider Arteezy a better player. Just don't think of him as a playmaker for right clicking heroes that zai and Universe are finding and disabling

"KDA is actually the most useless stat in the game" Aui_2000
7EX1U5
Profile Joined August 2017
5 Posts
August 23 2017 02:10 GMT
#10
On August 23 2017 10:42 DavoS wrote:
Show nested quote +
On August 23 2017 09:22 7EX1U5 wrote:
Wow, thanks! This gives me a new understanding of playmaking in Dota 2. That s4 is really awesome isn't he. I always thought Arteezy to be a better player than s4 but maybe not.

Re-read this article. They have different skill sets. S4 was just as good st setting up team fights/ganks as he was on Alliance, but if you're carry hasn't farmed or isn't in position then you won't have the damage to follow up a great initiation. Different skill sets. Bulba at TI4 said as much: for him it was easy flaming ixmike at TI3 ("wtf why are you 0-5 walking around without boots"), but when he played support at TI4 he realized he had no idea how to ward the map.
If you think efficient farming and knowing when to show up to fights is more important than disrupting enemy combos and predicting their movements, then you would still consider Arteezy a better player. Just don't think of him as a playmaker for right clicking heroes that zai and Universe are finding and disabling



So I guess S4 is a more diverse player because he is a playmaker while Arteezy isn't?
What I gather from this is that playmaking isn't restricted to any position (1/2/3/4/5) but it is a creative ability that a player either has or doesn't have, except that usually the position 1 wouldn't be doing the playmaking because he's too busy farming...?
Oh and don't bite my head off if I'm wrong lol I'm new.
Fight every battle everywhere, always. In your mind, everyone is your enemy, everyone is your friend. Every possible series of events is happening, all at once.
Erasme
Profile Joined February 2011
Bahamas8445 Posts
August 23 2017 02:58 GMT
#11
'playermaker' is such an empty word
It can mean anything from the roaming 4 to the tping 5. Or like you said to the guy with a blink.
MESS WITH THE COQ YOU GET THE GLOCK
DavoS
Profile Joined October 2012
United States2659 Posts
August 23 2017 04:06 GMT
#12
On August 23 2017 11:10 7EX1U5 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On August 23 2017 10:42 DavoS wrote:
On August 23 2017 09:22 7EX1U5 wrote:
Wow, thanks! This gives me a new understanding of playmaking in Dota 2. That s4 is really awesome isn't he. I always thought Arteezy to be a better player than s4 but maybe not.

Re-read this article. They have different skill sets. S4 was just as good st setting up team fights/ganks as he was on Alliance, but if you're carry hasn't farmed or isn't in position then you won't have the damage to follow up a great initiation. Different skill sets. Bulba at TI4 said as much: for him it was easy flaming ixmike at TI3 ("wtf why are you 0-5 walking around without boots"), but when he played support at TI4 he realized he had no idea how to ward the map.
If you think efficient farming and knowing when to show up to fights is more important than disrupting enemy combos and predicting their movements, then you would still consider Arteezy a better player. Just don't think of him as a playmaker for right clicking heroes that zai and Universe are finding and disabling



So I guess S4 is a more diverse player because he is a playmaker while Arteezy isn't?
What I gather from this is that playmaking isn't restricted to any position (1/2/3/4/5) but it is a creative ability that a player either has or doesn't have, except that usually the position 1 wouldn't be doing the playmaking because he's too busy farming...?
Oh and don't bite my head off if I'm wrong lol I'm new.

its more like Arteezy is a player who excels at playing heroes that need levels and items to kill heroes and buildings. By that metric, Arteezy is an incredible player in how quickly he finds his farm and knowing what to do with it. Players like s4 aren't considered good at things like this, they're good at letting players like Arteezy use those resources while finding other ways to enable him.
Dota is a team game, you need both types of players for your team to win. A player like s4 won't win games without an Ana/notail to follow up on the space he makes. Likewise, a player like Arteezy won't win games if his team can't find ways to help him get into fights
"KDA is actually the most useless stat in the game" Aui_2000
Laertes
Profile Joined August 2010
318 Posts
August 23 2017 04:08 GMT
#13
On August 23 2017 10:42 DavoS wrote:
Show nested quote +
On August 23 2017 09:22 7EX1U5 wrote:
Wow, thanks! This gives me a new understanding of playmaking in Dota 2. That s4 is really awesome isn't he. I always thought Arteezy to be a better player than s4 but maybe not.

Re-read this article. They have different skill sets. S4 was just as good st setting up team fights/ganks as he was on Alliance, but if you're carry hasn't farmed or isn't in position then you won't have the damage to follow up a great initiation. Different skill sets. Bulba at TI4 said as much: for him it was easy flaming ixmike at TI3 ("wtf why are you 0-5 walking around without boots"), but when he played support at TI4 he realized he had no idea how to ward the map.
If you think efficient farming and knowing when to show up to fights is more important than disrupting enemy combos and predicting their movements, then you would still consider Arteezy a better player. Just don't think of him as a playmaker for right clicking heroes that zai and Universe are finding and disabling



It is true though that a carry can be a playmaker they just often aren't. I think the only one I can think of is, in his prime, EternalEnvy. And this only because he incorporated a lot of psychology into his carry play, meaning that he could actually direct the flow of a fight rather than be reliant on an initiator. In some cloud9 games, Envy WAS the initiator. The opposite could be said about BurNIng, the classic and often stereotypical damage-dealing carry. I love both players, just wanted to share.
DavoS
Profile Joined October 2012
United States2659 Posts
August 23 2017 04:18 GMT
#14
On August 23 2017 13:08 Laertes wrote:
Show nested quote +
On August 23 2017 10:42 DavoS wrote:
On August 23 2017 09:22 7EX1U5 wrote:
Wow, thanks! This gives me a new understanding of playmaking in Dota 2. That s4 is really awesome isn't he. I always thought Arteezy to be a better player than s4 but maybe not.

Re-read this article. They have different skill sets. S4 was just as good st setting up team fights/ganks as he was on Alliance, but if you're carry hasn't farmed or isn't in position then you won't have the damage to follow up a great initiation. Different skill sets. Bulba at TI4 said as much: for him it was easy flaming ixmike at TI3 ("wtf why are you 0-5 walking around without boots"), but when he played support at TI4 he realized he had no idea how to ward the map.
If you think efficient farming and knowing when to show up to fights is more important than disrupting enemy combos and predicting their movements, then you would still consider Arteezy a better player. Just don't think of him as a playmaker for right clicking heroes that zai and Universe are finding and disabling



It is true though that a carry can be a playmaker they just often aren't. I think the only one I can think of is, in his prime, EternalEnvy. And this only because he incorporated a lot of psychology into his carry play, meaning that he could actually direct the flow of a fight rather than be reliant on an initiator. In some cloud9 games, Envy WAS the initiator. The opposite could be said about BurNIng, the classic and often stereotypical damage-dealing carry. I love both players, just wanted to share.

Oh absolutely. Part of the reason Resolution was super valued after TI6 was because he was a great playmaker as well. Every game he played Slark he was the most farmed hero on the map AND he was running around with shadow blade providing vision and setting up ganks
"KDA is actually the most useless stat in the game" Aui_2000
7EX1U5
Profile Joined August 2017
5 Posts
August 23 2017 05:03 GMT
#15
On August 23 2017 13:06 DavoS wrote:
Show nested quote +
On August 23 2017 11:10 7EX1U5 wrote:
On August 23 2017 10:42 DavoS wrote:
On August 23 2017 09:22 7EX1U5 wrote:
Wow, thanks! This gives me a new understanding of playmaking in Dota 2. That s4 is really awesome isn't he. I always thought Arteezy to be a better player than s4 but maybe not.

Re-read this article. They have different skill sets. S4 was just as good st setting up team fights/ganks as he was on Alliance, but if you're carry hasn't farmed or isn't in position then you won't have the damage to follow up a great initiation. Different skill sets. Bulba at TI4 said as much: for him it was easy flaming ixmike at TI3 ("wtf why are you 0-5 walking around without boots"), but when he played support at TI4 he realized he had no idea how to ward the map.
If you think efficient farming and knowing when to show up to fights is more important than disrupting enemy combos and predicting their movements, then you would still consider Arteezy a better player. Just don't think of him as a playmaker for right clicking heroes that zai and Universe are finding and disabling



So I guess S4 is a more diverse player because he is a playmaker while Arteezy isn't?
What I gather from this is that playmaking isn't restricted to any position (1/2/3/4/5) but it is a creative ability that a player either has or doesn't have, except that usually the position 1 wouldn't be doing the playmaking because he's too busy farming...?
Oh and don't bite my head off if I'm wrong lol I'm new.

its more like Arteezy is a player who excels at playing heroes that need levels and items to kill heroes and buildings. By that metric, Arteezy is an incredible player in how quickly he finds his farm and knowing what to do with it. Players like s4 aren't considered good at things like this, they're good at letting players like Arteezy use those resources while finding other ways to enable him.
Dota is a team game, you need both types of players for your team to win. A player like s4 won't win games without an Ana/notail to follow up on the space he makes. Likewise, a player like Arteezy won't win games if his team can't find ways to help him get into fights

Oh thanks! That does make a lot of sense.
Fight every battle everywhere, always. In your mind, everyone is your enemy, everyone is your friend. Every possible series of events is happening, all at once.
brinepumps
Profile Joined February 2015
Indonesia753 Posts
August 23 2017 06:08 GMT
#16
This is one of the best (if not the best) article I've read here. Bravo.
"if you don't believe you can do it, then you have no chance at all" - Arsene Wenger
LemOn
Profile Joined July 2005
United Kingdom5995 Posts
August 23 2017 08:57 GMT
#17
Yeah S4 has always been a great playmaker . But became shit at farming mid-late game so he moved to offlane. Still waiting for people like Dendi and Loda to do the same
Much is the father figure that I miss in my life. Go Daddy! DoC.LemOn, LemOn[5thF]
cahayaq
Profile Joined August 2017
2 Posts
August 23 2017 10:22 GMT
#18
this is my game
Pontual
Profile Joined October 2016
Brazil2986 Posts
August 23 2017 12:33 GMT
#19
On August 23 2017 19:22 probably scam wrote:
this is my game

nice nickname btw
jdc214
Profile Joined May 2010
United States42 Posts
August 23 2017 18:51 GMT
#20
Hey thanks for the support guys, really happy with how this one turned out! Hit me up with follow-up questions about anything.
WriterSteam: IceNine - Check out my twitch https://www.twitch.tv/iceninedota/
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