Raising Dota 2 MMR With Ease

Last week, Valve has released an announcement where they talked about the future of Dota Plus, matchmaking system, updates, and development plans. It was more like an open letter to the community tired of waiting. Still, it warmed the fans' hearts. The Dota Plus update is already available, and although it works with bugs and misfires, it has brought back a little interest to the game. The most important moment that everyone was waiting for was, of course, the MMR reset. And Valve approached this case in an innovative way.

First, the rating does not need to be reset at all. You can just keep playing on your current MMR.

Secondly, those who want to start from scratch will have the opportunity to practice (and avoid unfortunate coincidences): for a whole month, all the players were scattered by periods of time to go through the calibration, so you have the opportunity to prepare (and you should), and not run into a huge crowd of people who are recalibrating their MMR.

In this article, we have collected basic rules that will help with recalibration in Dota 2. They are quite simple, and the most important is:

Do not hurry

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So, we've gathered some fine thoughts spiced with pro and top-ladder players' on how to raise your MMR quickly and easily.

Prepare for the calibration

Valve gave us time to get ready, and we should thank them for that. Of course, if you have enough confidence, you can play 10 matches at once in two days. But is it worth it? We're talking about something that can only be repeated next season. Our advice is to prepare.

1. Pick a couple of heroes that you like and know how to play. Will get to it a bit later.
2. Warm-ups are important! Especially if you just came back home and haven't clicked a bit. 
3. Get yourself a bunch of role tokens. It's better not to search games as the role you are best at than going through regular non-role search chaos and madness. 

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Choose your heroes

Never dwell on one hero, even if you are very good at it. Sometimes you will come across a draft in which your favorite a) won't suit b) might be banned. For example, never pick Medusa against Anti Mage, whatever your confidence level is! Make your own pool, so you can be flexible. Have 3-6 heroes for each position you prefer, grind them in All Pick, or before calibrating.

This is when Dota Plus levels are actually worth it: set yourself a goal to get at least 6 levels on each hero before naming them "My main" in front of your mates. 

Don't "Mute All" — be communicative

Do you remember that the main complaint from the community against Valve is the lack of communication? That's it. Yes, there are evil and rude people, but remember that you have one common goal, and you need to achieve it in any way. It is OKAY to remain silent, express disagreement in a calm tone, or vice versa, agree on things contrary to your vision of the game. Discussing strategies until the pick's last second is essential. It is mandatory to offer Smok Ganks.

Position 4: Adventurers and Backpains

Nothing prevents any position player from buying Observer Wards and placing them because they are completely free. Get a habit of saying 'miss' as soon as the enemy hero is out of the lane. Ask which artifact is better to buy for this game. Speak, communication is half-a-win.

Time your game and rest whenever necessary

This is trivial advice, which, in an amicable way, should be followed in regular matches, but it takes endurance. The value of calibration is too high to be neglected.

Don't rush into playing MRR calibration two hours before work/classes/meetings/etc. You will feel pressure, hurry, and, obviously, make mistakes. If you lose a game, if you are in a bad mood, if you feel tired, if your sixth sense tells you to stop — just take a break. Relax, watch something, eat, drink, or do a couple of exercises. 

Pro Tips

We also asked some pro players and ladder heroes to give advice on how to play MMR recalibration right, and here's what they told us.

• Vikin.gg's player Adam "Aramis" Moroz has recently achieved 10k MMR and has some wise thoughts.

"I think everyone who wants to increase MMR should use their recalibration tool because it's a good way to gain MMR very fast, obviously you should do it if you feel confident and you feel that you can win at least 5 matches out of 10. But it's not a must for people who don't like to risk losing some MMR.

"Regarding Non-Role Search, you can learn a lot of things if you queue as any role and obviously you want to practice your main role. If you'd ask me, I would recommend everyone to queue classic ranked because you will still be able to play your main position a lot but also you will learn about other roles which in turn will help you improve on your main role. Sticking to a few heroes is also better, if you are confident on a few heroes you will have a better winrate most likely than if you flex picked on calibration games. 

"If your goal is to reach leaderboards you should be able to play any position to a somewhat decent degree, because when you get into a game you might get someone who is good on your main position but is bad on other positions, if you are flexible you can play those other positions which will lead to many victories and also help you learn better. Also, you should make sure you are not auto-piloting during pubs and you are being proactive towards playing or winning the game."

• Egor "Kelen" Zhabotinskii, the ex-Extremum player who is currently top-3 EU at the leaderboards, says a couple of simple, but pretty important things:

"If you like it rough, try out the recalibration button for sure. And just learn to be confident about your game."

• Team Liquid player Tommy "Taiga" Le also shared his experience to help you out:

"Play your best heroes on multiple of roles, there are some games you have to play a different role, and if you can pull out your best hero in that position and know how to play the early-mid-late game with it, you will gain MMR quickly."

• And the last but not least, Danil "Dendi" Ishutin himself:

"Pressing the Recalibrate button is worth it for those who think they can win more than 5 games in calibration. If you are playing several roles, it is better to choose exactly them and stick to them. Players with 7500 MMR do not have role-based search, so we have no choice. When calibrating, it is better to take the strongest heroes based on your knowledge. If your pool is limited, it is better to take your strongest hero.

Do not look for the problem in others and try to act out 100%. Be as positive as possible and support your teammates morally. And throw toxic people into the blacklist. Good luck!"

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We hope you'll find everything we wrote here useful. Anyway, remember that Dota 2 is just a game: don't rage, stay calm and play as you like. And may your RNG be blessed!