General DiscussionCriteria Of A Good Captain in CM

I asked if they want to have teamfight or pusher/split push strats but of course in my bracket it won't happen they don't understand

Don't ask too many questions or take in too much input. But don't flat out ignore people, that's not how you gain respect lol.

There will be 1 or 2 guys who will adamantly want a certain hero or role, give it to them otherwise they'll throw. Just try to base heroes around their picks if they insist on a particular hero. Last game I captained, my midlaner insisted on magnus and only magnus so I gave it to him and built a team around that.

http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/2265591915

If all your teammates screaming: "Oh God, please, don't pick Drow!!!", - you MUST listen.

only a captain that tries to pick zeus, outworld devourer, spectre, enchantress and invoker in same team is good

If they pushing on one hero I might give it...I will ask fir 5th pick if its a carry and he has ti wait...midlaner 2nd phase of the pick..

Overall Im just pissed if they say noob captain if I communicate with them

Someone posted this on TrueDota. It is very helpful for new captains.

"Before we start actually drafting: 1. u/Call0013 pointed out correctly that you need to check if you have first or second pick, as the draft begins with bans, and you do not want any of the OP heroes to get into the hands of your opponent. if you do not have first pick, we start with banning OD or Invoker. If you have it, you can ask if one person in your team wants to play them, and ban a hero that you either hate playing against (as you are likely to draft according to your vision of how a game should work out, and what you hate is good vs your playstyle and as such has a high probability to be good vs what you draft), and then ban a FotM hero in the second phase, if noone on your team wanted it, and the enemy did not already ban them. If we banned OD first phase, and the enemy has firstpick, and did not ban Invoker, then we ban him now, if he has (most likely) banned him, you get your hate-ban on the second ban.
1.During the bans you have a window of about 1-2min, the first thing you do as oyu load in is asking everyone what role they want: 1 (carry), 2 (mid), 3 (offlane), 4 (teamfight-greedy-blink dependant, support), 5 (sacrificial-ward bitch, often more defensive support). We assume that everyone that does not respond to your question withing 2 minutes is a moron, they get a hero they cant fuck up with in the offlane or 4 position, if 3 dont respond, you have to give carry to one of them, mid and hard-support are the most important roles.

The draft begins: You have made 2 safe bans, if you dont know your opponent and their playstyle they dont really matter apart from them not getting OP heroes, and we get our first pick. Once more, this is not a complex guid, this will not focus on each and every aspekt of the very complex art of drafting, this willl just ensure that you get any kind of a decent team, and dont fuck up completely. so we will just assume a somewhat standart picking order. Before the first pick we need to know what we are trying to do. A lot of captains go into a draft and say "nah, i'll just counterpick whatever they got". This is a very bad idea, as having a working team is far more important. We will focus on picking a good team, and disrupt their strategy with bans, our picks are too precious. I would recommend you choose a very basic strategy to start your draft: Heavy Physical damage and minus armor - A lot of heroes with high mobility or global abilities - a lot of teamfight ultimates/auras - a very hard carry and very teamfight and defensive heroes around him. These 4 are in my opinion the easiest to execute and most reliable strategies if you have no idea what the fuck you are doing anyways.

Some example heroes for each strategy:

Heavy Physical: -Minus armor support like venge, (bonus damage aura, minus armor), Dazzle (Strong minus armor ultimate, protection), Invoker (high physical with alacrity, minus armor with spirits, some magic damage (never be to 1-dimensional)), Templar assasin (minus armor, Desolator--builder, high Physical damage), Tide (minus armor, strong teamfight, decent stun, enough control together with voker and venge), clock (control, ganking potential, synergy with sunstrike, can follow up with a venge), slardar (stun, minus armor), and basically any hard hitting carry (Phantom assasin, Juggernaut, Luna, Troll, Ember, Sven). -Bans: Things that can give a lot of armor (dazzle, sven), things that counter your carry you have in mind, things that fit into their lineup.

Global: (I am just gonna stop the brackets... you are getting what to look for in the heroes, i hope) -Clock, Wisp, Spirit Breaker, Lifestealer, Lycan, Anitmage, Morphling, Naga, Bloodseeker, Clinkz, Spectre, Terroblade, Arc Warden, Storm, Furion, Zeus, Tinker, Silencer, Tecies, Invoker, QoP, Visage -Bans: Basically exactly the same and any strong gankers.

Teamfight: -Earthshaker, Tiny, Sven, Treant, Undying, Doom, Sandking, Luna, Gyro, Jugger, Veno, Spectre, Void, Crystal Maiden, Puck, Shadow Shaman, Venge, Drow, Visage, Chen/Enchantress, Silencer, Invoker, Disruptor, Tide, Lion, AA, Lich, WD, Dazzle, Darkseer

I hope you get the general concept.

The draft *actually** Begins:* So. All of this is stuff you should have though of before the game (basically decide on a strategy).

For the first Pick you ask your mid player (hoping anyone reacted to your question and wanted mid), what his 3 most played mid heroes are (u/Tomassino is completely right here, comfort heroes and making sure they actually play what you give them is very important). If available and he wants it, give him voker, else that hero of his 3 most played that fits the strategy best. The mid is first pick, because it is fairly irrelevant in the grand sceme. The mid has to do well, and create space, no matter what. It's nice, if there is synergy, but a comfort pick is more important (as long as it is not easily countered). We pick it first, because we dont give a fuck. popular mid heroes are popular because they survive in almost every linup, if it's his most played, it cant be too niche, or he has an idea how to survive the bad matchups. The mid does not give anything about our strategy away, so gwe pick it first. It does not have to be protected.

The second Pick is either our greedy support or our offlane. We just pick something generic (in the first example strat i would go with venge, slardar, tide or something... they will do good no matter what, are always nice, and dont give anything away either).

Now we look at what our enemies picked. Have they Picked something that hard counters our strat? (I'll stick to our example and say they picked a sven). If they have done so, we switch to something else, our first to picks have been general enough. In 95% of your games, their first to picks will have been as generic, and we ban something that can counter us (sven), and stuff that would synergise well with what they have... just anything that looks like if they wanted it. If your team calls for you to ban someone just do so, making them confident and happy is more important than the enemy strategy, and they will have some reason to call for that ban.

Second phase we pick either our 4 position, or our offlaner, whatever we did not get second. in some cases, you can hide the 4 position and get the hard support now (if you want enigma for example), but never hide your offlaner and get the 2 supports first, and never get your hard support first phase (the hard support is too essential for you to win the lanes). After this fairly standart 3rd pick, we look at the enemy, and try to figure out what they are trying to do. If we can see their strategy already, we get our carry now. i know, a lot of people think the carry has to be 5th pick every time, but that's not true, getting a very strong support pick against what they have is far superior. only leave the carry for 5th if you have no idea what they are doing, or you are going for a medusa or something, that is the whole center of your draft (4 protect 1), and easily countered. A juggernaut or gyro or some generic shit is fine with 4th pick.

With the last ban, we ban the enemy hero that they are missing (dont ban a mid now if they picked their mid in the first phase), and of those the one that counters our carry the hardest. more often than not they will leave the carry last, and we ban the counter carry to ours now.

At this point we have the second variable hero after the mid, our second support. He is to make sure that all the lanes run smoothly (secure the safelane, and then rotate to mid and tofflane to gank and create pressure together with the 4 position). He is most important, as the 4 position is often times something greedy, and not as strong in the first 2 minutes, and those first 2 minutes is when it's decided if the lane (and the game, more often thatn not) is won or lost. If your suppoirt can deal with their offlane easily, your carry can stay alone in the lane after minute 5 or so (just cause the offlaner is level 1 or 2 and has no farm, and you carry has boots, a small item, and is close to level 6), and you can gank mid, win that lane, stack the jungle, kill thier carry, defend your lanes against thier supports, your carry freefarms, your mid gets saved from ganks and the supports help him get kills in his lane, the mid steamrolls, together with the supports, over their safelane, they pick up the offlaner, get him exp through kills, you dominate your jungle, while your carry is fine alone and everyone has a tp if they gank him, you farm both jungles, push, easy game... if you loose the safelane, supports have to stay there, the offlane most likely gets at least 1 kill, the carry cant farm safely, your mid gets ganked and you cant help, you cant countergank, mid looses, their mid comes safelane and gets a triplekill together with the offlaner that has gotten a lot of exp, etc.)... get a strong 5 position, depending on their offlaner, and get it last. If you are unsure wich you want, look for a teamfight ult, they are always usefull (like a witchdoctor or a shadow shaman or a dazzle), or a safe stun (just simple point and click, low cooldown... you can never have too many of those). "

If you actually want to improve: Read it. Don't skim it. It's very helpful.

I wouldn't recommend reading it. You'll end up fucking yourself over.

I don't know how many 2-3k knowitalls I've met and watch them cause their own ruin. You're complicating things and developing a dumb mindset. First of all, people who tend to study all these things seriously are the type to get tilted easily because noone 'understands' as much as them and they get angry at how 'horrible' everyone else is playing. Most important of all, is that whatever perfect or complex draft you come up with might not necessarily be suitable to your team.

Don't think about running when you can't even walk.

Dude Im asking about interaction with your team not the heroes to pick

i answered didnt i ._.

Your interactions for one involving what to ban.

Do not ask people that question, all it does it make them assume you don't know how to draft and they start to tilt in the draft stage already. Trust me, it immediately makes people lose trust. The comment I posted outlines what and why to ban. Make your own decision in terms of the ban stage, read the guide and understand what to ban and why. Do NOT involve your team in ban decisions.

You are absolutely right in picking comfort picks for people is a better idea than the "optimal" pick. Some people just will not communicate during draft and will grab whatever hero they want after the stage is over. It's frustrating, especially the lower MMR you go. However, my usual go-to is to ask someone their role. If you can at least get an answer out of that, then you can at least try to build a coherent team.

If they say "offlane", then try asking, what are your 3 best offlaners. Most people will answer that if they outline a role. if not, think of easy, often played offlaners that fit your needs. Most people can dark seer for example. Lion for support etc.

If your team won't communicate then pick easy to play high impact heroes. I always try to avoid open-ended questions because people tend to tilt and assume you don't know what you're doing.

i would like to share how i make a decent team with bad team mates when i become the captain.
1: i ask them what heroes they want, and tell them "i can play anyrole as long as they will act nice but i will prefer countering them" (this is because i quite have the knowledge on the weaknesses and how to handle most of the heroes)
2: then i instantly ban OP heroes like OD & spec, i don't ban invoker because it's my favorite, and i'll pick it fast if they don't ban it. if your team requests or demands for mid then i give them what they want and just ban invoker or any other scary mid heroes if i can't really get the mid lane for myself.
3: i try to analyze their picks, if they first pick their cores i will ban supports that synergize with their line up, if they pick supports first i will ban cores vice versa. thus ruining the balance of their possible draft.
4: when picking heroes for us, i usually revolve around the hero of the worst person on the team. I will complement his hero and balance the draft, for example he wants to hard carry, i will ask other team mates what hero they want and decide if it fits the first suggestion and if it is not complementary to the line up, i will suggest heroes that may and ask them if they can play it, i'll do it on and on until we agreed to the hero. if there are 2 more stubborn team mates, i make them cores and i settle for the support role and babysit them on game. usually these people are just narcissistic and if you do what they want, they'll do their best to win. but if you fight with them, do not expect to win. and worst if you got all bad team mates, all you can do is think positive, play your best be silent while praying that they are good players just with attitude problems.
5: i made sure that the draft is balance; meaning it has all the 1,2,3,4,5, positions so that everyone will be responsible on their heroes and roles. i also make sure that there will be a tanker, a disabler, an aoe, and a hard carry. often times i forgot to pick a pusher but usually when you snowball you can easily push.

it's all about being nice, balance and compromise. make sure your team mates behave and communicate. you as a captain has the job to make your team a unit and direct them by making them feel comfortable. listen to them and don't agitate them.

i'm currently playing in 2k-3k mmr bracket (because i'm piloting my friend's account) and i am surprised that even these people listen when you handle them right. we know the struggle in this bracket and this post is strongly recommended for 4k lower. it's just really hard when one is really bad and don't listen to anybody then rages. you can't do anything there and just lose. lol i hope i helped. i really enjoyed playing captain's mode and i feel like this revolution is a blessing for us, to make ranked match more competitive and professional.

I post again for Sunday for people read this thread in first page.

I think this thread would be beneficial.

Happy Sunday.

gives me Riki and bans Sniper

Why not take sniper and ban Riki

Because I would be ashamed of myself for playing such an OP hero

RD sucks so bad in 2800 bracket that I have just calibrated yesterday. CAPTAIN MODE IS FUN. I get to choose my hero and all my teammates are good even tho game is hard.

Phantom Riki is aether lens good for sniper?

No. Shadow blade and blink dagger and boots of travel level 2 are.

Phantom Riki, do you upgrade the shadow blade into silver edge or just go straight for rapier?

Criteria of a good captain

1. Emotional stability and maturity
2. Knowledge of heroes and hero interactions
3. Good communication skills.

I think what works best is trying to get the comms going, ask them what heroes they're good at but don't go picking them blindly.
Try to explain to them why you are picking certain heroes and banning others, what your strategy and thinking is. comms are important, cuz your team mates might actually tell you something you've not thought off.
This will go a long way in establishing some sort of trust.
If they go 'invoker for me or cpn reported' and you respond with 'play all pick then' - you're going for a gg :)

@smithsky haha you summarized my point xD