Echo Slammin' in Adventure Log [01]

Yesterday, Tyson, Stan, Jace, and I queued for a bot match, since our connection wasn’t good enough for a normal match. But I was already tired at some point while queuing, so I closed my eyes for a moment. When I opened them, the chat was spammed with ‘CID! CID CIDDD!!! CID’. The ‘Accept Match’ button was glaring at me.

I accepted, and lo, my PC derps. I had to restart the PC. When I reconnected back to the game, I find that they somehow paused for me. The fifth guy on our team, Zeus, was nice enough to not babyrage for the long pause, and so I felt that it is just right to send him a friend request after the match.

Our team Radiant was composed of Medusa, PA, Templar Assassin, and Zeus. I was last pick. The enemy was CK, Viper, Dazzle, Axe, and Riki. Of course our team is composed of all carry. Sigh… I decided to go with Earthshaker. Been a while since I played him.

When I reconnected, I found our Phantom Assassin at bottom lane by herself, laning against CK and Axe. I was level 1, everyone was around level 4 already. After a while, Jace (PA) says that he will leave. He had something to do in real life. When he abandoned, the Viper bot went afk in return. I had the bot lane by myself, against CK and Axe. What a nightmare. I died a couple of times. Around 3, I think.

I decided I have had enough, and went roaming around. Sorry bottom tower, but I must go. Came over to top lane with Medusa and Zeus struggling against the Riki. Gank successful. Helped around with mid. Got kills. After a while, we dealt with the cancer at our bot lane. Pulled it off, got my Arcane boots.

It’s hard to farm as Shaker. I always end up spamming his high mana cost skills to kill creepwaves fast enough. If I hit them one by one, I’ll be staying there forever. What’s good is that it reinforces you to be good enough to be able to kill off enemies, aka to farm heroes instead of creeps. I really needed the Blink Dagger. Earthshaker without Blink is just not the same. 2250 gold… ‘someone please buy me one’, I typed jokingly.

While I’m somewhere pushing the lane, I keep seeing notifications about Riki’s killing streaks. I sigh, and remind people to get Dust. Zeus probably doesn’t know that his W reveals invisible units. I tell him about it, he did not respond. Decided to come over and help out. Kills, left and right. Riki once got away because the dust debuff wore off. I finished him with a blind Fissure. I typed ‘magic’ in chat. Laughed to myself. I was very pleased.

Got my Blink Dagger from kill money. I see a kill potential for a core, I don’t hold back the slamming. Thought about CK getting stronger, so I started building an Aghanim’s Scepter. Our Templar and Zeus kept dying, our Medusa wasn’t farmed, me, well, I had my Arcane and Blink. I feel I can do anything with those two items.

I rarely played carry Shaker. Usually, my teammates are good at kill stealing from my initiations, after they leave me to die first, of course. But this time, I can kill them all by myself. I didn’t notice that Hayama left me a chat message. ‘Cool double kill with Riki and Dazzle’. I was embarrassed. Someone was spectating our damn bot match. Didn’t think it deserved attention.

After a while, I looked at the map. Just one tower down, ours are demolished, up to our T3. Holy shit. Sure, I can kill them all for you. But I can’t push. I’m not capable of that. Stan (TA) did the warding. Tyson (Medusa) helped along with the sentries. I was embarrassed because that was supposed to be my job. Focused on carrying. I got Shiva’s Guard and a Tarrasque. My arcane boots were barely doing anything at this point.

After an intense clash, I begged my team to push. I told them ‘please push… I can’t do this forever’.

‘Yes, you can. You’re good at this,’ Tyson said. I’ve never received a finer compliment such as that. And when Zeus was panicking and was being all ‘omg we’re gonna lose’ state of mind at one point, Tyson goes, ‘don’t worry, cid got this’.

A moment after that, I did another teamwipe, and Tyson adds up, ‘seeee’.

I appreciated his blind confidence in me. Usually, people are so stingy with compliments. But here was Tyson, believing in me out loud. I believed in myself enough, but it feels different when another person does the same for you. I was confident, I was hyped up, I was determined to win the game for everyone.

After we won the team fight, I type in chat ‘mid, now’. Because, well, what happens usually is that everyone goes around to get their farm. Had to put my foot down. I make a mistake, it might cost us the game. That’s actually the fun part for me. Easy, sure win games aren’t really my thing. I liked the adrenaline from a possible turnaround. I liked being able to know what to do, and direct my teammates as needed. I felt that I was capable of taking care of my team.

When the enemy Ancient finally exploded, everyone was cheering. ‘SO INTENSE’, Tyson would scream. We got back to the main lobby. Jace greeted me with ‘ggwp cid’. Wow, he was watching. Was embarrassed, but I instantly felt good.

It’s those little comments that make my day. Even though they’re just words, I wholeheartedly appreciate them. I honestly feel average when I play Earthshaker. But Load once said that I was good at Shaker. Load is an extremely talented player; I’ve seen him play a good Shaker, that’s why the compliment was big for me.

And now I had three more people compliment me. Does this make me think highly of myself? Actually, no. I still think that I’m an average Shaker. People just think that I’m good because I can get the kills done. But there’s so much more in Dota than the KDA. But these compliments, they will stay with me. Whenever I recall them, I feel good. I hope I retain these simple joys as I get older and move on with my life.

In another match.

Tyson and I were chasing this Sandking who was low. SK pops out his Sandstorm, so we couldn’t hit him anymore. I was Pudge. I threw out my hook. I got the kill.

Tyson typed, ‘??????????????!!?!?!!?!?!?!?’

I retaliated with ‘?????!?!??!??????!?!?!?!?’

And I laughed out loud in the cafe.