What I Learned in 6000 Hours of Dota 2

Devon Wells
21 min readJun 12, 2020

I’m basically still a beginner.

Since 2013, I’ve spent close to 6,000 hours (250 days) playing Dota 2, hereafter referred to as just Dota. Like most addictions, it’s been filled with highs and lows. Over the years, it has made and ruined friend/relationships, cost sleep and money, caused and relieved stress, been a crutch in times of hopelessness, and taught me humility, dedication, teamwork, anger management, and more. I’ve quit the game many times and returned just as many.

In this article I answer the elusive questions:
a.) why play 6000 hours of any game, let alone one as frustrating as Dota?
b.) what could you possibly learn it?
c.) why is Dota so addictive?

And more!

Ogre Magi. Image Credit: Valve Software (Dota 2)

If your only familiarity with Dota is from the catchy Basshunter song, then let me break it down for you real quick.

What’s a Dota?

Dota is an online video game where two teams of 5 players battle against each other in a roughly 40 minute match to destroy the other team’s base AKA, their Ancient. Each player controls a hero, one of…

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Devon Wells
Devon Wells

Written by Devon Wells

They/Them | Software Dev | Chronically seeking orange juice | devon.wellsa@gmail.com

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