How to get MVP in Dota 2

Winning a Dota 2 match is already satisfying in its own right, but you’ll feel even better when you receive the gold MVP badge at the end of the game, too. Though the meaning of “Match MVP” is clear as day, figuring out how to get Match MVP in Dota 2 is a little bit of a mystery, since Valve has never shared the exact formula. In this guide, I’ll break down what MVP actually is and share what I know about how the system works. 

What is MVP in Dota 2?

At the end of every Dota 2 match, one player is highlighted on the post-game screen as the Match MVP, where they’ll receive a golden crown for their efforts throughout the match. This is the game’s way of saying, “This was the most impactful player in the lobby.”

When you do get MVP, your hero will be displayed on the post-game screen alongside three key stat lines that summarize why you were chosen. These can vary from match to match, but they tend to cover things like:

• High KDA or kill participation
• High net worth or efficient Dota farming
• Fewest deaths in the game
• Hero-specific metrics using respective abilities (e.g. Heroes Hooked as Pudge)

If you earn MVP in Dota, it’ll get added to your lifetime tally of match MVPs. You can show this off on your profile, as it serves as a nice flex for how often you’ve been “him” in your games. 

What are Honorable Mentions?

The MVP doesn’t take up the entire screen on the post-game display. Two other players are displayed as Honorable Mentions. They’re basically the runners-up in the MVP calculation – they had high impact, but not quite enough to beat the top scorer. 

Here are a few things about Honorable Mentions:

• At least one player from the losing team will be shown. Even if the game is one-sided, Dota still recognizes someone from the losing side who performed well. 
• In close matches, there’s even a chance that both Honorable Mentions are from the losing team. 
• It seems like the Honorable Mentions are calculated very similarly to the MVP system. Just think of them as the next two “highest impact scores” in the lobby. 

So, even if you didn’t snag the Match MVP title, landing as an Honorable Mention still means you did relatively well. 

How to Get MVP in Dota 2

Though the MVP system sounds pretty straightforward, it actually isn’t. It’s based on a hidden scoring system that has never been publicly shared. So, sometimes, the best performer in the game doesn’t even receive MVP honors. 

However, from years of personally playing the game, I’ve noticed some factors that heavily influence your chances of getting MVP. 

You Have to Win the Game

This is the most crucial factor. The game only selects the MVP in Dota from the winning team. So, even if you go 30/0/14 on a loss, you certainly won’t be receiving that badge. 

KDA (Kills / Deaths / Assists)

KDA is naturally a big factor. A strong KDA simply shows that you’ve gotten a lot of kills and participated in many fights without dying too much. In my experience, deaths matter most of all three. 

Sometimes, me or my teammate would be going 12/1/8 as carry and die before the game ends due to fountain diving, and wouldn’t receive the MVP award. So, if you’re looking to farm MVPs, avoid any unnecessary deaths when the game is ending. 

Teamfight Impact

Another core piece is teamfight impact and participation. To win a Dota 2 game, you’ll have to kill enemy heroes, and being a part of many kills and fights will put you as a frontrunner in the MVP race. 

Either way, participating in a lot of Dota 2 teamfights will mean your kills and assists count go up, which improves your KDA. 

Heroes Stunned (Very Important)

For some reason, Valve seems to favor heroes stunned very heavily in MVP metrics. Sometimes, these aren’t necessarily limited to stuns – other disables like roots or silences can also contribute. 

This is a big reason why some support heroes feel suspiciously good at getting MVP, even though they may have a higher death count compared to cores. 

Other (Slightly Less Relevant) Factors

There are a few more stats that do seem to matter, but generally less than the ones we’ve covered above:

• Tower Damage: I’ve seen a lot of “Tower Damage” highlights being displayed on match MVPs. So, pushing and taking objectives seem to matter. 
• Hero Healing: The best Dota 2 supports with strong heals can rack up a lot of healing numbers. You can also heal teammates through items like Guardian Greaves. 
• Vision Control: Planting wards and dewarding enemy vision can also contribute to getting MVP. 
• Hero Abilities: Some heroes are also rewarded for casting their spells effectively. For example, Dazzle’s Shallow Grave saves or Disruptor’s Glimpses. 

Best Heroes to Get Match MVP

From experience, there are a few heroes that just seem naturally tuned to earn MVP more often than others, for some odd reason. Here are some heroes you will very commonly see grabbing MVP, even with subpar performances.

Witch Doctor

You can ask anyone, and they’ll agree that Witch Doctor is an MVP machine. 

• Paralyzing Cask is the biggest contributor. Every Cask bounce counts as a “hero stunned,” so you can farm more than five of these metrics every time you land a good bounce. 
• Maledict also adds a ton of hero damage, which helps with teamfight impact and participation. 
• Voodoo Restoration also contributes to hero healing in fights.

So, in one hero, all of his spells are pretty much stacking stuns landed, damage dealt, and healing done – three big pillars of MVP scoring. 

Disruptor

Disruptor is another hero that feels strangely favored by the MVP system.

• Glimpse is incredibly huge. Repositioning people counts as a disable, and players on Reddit even reported that Glimpsing someone back to the fountain can grant you match MVP already. 
• Either way, Disruptor can farm easy assists with his spells, as they can all be cast from long range. 

This is a personal theory, but I believe the game calculates the distance of heroes you’ve Glimpsed. So, Glimpsing a hero who has just teleported from another lane could also add into MVP metrics. 

Crystal Maiden

Another surprising hero is Crystal Maiden.

• Frostbite is a spammable root and is also a harassing tool in the laning stage. These usages count as “heroes stunned,” which boosts this metric. 
• With Aghanim’s Shard or Aghanim’s Scepter, you can root way more enemies with Frostbite at once. 

Crystal Maiden is notoriously known for being one of the easiest heroes to kill. She’s slow and squishy, making her prone to dying in every fight. But, I’ve played a good amount of Crystal Maiden games, getting double-digit deaths in most games, and finding myself as the Match MVP. 

So, for those of you thinking you need to play core to get MVP, you might be wrong. In fact, the system often rewards support heroes, as shown above.