Gaming
![Portraits of Day9 [left] and Purge [right]](https://img.redbull.com/images/c_crop,x_56,y_0,h_720,w_576/c_fill,w_450,h_600/q_auto,f_auto/redbullcom/2017/08/01/941e2981-b626-4e4b-8580-59f1744abc91/day-9-purge-dota-2.jpg.jpg "Purge’s lessons teach Day9 all aspects of Dota 2")
Gaming
Day9 and Purge on becoming better Dota 2 players
When Day9 wanted to learn to play Dota 2, he turned to Purge for help. We chat to both master and apprentice about their coaching video series and how it can inspire more players to improve at Dota 2.
Jumping into your first game of Dota 2 can be an intimidating leap for any newcomer to MOBAs but, if you go searching for it, there’s more than enough help on hand to guide you through everything you need to know. When ex-Brood War pro, eSports commentator and PC gaming veteran, Sean ‘Day9’ Plott, decided it was about time he learned the game, he too sought guidance from the endless content pool that is the internet.
He decided to partner up with Dota caster and educator, Kevin ‘Purge’ Godec, and stream the coaching sessions to show his journey from Dota newbie to Dota master. Here, the pair discuss their partnership on Day[9] Learns Dota, their approaches to learning and teaching Dota, and how their series might help others improve their play.
It’s fair to say the eSports world is gravitating away from StarCraft 2 these days. You got involved in Hearthstone before now, but what drew you to Dota?
Day9: The biggest reason I started playing Dota is my friend Omer. I always watch TI every year, and each year he asks me if I'd like to play. Post TI6 I decided to give it a shot! I was expecting to have to grind for tens of hours before I was able to understand enough to enjoy myself. Surprisingly, the basics of Dota are quite basic. Though I had no clue what almost any hero did, I was having a blast nuking enemies within two or three games!
Do you think good StarCraft players can make good Dota players?
D: Mechanically speaking, StarCraft players have a strong skillset entering Dota. Watching the minimap, hitting lots of buttons precisely in a sequence, general mouse control and so on translate almost effortlessly into Dotaing. That said, so much of Dota is about the strategy, positioning, knowledge and understanding of the game state. There's no replacement for playing tons of games to obtain that information. Good thing StarCraft players like grinding ladders.
How did you originally partner up with Purge?
D: I'd known about Purge for years and immediately hopped to his YouTube to start learning how various heroes are played. Purge's style of analysis immediately resonated with me – it was clear, well articulated and fairly brutal in terms of identifying good and bad. Despite my goofy personality on air, I tend to analyze things in a similar way so I devoured hours of his content.
My friend Omer (same from above!) knows Purge as well and gave an introduction when I mentioned I'd been watching so much of Purge's content. From there, Purge and I began chatting about the nature of learning and improvement and the idea of doing a show emerged!
We’ve been told you have plans to turn your series with Day9 into an educational course that will exist outside YouTube. Can you tell us more about this?
Purge: We're not completely finalized on the format yet, but it will likely move away from the large, overarching lesson plans. Sean has a solid grasp of the basics at this point and I've mentioned, at least in passing, lots of later game theories as well, so it might be better to just focus on problem areas a bit more.
How do you intend to break it down? Will it be a one-day course, or will it be over the course of a few days?
P: We're gonna look over the lesson plans that we wrote for the Day9 episodes and turn them into full videos. One of the downsides to the content we produced for the show is that it's a LOT of hours to see the progress, even only watching the lessons themselves. If we can condense it by two to three times that'd make a big impact in watch-ability and hopefully become the new 'Welcome to Dota, you suck' more or less, or maybe it'd be more of a 'watch this series over the next six to eight hours and you should understand most Dota strategy’. We'd also get the benefit of a do-over to fix any muddy areas from the show, and add in or adjust anything that felt out of place from the first run.
Do you think you could turn it into a school of sorts one day?
P: It's certainly possible. It's clear that most Dota players want to get better. Sean pretty much went from 'I know how to move my hero, press my buttons, and purchase recommended items' to understanding the meta of hero role strategies, being creative about play, and understanding bigger concepts in a period of a few months.
How much do you think you’ve improved since learning from Purge? If you had to learn the game yourself, do you think you’d be as good?
D: I would be a steaming pile of garbage if it weren't for Purge's excellent coaching and structuring. I think I'm great at learning things on my own, but largely because I put in huge amounts of time. I'm comfortable developing an idea for 50 hours only to discard it upon realizing how incorrect it is. Purge has saved me at least 1,500 hours of grinding time to figure things out on my own. He's provided the concepts, the examples, and the nuance to give me a foundation to teach myself correctly.
Are there actual strategies and techniques that stay relevant, and aren’t upset by constant patch releases?
P: Absolutely. Most strategies and techniques never change since they are fundamental aspects of the game. Knowing when it's useful to do them might adjust, though. For example, if the assist gold equation changes to give less gold for solo kills, it means that players will eventually find success grouping often for teamfights and that will eventually change opinion on how often you should move around ganking with most of your heroes. The fundamentals of how to gank, how to farm, how to lane are all still there, but some of the strategy nuance is still there. And of course the ultra basics like attack moving, treads swapping, and animation cancelling will most likely always exist.
What’s your MMR now and has it been progressing at a pace both you and Purge anticipated? If not, why not?
D: I started at around 2,150 and now I'm at 3,100. My original goal was 100 MMR per week (which I'm behind) but Purge suggested something completely different from the beginning – don't focus on MMR until the end of the series. Generally, the best way to gain MMR is to play one to three heroes in a single lane and try to farm/position generally better than opponents at your MMR. However, this plan runs the risk of plateauing once you reach competent players. So, throughout the series, Purge has instructed me to continue to switch heroes, switch roles, and experiment with various plays to build a core understanding. Only in the last month do I truly feel like I "get" the game.
Do you think the learning curve for games like Dota is far too high?
D: Not at all. No game needs to be easy to learn. Games need to make it easy to have fun. If a game is fun, the learning curve and the depth provide new treats for those enjoying themselves. Rocket League is a great example – that game is an absolute blast. The learning curve for it is insane: when you're against a better player it can feel utterly hopeless. But, the matchmaking and insanity of playing a match is so fun you enjoy yourself and learn along the way.
Do you think there is a healthy appetite for people wanting to learn to play Dota?
D: I think there isn't nearly enough. Dota 2 is fun as hell incredibly quickly. Even bot games are insanely fun. Too often I hear conversations about how complex, how difficult, how challenging Dota 2 is. The biggest struggle for most is simply installing Dota and playing their first game. I really wish more people would focus on how easy it is to have fun without knowing anything. Once that's the tone, I'd expect more people to hop in, discover the awesomeness, and then hunger for learning.
What results have you seen from fans using your videos to learn Dota? Have there been any really stand out cases?
P: I've seen a lot more 'I've raised my MMR 500+ since watching the Day9 series' comments lately. I know my older content helped people but I expect the Day9 series power levels people a littler faster. For other standout cases, like someone hitting really high MMR, probably. But if someone is capable of hitting 6k+ MMR they were going to get there without my help, just a little slower. So it's really about how fast you get better really.
What’s one thing you can tell us you’ve learned from Purge that’ll be helpful to other players?
D: Making horrible mistakes, playing terribly, and having bad games are all part of the process. Don't try to win every game or make every decision perfect. Just try to improve at one small thing in each game, and reassure yourself when you screw up. I publicly looked like a fool many many times, and yet here I am, still playing, and my skill is higher than ever. It's okay to fail! Enjoy it even!
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