Dota and Corporate Life

Over the years of playing Dota, I have never made it into any competitions. I prefer to yell and laugh with friends in cybercafes than do harsh training for the competitive scene, hence I have never made any money out of Dota. Nevertheless, I have learned several valuable lessons from it that can be used in the corporate world.

1. Mind your own lane well: Some people never take care of their own lane; leaving the enemy to farm up and their teammate to get owned while they go gallivanting around the map trying to gang other heroes or doing god-knows what. This is usually not the sensible thing to do. One should take care of one's own lane properly before going off to others. It is the same in the office; do your work well before you help other people, for the potential gain in helping out others is not as great as the potential loss if your own work is subpar. Help only if you really have the free capacity. I know some of you are going to tell me that you use Vengeful Spirit and roam around - but think back now, how much gold does VS have at the end of the game?

2. Show up when it counts: If you play the whole game beautifully, slaying heroes and farming creeps right and left, but fail to show up when your teammates push causing your team to lose the game, everyone will forget your stellar performance earlier and revile you. It is the same with work, if you do wonderfully usually but let everyone down when a big project comes your name will go bad. Avoid this at all costs.

3. Don't neglect the small stuff: Many new players eschew small items such as Ironwood Branches or Ancient Tangoes in favor of larger, shinier items. This is obviously a mistake. In the same vein, small things like weekly status reports and technical bug fixes can bolster up your image as a conscientious worker to the bosses.

4. Establish intelligence: Pro teams always ward crucial spots to prevent opponents coming from the dark forest and whooping their asses. You never want to be surprised, whether it be in the cybercafe or in the office. How to establish wards in your company? Make friends and cultivate good relationships so that you stay in the gossip vine, this lessens the chances of people backstabbing you, and helps you catch wind of things like a new big project you can stick your fingers in, or who will get promoted soon so that you can butter her up. If you stay out of conversation, or "in the dark" metaphorically, people tend to be less fond of you, which hinders your ability to move up the ladder.

5. Always have a nice attitude: I am always polite and friendly in games, making me welcome on most teams in pubs despite my mediocre skills. Often when I lose and join the next pub game, my gracious compliments upon losing earlier causes my former opponents to tell me to join their side, unless all five are friends dammit. So if you are nice to coworkers and others you meet in the workplace or outside, including people from other companies, it is more likely that if you leave your company they can introduce new job opportunities to you.

May money and first blood flow abundantly towards you my friend.