General DiscussionClimb MMR Concepts

Hello everyone,

theres been a lot of talking about how to climb MMR in these dotabuff forums. So i want to summarize this for myself (and others maybe) and ask you kindly if i miss anything very important:

1. Get better at the game

Covers things like Mechanics such as creep blocking or attack backswing animation cancellation, Concepts like split pushing and efficient farming and Strategies like item choices which requires to understand what enemy heroes can kill you/stop you doing your job aswell as the understanding of lineup strength and weaknesses and power spikes of heroes.

2. Spamming a hero

This is what you want to do to really learn one hero so that you can play it on a much higher level than your current MMR is. Because its simple math: if you are 3k MMR and you want to reach 4k MMR, you have to play on a >4k MMR level to ensure a winrate that is significantly higher than 50%. If you are 3k MMR and you play on a 3,3k MMR level, your progress will be very very slow as your winrate will only be something like 52%. Spamming and first picking a hero helps you to make less mistake and do more things on an instinctive level, so that you are able to focus on more things than your enemies are able to and therefore constantly have an advantage during a game.

3. Playing heroes that are good in the meta and in your specific bracket

This is self-explaining i think. By playing heroes that are constantly good in the current meta you get an extra advantage above your skill advantage and therefore have an even highger chance to ensure your winrate.

4. Playing heroes that you really like playing

Also self-explaining: The more fun you have playing a hero the better you will perform. Thats a human thing.

5. PMA and PMA Management

The buzzword we all know and that still is often hard to implement in the own gameplay. Everybody knows what PMA means, and by PMA Management i mean that everybody can ACTIVELY DO something to keep PMA: dont respond to flamers, instantly mute flamers, be humorous to create a better team spirit, play ranked only when you really want to win, play normal when u want to play but not tryhard, do something else during your day, eat something you like and dont forget eating, drink enough (so important for your brain), do some real sports (will make you feel better overall), stop playing ranked if you lost 2-3 games in a row like Miracle- does.

6. Replay analysis (For those who have more time)

It is recommended to watch some videos on youtube on how to watch your replay so that you learn something out of it.

7. Watch pro replays / pro twitch-streams

I think there is no better source to learn all the tricks, mechanics, concepts and stuff then from watching games of professional/very high MMR players. It helps SO MUCH actually that it is like cheating. Recommendations are the following, VERY EDUCATIVE twitch streams:

twitch.tv/bananaslamjamma
twitch.tv/wagamamatv
twitch.tv/admiralbulldog

in exactly that order.

8. Playing with higher MMR players

Try to get the chance to play with any higher MMR players or against them. If you dont love getting crushed from a 7k player then you shouldnt try to raise your MMR, cause thats not your thing then :)

Its actually sad that i have to add this: But please dont try to teach any higher MMR player. This is ridiculously retarded, cause there is a very good reason he is higher than you, and NO, you are NOT better than him and only lower MMR cause shit teammates.

Im not a native speaker, still I hope everything is understandable. Im curious which points i maybe forgot, what you think and what you think is also important if someone wants to gain MMR.

Greetz