General DiscussionEvolution of Skill in DOTA

Recently I've seen a few different people posting about how much more skillful players in Guardian / Archon / Whatever bracket appear to be these days.

I just happened to stumble across an old Purge video from December 2015 that I think very nicely illustrates just how much the game has changed in the last 6 years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnaB58d7cX0&ab_channel=Purge

A few points to consider:

- This was a "Very High Skill" game probably roughly equivalent to Divine nowadays.
- The Meta was very different back then with a much higher emphasis on farming than fighting.
- Tri-laning was common, but only in high skill games. (I was 3k MMR back then and my teams almost never Tri-laned).

Now, even considering those points, watch this game. (It's not necessary to watch entire game obviously, just watch a bit of laning and the first few team fights).

I can't speak for Herald / Guardian games, but these days my Crusader / Archon / Legend games feel higher skill than this. (Perhaps not quite so much the Crusader average games lol).

The warding is terrible, positioning is sloppy and map movements/farming efficiency feels bad. Look at how often players are in positions on the map that look super dangerous and don't get punished for it.

Anyway a fun trip down memory lane, just looking at how much tighter and claustrophobic the river was back then makes me appreciate today's map a little more.