Hey Team 5S,

Exciting things are happing within our community!

As I am sure that many of you are familiar with in-game guides I will not go into what they are in depth. For any new members who are unsure please message me or your coach directly for an explaination.

For the initiated I will continue with the aforementioned exciting news. In case you failed to read the headline, we will be developing (in house) customized 5S builds for our community. I have nominated Ronson to the role of chief-guide writer and editor for our guild. I have not mentioned the idea to him yet, but I am positive that he will proof-read and help edit builds that other members have taken the time to put together as well.

At this point you are probably asking yourself: "why Ronson, why custom builds, and what's with the sudden changes?"

Three answers:

1. Ronson's skill, although close to on par with a few of our highest skilled players including (JW, Bloody, Killer, Kalel, Drunk, Vedi, et. al.) is the highest-ranked player within our community and I think it would be silly of us to allow his talent, passion, and skills to go under utilized. I have spoken with Ronson personally and he truly has a genuine desire to see every member of our guild develop their Dota-skills across the board. Moreover, Ronson is so dedicated to improving himself though helping the group that he has whole-heartedly taken up the Custom 5S Build Project, which I hope we can all agree is quite a commitment of time. To be clear, many of our members have the passion and the knowhow to contribute and I encourage each and every one of you to contribute when compelled to do so. Moving forward however Ronson will be our primary stategist. My hope is that the news will be received fondly amongst you all and you will go to him directly with questions and suggestions as we build our library of builds and soon strategies.

2. Custom builds cater to how we play as a team. They aren't general, canned routines; they are builds that take our limitations into consideration and leverage our strengths. Beyond a keen awareness of the specifics of what each items does, our builds will take item building to a higher-tier of strategy. Rather than building based upon someone else's out-of-context guild our aim is to develop guides that are relevant to our particular play styles and our typical team compositions. Unlocking the power of our item choices as a team will eliminate redundancies and in many cases allow our teams to farm and team fight with increased potency, which in turn will result in a more synergistic approach to the meta game. The aim is to win matches, but there is more to it than that. A culture centered and built upon sportsmanship has always been at the core of what brings us together.

3. The direction of 5S has always been to improve the play of it's members, while maintaining and encouraging an positive, inclusive, and fun atmoshpere. To that end, I have co-managed/led the group along side JW1090 (honorable mention to Austin) to grow our numbers and skill. I am so grateful for such a talented, fun, and just plain awesome group of friends to enjoy the game/eSport with. Dota has turned into more than a hobby for me. I have truly forged friendships and memories that I hope will be a part of me for my life time.

So without further adieu I am excited to anounce what I see as the next step for our group:

As it was in the beginning it was and remains our vision to continue to sharpen our skills. Here is how I see it happening: We will offer a place for new players to Dota to learn the basics of how to play. Our Novice players (sub 2000 MMR) will be asigned to a new enrolled member and coach and train them to further develop their skills. Through the act of teaching our Novice players will develop their skills and become Skilled players (2500-3000 MMR). In turn Skilled players will coach novices, hense continuing to improve though coaching and training. Our Elites (3000-4000 MMR) will coach the Skilled players and work on higher-level projects for the group. Ideally, in time we will hone our skills to the point of what we consider a Pro-level (4000+ MMR), in which case we will entertain entry into tournaments and possibly firing ourselves out for private coaching.

Ok, there you have it. I apologize if it was a bit long-winded, but I don't post very often and I had an intuition that now is the time for us to begin taking steps toward developing as a community. Please share your thoughts and feelings here or in PM.

Very truly yours,

Chrisfromnorwood

P.S.: Apologies for spelling and grammatical error since there is no spell checker on Steam that I am aware of.