Why do rage about no 'SS'?

[Tyratops]

No doubt communication is important and what not, but that's not the point, I just don't see the significant difference between checking the chatbox for warnings as opposed to checking the minimap.

[reverendball]

I try to keep it as a rule that whenever I havent seen the enemy for more then 10 secs,and I am not 100% sure that they are still in lane, I will call miss.

i do the same, but in my laziness i have always wanted an addon for this.

since the scoreboard can clearly show when an enemy hero is visible or not.

a simple timer beside each opponent with how long they have been unseen for. timer resets when they reappear from fog.

so simple, but would save so many lives imo.

rather than having to squint at the minimap and check for all the lil faces, just TAB, see single figure timers and keep rockin lane
or see double digits by their mid carry and leg it outta there asap.

[Naxcis]

IMO if you got ganked its your own fault. Map awareness is much more important than people think, not only does it keep you safe but you know when to extend or go gank due to the jungler showing up in another lane for example. Blaming it on a lack of SS is bad play and those people are only looking for an excuse for a fault on their end. Its a luxuary not a requirement

[NotValidAnymore]

I'm just glad I have a lot of friends playing LoL these days, communication is so much easier over Skype/Ventrilo than in-game chat and pings.

Though I still use pings just to show exact/approximate locations of things.

[xrayEU]

It does make it easier if you can call SS of course.. BUT you should not relay on everyone to call every time an enemy is out of sight.
A mid that clear your wave will often be in the fog for a couple of seconds, and in that time the waves reach the fog again he can be at either bot or top already.
Shit happens, keep your eye on the map and watch all lanes and you don't need to relay on other people to call it or not. It makes you a better player.

[Mascotte]

SS is the EU style of saying MIA

@ Mascotte. MIA > Missed In Action
yeah, eu /norway here.

MIA Definition / MIA Means
The definition of MIA is "Missing In Action"

Sorry couldn't resist
But yes, alot of Europeans understand it (myself included for that matter) but some dont.
And rather then explaining it every single game its just easier to adept to what other people use.
Everyone understands SS on Europe servers, not everyone understands mia.

[Tyratops]

On the topic of SS vs MIA, as an EU player I had no fucking clue what SS stood for, for quite some time. I always thought MIA was quite well known and I would have understood that (especially as it is a hell of a lot more logical abbreviation than SS). Does SS actually properly stand for something, because 'miSSing' is god damn special and god knows how that started trending.

[Hraklea]

"You must have map awareness" is not an excuse for not calling mias.
"My teammates must call mias" is not an excuse not to have map awareness.

This is a team game. Don't put your responsabilities on your teammate. Avoiding ganks against you is your responsability. Warning your teammates about ganks is also your responsability.

[Deleted]

Botlane, support spends a lot of time in bush, isn't a grave danger on its own, no need to SS/MIA.
Carry goes missing and is verified NOT to have recalled, grave danger to midlane/possible dragon/possible redsteal.

Midlane goes missing, sunnovabitch can be EVERYWHERE and usually has insane burst or CC to land a guaranteed kill, but can also just be killing your/their wraiths or getting blue. Calling SS makes players more aware and doesn't cost you anything, at least, I don't lose a single cs by typing out SS.

Top goes missing, mid in danger/your golems stolen/your blue stolen/teleports to ward on botlane and ganks the living shit out of them.

It helps, you should be able to do without, but it creates awareness which is always good. Sometimes people need to be reminded, I've seen it ever so often in WoW. It doesn't cost me anything to call out, it helps others, might as well do it. If you play on vent/skype I constantly call out missing players if they didn't just jump in the brush, and it has saved countless of others who are certainly not bad players.

[Deleted]

Main reason why I prefer SS over MIA, and I guess why most of EU uses it, is because typing SS is twice as fast as typing MIA + there is virtually 0 chance of misspell. And yes, a quarter second is enough to make a difference.

[Deleted]

Using your logic, MIA as a whole would be incorrect, since captured soldiers and civilians aren't missing in action, they're just not where their respective government/organization can track them.

And I disagree that it should be everyone's individual job to keep track of the other team's location. DotA, and its derivatives, is an inherent team game. A large part of good teamwork is good communication. Awareness is essential to winning-- awareness of what the enemies in your lane are doing (or aren't doing), and awareness of what the other team not in your lane is doing.

Military has a concept called "sectors of fire." Imagine a 180 degree arc in front of you. Instead of having 5 people watch the entire 180 arc, wouldn't it be a better strategy to assign each team member a sector of fire of approximately 36 degrees, so they can focus on any activity in that sector and trust that their allies will call for anything in their 'lane'? Hint: the answer is yes.

Seeing as how little effort it takes to call MIA/SS, whenever someone consistently does not call it, I take it as a sign that they lack awareness of their lane. If I know that my team is good on calling SS/MIA, I can afford to play more aggressively. If I know my team is terrible at calling SS/MIA, I have to play cautiously.

edit: refer to your quote. That's directly applicable to people who get defensive when they get called out for not calling MIA.
edit2: And your example is bad because it's inconsistent with the concept of teamwork.

I'm not a huge fan of being talked down to, to be honest...

OT: Edit: I draw back on my opinion about Mia. After a bit of research, it seems i'm wrong. I had misunderstood the term, my bad. "Edit end"

Secondly, it IS teamwork to call ss. Sure. Let me rephrase myself: In Single/Duo Queue, it's bullshit, because you're already aware your team is most likely bad at calling, and if they are, ADJUST. If you don't adjust, then it's a bad excuse. If i play premade, i'm always using some voice program, so there calling SS goes without saying...

And so what if my example hasn't got anything to do with teamwork. That wasn't my point. My point was "If this is broken, and you can fix it, but you decide not to: Is it okay for you to moan about it being broken?" (Hint, the answer is "no")...

edit: how is my quote directly applicable to people who get defensive? So it's defensive when i say i think it's just a bad excuse to not pay attention..?
I always call ss... But i don't expect other to call it.

[Restos3]

SS = Screenshot.
So they couldn't pick a more misleading acronym? I mean, I'm used to say MIA, but seeing as "now" is called SS makes me want to puke. If I go to a game and everyone is saying SS here and there I'm going to ALWAYS think they are talking about screenshots and probably will die a lot
But seriously. "MISS" or "MIA" was fine. Goddamnit.

[akts]

SS is the EU style of saying MIA
ALSO, if you dont call SS/MIA, your an idiot for letting your teammate die. Its your fault.

Unless your teammate is an overextending idiot, getting ganked even after SS was called.

Top dies. Types "Y u no call SS noob?", sees the previous chat message (which is ofc "SS mid"). Shuts up for the rest of the game

[Deleted]

While it's polite to inform your team of things like these, I cannot see why people depend on having others call SS.

• If they can see the chat, why can't they just simply look at the minimap?
• If I go to gank another lane, I sure as hell make sure the enemy in my lane doesn't know I am. Everybody with half a brain leave their lane with some degree of subtleness. Calling "SS" just doesn't work in this case.
• You can't call "SS" whenever the enemy is out of LoS. Many players often leave the lane to kill some jungle creeps, hide from ganks or allow themselves to leave the lane without being noticed. "SS" completely loses it's meaning.
• Everybody on your team can't run to safety whenever an "SS" is called, because your team would fall so far behind in CS and EXP. Wards are needed to be able to farm efficiently and safe no matter how well other players call "SS".

I say: If you KNOW the enemy left to gank (through wards!) - ping it. That's something anybody would notice that's actually helpful. If you know the enemy left the lane to go b or get a jungle buff - say so because that provides your team mates with useful information.

[Deleted]

While it's polite to inform your team of things like these, I cannot see why people depend on having others call SS.

• If they can see the chat, why can't they just simply look at the minimap?
• If I go to gank another lane, I sure as hell make sure the enemy in my lane doesn't know I am. Everybody with half a brain leave their lane with some degree of subtleness. Calling "SS" just doesn't work in this case.
• You can't call "SS" whenever the enemy is out of LoS. Many players often leave the lane to kill some jungle creeps, hide from ganks or allow themselves to leave the lane without being noticed. "SS" completely loses it's meaning.
• Everybody on your team can't run to safety whenever an "SS" is called, because your team would fall so far behind in CS and EXP. Wards are needed to be able to farm efficiently and safe no matter how well other players call "SS".

I say: If you KNOW the enemy left to gank (through wards!) - ping it. That's something anybody would notice that's actually helpful. If you know the enemy left the lane to go b or get a jungle buff - say so because that provides your team mates with useful information.

That sums it up nicely...

[Deleted]

the main problem with having to call SS is that people rely on it too much. if someone forgets to say SS just once it's the laners fault rather than their own for not warding or paying attention.

personally i think it's just stupid to expect someone to call SS every time they go out of LoS. half the time they go farm the jungle or go back to buy and are no threat to anyone. pings are good though. if someone sees a player definitely take a certain route, pings are great to show your team where they are. the best protection are wards and map awareness. i trust my own ability to see someone walk through a ward than i do for someone to call SS.

[Kurdiern]

Time it takes for them to type it out for you is the time it takes for you to check minimap. Just learn to not rely on other teammates. You'll get better that way.

[Deleted]

• If they can see the chat, why can't they just simply look at the minimap?
• If I go to gank another lane, I sure as hell make sure the enemy in my lane doesn't know I am. Everybody with half a brain leave their lane with some degree of subtleness. Calling "SS" just doesn't work in this case.
• You can't call "SS" whenever the enemy is out of LoS. Many players often leave the lane to kill some jungle creeps, hide from ganks or allow themselves to leave the lane without being noticed. "SS" completely loses it's meaning.
• Everybody on your team can't run to safety whenever an "SS" is called, because your team would fall so far behind in CS and EXP. Wards are needed to be able to farm efficiently and safe no matter how well other players call "SS".

Your points are contradictory. In the first dot you say that simply looking at minimap is enough to have no need for SS calls, but then you mention that just disappearance from the lane is not enough for one, that everyone can't run to safety as soon as someone is out of vision. Am I wrong or that's EXACTLY why the resident laner calls SS? Looking at the minimap only provides the information you just mentioned as redundant: that the enemy is out of LoS. It's up to you to see and judge what exactly happened, why has he left and what is the enemy's most probable course of action, then maybe call that SS. You can't expect your top to know that that fiddle did not just hit lvl 6 and is getting ready for some fun but in fact you harassed him so much he was forced to disappear.

Also, chat is much easier to follow than the map. To see that the enemy disappeared from the map I must watch, while when I notice the chat scrolling I just glance quickly to see if it's "SS" or "OMG LUCKY noob".

[Deleted]

Time it takes for them to type it out for you is the time it takes for you to check minimap. Just learn to not rely on other teammates. You'll get better that way.

Indeed. At least to some extent, that's true.
If you ever start playing with a fixed team, then this statement isn't correct... but for duo/single (Which most seem to use), this is completely true. Expect to carry. Every single game.

[openair]

I never understood "mia"... Missing in Action. I mean, the enemies aren't missing in action, they're just not where we can see them.

At least that is how it has always made sense to me.

OT: I agree. It's just a bad excuse, and it's unreliable. When you know people are bad at calling SS, WHY do you decide to use that as your way of keeping track of enemies? That's like deciding to drive a haggard car, then moan about it being old and scrapped, instead of repairing it.

And that is why you dont understand the discussion here. People dont call MIA simply because an enemy player is out of sight. The mini map only gives so much information. It doesn't tell you players health. It doesn't give you the same perspective so you can easily ID when someone is actually MIA, or just hiding in a bush, gone to heal or buy items, and is still walking back.

Out of sight =/= MIA. MIA = gone for too long to be returning to the same lane efficiently (is doing something ELSE). Either AFK, jungle, or headed to a different lane.

From this POV the mini map is the unreliable. MIA is only unreliable because the players are. If you watch the mini map and start playing defensively EVERYTIME (because you are afraid of gank) someone out of sight, hiding in a bush or behind a tower, you lose opportunity.