How to rank up quickly in Dota 2 over the holidays

The holidays are the perfect time to rank up in Dota 2.

In between all the Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and New Year’s festivities, there’s tons of free time to play your favorite game. Dota 2’s player base surges during the holidays, which means lightning-fast queues and lots of returning players who might just be a bit rusty.

That means that right now is the perfect time to grind some MMR. Here are three tips to rank up fast over the 2021 holiday season.

Find a consistent Dota 2 team

It may seem obvious, but playing in a full team has several advantages that will make it way easier to gain MMR over the holidays. You can coordinate drafts, plan farming patterns, and guarantee consistent calls and communication. It also guarantees that no one will run down mid after a smoke gank goes awry.

The best kinds of five-stacks are people you’ve played with for a long time. If you don’t have a consistent playgroup, look for players around the same rank in regional Discord servers. The weekly Dota 2 subreddit battle cup team thread is another great place to find teammates. If all else fails, solo queue and invite good players to join your team.

Find the best heroes with online tools

Ranking up in Dota 2 over the holidays is so much easier with a good hero. 

The easiest way to judge the meta is to head to the Dotabuff win rate page. Sort from top to bottom and look for the heroes that match your preferred position. Try to stick to around four heroes to rank up quickly. There’s nothing worse than getting all your heroes picked or banned. Even if the draft doesn’t perfectly suit your pick, it’s best to play someone you’re familiar with instead of reaching for the optimal pick. 

This strategy doesn’t guarantee a win every game, but it will allow you to quickly improve and raise your win rate over time. Remember that you don’t need a 100% win rate to rank up quickly. Just 51% and time do the trick, and the holidays give a lot of free time.

Dota Plus is pay-to-win, abuse it to rank up over the holidays

Dota Plus started out as a fairly simple way to enhance the experience. Tracking hero levels with custom voice lines is plenty of fun, but the service has evolved well past its origins. Now Dota Plus will give you stack times, pull times, item builds, It also shows you exactly how your expected win rate changes during the draft phase. Dota Plus is almost inarguably pay-to-win, which makes it a necessity for ranking up quickly in Dota 2 over the holidays.

The most cost-effective way to pay for Dota Plus is to outright buy a year for $41.99. This gives a 12% discount over the standard monthly price. If you only plan to use the service for the holidays, a single month can be purchased for $3.99. That’s a small price to pay for MMR, and your Christmas gifts should more than offset the cost.