Okay, so I might not even be an average Dota player (go ask Archer), but I do my homework about the game whether it’s by asking or watching commentaries or reading forums, so generally I can hold a decent conversation with more committed players. And so last Friday I was talking to my classmates Chris and Deni about Dota stuff.

I forgot what we were talking about before it happened, but I remember Chris saying that Bone Clinkz is the ultimate killer (and because I learn Dota from pro games I have a technical approach – by killer did he mean Carry or just pub game Holy Shit?), and I babbled about getting Eul’s when there’s a Tide because Cyclone is cast instantly while Ravage is not.

And then Deni blurted out something like, “Pag naka-ulti na siya, gang bang na.”

Now any bashfulness about green stuff has been erased by my time in UP, but I was amused because I thought he just had to say that instead of settling for the usual term ‘team fight’. So I bit into a what-a-term smile and said “Dude, gang bang naman.”

Chris laughed at my reaction. I don’t know if he was trying to be understanding or if he was trying to make an excuse, but he said “Haha, babae kase.” Deni, on the otherhand, got all flushed and you could hear the mortification in his voice as he explained that in contrast with team fight, gang bang is a strat where basically the whole team gangs up on one enemy hero. He turned to Chris for help, saying “Di ba GB, GB?” and Chris backed him up.

The thing that baffles me is that after playing Dota regularly for a year, constantly reading about it and watching over a hundred replays, I have never seen the term GB used ingame, unlike the related term ‘rape’ which is used all too often. Then again, maybe I don’t know it because the only thing Lawi ever calls for is a push.

In my opinion though, GB doesn’t make sense, unless it’s the carry or solo mid that you’re trying to kill. It’s inefficient as gold and XP are split, and risky since you give up lane control. But in pro games, four guys in a lane against a solo hero rarely happens because when three guys go missing, the captain (at least the prudent ones) sends a warning, and the team either pulls back or supports rush to the carry to make sure he’s not ambushed. Usually it ends up with everybody going into the fray so in the end what you have is not a GB a team fight.

Hmmm, maybe GB is a Filipino term more than a universal term, the way bottle-crow is supposedly a Filipino strat more than a universal strat.

Ah, Dota jargon. One of the reasons why I like this game so much.