Bingo.

One of my friends was playing Nature's Prophet and Enchantress in jungle almost every game. Their account is at 3k and has a 47% winrate. I sat down and watched their replays, and their micro is phenomenal - but their decision to run these heroes every game and play them as passive farmers is costing them the game.

So I told them to pick Viper and go mid every single game, and to fight nonstop, constantly harass, deny, take last hits, rotate every 2 minutes to contest runes, look for a gank opportunity every minute after the 5th... and fight to the death in every single fight.

I told them to engage the enemy any time they had a numbers advantage, and how to drop tower aggro. They've won 7 of their last 8 games with a 22+ KDA. It's not rocket science - they had great micro but just weren't showing up to fights and their team was losing games.

As soon as I gave them a hero they couldn't run with, that they had to go balls-to-the-wall and commit fights, they suddenly started killing people left-and-right, taking towers and winning the game. Their whole mentality changed, and I suspect they'll be 4k within the month.

But that had nothing to do with a hero spam. That's my point and why I agree with your statement - the fundamental skills problems that hold people back are much more important. Many people who are sitting at sub-4k have a bad mental habit they won't let go because they don't recognize that it's what is holding them back.

My friend who was always at a positive KDA in jungle - and lost - didn't get that if they took their micro skills and beat the enemy midlaner over the head with them, they would dominate games. It's really hard to lose when you're 60 / 20 LH/D @10 and the enemy is 15 / 0. They just lose.