You have to understand that your team mates are humans. They would really commit errors. Don't shout at them pointing out how bad their move was. Instead, be the technician of that action. An example was when my team mate who was our key to winning a clash was ganged and killed. Because of that death, the enemies are ready to push our mid lane. I told them to give the tower while I destroyed the opponent's TOP tower and barracks.

A simple "gj" (good job) means a lot for a player. They know that their good deeds are appreciated inspiring them to do more good things in the game. The main reason for this is that you're giving them confidence and we all know that confidence is a very important factor in any sport.

WTF? Yes, say "g" before fighting. This makes them feel that you are confident that you can win the fight. This is one magical technique in boosting your team's power. This is like the battle cry of prehistoric wars. These battle cries aren't made for nothing. Not only that it is a confidence booster but it also informs the whole team that everyone will now be fighting. Thus, they won't hesitate joining the war because of this.

Scared captain? What more do you expect from your team? Being a captain, you are the one they should be looking up to. You're the role model. Once you accept that you're scared at the other team, you are not trusting yourself as well as your team mates.

Once your team mates see how well you're doing in the game, they will be inspired to do well too. Also think of the best ways to make the game easier for the team. Pick good heroes, roam if needed to help other lanes, dominate your lane, farm your items quickly, etc.

Since the team is your ship, you can learn to care more about your team. If fights among your team mates occur, take the initiative to fix it. If there are weaknesses on your team, work hard to turn them into strengths. You should find a way to always have a healthy team and aim to have the best team.

Captains know this from the bottom of their hearts. Their pride comes from the ship first before them. Even how young and unpopular their ships are, Captains are proud of them. This is the same thing with DotA Captains. Good leaders are proud of his team no matter how low others look at them. They also don't aim to be popular by himself; he aims for the pride of his team. A good team corresponds to good leadership of a captain.

Great Captains, having the most knowledge on water, direct the best path for their ships. They clearly tell their plans to provide smooth journey for the ship. A Great DotA Captain should also be clear with his plans and be transparent to his team, no secrets or laziness to explain. DotA Captains are the ones responsible for the strategy of the team and he shouldn't be a lazy type Captain at this point. Smooth flow of strategy comes firstly from the clarity of the plan to the whole team then execution and practice are next.

Ship Captains would do everything to defend their ships, may it be from natural calamities or external opponents like pirates. Great DotA Captains wouldn't let anyone beat his team without fighting and defending. They may win or lose but the Captain won't be hiding like a chicken in a cage. He would be all around the ship giving instructions based on his professional knowledge and strategic wit. He would be there to fight.

Great Ship Captains, who fought so hard for their ships then end up losing and people are evacuating from them, preferred to be with their ships and die. Some will think this is foolish but looking deeper, you cannot blame them. They loved their ships so much and they cannot afford looking at it sink from a lifeboat. This is a sign of his high respect for the ship he commanded.

A Great DotA Captain won't leave his team no matter what happens. He will be with his team through thick and thin. He will do anything to make his team the best team ever and won't abandon them to have an easy life through joining other teams.

 
Burning/AAA: Captain of DK (The 2011 DotA team World Champion)

Before the start of the game, start by giving them a phrase they can run into their minds that gives them confidence. For example, "We are a complete team, we have good carries, supports and we got good team chemistry" or "We practiced for enough time already, we should just execute it again today." Those phrases will be stuck on their minds before playing rather than negative thoughts that would make them nervous. 

Once the game starts, tell them what are their advantages against the opponents. On their lanes, for example, tell them that they have stronger combo than the opponents (if it's true) or you can tell them that they can easily survive opponent's attacks but they should have enough mana. Tell other things if these things aren’t related but ever lie to your team mates. They would lose their trust on you and your words won't have any effect on them anymore if you do. 

Praise them when they do well. You can say a simple "good job" or you can tweak it to make it more personal. For example: "That was a perfect timing." Complimenting isn't bad if it's true. Most players though they appear to be confident enough already still need affirmations.

Be humble to thank them if they saved you. Thanking them doesn't make them feel like robots made for destruction. Once they saved you and you said "good job", it's like saying "it's your role, you've done it well robot." Know when to praise and know when to show gratitude.

When they come to gank your lane, do your best not to waste their ganks. When they are trying to dominate their lanes and you see they're about to lose, teleport and help to make sure they win. Don't let them feel that they're efforts are useless because they would be lazy or afraid to do those things again.

They would normally commit mistakes because they are only human, just like you. Once they made errors, think of the best way to minimize the disadvantage for the team and don't whine on them. Once, our main carry had a crucial death being ganked, I know they can destroy middle lane though we defend 4v5 so I told them to give the middle lane. I, then, destroyed their top lane. This is one of the best strategy to defend a push. You have to make them choose to push or defend other lanes. When one of them teleport top, I'd teleport back to our base and we would fight 4v4 with them.

One way to remove their anxieties is to let them enjoy. I often talk to the heroes on my monitor commenting on my opponents’ moves and making it funny. They would see me so relax and they would be too. I've tried this so many times and it's really effective. Once your team mates are relaxed, their minds will be clear enough to think properly.

The word 'try' is useful when your team mates aren’t that experienced enough. These words lessen the pressure on your team mate. They wouldn't be so afraid of failing. You can use it mostly in ganking where perfect timing is really important. Once they start doing it often, they would be used into it and you don't need to type the word try. It would now be "G".

The key to improvement understands. Seek first to understand the factors what made a strategy effective or ineffective. You should also learn to accept facts. Accept that you and your team mates can make several errors in the game. Don't whine on them and show immaturity. Instead, praise the things they've done well. Discuss generally the errors made in every game. You should use your mind and learn from the game, not your heart to feel frustrated for weeks. It is alright to lose games. Better strategy and execution really would win. It's not that you're dumb. They can tell you you're dumb but you are not. It's just that you need more experience and you have to know the game better. 

After several games played together, you as a leader should know what the things your players do best are. Study their game and decide which role you can ask them to have. You only have 4 team mates; it's not that difficult to detect what they do best. You'd see if a player who already know how to farm, let him improve so in that field. Players who are sneaky can play gankers or setters. Players who are already a team player can play support role who can be the savior of the team. Experiment on the effectiveness of the team after giving their roles, playing games against different level of teams. Again if you fail, decide what adjustments are needed to be done. Maybe the player just needs more practice. Don't change his role at once or remove him from the team.

If you want your team to stick together until the end, lead. Don't manage them, they are not things. Leading is different from managing. Leading is making your team want to follow you, managing is forcing your team to follow you. You can lead by telling them what your plan is and how will it be effective. Example: "I'm planning to try pushing early so that we can have more gold." They would want that. Who doesn't want more gold, right? They would obey you whenever you say push because they want it too. In managing, you are the only one who knows what your plan is and you just tell them to obey you. Once you fail with your plan, they'd lost their trust to your command. Leading inspires them to contribute more ways on how to attain the goal. It's way better than simply following commands. The ability to play as a team depends on the leader. One of the best ways is to lead by example. If you play carry, show them how to play carry effectively. Whatever the outcome of the game would be, always play at your best. Do not show any sign of lost hope for they would do the same.

I remember one time; we were all used into having 3 farmers and 2 supports. Then, I was curious as to what if we would only have 1 main farmer and 4 heroes would be moving around the map to kill opponents making our carry farm more gold than usual. Then my team mates agreed and didn't mind if we will lose. After the game, we did lost, but they found it exciting. We practiced that kind of strategy for about a week. Then, it came to be our solid strategy that can knock off any team. We usually use it as surprise tactics in tournaments. I shared this because I want you all to try different things and never regret doing it. Experiments often start with failures. From those failures, look at how great our technology now - same thing with DotA. Don't simply go with the flow. There are a lot of heroes and a lot of strategies to counter every play styles.

Learn from other team's error. You cannot make all the errors in the world. In watching replays watch their play style and acquire the skills needed for the improvement of your team. Hero picks are not to be copied totally. You should start with having your own formulated play style. It is essential for leaders to plan original play style for the team because most players today are already watching Professional Replays. Plan strategies that would push your team's full potential. I usually watch professional replays and I, honestly, imitate some strategies made by a team but not all of them. I usually make it a hybrid my own. Doing so, you'll be unpredictable to other teams.

You have to be flexible to make the necessary adjustments from games lost. To improve is to change. Thus, changing is not easy for majority of people. If changing is necessary to have an effective team, then change. I was trained to be a carry hero player but when I realized how bored my team mates are in supporting, I switched to being our main support in our team. I make some adjustments to make the team more effective. I find it obvious most of the time what are the things that won’t work or fit in the game plan, then I tell my team mates what game plan adjustments I'm going to make so that they would know what to do.

This is somewhat implied in the other statements I made. But I just want to emphasize this more. Be patient. Never lose hope. Never think that you cannot beat the best team in the world. May it be Ehome or LGD, you can be better if you work for what you desire. "I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying." -Michael Jordan. 

The best way to improve your team is watching your games. You have the ability to clearly see the errors made or how the opponent managed to defeat your strategy. If you totally understand the things that lead to your defeat, you won’t do that same thing again. Eliminating errors made by your team is another way of saying that your team is really improving.

 
The World DotA Championship logo

In DotA Tournament games, you don't have time to be thinking of what play style you should have. There's no time for trial and error. You should know in your practices what works and what suits your team. If you go out there and play differently from your practice games, the only chance of winning is luck. You have to trust your practices and yourself. Yes, you are facing a stronger opponent but don't be intimidated. Stick to your developed game style and just perform with your A-game.

Leaders have the greatest role in tournaments. They are the one who would decide what will be the team's strategy and they are the one who would generate plans in most situations. Members can suggest but leaders should be the one to decide whether to accept or reject given suggestions. The main reason for this is to have a united attack. If members would decide what to do on their own, the team would fall against an opposing team who are fighting as a team. In team games/sports, winning is decided by two things: better leader and better trust from members.

In most tournaments, your games can be watched by your next opponents. Having only 1 strategy means you're already countered as soon as you played your first game. Your opponents can wait for you in your favorite ganking areas, your opponents can simply ban your bread and butter heroes, and worst your opponents can even use your strategy against you. If you're joining a DotA Tournament, it is a must to be unpredictable. This adds to their fear against you. How can they defend if they don't know how you will attack?

Once you have a clue what your opponent's game plan will be, you should be wise enough to be prepared for that plan a week before and execute your counters. Practice against better teams because it is through them that you're going to know what strategies will surprise and beat you. Then formulate plans to win against those strategies and know which will work. When tournament day comes, you're more confident because you learned a lot and you are ready to face a lot of strategies other teams may be planning.

I had a problem back then. When I'm playing games with money on the line, my game suddenly change from great to worse than noob. I learned to be comfortable when one time, I was asked to play a game against an unknown team. We defeated that team and after the game I found out that it was also a bet game, only this time I was unaware. Then, I realized that if I treat serious games not too seriously, my game is way better. It was the beginning of me winning bet games. I don't know with you because factors may be different with you. You might be more comfortable when you are serious but the idea here is find out how you'll become comfortable playing.

You may win or lose the tournament but if you had fun, you never lost at all. So, Good luck and Have Fun!