Breaking into the competitive scene?

[frozenose]

So I come from a background of competitive gaming, having played 4 years of competitive CS:S in CAL Main (and 2 years of competitive SOCOM II), and competition is really where my interests lie when gaming. I just picked up HoN a few weeks ago and it immediately appeals to me as a competitive game. I was wondering if anyone had any pointers about how to get started in this scene.

At this point, I am basically an average pubber with somewhat of an understanding of how this game is supposed to be played. I read everything I can find about heroes and proper strategy and have watched just about every bit of competitive VoD material that is currently online for HoN along with some DoTA replays. I have no DoTA experience, and only two friends who plays this game seriously (others just play easy mode and kill steal).

I would appreciate any tips on how to jump in. I would like to get to the middle level of play as quickly as possible and don't mind getting destroyed in games for a while as I try to figure things out.

Thanks in advance for any advice you might have.

[Aetz88]

play play and play some more.

Although I found it to be funner to make some friends and play with them as well.

[Whitesock]

If you can get with a clan that would probably best for you, as they can teach you things and the level of playing will most likely be higher. I would recommend watching replays (especially pro level DotA replays) to see what competitive HoN is like. From my experience from DotA, I can tell you the strats and teambuilds are much different than regular pub play.

[Decency]

I'm pretty much in the exact same position. Maybe a few of us could just make a team and see how we do in scrims? I find the game a lot more fun when I'm playing with people who are doing their best to not make mistakes and not play stupidly but aren't afraid to admit it when they do. Feel free to add me if you want.

[QQCharlie]

Generally, getting into the 1800+ games guarantee a good gaming/learning experience, and you meet with the better than average gamers and gain a rep... maybe

[AndrewReily]

Honestly, at this point #findringer (in game channel) and let people know your not amazing.
Ontop of that, play with people who are better than you. Even if it just to get rolled.
I've learned more getting owned by amazing players, than I ever have crushing baddies.

Learn that there are some things with competitive that is common knowledge, I.E. who buys wards, WHERE they should be placed (50% of the wards I've seen place in pubs are bad, let's all make up %'s it's fun), which heroes are viable and WHY, and understanding that it all comes down to single fights that dictate the rest of the game.

As for actually BREAKING into the scene, it comes from a team/clan. There are some low end teams, who arn't heavy competitive wise. I'd say challange yourself and ATTEMPT to join a mid range team, it's the best way.

[Sc_0pe]

The best tip I can give you is to just keep playing with people that are better than you.
You learn from the better players and when you have learned enough, you could try moving to the next level..league/scrims/IH etc..

[Ucross]

Answer:

Play 1800+ games. Build report with some of those players. Play with them more. Get to know the top players/clans. Join a top clan. Play in competitive league.

[ASS_BURGERS]

I'm pretty much in the exact same position. Maybe a few of us could just make a team and see how we do in scrims? I find the game a lot more fun when I'm playing with people who are doing their best to not make mistakes and not play stupidly but aren't afraid to admit it when they do. Feel free to add me if you want.
me and another friend are in the same boat, we come from comp tf2 and we would be down to making a clan with you. we are average/above average in pubs

[Momo]

Watching high level VoDs isn't gonna teach you ****. Barely anything you learn in a VoD will be applicable to any game you're going to play anytime soon. Just play alot and try to weasel your way into a niche of good players.

[Brunstang]

Im in the same boat as alot fo you guys. I love the game and would love to get my skills up to comp but its difficult to find games that don't concede in 15 mins and have really bad players in them at a low PSR. I played alot of EM with some not serious freinds when I first got the game but now I wanat to get more serious. If anyone is looking to put together a clan from people like this, send me a pm on the forums or in game.

[Ales1]

lol frozenose whats up

You were in uh duck enterprises if I remember correctly back when I was on Virtuoso or Lateral, can't remember. Pretty sure we were on a team together at one point, either way good luck gettin in the comp scene over this way, it's a bit harder to find good sources of info for scrim channels in this game

[HunteR_]

Check out our tutorials

http://honleague.com/video.php?do=viewcategory&categoryid=1 (http://honleague.com/video.php)

[frozenose]

Ales! Duckphone was a good time... so long ago! I haven't talked to any of those guys in forever. Funny to run into you on these forums. You should add me and show me the ropes in this game sometime.

For everyone else responding and hitting me up with messages in game, I'm definitely interested in playing with all of you so just friend me or send me invites to games whenever I am on (normally on and off between 6-12 EST). By the way, my stats are by no means impressive and I really do mean it when I say that I'm an average pubber at this point. That being said, I don't plan to stay that way and have already improved a ton (especially in the last week or so).

[Ales1]

yeah ive been switching between this and LoL and finally decided to look into seriously finding a team for this game since I'm so bored of CS.

ill hit ya up if i ever see ya on, my names the same as here

[frozenose]

Check out our tutorials

http://honleague.com/video.php?do=viewcategory&categoryid=1 (http://honleague.com/video.php)

I have. They are awesome. Thanks for doing them

[Woony]

The thing is, most skills from playing publics wont help you in any way in clanwars. You can only progress in the competitive scene if you have loads of clan war experience. Good clans will only recruit players with loads of experience and/or achievements in the scene. But, like in CS, you are only 20% of your team, so you team has to be good, too to get anywhere.

There are quite some beginner/public player clans, watch out if you find one, or maybe even open a clan by yourself and team up with other beginners.

So, you can only progress with war experience and thats why you NEED a clan to make any progression if you want to play competitve.

[frozenose]

The thing is, most skills from playing publics wont help you in any way in clanwars. You can only progress in the competitive scene if you have loads of clan war experience. Good clans will only recruit players with loads of experience and/or achievements in the scene. But, like in CS, you are only 20% of your team, so you team has to be good, too to get anywhere.

There are quite some beginner/public player clans, watch out if you find one, or maybe even open a clan by yourself and team up with other beginners.

So, you can only progress with war experience and thats why you NEED a clan to make any progression.

That's definitely my experience with other games. In Counter-Strike, the difference between a pub and a scrim or match with your team is like night and day. That's why I figure it's in my best interest to just jump right into competitive HoN. There is certainly a TON more I still have to learn from pubbing in this game, but it can't hurt to lay down the groundwork for my competitive skillset right now.

[Woony]

That's definitely my experience with other games. In Counter-Strike, the difference between a pub and a scrim or match with your team is like night and day. That's why I figure it's in my best interest to just jump right into competitive HoN. There is certainly a TON more I still have to learn from pubbing in this game, but it can't hurt to lay down the groundwork for my competitive skillset right now.

I think if you played CS competitve before, you are pretty well prepared, cause its mostly the same in HoN. You have to teamwork and such and you have to organize games more than in a MMO like WoW, for example.

90% of the DotA/HoN players, dont play clanwars for these reasons. They are organisation-heavy, you have to take a lot of responsibility and you have to play at strict times. They either only play casual, can't play at strict times or dont like being in a clan.

[TemptedDeath]

That's definitely my experience with other games. In Counter-Strike, the difference between a pub and a scrim or match with your team is like night and day. That's why I figure it's in my best interest to just jump right into competitive HoN. There is certainly a TON more I still have to learn from pubbing in this game, but it can't hurt to lay down the groundwork for my competitive skillset right now.
There is so much knowledge that is required in this game though. I could write a book about HoN, it takes alot of playtime.

[FuzzyWuzzy]

Actually pubbing will most likely make your game skill WORSE in terms of competitive gaming. At least for me, it develops bad habits like not checking the map for ganks, not rune whoring, not using chicken because no one bought one, etc.

IF you can, get some people together and start scrimming. No Pub ****.

[Zato2022]

First of all, im a noob at hon. I?ve never played dota. Im totally new in the game, but me and my 4 friends have been playing competitive games for a while (mainly fighting games) and now wanted to try something else.

So, when we start in a new game we always read all the info avaliable, guides, watch videos, etc... All the basic stuff, I understand that this game is not easy and it can take months or years of practice to be good, what is bothering me is that I don?t know how exactly you can jump into the competitive "scene"

Afaik all that matter for competitive play is 5v5, and then you should practice with a good setup of heros.

How we could start? First i know we should play a lot of public games to get at least decent, but then how do you jump into serious premades of other 5 people?

What bothers me is that we cannot practice together because there is not a matchmaking system for groups and people dont want to play against 5 locks in publics (and I understand it)

Any input of how to improve and get there is wellcome, thx in advance:)

[Ashur]

Just create games called for example: AP 1600++ no AB

Basically, only people that want to fight an organized team will join games that don't AB (or idiots) so you should be able to have a decent match.

[Fusi]

Just get the basics down in pubs ect and also watch videos of competitive teams ect, you can learn a lot by watching people better than you. Then when you feel your ready and have 5 friends on ect go and find scrims against other teams.

Join channel: clan scrim

Ask for a low level scrim and play a lot...