Quite the opposite actually if the ping difference exceeds the normal human reaction time. That’s not to say that larger ping differences that are commonplace in EU vs US matchups are negligible though.
According to the data, the ping differences for online versus offline competitions is simply too small in most cases to cause a significant change in gameplay that favors particular heroes or playstyles. This supposition is supported by data from the website HumanBenchmark, which through 6.5 million tests using it’s own reaction time test, determined that the average (median) reaction time is 215 milliseconds, with only 0.1% of testers reaching a reaction time higher than 130 ms. Furthermore, the difference in playing at 150ms ping versus 20ms may very well be too small for the human body to capitalize upon. This may come as a shock to many that would believe it to be much easier to hit skill-shots on LAN, but the possible explanation is a fairly obvious one: your enemy benefits from the decreased latency as much as you do, making juking easier. According to this data Jakiro benefits most of the three from being played in low ping conditions, but even then only 1 in 62 Ice Paths that would miss online would hit on LAN, and that difference is not even statistically significant. Percentage of each spell hit offline and onlineĪs you can see, more skill shots do seem to be hit when on LAN, but the difference is negligible. (Data prior to Jakiro’s Ice Path formation time buff was not included.)
They were Jakiro’s Ice Path, Clockwerk’s Hookshot, and Leshrac’s Split Earth. Consequently, I decided upon three abilities from regularly drafted heroes over the last year that showcase this reliance on having reading the other team quickly and with precision. I believed that looking at abilities with long cast or travel times would give the largest disparity between on and offline play due to their heightened dependence upon timing and foresight. Specifically, I wanted to see if one of the biggest reasons why LANs are placed on a pedestal - negligible ping - actually affects the accuracy of skill shots. Therefore, what I decided to do was dig a bit deeper to see if I could find a root cause for this perception and not just the outward display.
For example, a team might have a bad record at a LAN simply because they weren't better than the competition, not because they perform poorly on LAN.
The largest of the reasons being relatively small sample sizes and polarized win rates due to the higher concentrations of talented teams. Whether or not that is the true reason they were selected, the popular opinion being what it was is very important, as it showcased just how much the community believes LANS are truly a different beast compared to playing online.īut is that truly the case? Sure, the fact that pings are reduced is not debatable, but do teams actually perform differently when playing at a LAN? One route I considered to analyze this was simply comparing teams records when on and off LAN, but there are multiple problems for doing so. By upsetting Na'Vi en-route to taking 2nd place at TechLabs March LAN, they had proven they could both successfully travel to a LAN, and play good Dota while offline as well.
When the International 3’s qualifier teams were announced, many believed iCCup was chosen to compete over other teams, including Kaipi (now Speed Gaming), due to the fact that iCCup had successful LAN experience. Apologies in advance for the lack of explosions. Well, put a black beret on my head and horn-rimmed glasses on my face because I am now channeling the MythBusters to whether some points of this argument hold any water. According to many, players play faster and better without ping issues making skill shots easier to land, teams enjoy being in the same room, and the best teams always bring their A-games. We have all heard it innumerable times before, "LANs are just different".