[0:00] Dota 2 is considered one of the hardest
[0:02] and most complex video games ever made.
[0:05] Help me.
[0:10] So, I decided to spend 24 hours playing
[0:13] to answer two simple questions. Number
[0:16] one, what is Dota 2 actually like as a
[0:18] brand new player? And number two, how
[0:21] good can I actually get? And what
[0:23] happened over the next 24 hours honestly
[0:26] shocked me.
[0:28] Now, going in, I knew absolutely nothing
[0:30] about Dota 2. But, like most games, Dota
[0:33] started me with a tutorial. It opened
[0:35] with a short video explaining the
[0:37] basics. Two teams of five, a massive
[0:39] map, over 100 heroes, and one goal.
[0:42] Destroy the enemy ancient before they
[0:44] destroy yours. It talked about creeps,
[0:46] Roshan, lanes, objectives. For a game
[0:48] this complicated, the opening video made
[0:51] Dota feel surprisingly understandable.
[0:53] But, it was what followed after the
[0:55] video that surprised me the most. And
[0:57] then from here, we have basic mechanics,
[0:59] getting around, teleporting, using your
[1:02] courier, regen consumables, demo a hero,
[1:05] and play a game. This is one of the most
[1:08] Wait, what's tier two?
[1:10] Tier two. What's with all this hero
[1:12] stuff, anyway? So, mid-game progression,
[1:14] map vision, stuff How many are these?
[1:15] Tier three, tier four.
[1:18] Wow. Okay. So, it looks like maybe tier
[1:21] one like I have to do. And then
[1:25] this stuff is all additional learning
[1:27] stuff. Even though I didn't need to
[1:28] complete all four tiers in order to
[1:30] play, I still ended up spending around
[1:32] two hours in the tutorial section
[1:34] learning the basics, like how to get
[1:36] around the map, use the shop, and
[1:38] teleport. But, also learning things like
[1:40] the importance of last hitting.
[1:41] Eventually, after making my way through
[1:43] most of the lessons and playing a co-op
[1:45] game against bots, it was time for my
[1:47] first game. But, instead of throwing me
[1:49] right into the deep end, Dota actually
[1:51] has a new player mode. More forgiving
[1:53] gameplay, a limited hero pool, faster
[1:55] matchmaking, and most importantly, you
[1:58] play with other new players, which
[2:00] sounded perfect. The dire.
[2:03] Come on.
[2:06] Huge.
[2:07] Give me my W.
[2:12] Nice. Okay, so the killing has started.
[2:14] This is where it just feels slow in the
[2:16] beginning, I guess. Dude, I just don't
[2:18] know what the strategy is here. We pull
[2:20] back. I feel like we can't push anything
[2:22] forward here.
[2:24] I mean, so where do we get How do we go
[2:26] about getting the advantage where we can
[2:28] actually take those guys out?
[2:32] No no no no no no no no no no
[2:34] no no no no no no no no no no
[2:36] no, that was almost bad.
[2:38] I feel like we go back here real quick.
[2:40] I don't I don't know if I should go back
[2:41] here. I feel like we're in a pretty good
[2:43] spot as of right now.
[2:46] So, like let's not get too over
[2:47] aggressive here.
[2:49] Uh consume heal over time.
[2:53] Clarity.
[3:02] Yeah yeah go go go go go go go.
[3:06] Go.
[3:08] Go.
[3:09] Go.
[3:12] Go.
[3:16] Go.
[3:20] No, I just got over aggressive.
[3:25] No. No.
[3:27] Dude, I just wanted that kill so bad,
[3:29] and we were so close. I just got I got I
[3:32] got tunnel vision.
[3:38] Get me out. Get me out. Get me out. Get
[3:39] me out. Upgrade my R.
[3:42] I mean, this guy's Zeus is level 20.
[3:44] How?
[3:50] Nice.
[3:51] Oh, double. Wait, what what just
[3:53] happened? Did I get that kill or no? Get
[3:55] me out.
[3:57] I'm dead.
[4:00] I'm dead.
[4:01] I'm dead.
[4:09] Come on.
[4:15] What?
[4:17] What just happened?
[4:18] How did I die so fast?
[4:25] Okay.
[4:26] So, that gives us an advantage there.
[4:29] Not fully sure what the advantage is,
[4:31] but
[4:41] I don't know what I'm supposed to do
[4:42] here.
[4:44] How do I pick this?
[4:46] Wait, we we're good here. We're good
[4:48] here.
[4:50] We're good here.
[4:51] Come on. Honestly, I didn't know what to
[4:54] think after that first game. We won, but
[4:57] I had zero hero kills, and I died eight
[5:00] times. But, I did have 11 assists. The
[5:02] most important thing though was that I
[5:04] actually had fun in that first game. So,
[5:06] I kept queuing. And after a few more
[5:08] games, I felt like I was starting to get
[5:10] the hang of it. Okay, we're just going
[5:12] to farm here. Work back here.
[5:15] Reset.
[5:16] I need like mana regeneration. That's
[5:18] what I need.
[5:22] Dude, I might teleport back here.
[5:25] Nah, we'll we'll wait till we get a
[5:26] little bit more.
[5:29] Nice. There we go. Come on. Okay, now we
[5:32] go back. That's what I wanted. Wait, we
[5:34] can stay here though. Okay, bring all
[5:36] that stuff to me.
[5:38] Oh, he's dead.
[5:41] See you.
[5:42] Dude, the range on this is so I'm I'm
[5:44] actually kind of cruising here.
[5:48] See you. That's number three. I need
[5:50] health.
[5:55] See you, target disease.
[5:58] Yeah.
[6:01] Go.
[6:02] Nice.
[6:04] See you.
[6:08] We're having some fun. We're feeling
[6:10] good. After four straight good games,
[6:12] including a 16 hero kill win, I felt
[6:15] like it was time. New player mode had
[6:17] done its job. It gave me a place to
[6:19] learn, make mistakes, and build
[6:21] confidence. See you, Zeus. So, now it
[6:23] was time for me to jump into unranked.
[6:25] But, immediately, I ran into a major
[6:28] problem. First sniper.
[6:31] >> [laughter]
[6:31] >> Oh, there he is.
[6:33] Mid lane.
[6:34] Lock in sniper.
[6:37] Your hero was also chosen by the
[6:38] opposing team. Pick
[6:40] What is that?
[6:42] Wait, what? You see, the last four
[6:44] games, I've been using sniper. I loved
[6:46] his abilities, I loved his range, and I
[6:48] was playing great with him. But, now I'm
[6:50] headed into my first unranked match with
[6:52] a hero that I've never played before.
[6:55] What could go wrong?
[6:57] What the heck? Uh, we're going to have
[6:58] to figure out what what what what we do.
[7:00] This is I've I'm a little nervous here.
[7:04] I got to remember that it's a much
[7:05] slower fire rate.
[7:12] I don't know what I'm I I don't know I
[7:15] dude, that threw me off so bad. Not
[7:18] going sniper just it was not part of the
[7:20] plan.
[7:29] Don't kill him. No.
[7:41] Okay then.
[7:53] I don't know what I'm supposed to do
[7:54] there.
[7:58] Dude, Wind Ranger seems like a fun one.
[8:02] That sucks. That was just not That was
[8:05] just not a good game from literally the
[8:07] moment we chose our character. Yeah,
[8:10] that went about how you'd expect. Zero
[8:12] hero kills, 15 deaths, and we lost.
[8:15] Immediately, I knew that I needed to
[8:17] take a step back. There were over 120
[8:19] different heroes in Dota 2, all of which
[8:22] have different strengths, different
[8:23] weaknesses, and different abilities. As
[8:25] a new player, it's incredibly
[8:27] overwhelming. And while I didn't have to
[8:29] learn and know all of them, I had to
[8:31] know more than just one. So, before
[8:33] queuing again, I started [music] testing
[8:35] a few different heroes. We're going
[8:37] carry, low complexity, and we're going
[8:40] range. When we go to heroes, I'm okay
[8:42] I'm actually pretty open to not playing
[8:45] mid lane. Like, I think I just naturally
[8:46] went mid lane, but like I'm open to
[8:48] playing off lane, I'm open to playing
[8:50] safe lane, I'm open to playing support
[8:51] or hard support. What is Zeus? 53 to 60
[8:55] Oh, but he's got really bad range. Okay,
[8:57] we're not playing Zeus cuz I really do
[8:59] think that like I'm best at range.
[9:01] [snorts] Let's go ahead and demo Death
[9:02] Prophet. Okay, that attack speed
[9:04] definitely feels a little bit slow.
[9:07] Okay, so silence Fires a projectile that
[9:09] prevents enemy units in a target area
[9:11] from casting spells.
[9:14] I kind of like that. I feel like that's
[9:16] a good way for me to help my team. Okay,
[9:17] so that's recharging. Creates a spirit
[9:20] link between Death Prophet and an enemy
[9:22] unit draining health from the enemy.
[9:25] How does that work? How close do I have
[9:27] to
[9:29] But the problem is that range just isn't
[9:31] super super far. Like, that's a super
[9:34] close range. Death Prophet's
[9:35] interesting. Death Prophet is
[9:37] interesting. I I feel like I could play
[9:39] her. Lot more range. Let's go ahead and
[9:41] demo Lina here. Okay, so Q is wow,
[9:44] that's actually kind of far. I don't
[9:46] feel like that does a ton of damage
[9:48] there. Fiery soul Okay, summons a column
[9:50] of flames that damages and stuns
[9:52] enemies.
[9:54] Oh oh damages and stuns.
[9:57] Okay, so that's where we run the
[9:59] back-to-back combo, right? Laguna Blade
[10:02] fires off a bolt of lightning at a
[10:03] single enemy unit dealing massive
[10:04] damage.
[10:08] What's the range on that though?
[10:12] I just don't feel like that's
[10:14] I feel like that's not good range. After
[10:16] about an hour of messing around with
[10:18] different heroes, I felt like I had
[10:20] options. Sniper was still my number one
[10:22] choice, but if he got banned or chosen,
[10:24] I at least had some other heroes that I
[10:26] could choose. So, I went back into
[10:28] unranked. Lock in Lina. I guess we're
[10:30] going Lina here.
[10:37] Nice.
[10:39] That was a good start. Wait, the range I
[10:42] This is kind of crazy by range.
[10:45] There we go.
[10:48] No.
[10:51] No, I just got caught.
[11:05] Like how did that
[11:17] I wish I could say things got better
[11:19] from there, but
[11:21] I'm targeted. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm
[11:23] dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm
[11:44] >> I'm done.
[11:47] I'm going to be honest, I'm not proud of
[11:49] what I did, and I know that wasn't fair
[11:51] to my teammates, but Dota broke me. I
[11:54] didn't know when to push versus when to
[11:56] play passive. I was constantly dying
[11:58] before I even had a chance to fight
[11:59] back. This stupid Weaver. And when I
[12:02] wasn't dying, I was lost in the shop
[12:04] trying to figure out what to buy. But
[12:06] the worst part, in my opinion, is that
[12:08] in games where we were getting
[12:09] absolutely destroyed, we couldn't
[12:11] surrender. We just had to let them keep
[12:14] on us until the game ended. Like is this
[12:16] is this a matchmaking thing? Like is the
[12:18] matchmaking in Dota 2 just bad? Like I
[12:22] don't Is there a smurfing thing? Is like
[12:24] like what like I don't understand how
[12:26] this is possible that we are losing 35
[12:30] to 3. Is it a momentum thing? Like I'm
[12:33] just And I know that I've been on the
[12:35] other side of this where we've been up
[12:37] by a crazy amount of kills, but like is
[12:39] this a is this a matchmaking problem? Is
[12:41] this a smurfing problem? Or
[12:43] do we just suck? I did have one good
[12:45] game with Windranger, but every other
[12:47] game was frustration. New player mode
[12:49] made me feel like I was learning Dota.
[12:51] Unranked made me realize how much Dota I
[12:53] still didn't even know existed. By the
[12:55] end of the night, I wasn't thinking
[12:57] about getting good anymore. I was just
[12:59] trying to survive the last few hours of
[13:01] my 24-hour journey and hopefully somehow
[13:04] piece together one more good game. We
[13:06] might need a miracle, though. The next
[13:08] morning, I woke up excited to play some
[13:10] more. But with time running out, I made
[13:12] one final decision. I was done
[13:15] pretending that I could hold my own in
[13:17] unranked. It was very clear that I
[13:19] couldn't yet. So I went back to new
[13:20] player mode for one final game, just to
[13:23] have fun and maybe just maybe piece
[13:26] together one more win. Okay, here we go.
[13:30] What have we got? There's sniper. Oh,
[13:32] here we go.
[13:43] Where are you going, vengeful?
[13:48] We good? Yep, good start.
[13:51] Nice [snorts] little assist there.
[13:54] Nice.
[13:55] Uh let's go headshot here. Okay, pull
[13:58] back here. We're just kind of chilling.
[14:02] Huge. We'll go queue again.
[14:04] Okay, Viper's also level three.
[14:07] Once we get to six though, we have the
[14:09] advantage. Wait, he's actually kind of
[14:11] under pressure here.
[14:13] I'm not going to do that. I'm not going
[14:15] to do that. We're fine. We're one away.
[14:18] We just need level six and we'll be
[14:19] fine. And we should have enough mana.
[14:22] Yeah, we'll have assassinate for sure.
[14:25] Oh my gosh, he's right here.
[14:28] I probably could have
[14:30] got him.
[14:32] See you. That's a good start. Give me
[14:35] that queue.
[14:36] We can go ahead and start to skip these
[14:38] items. Boom, boom.
[14:40] Uh
[14:41] skip these items. Let's go one, two.
[14:45] We're just short there. Okay. Come on,
[14:47] buddy. Let's go ahead and teleport back
[14:49] here. We're going to go ahead and grab
[14:51] that. Let's grab that.
[14:53] We can go ahead and grab
[14:57] the mangoes this way and we can reset
[14:59] everything.
[15:01] I'm not going to go yet.
[15:05] I'm not going to go yet
[15:07] as bad as I want to.
[15:12] Now we go.
[15:14] Now we go.
[15:17] Now we go.
[15:19] Where'd he go?
[15:21] No!
[15:22] There it is. Oh my gosh, I thought he
[15:24] got away.
[15:26] I mean, we're just going to place that
[15:27] right on his Oh, no. He did He dodged
[15:30] it.
[15:35] See you. He's dead. Yep.
[15:38] No mana.
[15:41] That's the hard part.
[15:43] Dude, I wish I could hit him right now.
[15:45] I'd be fine.
[15:49] Let's go.
[15:50] Go. Go.
[15:52] Go.
[15:54] Nice. Good job.
[15:55] Dude, I need to find a way to get my
[15:56] mana to regen a little quicker.
[15:59] Oh, I have none of those. Hold on.
[16:03] Boom.
[16:04] Grab that.
[16:05] Uh
[16:07] Grab one, two, and I need to grab
[16:10] Please bring those all to me. Thank you.
[16:17] Where'd Where'd that axe go? Where'd
[16:19] that axe go?
[16:21] Axe is kind of staying away there, so
[16:27] Stunned. See you. See you.
[16:31] Nice. Huge. That's five. What do I need
[16:33] for the lightning? Like 2,500?
[16:36] Nice.
[16:38] We could just rain it down on them.
[16:47] Dead.
[16:49] He should be dead, too.
[16:54] Knocked. We're at seven.
[16:57] Enemy's top tower has fallen. We're kind
[16:59] of cruising here. I'm at seven kills
[17:01] already. Uh dude, I need so much. One,
[17:04] two.
[17:06] Oh, I still need 2,550 on top of that.
[17:10] What's the best way to get mana back?
[17:12] Oh no no no no no no no.
[17:21] >> No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
[17:22] no no.
[17:27] Stunned. Got him.
[17:31] No, go, go, go, go, go. Get away, get
[17:33] away, get away.
[17:35] Go middle.
[17:38] Let's go middle.
[17:39] I'm here.
[17:43] Dude, I am just so strong right now at
[17:44] this point.
[17:47] We're kind of cooking. We're cruising.
[17:49] Let's go.
[17:53] We good here? Dude, if we can get over
[17:55] this way.
[17:57] Ah, get him. Get your Where's Troll?
[17:59] Where's Troll? Where's Troll? Where's
[18:00] Troll? Where'd he go?
[18:02] No. There he is.
[18:08] There he is. Where'd he go?
[18:10] Am I headed right into I'm headed right
[18:11] into my teammates.
[18:14] We getting an assist on that?
[18:17] Oh, I get out of here.
[18:19] Get out of here. I'm so dead.
[18:32] Nope.
[18:35] I'm going all the way back.
[18:37] I'm going all the way back.
[18:47] Axe Axe is dead. Axe is dead. Axe is
[18:49] dead.
[18:56] Okay, we're good. We're good. We're
[18:56] good. What do we got?
[18:58] Uh, take aim speed. Okay, are we good
[19:00] there? Uh, where is
[19:02] Where is my like
[19:04] This is what I want.
[19:08] Where is that Concussive Where is the
[19:10] shard? I'm holding my own. We're nine
[19:12] We're 9-0-1. We're definitely playing
[19:14] better this game.
[19:15] We're playing smarter.
[19:23] I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead.
[19:25] I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead. I just got
[19:26] way over aggressive there.
[19:28] Dude, I'm 11 and 1 right now. We We
[19:30] can't lose this. I just need to keep
[19:33] playing smart.
[19:35] Dude, they are just so strong compared
[19:37] to some of my teammates. We might
[19:39] actually be in trouble here, dude.
[19:45] Dead.
[19:54] Go.
[19:57] Let it rain. Let it rain. Let it rain.
[19:58] Let it rain. Let it rain.
[20:03] Let it rain. Let it rain. Let it rain.
[20:10] Let it rain.
[20:15] See you. Watch this.
[20:17] Bang.
[20:35] Oh my gosh, Viper. Geez.
[20:40] Watch behind.
[20:42] Q.
[20:44] Stun spirit. Dead. Spirit's dead.
[20:48] I mean, what are they two two We just We
[20:50] literally just can't die here. That's
[20:51] it. Axe is dead.
[20:53] Got to be.
[20:55] Axe has got to be dead on that.
[21:00] Oh my gosh, I'm low I'm alone.
[21:05] Where did they go to? Holy smokes, that
[21:07] was almost bad.
[21:09] Okay, we're going to reset here.
[21:17] Let's go.
[21:19] Top tower. Which top tower?
[21:22] Okay.
[21:23] One dead. One dead. One dead. This is
[21:24] our big push right here. This is what we
[21:26] got to do.
[21:38] Wait, Axe should be dead. Axe should be
[21:40] dead. Axe should be dead. Axe should be
[21:41] dead. Nice.
[21:45] Viper dead. Viper dead.
[21:55] I don't know what we are doing here.
[21:57] Let's go. Come on.
[21:59] Can we push once and for all here?
[22:14] Get him. Get him. Get him. Get him. Get
[22:15] him. Get Zeus. Zeus. Zeus is dead. Zeus
[22:17] is dead. Zeus is dead.
[22:20] Zeus is dead.
[22:22] Dude, where are my teammates?
[22:30] Dude, we've got to find a way to kill
[22:31] these guys.
[22:39] No.
[22:42] Oh my gosh.
[22:45] Oh my gosh. I'm going to just sold.
[22:54] Dude, there's no way we just lost.
[23:02] Dude, that just sucks, man.
[23:06] That I just feel like sums up Dota 2 for
[23:09] me.
[23:10] I feel like I played so well and it just
[23:13] it just doesn't it just didn't matter.
[23:16] I feel like I played I made one mistake
[23:18] there at the end. My name's Cap'n Joe.
[23:19] If you enjoyed this journey, make sure
[23:21] to drop a like, make sure to drop a sub,
[23:23] and most importantly, make sure to check
[23:24] out the next video waiting for you right
[23:26] here because every gamer has a story
[23:28] [music]
[23:29] and these are all of my