What 3 years of playing DOTA 2 taught me!

Today, I hate the day I started DOTA. It wasted a hell lot of time. But it showed me that I can spend my time on such a waste. It showed me how bad things can get. It taught me not be that awful user of your time.

DOTA is a strange game. If you haven't played DOTA and not familiar with warcraft lore then it's quite probable that you would think what a waste are those people who are playing.

It only holds true until you play it for yourself.

That ka-ching gold sound on last hit...

Killer than the smile of a crush...

That satisfaction of last hit even in tutorial... I still remember playing Dragon Knight in tutorial.

I used to see people play this game like fanatics and I actually doubted their sanity. Fast forward sometime and I was one of them.

An addict!

I, usually, select my own competition. I am competitive but I don't jump into anything or everything. DOTA triggered the competition in me. Taking your character and building it into a war machine and wrecking havoc on enemy players was... everything and soothing too. Much soothing than Age of Empires. Age of Empire was slow paced and if you are losing in AOE, you could sense your doom long time before the epic battle. AOE had strategy but it was laid back. Counter strike was fast paced and had that adrenaline pumping gameplay but lacked strategy.

DOTA, for me, was best of both worlds. It had epic battles, killer strategies, heroic moments and one man shows.

DOTA is a team game of 5 v 5. That's where learning part comes in. If you are playing casually with random people online or random friends (non handpicked team) then most of the times it felt like 1 v 9.

That's where the learning part comes in. It relates with life accurately. You are stuck in this arena where you have few allies and few enemies. You have to work with allies to crush enemies. You know what? Crushing enemies is the easier part.

Working with allies is hardest part but you still have to. Even if your allies are trash talking with you and each other. You still need to collaborate where possible. You still need to work together. You have to carry on or enemy's going to take advantage of it. No matter how sick your ally is, you have to work with them and that's what your ally thinks about you too. That you are sick.

We all are sick for each other. It's just matter of perception.

Winner is one who rises above these things and fight for bigger purpose.

Many a times you have to defend your trash talking ally from enemy, even when you hate your ally, just so that enemy doesn't take advantage of that. That's kind of sacrifice life needs.

You have to constantly improve yourself regardless of surroundings. Regardless of whether you are losing that one match or not. Continue farming, continue working on yourself
All of this is truth for DOTA and for life.

Best of the lessons is...

Never ever blame anyone or anything in world

To explain this statement and my point of view here are a few corollaries

• Always take complete and absolute responsibility of your actions.
• Take responsibility of any actions from others that affect/hurt you. You in the first place let it affect you. Take care next time.
• If you blame, you hinder your growth. You let go a possible opportunity to improve yourself.
• You can't control external factors so don't try to control them. Control yourself and the way you let external factors affect you.

It's very generic in nature. Don't blame people, mother nature, politics, weather, stocks, cat, calamities or God.

And funny part is, I find people blaming enemies, lol. It goes like, "He came out of trees and killed me, what could I do!"... Kill yourself!

If you really want to blame, blame yourself and improve.

Improve surroundings if you can.

If you can't, try again.

If you still can't, work around.

Why this advice is great?

It is, in my opinion, a great way to self improvement. It frees you from negative thoughts about other people and environment. It lets you focus on yourself and areas of improvement in yourself.

Now this advice doesn't mean you should cut off all problematic relations. Sometimes problem is because of you. Some times absense of tolerance is a problem. Some tolerance and bending against your will is a great trait to have. You need to learn how much to bend and when to stop.

So next time whenever you feel inclined to blame someone or external factors or mother nature or Riki, pause… and try to analyze what you did wrong. Even if others are clearly off point and did actually hurt you, do not blame them. Point out their flaw once in passive tone if necessary and focus on why it happened in first place and how to work around it.

Work around it!