---
title: 'I Tried Dota 2 as a BRAND NEW Player.. It Broke Me'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=GBidzXfvqwU'
video_id: 'GBidzXfvqwU'
date: 2026-06-18
duration_sec: 0
---

# I Tried Dota 2 as a BRAND NEW Player.. It Broke Me

> Source: [I Tried Dota 2 as a BRAND NEW Player.. It Broke Me](https://youtube.com/watch?v=GBidzXfvqwU)

## Summary

A brand-new player documents his 24-hour journey into Dota 2, exploring the game's complexity, learning curve, and emotional highs and lows. He starts with tutorials and new player mode, experiences initial success, then faces crushing defeats in unranked matches, ultimately finding the game both rewarding and frustrating.

### Key Points

- **Dota 2's Reputation** [0:00] — Dota 2 is considered one of the hardest and most complex video games ever made.
- **Two Simple Questions** [0:10] — The player sets out to answer: what is Dota 2 like for a brand new player, and how good can he get in 24 hours?
- **Tutorial Experience** [0:28] — The tutorial starts with a video explaining basics: two teams of five, over 100 heroes, goal to destroy enemy ancient. It covers creeps, Roshan, lanes, objectives.
- **Tutorial Depth** [0:53] — After the video, the tutorial offers four tiers of lessons including basic mechanics, teleporting, courier, regen consumables, hero demo, and game play. The player spends about two hours in the tutorial.
- **First Game in New Player Mode** [1:41] — Dota has a new player mode with forgiving gameplay, limited hero pool, faster matchmaking, and matches with other new players. The player wins his first game but has zero hero kills and eight deaths.
- **Initial Success** [5:06] — After a few more games, the player feels he's getting the hang of it, including a 16 hero kill win. New player mode builds confidence.
- **Jump to Unranked** [6:12] — The player moves to unranked mode but faces a major problem: his favorite hero Sniper is banned/chosen, forcing him to play a hero he's never used before.
- **Unranked Struggles** [7:53] — The player's first unranked game ends with zero hero kills, 15 deaths, and a loss. He realizes he needs to learn more than one hero.
- **Hero Testing** [8:33] — The player spends about an hour testing different heroes in demo mode, considering factors like range, abilities, and role (mid, off, safe, support). He settles on Lina as a backup.
- **Continued Frustration** [10:28] — Despite having a backup hero, the player continues to struggle in unranked, dying frequently, getting lost in the shop, and experiencing blowout losses (e.g., 35-3 kill ratio). He questions matchmaking and smurfing.
- **Return to New Player Mode** [13:08] — With time running out, the player returns to new player mode for one final game to have fun. He plays Sniper and has a strong start (9-0-1) but ultimately loses after one mistake.
- **Final Takeaway** [23:06] — The player reflects that Dota 2 is a game where even playing well doesn't guarantee a win, and one mistake can cost the game. He sums it up as a frustrating but compelling experience.

### Conclusion

Dota 2 offers a steep learning curve that can be both rewarding and crushing. The player's 24-hour journey shows that while new player mode provides a safe learning environment, the full game demands deep knowledge and resilience.

## Transcript

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