When you're thinking about giving up in a game (a 1k trench lesson)

Just had a really satisfying game as Jugg where my team at one point was behind on kills something like 3-24. We did the usual, "Hey, there's a Legion Commander on the enemy team. I better see if I can feed her 100 duel damage by minute 20" thing that you see every game in 1k. People were just wandering out into the open with no vision and dying every time. We were down 17,000 EXP at the 28 minute mark.

Despite raging on the inside, I didn't flame. I just kept playing and ended up going 15-2-11 and carrying my team to a win. I know there are a lot of people struggling in the 1k bracket on this sub and I feel like this game had some lessons for that crowd:

1. Pick a high impact hero. I was planning to go offlane support Kunkka in this game, but when I saw their lineup and ours I knew that we needed more of a solo carry who could really dominate the game if he got farmed. Jugg is almost always a solid choice.

2. Don't give up. I was really frustrated in this game, but didn't ever stop trying my hardest or start flaming my teammates.

3. Despite what you think, the enemy team is often no better than your own. I was really pissed at my team during this game. I picked Jugg 2nd and marked safelane. Our fifth pick Lycan for some reason decided that it would be smart to lane with me, which meant we were battling for last hits from the beginning with our only hard support (Jak) in the offlane. Little things like this really tilt me. As the game wore on, our offlane DP kept feeding LC duel wins in stupid map positions. This was also really frustrating. 2-3 of the players on my team played very badly in this game. If we had lost I could have blamed them, but when I reviewed the game afterwards I noticed that the enemy team made some critical mistakes too. Despite having a huge early lead, none of their heroes bought a mek. None of them bought a crimson guard to combat my omni slash. Instead, they bought selfish "me carry me damage" items. They also bought three assault cuirasses. Finally, they didn't ward Rosh in the mid-late game. We were able to wipe them and I was able to steal the third Rosh after, which was pivotal in our eventual win. So while my team played like ass for the first 20 minutes, the 1k-ness of our opponents also shined through with their inability to properly close out the game, and in the end the suckiness of the two teams cancelled out.

Often times in Dota I feel like a passenger at the mercy of my team. I still think there are unwinnable games, but every now and then you have a game where you know with 100% certainty that your team should've lost and only won because you played well. These games are a reminder that your performances really do matter in the long run and that you should always try to play your best no matter how shit the game has turned.