Is Techies Ready For Captain's Mode?
Techies is a peculiar hero. Before his release in Dota 2 community expressed high interest in the hero, but soon after the excitement was replaced by contempt. These feelings are more than justifiable: the hero is annoying to play against and is often a liability for his own team as well. Techies picks result in prolonged games that get stuck in a never-ending stalemate, regardless of the skill level or the net worth difference.
His brief appearance in the professional scene was similarly controversial. The hero was a big part of EG’s path to victory in the International 2015, but despite allowing the crowd favorites to claim the title, many felt that it gave the American team an unfair advantage. At one point the hero became a compulsory ban against Aui_2000, severely restricting the options other teams had during the drafting stage, something easily exploitable by an accomplished captain and drafter such as PPD.
In the aftermath of TI5 the hero was first heavily nerfed and then removed from Captain’s Mode completely in patch 7.00, after receiving a major rework. The hero was unavailable in the professional scene for over a year now, with constant changes and balance fixes, and it raises a question, is Techies ready for Captain’s Mode?
Pub Stats
Techies win rate is unimpressive across the board. The hero is pretty close to the 50% in the lowest skill bracket, but this statistics decreases, as the skill of players involved increases. Getting caught off guard on regular Proximity Mines is less of an issue for more focused players, and they are also better at identifying the potential traps and knowing when to play safe. In fact, in 5k+ games the hero wins only 45% of his games.
One thing more successful Techies players have in common is concentrating on Blast Off! at level one. It is easily one of the strongest level 1 nukes in the game and despite requiring some setup to land, it can make a huge difference in the early skirmishes in lane.
Later levels are generally concentrated around Proximity Mines, with the skill maxed out by level 7. In fact, some players concentrate on Blast Off! and Proximity Mines until they max both skills out, before going for levels into Stasis Trap or the Remote Mines.
This is the general progression for most dedicated Techies players. These dedicated players also win more games than they lose, proving that the hero can be viable in a pub environment. However there is a difference between them and other hero spammers.
Techies Pickers
It is only natural that playing a single hero repeatedly will allow the players to know the hero better. For many complex or niche heroes the payoff is massive — Meepo is one of the go to heroes for climbing in the 4-5k MMR range, Broodmother still remains one of the best surprise picks that rewards continuous plays and Invoker can be a powerhouse in the right hands almost regardless of the game setup.
The reward for playing Techies well is nowhere near. The contrast is especially apparent when compared to someone like Earth Spirit. Even after a long series of nerfs, dedicated Earth Spirit players can maintain incredibly high win rates.
There are more than double the amount of players who can maintain an over 60% win rate on Earth Spirit, than there are on techies. Also, the average win rate for the top 100 players on Earth Spirit is close to 62%, while it barely reaches 60% for Techies.
This is important, because it showcases how strong the hero is at his absolute best, when played by an extremely experienced player who can utilize most of his potential. It also leads to an interesting conclusion: Techies is absent from Captain’s Mode not because he is too strong or too weak. At his best he is still weaker than some heroes and stronger than others. He isn’t allowed in the professional play because people don’t want him there.
Is Techies Wanted in Captains Mode?
Many of the recent patches to the game concentrated on making the games slightly shorter. There is more incentive for aggression and ganks, turtling is much harder and the “comeback rubberband” isn’t as powerful as it used to be. In the last several years the average length of a professional match has slightly decreased, with more intensive games.
This is the result of both balance changes and the increase in level of play. Professional scene values efficiency and the best teams are incredibly efficient with their most valuable resource: time.
It indirectly improves the viewer experience: Dota spectators get to experience more action, more frequently. And the game is still unrestricted enough in terms of heavy-handed meta changes so that there are still possible comebacks and 60-minute nail biters.
But the value of these rare 60+ minute games that everyone talks about for the next several days is their scarcity. Having 2-3 of these games in a tournament playoffs makes for interesting discussions and variety when watching the games one after another. More, and the meta starts feeling sluggish and tournament starts to become boring. On top of it, there are real-world consequences and these games in high quantity will result in a scheduling nightmare.
Techies can bring all this into professional scene. All the headache for the tournament organizers and all the unneeded boredom for the viewers. They will be picked by weaker teams against stronger opponents for the sake of having a chance to play more and potentially get more stage time and experience. They will be picked in bo1 elimination matches in cheesy strategies, potentially allowing a weaker team through to simply get 2:0-ed in their next series.
So instead of concentrating on whether Techies is ready for Captain’s Mode, we as a community should probably think twice on whether we want Techies in Captain’s Mode and maybe there is a reason that a seemingly balanced and an otherwise uninspiring hero is not a part of the professional meta.
1st!
Its been a long time
Nice reading Kawaisock,i wish you get 5k soon
Nice article. I agree that Techies can be a crowd favorite and bring in some great memes into a tournament but also feel like you nailed the last point with it being such a hassle to players, viewers and tournament organizers.
he is rdy.
I think even if he was enabled, he wouldn't be picked enough times for his impact to be a major concern.
The hero is part of the game and once some changes have been made he should be incorporated! Like any hero he has strong points and counters. The mindless techies spammers have for the most part deserted us. I miss him in CM and the groovy chaos he adds :(
Report the captain pickes techies! They have a special place in low prio. :D
I hope techies will be removed from the dota
Aeon disk counters techies
I wouldn't mind Techies being re-added back into captain's mode. I have a feeling they'll re-add him when they release Pango and Dark Willow into CM
he's ready to be deleted from the game...garbage hero design
They should focus on adding an option to share the units with their party or trusted players. One courier in a game is boring. Many players in ranked game start fighting for courier since the smallest item during the early stage or mid game is very very important.
Also I am finding dota2 getting bored. I have been playing dota since 2007 and the changes now sucks. some heros are very very strong while others are very weak. For eg: well farmed Monkey king can kill heros like Lion, CM, WD, etc by its first spell...
Hate to say to my most favorite game that made me quit all other games, but its getting boring now.
@Scientist dude many well farmed carry's kill fragile heroes like CM,Lion ... PA?
And there's lots of ways to counter all of them like playing as a bait or picking a tankier support in the first place
i think there is share option in game under hero stats panel or around, and 1 cour is there to counter cour feeding there's very little use for more than one especially later on andit being limited to one makes cour sniping more rewarding.
Great article, but I think reintroducing techies to the pro scene would make it less appealing for players, since techies is probably the most hated hero in the game. I guess you could say that I love techies after playing 105 matches as him with a 63% winrate. But there isnt a single hero which gets people more upset than the crazy trio of quee, Spleen, and Spoon. It can be a 'blast' in pubs, but more serious players usually wanna leave the game as soon as somebody is browsing heroes and accidently lands on techies, report incoming. Final thoughts; might wanna leave techies out of the pro scene for now and let them giggle their way through pubs.
@Scientist
You're playing for 11 years and don't know about the shared units option?
I have some doubts about that.
Also, the fact that you're surprised that a well-farmed carry can delete a support is a bit weird.
Sven has been able to do that since ever, as well as most carries in the game - hence they are a carry.
Techies ready to be removed
I love the argument that EG won unfairly. It's like complaining that someone threw scissors when most people usually throw rock, thus ruining your trusty paper strategy. All teams out there are attempting to find the one thing that everyone else doesn't find that cannot be beat. It wasn't the only factor that won them the title, but it seemed like something that anyone could have picked up had they thought to.
I also will put in my obligatory disagreement with the sentiment that more action means better games. Tension comes with a farming game. Too many kills means one impressive fight is a fleeting experience rather than a lasting effect on the game.
The Play was an impressive turnaround, but if it happened today it would be considered just that, not monumental.
sure why not
The "problem" with techies is that if forces your prepare for and play the game in a way that is significantly different from what is "standard". US basketball had this issue with teams that held the ball for extreme amounts of time before the shot clock was implemented. It requires teams to devote disproportionate amount of time preparing a contingent play style and strategy. That does not evolve the game in a positive way.
If he isn't included soon, then he should be removed from the game.
This feels like a low effort post. EG won because people were forced to ban techies? One ban doesn't change that much, also they let CDEC have Leshrak who was first pick first ban material at the time. In at least 2 games. And they beat it. Their TI win was much much more than techies. And the hero is underpowered currently, i play it on my smurfs and despite winning more than 50% of my games it's obvious that the hero needs some love. Whining about techies is what your common pleb does. The hero in itself is good, it changes the way the game is played, much like a tinker and i don't see people whining about tinker despite him being a lot more cancerous than techies.
With the introduction of aeon disk and pango ult, I believe that techies has more than enough counters to warrant a reintroduction of techies to the pro scene
Smurfing is lame.
This article is pretty good.
@Bobhigs
That's an interesting point, especially agree with the aeon disk. I think Sofa King is also right that the power of Techies is not what his skills do or how much damage they put out, but how much effort it takes to unlearn or add on gameplay habits. Attempts have been made to make him less one-note, but you still have him laying down three kinds of mines. It would be much better if you could at least have an expectation of where to be careful. The fact that he can lay mines down and leave the lane means you have to be careful even when he isn't there, stifling the entire map. At least with pudge you can be aware that he is around and his hook, while absolutely game changing, can't be felt in all lanes at once.
i report all techies players
Aeon disk doesn't counter techies funfucking skill. What it does in high level games is to prevent gangs, prevent blink initiation, delay pushes by killing creep waves (not heroes in high level), also makes supports poorer, escapes easier as none wants to chase you...
It's like a shit mermelade goo that sticks to the game and slows or negates everything that is fun. Remove mines activation far away from techis, increase mines placing coldown and lower mana cost, remake remotes and then we may start talking about not removing techies from games.
mne pohui
its stupid to remove a hero from competitive play cuz teams don't know how to play against him!
techies is deffinitly ready for CM. Not only there are several Counters and Counter-items for the trio, the number of those possibilitis has increased with WK, Pango and Aeon Disk. Im currently on ca 60% winrate with techies, but i dont think he would be in the wrong place in CM. The only difference from Techies to other supportsis,th at techies are deffensivsupports , sealing one lane of free room for their carry to farm. I think they are an excelent tool in the Hand of every teamfight-based draft.
It's time to delete Tech from Ranked.
yea just remove the hero from ranked games :)
Im still waiting for game to die
I have a remake suggestion for techies that might be trash but i'm ganna post it in leddit.
I have an idea. Remove techies from all game modes.
Techies is ready for captains draft if they wish to kill the game. Techies isn't even ready for ranked.
otlichnaya idea
It is captains mode ready for sure. Is it tournament ready? Well, idk.
After all the changes, techies is in a good place. It requires more skill to have an impact, and it feels fair, when playing against it.
ready for report
i came here to whine about a hero i dont like. did i come to the right place?
The Techies are ready for their comeback.
The haters are trembling, the techies pickers rejoice.
The controversy is massive, the debate rages on.
Next TI will be a blast
techies are completely ready to return, in addition to having an impact on this hero you need a lot of experience (Hate is trembling)
who the hell cares?
put techies in CM :VVVVV
Techies are too much of opposite extremes. They can be incredibly annoying or absolutely useless depending of the player capacity. I usually don't like when people on my team pick techies since it means to usually play a 4vs5 game where a team with good synergic heroes can easily overcome 4 heroes in a teamfight despite taking some kills here and there as long as they are able to meet the other team on their terms. I would like to watch a big game played with techies, I wouldn't like to play myself a game with techies. So in order to not make other players life miserable, I say for the moment no techies in CM
I think techies should not be in CM because he WILL cause scheduling conflicts - agree on that point 100%
Hero is obnoxious and should actually just be removed from the game entirely.
This is gonna be fun! Ha ha ha!
Everyone who is crying because a hero has diversity minus well go back to LoL... Diversity across heros is what makes Dota 2 dynamic and a great game. If we don't want diversity then lets get rid of all of it and trash the game... starting with Tinker (20x more cancerous). Then we can follow up with Zues, AA, Spectre. Learn to appreciate dynamic in the game and adjust to it. Techies is nerfed to crap and people still complain about him. He adds dynamic to the game and if you can't deal with dynamic then this game probably has too much dynamic for you and probably outta go play something easier...
Actually, since Techies ban from Captain's mode the game has been on the decline in average number of players active. Which only means one thing, Techies is dota.
funny how the article says it is harder to pull off tevhies the better ypur opponent is, then assumes every weaker team will abuse him to get an edge vs better teams
50th 4Head