How do teams handle practicing new strats?

[Kanadian]

I ain't reading the OP

[changeofpace]

do u see this fucking axe

quoted for second page relevance

[Burntout]

Are there times where you guys go into practice and say "ok we're running this tri-lane four times tonight shut up and deal with it pussies" or do you do it in limited quantities?

uhh yes. there is. lol. nothing wrong with running the same strat over and over and over and over and over and over and over..

[Fluffnstuff]

Running the same thing over and over can result in a couple of things. If you are level-headed, it'll help you gauge the potency of your strategy. You can identify the weaknesses and the future applications based on its strengths. If you are weak-minded, it can make your team refuse to believe its relevance and completely disregard your lineup. I would run a strategy like that no more than two times in a set of scrims against another team. Try to use it on completely different teams, but also note when it is a good idea to do so. Unless your strategy deals with the most popular setups, you should know what circumstances will trigger you to draft it. There's no one-size-fits-all and I learned that the hard way. I believe that every idea has its place and giving up on it would be an absolute shame. My advice is to develop it as a pocket strategy throughout various scrims and run it when the stars align.

*Edit: Also note the skill level of your opponents. Try to identify if it is your lineup or simply outplay / outskill. Watching the replay can really help with that part.

Also, thanks to broodstar my earlier post got completely buried by his amazing axe loadout...

Here's my official reply to the thread:
http://www.complexitygaming.com/forums/entry.php?b=2033

[Leoj]

I initially started to create a response post but I realized the length that it was reaching about 2 hours in. So I just turned it into a blog: http://www.complexitygaming.com/forums/entry.php?b=2033

Hope it helps, just some thoughts.

<3 you Fluff

[Legato]

Thanks to Fluff and ixmike for the longer insightful posts.

My approach to the ban/pick phase is generally to have a strategy in mind, not in yhr sense of "I want to get X hero and Y trilane" but something much more abstract along the lines of "I want to exploit X kind of advantage at time T in the game, and I'm willing to sacrifice Y to do this." So for example it could be something like "I want to have a mid game farm and experience advantage on my heroes by picking a jungle 3, and I'm willing to have a weaker early game / lose 2 lanes in order to exploit this advantage." Then it becomes about reading the draft and understanding how you can exploit certain advantages or disadvantages. If you play Magic at all this is the high level approach that goes into deck design and draft strategy.

Much of what you said in regards to practicing SC2 (or any game for that matter) also applies to dota. Regarding lanes you can always play practice games within the team of early game lane matchups to test some of your ideas, so your testing of new ideas isn't wholly dependent on your scrimmage opponents.

That being said it can also be a good approach to pick 5 strong heroes that have relatively straightforward laning, maybe substituting one hero to test your new idea. There's nothing "wrong" with this approach compared to the abstract, strategy-oriented approach, but I think it is generally important to resist the urge to hybridize the two within the same draft (especially if you pick your first two heroes around some niche strategy and then audible into "imbalanced hero x" and filler).

Anyway I know my dota credentials aren't great/existent and you can probably get some horror stories from former teammates about strategies gone wrong but I can back up the general high level approach.

[HmmMilkshake]

this thread is full of so many tl;dr's.
you want to practice new stuff? pick it in scrims or pubs or w/e and see how it works. replace heroes here and there to see if there are improvments, etc.

[TheWarbler]

This is probably one of the best threads ever on NA Dota when it comes to improving. A lot of good posts. Especially Fluffs.

[J3D1.]

fluff leadin nadota

wtf happend to dxd fluff... kid is dead

[Leoj]

10:32 PM - J3D1: u got some legitimate responses and created context in nadota forums
10:32 PM - VT|Leoj: ya i was impressed
10:32 PM - VT|Leoj: really glad fluff wrote that blog post
10:32 PM - J3D1: are u trying to ruin nadota?

[Legato]

There's a thread like this once/quarter. We're coming up on the end of Q2 so we were due.

[Kiddie]

do u see this fucking axe

[snakebite654]

It's alot harder for mid range teams to practice new strats bc they don't have tape to watch of the other teams to know what they are about/what can or will work/ways to mind-game outpick them. But trying new strats is the best part of Dota. Shit, coL came out of nowhere raging dark seer to drop bombs on other teams until he rose to a top pick/ban when teams realized what he is capable of.

Theory crafting or whatever you wanna call it is probably the most fun but honestly sometimes doesn't turn out as well as you hope, for example: just the other day started games with Veno/SF and dropping plague wards at rosh and having SF deny them to start with 12 souls for the first creep wave but against a heavy ganking team it was tough for SF to lane mid regardless of his early +24 bonus damage.

Can't really force strats into practice if the other team accidentally/purposefully counter picks the fuck out of it.
Most importantly is to try new heroes and strats bc picking the same old shit doesn't add much excitement to the game..
WAITING FOR TIDE AND GYRO WITH DR TO SHIT ON ENTIRE TEAM W/ 2 HEROES

[waytosexy]

you just need a positive environment filled with joy, love, and friendship luckily I have sneyking he makes everyone happy.