Is the Dota 2 10K MMR Club still a big deal?

It’s the year 2020, DOTA 2 game is celebrating its 10^th anniversary, and it’s certainly getting too crowded in the 10K MMR club. As of May 1^st, there are at least 24 pro players who have reached the benchmark, and we just had another addition two days ago with Nigma’s Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi. Its fair to say, the 10k MMR club is starting to fill up, especially since everyone is locked down and grinding these days.

This trivial achievements pale in comparison to Abed Azel L. Yusop reaching the pinnacle of DOTA 2 leaderboard at 11,000 MMR.

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10,000 MMR around the globe

The spicy debate about the most robust region to grind MMR is still an ongoing discussion for the most part. While there are no reliable statistics to prove which is better, there certainly are differences between each region.

For starters, the Europe and CIS regions are hailed for having the toughest qualifiers to actually qualify for. While there’s truth to that since it is home to most Internationals champions, the average pub experience is far from competitive. Players from the region are often stereotyped as having weak mental fortitude or giving up too early. For instance, a typical “play” that players would do after losing just one fight is to destroy their items and remain AFK in the fountain. The Americas region seems to have a similar culture as well.

Whereas, in SE Asia…

Players do not give up too early into the game (even if they occasionally type gg in all-chat). SEA players are often stereotyped as being “tryhards” who would keep fighting until the throne is destroyed. As such, they would even go to hysterical ends by calling a fake GG, just to deceive the opponents into letting their guard down. Hence, Abed’s 11,000 MMR is probably worth every game he won. Playing with persistent allies and foes is probably more difficult yet fulfilling if you ask me. But hey, what do I know, perhaps take it from pro players who have played in both regions.

How hard is it to reach 10k MMR tho?

For ages, players tend to believe that the carry player is the key to a deserving victory. Yet, it’s undeniable that pro players of various roles can achieve similar heights. A great example is Andreas Franck “Cr1t-” Nielsen showing there’s another factor that separates us from them.

A key differentiator is pace and temp. You “gotta go fast“. Fast-paced games are the current meta that most professional teams adhere to, from drafts to execution. Being the captain of EG, Cr1t- is responsible for drafting a line-up that becomes online in a mere 10 minutes. In a recent game of EG versus PlusOne, it only took 2 EG players to kill Roshan at 12 minutes. With the early Aegis, EG went on to secure various objectives while their opponents are still unable to fight them face-on. Now that’s mostly possible thanks to EG’s perfect execution; however, the drafts played a vital role too.

Not only did Cr1t- opted for magical damage-based heroes, but he also picked heroes that do not require timely itemization. Heroes, such as Tusk and Chen (as supports) along with Queen of Pain and Puck (as cores), make up the unstoppable team. Similar patterns occur at most elite MMR games as well.

So if your style is to grind and scale up, its gonna be extremely hard to nowadays.

“Be Water My Friend”

Be fluid like water as Bruce Lee said. In our case, a good player should be able to play any role. Instead of being a self-absorbed ally, it wouldn’t hurt to play whatever role your team needs. Pro players often play various heroes because it’s their in-game decisions that matter. For instance, Arteezy knows when to switch up his item build according to the game. Arteezy’s Ursa was countered by the enemy Phantom Lancer. Instead of purchasing a standard item like Abyssal Blade, Arteezy picked up 2 Battle Furies instead.

The first International champion, Danil “Dendi” Ishutin once said: “If you are a good player, you can play anything that the team needs because you understand the game.”

Now, of course, game sense is not something that average players like ourselves can pick up immediately. Regardless, it’s still better than having a rigid mentality.

Road to 10K MMR

There’s a reason we hail the 10K MMR players. While most sit at about 60-65% (roughly) win rate, this shows that the sheer grind it takes to reach it is insane. Its not about having a high win rate (granted 60% is high) but players even a thousand MMR points lower are sporting the same or higher win rate. Its all about the grind and committeemen to climb. It’s also important to be good at the game :).

Finally, while reaching 10K MMR may seem outstretched for most, at least you would become a decent player to make it to Immortal bracket soon if you commit to grinding and following the meta and diversifying yourself. After all, its not a big deal if there’s more then 10 people in the bracket.

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