Dota 2 is a game of complex choices,
thanks to the countless interactions between hero abilities and items.
Now, just one of those abilities can be the difference between winning and losing a team fight.
And when it comes to the big leagues, even the pros mess up sometimes.
So with The International coming soon, we thought this would be the perfect time to bring you the top 10 misplays in Dota 2.
We thought we'd kick off our list with a player that is known for his unfortunate mishaps Eternal Envy.
Squaring off against PD during a qualifier for the Boston Major 2016, Envy decided that he’d try to solo Roshan.
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And it went exactly as you thought.
Envy was furiously trying to strike down Rosh before the enemy team could rotate and kill him.
But with only a sliver of health left on the Rosh,
the last swipe of its claw killed Envy, and the enemy team even got a chance to kill him.
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Talk about a rough day at the office.
Sometimes in esports, a play is so bad that it immortalizes the mitsake for years to come,
which is why one of Dota’s most famous examples of this comes in at number nine on our list.
During a match between CLG and M5 during The International 2’s Group Stage,
M5’s PGG tried to land a blackhole to swing a fight in his team’s favour
and, well … he quite literally missed everyone.
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From that moment on, whiffed blackholes would be forever known as a “PGG blackhole.”
At the core of most catastrophic misplays, is simply a lack of communication.
And nothing illustrates that more than our number eight misplay
OG were ganking LFY’s Batrider as Ana popped his Omnislash on Inflame to secure what should have been an easy kill,
knowing his teammates were nearby. Unfortunately, JerAx was on another page,
and popped his Eul’s to hold the Batrider in place which cancelled out the damage Ana was hoping to deal,
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In the end, Inflame was able to pop his BKB and get away safely.
During a TI5 match between Virtus.pro and Complexity, Swindlezz taught us an all important lesson about dropping your items, just don’t do it.
Our number seven misplay is that fateful moment when Swindlezz dropped his Eul’s Scepter
in an attempt to eke out a little bit of extra mana to fight with.
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That unfortunate play marked the end for Complexity’s run at TI 5.
During the finals of ESL One: Hamburg 2017,
Secret had their backs to the wall against Virtus.pro and needed to pull off a big play to get back in the game.
So Fata hit a 2-man reverse polarity on both of VP’s carries
and midone sent 3 remnants to the enemy’s location in the hopes of dishing out huge amounts of damage.
At least that was the plan.
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What actually happened was a bout of miscommunication that saw Fata skewer the enemy stack,
midone miss his ult, and their chance at pulling off a comeback come to a less than dramatic end.
Everybody knows just how good Universe and Evil Geniuses were at their peak.
But as our number five misplay proves, even the mighty are sometimes humbled by some sloppy play.
And that’s exactly what happened at 2017’s Kiev Major, when Zai made this catastrophic blunder on IO
Zai used his ultimate to teleport Universe’s Legion Commander in for a gank-attempt which by all accounts is expert usage of the two heroes’ ultimates
that is until Zai forgot to untether from Universe transporting him back to his original location and his sudden death.
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OG would go on to beat EG 2-0 and eliminate them from the major.
Simply put, the ESL One: New York qualifiers in 2015 were not kind to funn1k.
He whiffed on not one,
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not two,
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but three Enigma ulti's
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to cost his team a chance to play on the big stage in the big apple.
Team Liquid’s run at TI 7 was a historic moment for both the organization and for Kuroky.
But our number three misplay should remind you that things could have gone differently if it wasn’t for a major blunder from Newbee in game number 2.
Taking on TL in the grand final, Newbee were ahead and making a high ground push looking to get on the scoreboard
but after a blown Kpii ultimate, things started to go downhill for the Chinese squad.
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Linken’s Sphere gobbled up the ulti from Kpii and Newbee would immediately lose rax
because of this mishap which would eventually lead to their loss of the second game.
At this point Newbee simply could not stop Liquid’s momentum, losing their chance at the Aegis of Champions.
During the 2015 Asia Championships Team Secret and Cloud9 were locked in a heated playoff affair.
But, as Cloud9 looked to be taking control — things got a bit awkward to say the least.
Essentially C9 collectively forgot that they didn’t have any teleports available
and Secret were happy to sneak up behind them and decimate their barracks before the boys in blue could react.
There’s, just nothing more to say about this one.
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Here it is, the bummer of the ball, king stinker, the worst Dota 2 misplay of all-time.
And well, I bet you probably saw this one coming, it's Kyxy’s Aegis Deny at The International 3 in 2013.
In Game 3 of the Lower Bracket final Na’Vi was facing off against Orange
and, well Orange was rolling over them. They were able to snowball some early team fights and set up to take Roshan.
Then it happened.
Kyxy denied the Aegis of the Immortal from Mushi and Na’Vi saw an opportunity to pounce.
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In what was the biggest mistake in TI history, the Europeans managed a crazy come from behind victory.
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