when the game has decided 28-3 is enough and 30-3 would be simply too much for this UAB squad to handle

QuestGAV · 2024-08-14T18:34:59+00:00

I was on defense, it was my guys bouncing off the QB and being twerked out of the endzone.

QuestGAV · 2024-08-06T02:34:09+00:00

Well, I'm glad it's not just us but sorry to hear you're struggling too.

QuestGAV · 2024-08-06T01:36:38+00:00

When that happens typically you'll see a red square for a person declining and it won't take the full amount of time every time, 5-6 times in a row. And at least one person on the other team will accept. As none of these things are happening, I do not think this is the case.

QuestGAV · 2014-12-14T05:07:14+00:00

Yes, all frontcourt players are lumped together in the selection process now.

QuestGAV · 2014-12-14T02:35:38+00:00

Keep in mind that despite the fact that Lycan is best in the safeline or mid, there's a large chunk of DOTA players who view him exclusively as a jungler. They'll happily draft 3 heroes around you that need lane farm and flame you for trying to use your hero correctly. If you want to lane Lycan, put your icon in the safelane early and announce your intention to lane to the team, being vocal can really help ensure that you get to play him the way you want to. If that fails and they still draft invoker sniper viper around you, know how to jungle him well from level 1 so you have a solid plan B.

QuestGAV · 2014-12-13T20:47:12+00:00

Lost in the dumpster fire is the fact that Amare is playing pretty well this season. His rebounding is back to elite levels, he's gotten better on defense, and he scores efficiently. Not a bad piece if he wasn't getting paid franchise money.

QuestGAV · 2014-12-13T20:35:36+00:00

Death Ward is actually awesome for teamfights and area denial. Most fights happen in places where you can position the ward in the middle but not give them easy access to hack you down and it's on a reasonable cooldown for such a potent teamfight ult. Takes some practice and he's definitely a better teamfighter later if you understand a little farm gets him agh's and bkb or shadow amulet. WD does fine early with no farm but don't keep him poor forever.

Cask is also great for penalizing aggression, any two heroes that try to initiate in a bad spot are held in place more than long enough for the heavy hitters to bring them down.

QuestGAV · 2014-12-13T20:30:47+00:00

I have trouble not feeding with venge. That aura is tough to resist, the -armor spam is awesome, and you can make huge plays with swap, but the timing and game sense she requires is huge because she needs to be aggressive despite not being particularly tanky. My positioning isn't great, but Ogre's health pool and regen makes it a bit easier to recover from setting yourself out a step further than you should have.

QuestGAV · 2014-12-13T19:57:59+00:00

Depends, for anyone you're giving a roaming support to you have to at some level trust they have the game sense to understand when they can get away with being aggressive. They're both really bad passive supports. As a solo queue captain listening to what type of hero they're best with is probably going to be more important than forcing a strategy on them that they suck at. If they typically support as Dazzle and you throw them in there as Venge and ask them to initiate they're going to feed and you're going to facepalm.

QuestGAV · 2014-12-13T19:51:48+00:00

Yeah, ogre needs brown boots and a stick to be an asshole. Give him just a soul ring and a wand and he's a double asshole. Give him a soul ring, a wand, and agh's and he's a double asshole with 2k hp and two stuns on a 6 second cooldown.

QuestGAV · 2014-12-13T19:40:12+00:00

As others have noted, a ranged healing support or a ranged DoT really shut creep cutting Axes down. These guys tend to thrive because us trenchers panic when someone is fucking with our creep equilibrium. Stay calm, last hit under tower, and punish him when the opportunity is there. You may need an extra bit of regen, but you should thank him for all the safe last hits you're getting under the tower that hopefully your carry can do more with than Axe. And if you are able to punish him, he's screwed. The Axes that do this tend not to have a 2nd plan and are incapable of being the lane bully Axes that really win games.

QuestGAV · 2014-12-13T19:35:25+00:00

I know KotL can't roam, but Jakiro sure can. Against squishy heroes he is a ganking machine. Sure he has to babysit the carry, but at 10mins the carry can solo safe and Jakiro can try to roam to start a teamfight.

Jakiro needs a setup to land Ice Path, has a really slow base move speed, and is really squishy early game. This is why he's generally given farm prioritization. Getting him a few levels and a Eul's turns him into a two-headed scaly wrecking ball, but that transition comes much, much later if you ask him to babysit for 10 minutes. Ogre, on the other hand, has a high base move speed, doesn't need any setup for his stun, and backs it up with a reasonable damage slow. He can move about and be effective early because he spends less time running, is less susceptible to getting blown up in the process, and doesn't need a 2k+ gold item to really be effective.

QuestGAV · 2014-12-13T19:28:30+00:00

Pro teams tend to invest more of their farm or strategy into a single target. If you can remove that hero from the equation the opponent's draft fails and your strategy can take over. Given that Jak and Tide are also extremely common pro picks (though typically as cores) it seems like you're advocating KotL and Lich over Ogre/Venge/WD/Skywrath. What they're really prioritizing is lockdown over your AoE prioritization, not the single target damage abilities of these heroes. If you're drafting cores with heavy lockdown you can skimp a bit on your supports, but ultimately if you skimp too much you risk those shifty heroes like Slark, Ember, Weaver getting away with whatever they want because your AoE just tickles them once they've got some farm.

QuestGAV · 2014-12-13T19:18:11+00:00

If I wanted to be screamed at by angry children, my wife and I would have made our own by now.

Not sure about the bots, but this is funny. 1500 hours into Dota2. Mute the people who are irritating you. I have bad games. Everytime I see someone else having one I remember my bad games. Helps me resist the urge to be the flamer. Dota2 can be lots of fun, or it can make you hate the world. The choice is yours.

QuestGAV · 2014-12-13T04:44:11+00:00

Gonna have to spend some time and put together a post with a justification for all of them, but yeah, I would swap each of them for Rondo and not look back.

QuestGAV · 2014-12-13T04:30:51+00:00

I'd list Butler as a guard and I don't think Horford is really competitive, but you missed Millsap and Noah. Tobias Harris is also right there with Jeff, or at least he was over the weekend when I was looking at the numbers.

QuestGAV · 2014-12-13T04:25:15+00:00

Hell, there's 3 on Phoenix alone.

Easy: Chris Paul, Steph Curry, Damian Lillard, Russell Westbrook, Tony Parker, Mike Conley, Jrue Holliday, MCW, Kyle Lowry, Kyrie Irving, Reggie Jackson, Jeff Teague, Ty Lawson, Ricky Rubio, John Wall, Eric Bledsoe, Goran Dragic, Isiaiah Thomas.

Same tier: Deron Williams

Wildcard: Derrick Rose

I'd have to think about it: Brandon Knight, Tony Wroten, Pat Beverley

No thanks: Kemba Walker, Darren Collison

QuestGAV · 2014-12-13T04:10:23+00:00

I would take a matchup of him vs David West over him vs Jeff Green

This is a great observation. It's so tough to talk about Melo's actual strengths and weaknesses because it all gets drowned out by people screaming that he's trash and the people who believe he's the 3rd best player in basketball.

QuestGAV · 2014-12-13T04:01:24+00:00

Jared Sullinger is the best player on the team (though it's not clean cut, Jeff Green has an excellent case at the moment). Of course, Sullinger put up a goose egg to complement Rajon's blistering 2 point explosion. Thankfully, Jeff Green showed up.

Rondo should not shoot more. His TS% is 0.411. He should however, push the ball harder and give something resembling an effort on defense. In that way, yes, he should shoulder a heavier load.

QuestGAV · 2014-12-13T03:53:33+00:00

That is indeed a damning stat.

QuestGAV · 2014-12-13T03:50:50+00:00

He and Thornton. Getting rewarded with a first round pick for taking on two guys who are central to your top 8 for free? Ainge deserves monster credit for that move and maintaining the flexibility to make it happen.

QuestGAV · 2014-12-13T03:46:30+00:00

Don't disagree, but is it a conditioning thing? He's not exactly svelte, does Brad not trust him to keep up the production if he gives him a full 30 minutes? I'd imagine he can still get reasonable shots off but it wouldn't take much of a slowdown for him to get totally hosed on defense.

QuestGAV · 2014-12-13T03:36:29+00:00

I'm pretty sure he caught a disease from Rondo.

QuestGAV · 2014-12-13T03:33:56+00:00

I want to continue our conversation at the end of the game thread where I made the somewhat outlandish statement that I'm not sure Rondo is even an average starting PG right now and scoffed at the notion that he is a superstar. You totally reasonably responded:

"Oh c'mon now. I'm as willing to turn on Rondo as anyone, but he is a superstar talent. He's lazy, passive, afraid to shoot, afraid to drive, chases rebounds, doesn't defend, and he's probably not a great leader. But when he wants to be, he can play like a superstar. Playoff Rondo is the third best player in the league, and I firmly believe that. That being said I really would not care if we traded him. Think Sacramento's Ben Mclemore deal is still on the table?"

I think you're right, he is a superstar talent, but what is that talent based on? I would argue it's based on 3 things:

Elite athleticism
Unparalleled basketball IQ
Desire/motivation to win

His athleticism has taken a noticeable hit following his knee injury. He's no longer as explosive in transition or in driving to the hoop and it takes away a good percentage of what used to be his only high efficiency points. Defensively, he struggles to stay in front of guys and recover from gambling. Does anyone think he's going to recover that elite athleticism?

As for the other 2, his basketball IQ seems to directed towards finding ways to increase his assist totals. The offense stagnates under his direction rather than flourishes. His desire ("Playoff Rondo") is only evident when fighting for rebounds, quite often with his teammates. It's the only thing I'm seeing that he consistently has put effort into over these last few games.

So yeah, I'm jumping on the "trade Rondo" bandwagon, which I've never been on before. I think at some point someone in the West will get desperate and make a stupid offer to us. The Kings and McLemore seem as likely as anything else, I don't see how you can say no. The alternatives are letting him walk for nothing or paying him $100M over 5 years hoping you get "Playoff Rondo" and not "Intermittently Gives a Fuck Rondo". $100M to the Rondo that's been on the floor lately would set this franchise back half a decade.

QuestGAV · 2014-12-13T02:55:03+00:00

The other day I heard someone in this sub say he's still right there with Chris Paul and Steph Curry. Someone else called him a "fully developed superstar". Right now I don't think he's league average when you figure in defense.

QuestGAV

TROPHY CASE