Tales Of A Video Game Addict: DoTA Allstars - Pudge The Butcher

I've changed all the names in this story to protect the privacy of my fellow DOTA players

Sal is playing Puck in the center lane.

He's been having problems with an enemy Bane all early game and neither have been able to make a kill. Meanwhile, I've been playing Pudge the Butcher mostly in the forests and running fairly uselessly from lane to lane.

Rather than type in chat, when we played DOTA we were close enough to just yell out strategies.

My roommate in freshman year was from Hong Kong, and he introduced me to his friends directly across the hall from us and directly next door to us. I became fast friends with all of them and together we would spend countless hours playing DOTA.

Tim and Nick's English was excellent, so they could get into strategic detail with me. Jimbo spoke broken English, but still well enough that I could mostly understand. Sal's english was pretty limited.

From the room next door, I hear Sal yell out "David. Gank mid!"

"Got it!" I respond, as though this this was nothing at all and victory was assured.

Pudge's chain was quite long and could cut through the forests on the map. The result is that you could send a chain out from an area covered by the fog of war and suddenly drag an enemy into your territory.

I set up shop in a nook of forest on our side of the map near the central point of the middle lane, pressed the Meat Hook ability button and brought up the targeting line. There was Bane, at half health and overplaying his hand. One good hook and I had this guy dead to rights.

I wiped my hands on my pants to get rid of the sweat and then hovered the mouse cursor around Bane as he juked through the middle lane. Pudge's hook did not shoot out instantly, the player had to time the shot perfectly, making sure to lead any moving targets appropriately.

For an instant, Bane stood perfectly still and I struck. I clicked and the hook shot out. My aim was perfect! The hook shot directly at Bane, dead center, and he must have looked away from the screen for the moment because he didn't move at all. I prepared for the exultant victory.

But the hook stopped maybe a centimeter away from Bane and then came back to me empty. I misjudged the range by a few centimeters.

"FAI CHAAI!" Sal's Cantonese curse rings out from his room next door, followed by groans from the rest of my team. Just another game of DOTA.

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When we played DOTA in college, the whole floor of my dorm building knew it.

My roommate Nick opened my eyes to the DOTA experience. Nick, Sal, Tim and "Jimbo" would play for hours and eventually I caught on and learned all about it. These were all American names they took on when they emigrated from Hong Kong.

Despite years of playing video games compulsively, I almost never played with anyone else, until DOTA. I'm assuming anyone reading this already knows what DOTA is, so I won't go into a whole precursor explanation.

Anyway, they had four players between them, and I had a good PC build at the time, so they invited me to join their team. So began the most consistent period of social video gaming in my life.

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Tim was playing as Earthshaker.

He's waited in hiding for an enemy Meepo to pass too far into our territory and jumped out at the last moment to ambush him. Tim lays down an impassable damaging mountain of earth and begins wailing on the enemy Meepo.

From across the hall he yells out "David, cut off his escape!"

I respond with my usual calmness, while my hands start sweating again. "I got it!"

They're fighting in the bottom lane. I move myself down to the river the cuts the map in half and wait there in the shadows in case Meepo escapes Tim and comes this way.

Somehow Meepo does just that! Tims Earthen barrier falls and Meepo makes a break for it with only a qaurter of his health left.

Tim gives chase - "He's coming!"

"I see him!" I bring up my hook's aiming reticle.

Tim is right behind Meepo and he manages to put down another earthen barrier, this time at an angle, which forces Meepo to divert towards me and brings Meepo's health down to almost an eighth.

Now Meepo is coming almost right at me, Tim right behind him. I aim my reticle and line it up perfectly. I wait until I know he is in range, and then I click.

The hook goes out just as the earthen barrier falls - Meepo manages an amazing juke, which brings him right into Tim, who literally started the smashing animation that would kill Meepo when my hook hit Tim, dragging his character to me uselessly into the river and allowing Meepo to escape.

"TĀ MĀDE NIĂO!" Tim yells, followed by more groans.

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My teammates were awesome

Each of them were super capable gamers, and they would make a gameplan before each game. Sal tended to prefer highly technical heroes - Goblin Techies, Meepo or Puck for instance - with complex abilities that were hard to perform well, but very powerful in Sal's adept hands.

The rest of the gang tended to take up specific roles - Tim was generally an assassin, Nick was support, and Jimbo a tank. No matter which character they chose, they were great.

Unfortunately for all of them, I was terrible. Playing DOTA with me was like playing with an AI built by a seven year old. Since I usually sucked pretty bad anyway, I tended to be a wild card during character selection. But for awhile I took a liking to Pudge the Butcher.

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Pudge is that monster at the top of this post

He was sort of a ganker/tank combo and his skills were pretty awesome:

• Meat Hook - Pudge shoots out a hook that grabs the first character it encounters - friend or foe - and drags them to Pudge.

• Rot - Pudge starts rotting, leaving a gas plume that slows and hurts enemies, as well as hurting Pudge

• Flesh Heap - Pudge becomes resistant to magic and gains strengrh for every hero killed by or near Pudge

• Dismember - Pudge eats an emeny, disabling and damaging them for 3 seconds.

This assortment of skills made Pudge an absolute beast in skillful hands. In my hands, it made Pudge into the most annoying player on the field.

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Nick was playing as a healer and he was in trouble.

He and Tim had been ganked - Tim was killed and Nick was near death and running for his life down mid.

"Need help mid!"

I was just done healing up, so I was returning to the field anyway. I went mid to get Nick out of there. "I'm coming."

Four enemies raced after Nick, right on his tail. We had no more defensive towers, so my plan was to drag Nick forward with the hook and get him ahead of the enemy.

I set up right in Nick's line of retreat, aimed my hook and fired.

It really should have been an easy shot, but somehow I missed by a milimeter to the right, and instead of dragging Nick to safety, I dragged one of the enemy assassins way in front of Nick.

"WÁNGBĀDÀN! Seriously?!"

I didn't have time to apologize before Nick was killed - as was I a few seconds later when I tried to defend him. I just looked over and shrugged.

Those were Good times.

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Photo Source -
[1]http://dota-best-hero.blogspot.com/2009/07/pudge-butcher.html?m=1
[2]Dota Utilities
[3]Dota Zine