Grill'd

It finally happened to me - the reason I was inspired to start my Dota 2 experiment in the first place. I got grouped with someone who thinks girls are bad players.

Dotabuff: https://www.dotabuff.com/matches/3574096046
OpenDota: https://www.opendota.com/matches/3574096046

Unfortunately, I wanted to get both of my accounts to roughly 4000 MMR before starting my experiment, so I hadn't started recording yet, and I wish I had, because a lot of the stuff was said over voice chat.

As you can see from the post-match screen, the enemy team's Huskar player was called: ♥DotaPrincess♥. Just before 5 minutes into the game, our Spectre asks Huskar if he's a girl.

Overall all chat log (open dota can't access teamchat, only all chat):

Pudge asks how Spectre knows that Huskar is a girl. Spectre replies, "Because girls are bad. Do you know any girls who are good at the game?" Pudge replies that he doesn't know any girls, but adds that he doesn't know any girls who are good either. Clockwerk, Mirana and I don't say anything.

Admittedly, I didn't play my best, and missed an easy gank, and later, Spectre asks if I'm a girl. I thought about whether to reply. I'd already messed up a couple of fights. Chances are, I was going to make more mistakes in the future, and I think I was the lowest rated person in the game (the game only tells you the highest rated person, and there was a decent gap between my MMR (3.9k) and Spectre's, which was I think 4.3k).

I could have told the truth. Any mistake I made would be magnified, and possibly even make it to all chat so the other team would also know how much my teammates had to suffer by having a girl on their team. But if I played well, maybe it'd show them that not all girls are bad at the game.

I could have lied. Nobody would have any evidence to counter my claim, the game would move on, nothing would change.

Instead, I chose to say nothing. Well, I didn't really choose, as such. I felt myself getting angry, because he was obviously insinuating that I was bad by asking if I was a girl, which was stupid, because we just won a teamfight, 4v5, losing only Pudge, and taking out everyone on their team except Sniper. I wasn't playing that well to begin with, and if they started flaming me, I didn't think I would be able to keep a positive focus. I spent too long trying to think of a response, so the moment passed.

Their attention shifted to Mirana instead, though it didn't stop this:

(I had Aether Lens and Glimmer Cape.)

Anyway, I've been making lots of excuses not to start the experiment in earnest, because I was starting to feel like I wasn't going to find a result. Maybe I play too many games in a party.

It was this last stupid comment in the post-game chat that made me feel fired up about doing my experiment again.

This should actually make me feel more fired up about getting better at the game. Maybe that's a more productive use of my time.

Normally I'd try and blur out people's names to protect their privacy, but you can find it in Dotabuff / OpenDota anyway.