THR STAFF NEWSLETTER ---- ISSUE #16 ---- 07/27/10

Yasuhiko · **Posted:** 26 Jul 2010, 02:36

Any suggestions/comments concerning the THR NEWSLETTER are very welcome, don't be afraid to share your thoughts
Use the Search tags with your browser to get to a particular article. For example, The Justice Department would be [#JUST]

Table of Contents
========================================

Letter from the Editor [#LFTE]
Justice League Updates [#JUST]
Public Relations Updates [#MODD]
Justice Department Tips [#TIPS]
The Competitive Scene[#CNWS]
Signature of the Week [#SOTW]
Remember When? [#RMBR]

========================================

#LFTE
Letter From the Editor
Newsletter 16? Yasuhiko, you must have made some kind of mistake! Don't worry folks, it's not a mistake. Even the recession has hit us THR members and we've had to make a few cutbacks. Actually, it's nothing so serious. We haven't had an issue in over a month and there wasn't enough material to make volume 15, so we scrapped it and rolled the stuff into this edition!

Despite the extra time, it appears that we have a rather small update this time around as we get back into the swing of things, but it's loaded with all sorts of goodies and columns that I hope you'll enjoy. In addition to our regularly scheduled updates, we've managed to bring you a few tips, tricks and bits of nostalgia - along with news of the current - to keep you entertained. Well, I think that's all the intro I need for today, so enjoy!

User of the Week Returns!
That's right folks, you heard it here! We're bringing back an old favorite, User of the Week, and hopefully it's here to stay! With a new interviewer at the wheels, we'll be bringing you only the most private and top-secret info from all sorts of different members of the THR community. I hope you're ready for this, because I sure am! Check back next week, as we bring you an interview with Thugiife, the wizard behind the wheels in the developer's department. If you have any questions you, the community, want to ask him, please PM sgtslappy.

And, as always, if you have any suggestions for the newsletter, or would like to write for us, please PM me!
--Yasuhiko

[#JUST]

Promotions
In this edition, we have eleven new State Justices joining us: JLang129, WingXero, Yellohfelloh, kwakmiester, PHILDO9000, Verothus, FinalAllianceII, T1gs, Dr3aMCaster and SirT, as well as a returning Justice: Donkote!
Our returning State Justice- Donkote- has been recognized for his hard work, and has been promoted to Veteran State.
There are a whole lot of Federal Justice promotions this month. Please congratulate BillytheButcher, sol., Plxx, spirit_smasher, xhaunterx, KinG[oF]KinGs as our newest Federal Justices, as well as returning Federal kamikrazy!

Demotions, Resignations, Ect.
The Justice Department is saddened to announce the resignation of najib136 , as well as saying farewell to perpetualmotion, twixte, notassociated, Twilight2008, greenmagic, WombatPygmy, Ace2, Cadam2, No_One87, and ColdEnergy. We wish them all success in their future endeavors.

Game Ruining Rule Changes
The Justice Department has finally released (some time ago) a new set of rules relating directly to game ruining. The rules were aimed to adjust the penalties for some "less severe" game ruining offenses, as well as allowing egregious game ruiners to rack up more penalties. You can read up on them here.

And last, some useful links:
If you'd like to apply to become a State Justice, you can do so here. Please make sure you read all of the requirements, as well as Bluefire's post. If you have any further questions or comments please feel free to PM any Federal Justice.
And, as always, useful, common Justice Department links can be found here.
-WEEZING

[#MODD]

Promotions
We are happy to welcome iNtheorY and furious_george to the Public Relations department as our newest forum helpers! Additionaly, please give a warm welcome to two new forum admins: FroG and Yasuhiko! They have shown great determination and activity on these forums and have been promoted to Forum Admins.

Resignations, Demotions, ect.
We are sorry to say goodbye to N-Rage. He has chosen to resign after his stay as a forum helper. He will be missed, and we wish him the best of luck in future endeavors!

New Forum: Technical Support
After discussion among the staff members, we have decided to open up a new section of the forum: Technical Support. Here, you can ask technical questions and find answers for anything related to the bots, the forums, or any other THR service. Of course, this forum is still under development but we intend for it to be open to the public soon. If you have any suggestions for this new forum, please feel free to make a post.

Changes are coming...
That's right, THR. With summer in full swing, look forward to seeing more than a few updates to the entire THR website! Currently, Nyn and Thugiife are working on redesigning the main page of THR! In addition, the forum staff have been discussing an overhaul of the forums, improving the existing layout and making everything a lot easier to navigate for both long-time members and new users! I hope you're all looking forward to seeing some changes, such as improvements to our suggestions forums and the opening of the Technical Support forum. If you have any feedback about the changes as we get to them - or have a suggestion on what to change - PM an Overseer, a Forum Admin or make a post about it in the suggestions forum!

The lag is fixed!
Recently, THR users have been experiencing incredibly bad lag while using our service. Turns out, this was due in part to the fact that we had begun banning for inactivity, which drove up the number of people on the banlist by 600%. This was causing too much strain on our servers every time a user joined one of our games. In response, we have improved the code on our bots to smooth things out and work our magic to stop the lag. We're sorry for the inconvenience this has caused!

--Yasuhiko//Dsmk

[#TIPS]
Justice Department Tips
Welcome to the first edition of Justice Department Tips! It is my hope that through this section players can help their own bans and appeals become processed faster with just a few simple steps. In this and next issue, we will be focusing on...

The Tier 2 Ban Request Format
If this post is followed correctly, along with the next Newsletter 17 article, it can prevent any ban request from being rejected solely from format. With our Summer Interns (New State Justices) desolating the T1 Ban requests, these tips will help speed up the T2 Requests to the point where all bans may be processed within the same day.

Tip 1, Ban Titles:
When dealing with titles always remember, the shorter, the sweeter. For instance, instead of saying, "TitusAndronicus and Haunter Improper Forfeit and Gameruining" or "Mutiple Players, Multiple Offenses" simply write, "TitusAndronicus, Haunter [FF, GR]". Each title should only have the player(s) name and abbreviated offense(s). Inside the ban request is where you add all the detail. This change is not solely visually enhancing, but will also result in less bans being rejected by format and a faster handling of bans. The following offenses and abbreviations are listed as follows:

Leaving [L]
AFKing [AFK]
Game ruining [GR]
Forfeiting [FF]
Disconnecting [DC]
Plug Pull. [PP]
Flaming [F]
Spamming [S]
Maphacking [MH]
Multi-Boxing [MB]
Misc. [M]

If you forget any of the abbreviations for the offenses feel free to come back to this newsletter or go to THR's Rules & Regulations page- written by our Chief Justice, BlueFire.

Tip 2, Times/Instances:
Remember, with AFKing (Less than 5+ min), Forfeiting, and Game Ruining you must provide specific times of the offense (make sure to specify game or replay time) and for Flaming and Spamming you must provide the specific instances.

With your help the Justice Department can run at an optimal level. The burden of proof lies on the plaintiff so make sure to represent yourself well. Keep the format proper and happy banning!

-TitusAndronicus

[#CNWS]
Pro DotA news
Have you ever been curious about what goes on outside of our little bubble here at THR? Let’s take a step away from our Tiered games and look at a more exclusive spectrum of dota – The Competitive Scene. A lot goes on in the competitive scene of dota, so we are going to look at two cash prize tournaments: SECS and ESWC.

ESWC
After much anticipation, the largest dota tournament to ever take place- the ESWC- recently concluded. ESWC featured a 14,000 dollar cash prize pool and 16 teams, including Nirvana.giga.us (Formerly Nirvana.int), MyM, Aeon, Online Kingdom, Ehome, among others. ESWC broke the tournament into 4 groups, placing two top tier teams in each bracket and two lower tier teams in each bracket. A lot of these Round 1 games were one sided, but no one can refute the near flawless play coming out of the best teams in the world. If you are interested in looking at some games from the first round, I would strongly advise you to watch the match between Team BG & Aeon. The lower seeded Team BG team pulled out one of the most innovative push strats to ever set foot in a dota game to thwart Aeon, who was one of the tourney favorites. However, when it came down to who was advancing on to the next round there were no surprises – the top ranked teams from each group moved on.

As the second round began, the teams were redistributed into two brackets: Group A2 [Online Kingdom, Nirvana.Giga.us, Nirvana.Giga.My, MyM] and Group B2 [EHOME, Aeon, Lost, DTS]. Group B2 held some of the best matches, as both EHOME and Aeon were favoroed to win. Despite the heightened level of play, Nirvana.us was able to overcome their deciding match against Online Kingdown to advance into the playoffs for group 1 alongside MyM. This round's highlight would have to come from the action-packed 75-minute match between Nirvana.us and DTS.

In the semifinals, Nirvana.us was matched with favorites EHOME, while MyM faced off against DTS. With their 7th consecutive win, EHOME secured a spot in the finals, where they would be matched with DTS. With the final rounds underway, MyM managed to eliminate Nirvanna.us while EHOME was once again able to pull off a resounding win with some fantastic picks and even better team play. DTS then defeated MyM in a pre-championship bout for the right to face EHOME once more in the finals. In the end, EHOME was able to pick up their 9th straight win against DTS and walk away with a huge cash prize. For now, it’s safe to say that EHOME is by far and away the best team in the world with some of the most stellar team play ever seen before. The championship match can be found here: Ehome vs DTS

For some shoutcasted games of ESWC visit Dotacast.
For some more in depth analysis as well as all of the replays from ESWC feel free to visit Gosugamers.

SECS
Now then, let’s move on to something a bit more close to home – the Sunday Evening Cup Series. SECS has been going on for quite some time now- but with the help of Madmortigan and the Dotacast crew, SECS has received a 500 dollar cash prize pool. With the added incentive of cash, some new teams have stepped in to take a shot at the money and some old teams have picked up their game. SECS features a 4 week long “season” where teams are able to accumulate points based on wins. The 4 teams with the top point standings advance to the playoffs where they will face off for the 500 dollar cash prize pool.

After 4 weeks of intense and grueling match ups, 3 positions were filled. The first team to enter the tournament is Nirvana.us, who absolutely crushed the competition. With only 3 weeks participation, they went undefeated, leaving them some room to take a week off and participate in the ESWC. After the last match between PSILY and Azn, Azn was able to secure the second seed in the playoffs. The Azn players have been dominating the North American competitive scene on various teams for quite some time, and they decided to pull their talents together for a shot to win it all. In third seed, we have THR’s very own PS I Love You. PSILY was able to really step up their game these last couple of weeks on the backs of Tidesoftimes' innovative tri-lane strategies and Aui_2000’s phenomenal carry. In 4th place in the tournament we had quite a treat – a 4 way tie between GDT (Global Domination Time), Wut?, WDWUW (We don’t wear underwear), and THE GOON SQUAD. These teams were treated to their own tournament to claim the final slot in the SECS finals, and THE GOON SQUAD ended up advancing to take fourth.

The playoffs bracket ended up placing Nirvana.us vs THE GOON SQUAD and Azn vs PSILY in the first round. Nirvana.us was able to get off to a great start as they trampled over THE GOON SQUAD, while Azn was able to overcome PSILY and knock them into the loser's bracket. That left us with Nirvana.us versus Azn in the winner's bracket and PSILY vs THE GOON SQUAD in the loser's bracket. In one of the closer games against Nirvana, Azn was almost able to pull an upset but Nirvana ended up coming on top yet again. Down on the loser's bracket PSILY was able to roll their way over THE GOON SQUAD in hopes of continuing their journey. However, facing off against the Azn crew in an epic rematch they were unable to outplay them. Nirvana.us was given a 1-0 advantage going into the finals match up against Azn. Nirvana.us was able to demonstrate their dominance, and display why they were one of the well renowned teams invited to the ESWC as they crushed the Azn team to pick up $500.

For a list of the replays, official point standings, and brackets for the playoffs vist Nadota.com.
To check out some VODs of the matches when they get uploaded check out Dotacast.
Tune in next time to check out some input about the Razer Global Domination tournament, and some discussion about the impacts of the 6.68 changes on competitive dota.

-Kamikrazy

[#SOTW]
Signature of the Week
Hello THR! Here are the results of some of the most recent Signature of the Week competitions, including the brand-new Vertical of the Week, allowing our artists to experiment with a different canvas to craft from! Enjoy!

--Yasuhiko

Mini S.o.t.w 2[Avatars]
Winner: FroG

S.o.T.W. #10 [RPG's]
Teacher Tier: Ichi

Student Tier: l33t-storm

S.o.T.W. #11 [Black and White]
Teacher Tier: FroG

Student Tier: AshesLikeSnow

S.o.T.W. #12 [Weapons]
Teacher Tier: Lonely_Knight

Student Tier: L33t-Storm

V.o.T.W. #1[Freestyle]
Winner: AshesLikeSnow

-Donkote

[#RMBR]
Remember When?
Recently there has been a lot of reminiscing going on in the THR forums about older DotA versions and the nostalgia associated with them. Little did you know, the Newsletter has had this column in the works far before that! It is my honor to introduce the Remember when? column, where we take an in-depth look at some of the history and legacy of DotA Allstars!

Goblin Techies 1.0
Let's go back to a time when Icefrog was not on the scene and Guinsoo still had the reins. This segment brings us all the way to v5.36, a time when everyone's favorite hero was introduced: the Goblin Techies! Now, the Old Squee & Spleen wasn't much different from the current one in some regards, but he had completely different playstyle.

To start, he used to have average base damage so CS was actually doable. Also, melee heroes would think twice before approaching Techies, who could suicide at the beginning of the battle and take out a good number of people, only to respawn 10 seconds later to continue the push with mines! This obviously isn't possible with today's Techies, so let's look at his skills:

Goblin Techies Skills

Land Mines used to inflict 300/400/550/750 damage
Stasis Trap used to stun for 5/7/10/13 seconds
Suicide Sqaud wasn't a regular skill. Instead, he had a passive skill that would make him revive 20-80% faster!
Instead of having remote mines, the Techies sported Suicide Squad, Attack! as an ultimate (1050/1900/3800 damage) with a huge cooldown.

The beauty of 5.36 is that since every hero was "Imbalanced", it actually balanced the game quite well.

That concludes this Remember When? moment!

-Lonely_Knight

THR STAFF NEWSLETTER ---- ISSUE #16 ---- 07/27/10

Who is online