Dota 2 - Advantages and Disadvantages of the "Four Protect One" Drafts

Introduction

Every Dota 2 patch has its own meta, which is one of the reasons why so many people love this game. Having said that, there is one strategy in Dota 2 that exists since forever and is used in every single patch and its called "Four Protect One". Although this is not really that common nowadays because most pro teams prefer to play with two strong cores, there are still a few people who run it. With that said, let's take a look at some of the advantages and disadvantages of this.

Pluses

The best thing about these kinds of lineups is that you have a lot of firepower during the early and mid-game. As a result, you can participate in team-fights all the time, which will give your carry hero the space that he needs to get big. Speaking of carry heroes, these drafts work best with some late-game monster that's capable of carrying his team later on. This includes heroes like Spectre, Morphling, Medusa, and so on.

In theory, as long as the team is playing aggressive from the very beginning, it should transition well into the mid-late game, and just help their carry win the game for them.

Negatives

Even though it sounds pretty good on paper, there are many things that can go wrong here. For example, the most obvious one is failing the early game. If that happens, this draft is pretty much toast because they won't be able to do anything to bounce back. Although it's pretty hard to fail because you will pick heroes that are strong early on, this can happen.

Another thing that needs to be pointed out about those single-core lineups is that the player who will be the core has to know exactly what he's doing. Every random death without any reason can have deadly consequences, so he has to be on point the entire game.

Also, these types of drafts are always on a timer. Even if the team has "the hardest" carry in the game, the fact that there is one more core on the team means that there could be problems if the game goes on for too late.

Verdict

We honestly believe that it's not worth running this draft in 2020. The game is way too dynamic and fast for those lineups to actually do something. However, if you still want to give it a try, be sure to pick the proper heroes.