FBG Dota Trial/Buddy System

[Fantom]

Hello members of First Blood Gaming. We would like to roll out a program I’ve had in the back of my mind for a long time, and one that I think will be mutually beneficial for existing members as well as newer ones. What I would like to introduce is a sort of ‘buddy system’ for all of our new trials joining FBG. As I’m sure most of you remember, the adjustment from public games or other leagues to our style of In-House can be a bit jarring and difficult to understand. Whether it is the usual tri-lane setup, supporting expectations, rotation around the maps, etc. it can all be a little confusing and difficult for new players, and this is where you come in.

While our admin team will still oversee the testing process, we want people to have a one-on-one relationship with someone who’s already IN the league and is experienced. While coaching would be beneficial and amazing, our bigger goal is that should you sign up to be one of these “buddies” that you monitor your trials progress. Make sure they are staying active, ask them how they are doing, and make sure they are not getting discouraged or frustrated with their progress up to this point. We will list many talking points that are good to address with the trials (much of which is already covered during the initial trial talk) but is still a good thing to bring up again.

For now, we want people to sign up who are willing to stay in contact with their assigned trial partner, follow-up and report back to an admin if you notice any issues or concerns crop up during the process. In the future, we may award prizes, or some other rewards for the best tutors, but as of now we want people doing this because it will help the league and the quality of the games overall.

If you have interest in participating please post below and we will begin the process of assigning prospective and active trials as well as helping you get started. Also posted below will be a general guideline that is used by most admins when introducing new players to the league which is a great starting point and I recommend using that as point of reference or asking us for advice if you are stuck.

[Fantom]

The Trial Talk

The first point is to explain Captains Draft Mode and the role a captain plays in inhouse games as well as the expectations to follow the captain’s initial assignments of role, hero, and lanes. Also explain that during the draft they should be listing the heroes that they would like to play or can play well, but that the captain ultimately has the final say in who is playing what. They should understand that the hero assignment process is a negotiation that they should be participating in and that there will be situations in which they are not getting their ideal pick or even a hero they haven’t played before and should be ready for that.

After the mode and captain role is understood the player draft should be explained as the mechanism by which we balance our games and that captains are expected to know the skill levels of the players in the lobby and only full dota role players can captain and that the captain matches are also balanced for fairness. This is not something trials will be doing, but they should understand it as a reward that comes with being promoted out of trial and something they can do in the future if they want to.

The next significant point is positions 1-5 and more specifically the expected roles of positions 4 and 5 especially at the beginning of the game and in the trilane. Make sure they know all 5 positions; position 1 Hard Carry position 2 Semicarry Mid position 3 Offlane Core position 4 Support position 5 Hard Support the positions being ordered by farm dependence. Positions 1 and 2 are pretty self explanatory and unlikely to be the role a new trial will be playing. If the trial is very new to inhouse make sure they know they will most likely be playing positions 4 and 5 to start. The specific position 4 and 5 duties they need to know are position 4 buys both starting wards giving one of them to mid, position 5 buys the chick, shares the whole team, and is expected to crow as soon as they can, as well as both being asked to give tango charges to positions 2 and 3. Also many new to inhouse players are unsure of what position 3 is and what kinds of heroes they are since most will not be familiar with trilane play. Position 3 can be explained as a non carry, non support, self sufficient, often tanky, often with a significant ultimate type hero with examples of typical position 3 picks.

After they understand positions the trilane meta should be explained since it is the most common laning setup they will encounter in inhouse. It can be explained as the lane setup that optimizes farm for the 3 most impactful heroes by essentially giving them all solo farm potential. It can also be explained there are very few heroes that can be justified as jungling heroes from the beginning citing that running a dual lane vs a trilane is almost always a guaranteed lost lane and is not worth the jungling solo farm potential in inhouse games; jungling heroes usually move to jungle slightly after lanes are secured. Also on the topic of trilaning you should explain the aggro and safe lane options for both sides; bot lane safelane top lane aggro lane for Sentinel and the opposite for Scourge.

After the trilane has been explained revisit the specific roles of positions 4 and 5 applied in the trilane. They need to understand not to take the creep farm from the position 1 in their lane and instead focus on the things they can do to secure the farm for their carry and maintain the wave push. These duties include denying creeps, harassing the enemy off the wave, pulling creeps at the possible spots depending on their lane and the wave push needs, stacking creepwaves for future use, going for kills together when possible, and finally zoning when appropriate. Most of the duties are self explanatory except for zoning. Zoning is not always possible when it is trilane against trilane depending on the lane and the hero compositions, but should always be done with it ends up trilane vs solo position 3. Zoning is also best learned by playing instead of explanation since it is a situational part of the meta.

After this full overview of the basics and specifics of inhouse are explained you can move on to the more generalized differences between inhouse and pub games. The two most important points are the level of teamwork and the pace of the game. They should understand that teamwork is expected and should be anticipated when it comes to making your decisions and will be much more involved than pub games by a large margin. They should also understand that the pace is much quicker as far as how soon the laning phase will break down and become a game of rotations and team fights. It should be noted that holding a TP is much more important than it is in a pub game since the solo lanes can and will be rotated on much earlier and more frequently. The main thing to remember is to pay attention and talk to your team in order to figure out what you should be doing at the various stages of the game and that in time it will become second nature to recognize the situations and what to do in them. Encourage them to ask questions and seek help from their team when they have doubts on where they should be and what they should be doing as well as what items are the best choices. Every game will be situational and they should not just do something that worked once or worse worked in pubs and consider them the right choice, but instead read the game and consult their team to inform their decisions.

This is the generally expected set of information for new trials players to receive and be reminded of throughout their transition period into inhouse games. It does not include absolutely everything that could be taught, but it covers the key points they will need to adapt to in order to slot into the flow of regular season games. Trials have been tested and should already have many of the other things at an adequate level such as mechanics, general game sense, general understanding of all the heroes and their skills, and general teamwork.

The next set of information is explaining the role of discord in the organization of inhouse games. The first point is where the queue is and how to use it; !q to join the list and !delq to remove yourself should you not be able to make it. Then explanation of a full 10 queued lobby; once the queue fills an admin will pop the queue and discord notifications will be sent out (make sure they have notifications turned on) and they will have 5 minutes to join the lobby and 10 minutes if it is the first game of the day. Then mention that the realm for each game is determined by lobby majority and if it is 5-5 an admin will realm roll to decide the realm and that the realm will always be stated in the queue channel so they know where to go. The last part of the queue that needs to be explained is the partial queue with a game ending priority for the next game; the order being queued players first priority, randomized winners next priority, randomized losers next priority, and finally an open call to anyone to fill the slots if needed. This is something they will understand better after seeing it in action a few times and should know that admins will handle the process and they will be tagged if they have the option for a slot once their game ends.

The final point to cover is that they should always just ask for help if they are lost on any of the information or how things run and that there will be players who are less than courteous when it comes to their communication on these things, but not to be discouraged and know that we are ready to deal with those types of players should it become necessary. They can always visit the website to review the rules and guidelines and report players if they feel the need to on the forums as well as dm admins and mentors for help on anything.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 7 months ago by Fantom.

[Fantom]

If interested in helping, please post below in the following format.

Player Name
Realm
Experience in FBG (Either years if applicable, or months)

[Fieryfox]

Player Name: Vosje_RuLLeZ / Fieryfox#21640
Realm: Europe
Experience in FBG (Either years if applicable, or months): You can find me at the top of the stats page

Note: If I think a trial is not gonna make it past t4 then I don’t want to bother and will likely give up on him. Also, if the trial doesnt want to improve I also dont want to teach him.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 7 months ago by Fieryfox.

[jwinzlo]

Player name: jwinzlo/#jwinzlo0055
Realm: NA
Experience: 1.5 years, everyone knows I am T1 but I’m too busy/lazy when it comes to dota, so I settle in at T4.9999. You can find me in the middle of the stats page.

I never flame and always looking to help anyone I can. I can lend a hand to some mental coaching and companionship to help ease the transition, as long as the player doesn’t surpass my skill level. (Of course not my real level, just my lazy T4). Would be more than willing to help with basic stuff until players want/need to know more than I can help with.

[gb3]

Player name: GB3
Realm: NA
Experience: T4 however, I’d like to think I’m T3 on some good days. Looking to break T2 ground.

I’m a big fan of the trial / buddy system. I think it puts a lot of perspective in place for new people that join FBG and I’d be happy to show some trials the ropes. Especially when explaining Pos4 / Pos5 prior to games as well as during games. I’m also interested in recruiting more folks to the NA realm, it’d be nice to grab some new blood and see them progress.

However, I’m mostly here because I’d like some guidance myself. I think there’s a number of things I can work on in games that will happen from repetition, but I’m looking to get to T3 / T2 as fast as possible. Meaning I think I need a better understanding of a few things I’ve listed below.

1) CDX: All I see is two big circles of heroes. I’d like to understand what heroes are good in this lineup, who they compliment well with, who the counters are for/against. Additionally certain strategies teams shoot for when picks are being made.
2) Pos3: I’m not too familiar with the offlane because I mostly play pos4/5. I feel like I’d be most comfortable with playing heroes that I’m familiar with. Additionally is the objective to push the lane or get last hits and zone?
3) Stagnant: I find myself being “stagnant” at times and I know this is a bad thing. Seeing the map, stacking creeps, ganking I understand, but would I rather be soaking up experience with the carry and protecting him or roaming. I know this is more situational but if anyone figured out a way to “keep busy” while not jeopardizing the team play I’d be happy to learn.

Thanks! I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts Dcaudio, Supnub, Reading, Trees, Fantom, Pez #NA #FBG

[tricked]

tricked
EU
i am a good player, and good manners when noone piss on me. i can help new players with my great adfvices. i know dota (too) good, even if there are different opinons aoubt that. i am nice and friendly to people i like. to put it in a nutshell i am good mentor also friendly and skilled.

edit: i help pubs alsoo to join here, only fair if i help them to handle the fbg jungle

• This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by tricked.

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