1 DOTA: Road to Glory! (part 1)

6:45 pm. Saturday of the last weekend of vacation.

It was raining and 18 year old Kite didn't bring an umbrella. Luckily, he saw a computer shop nearby and decided to let the rain pass there.

FNG. Filipino Notorious Gamers.

'Sounds bad. Well, kailangan ko lang naman ng masisilungan.'

He went in and immediately heard the sounds of mouse and keyboard clicking. Also, the usual temperament of gamers.

Click! Click! Click!

Potangina mo! Ano? Palag!

These noises were once the music of his everyday lives. Until that particular night, where it all changed.

Kite walked around the shop and toured himseld around the lines of PCs and players. He noticed the game still being played by most people.

'DOTA 2'. Or 'Defense of the Ancients 2'. It is a TPS (Third Person Screeen) strategy game/momentum game played by 2 teams against each other. The main goal of this game is to destroy the other team's 'Ancient' or the biggest infrastructure in the middle of their base. You can do this by destroying other infrastructures along the 3 lanes, namely: top, middle, and bottom. Each team composed of 5 individuals. The two main roles of this game are 'cores' and 'supports'. As their names, the cores are the main focus of each team while the supports are the helpers. None of them should be omitted for a stable team.

He used to play this game with some friends before, all purely for enjoyment. At that time, it was still called DOTA1 or simply DOTA/Frozen Throne. DOTA2 is just an improved version of DOTA1, with the rules and such almost still the same. So everyone just simply calls the both of then as DOTA. The main difference is that DOTA 2 has better quality in graphics, controls, accessibility, etc. Thus, it was preferred and being played by most people now. Almost completely overshadowing DOTA 1. But still for loyal gamers, DOTA is DOTA. That's why when DOTA 1 players transferred to DOTA 2, their experiences helped them. That's why they were already great compared to other players who just started playing DOTA 2.

Kite was included on the former type of players. He could play both games without any problem.

Well, that was before.

Kite saw the people enjoying the game. He resisted the urge of going to the counter and renting a pc for himself.

He sighed inwardly and was about to head to another line when he passed by a vacant computer. No, it was occupied but the owner wasn't there. It wasn't that unnatural for this to happen. For there are still some shortcomings of renting a pc. Such as going to the bathroom, buying water or food. Some bigshots usually opt for open-time or running-time and they would sometimes leave their computer open as they went to eat, etc. That's why it was supposed to be normal. But what caught Kite's attention was the sudden sound that could still make his heart skip a beat.

Dugun!

'Accept'

This happens when a person or party who queued for a match and was able to find one. This would be shown for quite some time until the person accepts or declines the match. This will also disappear when a person fails to accept or decline it after the allocated time. When this happens, the person will have to wait for 5 minutes as a penalty on the first miss, before being able to queue for another match. The time will increase proportionally to the amount of missed matches. Theoretically, the maximum time should be endless if one were to miss each matches on purpose after waiting for the time penalty. But of course, who would have the luxury of time for that?

That being said, the time it takes in finding a match varies. Sometimes, it takes only a few seconds, other times, a few minutes. That's why it's understandable that most would do other things while waiting to find a match. Such as browsing the net, Facebook, going to the bathroom, etc. And the person who is renting this pc seems to be that kind. So for a gamer with the mentality of where 'every moment is precious', missing a match after waiting for several minutes, then having to deal even with just the 5-minute penalty, is a bit frustrating.

And Kite definitely knew this. That's why he was hesitant to leave the said computer. He's unsure whether to leave or accept the match for this unknown person.

But knowing the consequences, he planned to do the latter, then leave the rest to the owner.

So he clicked the 'Accept' pop-up.

Click!

All pick!

As he was about to leave the computer, he heard a hurried footstep towards him.

'Seems like the guy is back'.

He turned around and was about to explain himself when he saw something unexpected.

It was a girl, should be the same or a year older than him. She was a few centimeters shorter than him so he needed to bend his head to look at her face. She's cute but not to his preference. Specially the size.

Gulp.

'Okay, I wasn't expecting the owner to be a girl. O baka naman dumadaan lang.'

As he was thinking this, she suddenly shouted, "Hoy, ikaw! Anong ginagawa mo diyan sa pc ko? Hacker ka noh?!"

Hearing this, he couldn't help but chuckle.

"Sorry miss, pero hindi ako hacker. In fact, in-accept ko lang yung laro mo. Ayan oh, pickings niyo na," he said then pointed at the screen.

"So anong gusto mo, magpasalamt ako? Eh di salamat! Makaka-alis ka na," she said in a rough voice then went to her pc.

'Tsk. Sana hinayaan ko nalang yun. Ang sungit naman pala,' Kite thought.

He went ahead and was heading for the door when he suddenly heard that annoying voice again.

"Hoy, mama! Mama!" she shouted.

He knitted his brows, turned around and growled at her. "Kanina hacker, ngayon mama naman?! Aba teka, mukha na ba akong matanda, huh?"

"Pasensya na, mister. Malay ko ba kung anong itatawag ko sayo," she said while pouting, then hurriedly changed to that of haste. "Mamaya na tayo mag-away, di ba ikaw yung nag-accept? Eh di, marunong kang mag-DOTA? Di ba? Di ba?"

"Eh ano naman ngayon?"

"May emergency kasi eh, kaya kailangan kong umalis. Pwede ikaw lang muna maglaro nung game ko? Please? Ito oh, fifty," she said then handed him the money. "Sayo na. Ayusin mo ha? Kahit di ka manalo, basta wag ka lang mag-abandon. Di naman ako umaasang mananalo ka eh. Ha? Sigi na ha? Bye!"

Kite was about to decline when she hurriedly went for the door and left the computer shop.

'Kingina. Ano yun?' he thought.

He went towards the computer as he had no choice. He couldn't just leave the bill on the computera and go. There's this unspoken rule where you have to play when somebody asks you to play for his/her behalf. Specially in cases of emergency.

Although he vowed not to play DOTA again, he figured this time would be different. 'Cause he wasn't playing for himself, but for the sake of someone else. Besides, it isn't everyday that you'll encounter an emergency. Yup. He comforted himself.

When he looked at the screen, he noticed that it was a ranked match because of the medals/rank that are shown.

Legend.

'Well, not bad. Medyo normal pa naman siya.'

Then, he saw that he only got 2 seconds left in picking a hero. Or else, he'll have to lose 2 golds per second past that time.

'Potangina!' he exclaimed inwardly.

He was glad that he's the last pick. Or he would've played with fewer golds than the others, which will be a disadvantage. Or worse, a random hero.

He smiled and hurriedly pick his favorite hero ever since.

Long time no see, Invoker.

———

After an hour of rushed shopping at the supermarket, Rachel immediately went back to the computer shop.

"Shuta, ba't ba kasi ngayon pa nagkaroon ng sale!" she complained.

'Ayan tuloy nautusan ni Nanay. Kainis. Hay. Minus 25 mmr na naman. Sana nga lang at hindi niya in-abandon yung laro. At least, di low-priority,' she sighed.

'Sayang pa naman yung singkwenta na binigay ko. Kapag talaga, uupakan ko yun.'

She went inside and hurriedly reach towards her computer. He noticed that the man has left.

'P*ta baka nag-abandon nga!'

She immediately looked for a notice on low-priority matches gained, and was relieved when she saw none. But still, that happens for the first time someone has left a game. They won't receive low priority punishment but just have their mmr decreased. The low priority would come after the second and so on matches that were abandoned. The count will only reset after 20 games without leaving any match.

So, she looked at her mmr.

She was shocked to see that instead of decreasing, she got +25 mmr.

'So nanalo siya. Well, it's not that impressive baka naman kasi nagsupport siya at nagpabuhat.'

Thinking about this, she browsed her supposedly 'list of latest matches'.

She was shocked again because the icon that she saw was one of the hardest hero to play with in DOTA.

Invoker.

A high mobility hero who has 10 spells/skills. 6 more than the normal 4-skilled heroes. This makes him one of the strongest hero, skill-wise. But of course, not everyone wants to use him. That's because of his complexity. He has a 3-diamond or level 3 complexity—which is the highest complexity tier.

One needed to memorize 4 letter combination berween Q, W, E, and R to invoke a skill. But that was just invoking the skill. You're not using it yet. If you chose the legacy keys, or the keys of DOTA1, each skills has their own corresponding letter when using them. Basically, you needed to complete a 5-letter combination in order to use a skill. And that's only one skill. There's 9 more, all with different uses and different combinations.

Just simply memorizing them isn't enough. One needs to take into consideration the situation too, in order to maximize the usage of each skills. This makes it difficult for others. Of course, anyone can use him, but a few can show his full potential.

This type of hero is simply a no-no for Rachel. She's tried him before and was just barely able to use 2 to 3 skills consecutively. She needed time to remember what skill to use and its combination. And time won't wait in the battlefield. This resulted to her being flamed by her teammates.

It was simply a headache for Rachel. That's why she was surprised to see that guy who doesn't even look like a gamer at the very least, used Invoker.

'Well, maybe he used Invoker as a support. I've seen quite a few players using him as a support. One only needs Coldsnap, EMP, and Tornado. At most, Sunstrike and Meteor too. Madali lang naman ito kasi simpleng mga combo lamang. Right. Baka ganun nga.'

She convinced herself and proceeded to click the Invoker match. After clicking she gasped at the KDA (Kills, Deaths, Assists) ratio.

30-0-14!

"What?!" she shouted.

She hurriedly wave her hands and composed herself as the other people were looking at her after shouting.

'Using one of the most complex hero as a core, then having a KDA ratio with 30 kills and NO DEATH!'

"I can barely score 10 and above kills with any hero I use. And that came along with an average of 5 deaths per game," she mumbled to herself.

'Just who the hell was that guy?'

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