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Annotated JSON Output

This page walks through the real JSON output from parsing TI14 Grand Finals Game 1 — XG vs Falcons.

Every field is shown exactly as gem.parse_to_json() produces it, with annotations explaining what each value means. Arrays are truncated for readability — the full output is at examples/ti14_sample.json.

Generate your own

python -m gem parse my_replay.dem --format json > my_match.json

Top-level structure

{
  "match_id": 8461735141,    // (1)
  "game_mode": 2,            // (2)
  "leagueid": 18324,         // (3)
  "radiant_win": true,       // (4)
  "game_start_tick": 26021,  // (5)
  "game_end_tick": 99262,    // (6)

  "players":        [...],   // list[ParsedPlayer]  — one per player
  "draft":          [...],   // list[DraftEvent]    — picks and bans in order
  "combat_log":     [...],   // list[CombatLogEntry] — every damage/kill/heal/item event
  "wards":          [...],   // list[WardEvent]     — ward placements with coordinates
  "towers":         [...],   // list[TowerKill]     — tower deaths
  "barracks":       [...],   // list[BarracksKill]
  "roshans":        [...],   // list[RoshanKill]
  "aegis_events":   [...],   // list[AegisEvent]
  "tormentors":     [...],   // list[TormentorKill]
  "shrines":        [...],   // list[ShrineKill]
  "teamfights":     [...],   // list[Teamfight]     — detected fight windows
  "smoke_events":   [...],   // list[SmokeEvent]
  "chat":           [...],   // list[ChatEntry]
  "courier_snapshots": [...],
  "radiant_gold_adv": [0, -98, 257, -273, -132, -583, -1579, -1777, ...], // (7)
  "radiant_xp_adv":   [0, -168, 89, -310, -491, -963, -2268, -2612, ...] // (8)
}
  1. Valve match ID — unique identifier for this game.
  2. 2 = All Pick. See gem.constants for the full mode table.
  3. League ID — 18324 is The International 2024.
  4. true = Radiant won. XG (Radiant) defeated Falcons (Dire).
  5. The tick when the game clock started (pre-game has negative virtual time).
  6. The tick when the game ended. Divide by 30 to get seconds from game start.
  7. Per-minute Radiant gold advantage. Negative = Dire is ahead. This match shows Dire pulling ahead in the early game.
  8. Same, for XP. Both curves are relative to total earned (monotonically increasing), not current gold/XP which resets on purchases/level-ups.

players[]

One object per player (10 total). team: 2 = Radiant, team: 3 = Dire.

{
  "player_id": 0,                       // (1)
  "hero_name": "npc_dota_hero_sven",    // (2)
  "player_name": "Ame",                 // (3)
  "team": 2,                            // (4)

  "kills": 11,
  "deaths": 0,
  "assists": 3,
  "stuns_dealt": 40.57,                 // (5)

  "lane_role": 1,                       // (6)
  "lane_last_hits": 79,
  "lane_denies": 5,
  "lane_total_gold": 3920,
  "lane_total_xp": 4151,
  "lane_efficiency_pct": 79,            // (7)
  "lane_gold_adv": 512,                 // (8)
  "lane_xp_adv": 990,

  "gold_t":      [625, 740, 820, ...],  // (9)
  "lh_t":        [12, 18, 25, ...],     // last hits per minute
  "xp_t":        [480, 960, 1440, ...], // XP earned per minute
  "net_worth_t": [1200, 1600, 2100, ...],

  "kills_log":    [...],                // (10)
  "purchase_log": [...],                // (11)
  "runes_log":    [...],                // (12)
  "buyback_log":  [...],
  "obs_log":      [...],                // observer ward placements
  "sen_log":      [...],                // sentry ward placements

  "damage":          {...},             // (13)
  "damage_taken":    {...},
  "damage_by_type":  {"magical": 12340, "physical": 8920, "pure": 450},
  "healing":         {...},
  "ability_uses":    {"sven_storm_bolt": 18, "sven_gods_strength": 7, ...},
  "item_uses":       {"item_blink": 12, "item_black_king_bar": 6, ...},
  "gold_reasons":    {...},
  "xp_reasons":      {...},
  "lane_pos":        {...},             // (14)
  "position_log":    [...]              // (15)
}
  1. Slot index 0–9. 0–4 are Radiant (team 2), 5–9 are Dire (team 3).
  2. Internal NPC name. Use gem.constants.hero_display("npc_dota_hero_sven") → "Sven".
  3. Steam display name from the replay header.
  4. 2 = Radiant, 3 = Dire.
  5. Total seconds of stun dealt to enemy heroes across the whole game.
  6. 1 = Safe lane, 2 = Mid, 3 = Off lane, 4 = Jungle/Roaming. Classified from the first 10 minutes of position data.
  7. Lane efficiency percentage — gold earned vs. the theoretical maximum available in that lane during the laning phase.
  8. Gold advantage over the opposing laner at the end of the laning phase (10 min).
  9. Per-minute time series — one value per game minute. Index 0 = minute 0 (game start).
  10. Each kill this hero registered, as a CombatLogEntry with log_type: "KILL".
  11. Item purchases in order — value_name is the item NPC name (e.g. "item_black_king_bar").
  12. Rune pickups — gold_reason: 5 = bounty rune.
  13. Damage dealt/taken keyed by target or source NPC name.
  14. Heatmap of positions during the laning phase, bucketed into 64-unit grid cells.
  15. Full tick-by-tick position log: [{"tick": 26021, "x": 13824, "y": 19584}, ...].

draft[]

Picks and bans in chronological order.

[
  {
    "tick": 291,
    "slot_index": 0,
    "hero_id": 132,
    "hero_name": "npc_dota_hero_chen",
    "is_pick": false,   // false = ban
    "team": 3           // Dire banned Chen
  },
  {
    "tick": 873,
    "slot_index": 7,
    "hero_name": "npc_dota_hero_naga_siren",
    "is_pick": false,
    "team": 3
  },
  {
    "tick": 1305,
    "hero_name": "npc_dota_hero_mars",
    "is_pick": false,
    "team": 2           // Radiant banned Mars
  }
  // ... 21 more events
]

team: 2 = Radiant action, team: 3 = Dire action. is_pick: true = pick, false = ban. tick is in pre-game time (negative virtual clock).

combat_log[]

Every damage, kill, heal, item use, and modifier event — 68,591 entries in this match. All entries share the same schema; log_type tells you what happened.

DAMAGE — hero ability damage

{
  "tick": 25969,
  "log_type": "DAMAGE",
  "attacker_name": "npc_dota_hero_sven",
  "target_name": "npc_dota_hero_pangolier",
  "inflictor_name": "sven_storm_bolt",  // (1)
  "value": 58,                          // (2)
  "attacker_is_hero": true,
  "target_is_hero": true,
  "damage_type": "magical",             // (3)
  "stun_duration": 0.0                  // (4)
}
  1. The ability or item that dealt the damage. Empty string = right-click (auto-attack).
  2. Damage value after reductions.
  3. "magical", "physical", "pure", or "others".
  4. Non-zero for abilities that also stun (e.g. Storm Bolt itself has a stun duration separate from the damage event).

HEAL

{
  "tick": 27574,
  "log_type": "HEAL",
  "attacker_name": "npc_dota_hero_slardar",
  "target_name": "npc_dota_hero_slardar",  // (1)
  "inflictor_name": "item_tango_single",
  "value": 111
}
  1. attacker == target = self-heal. For teammate heals, they differ.

PURCHASE

{
  "tick": 23322,
  "log_type": "PURCHASE",
  "target_name": "npc_dota_hero_sven",  // (1)
  "value_name": "item_tango"            // (2)
}
  1. The hero who bought the item (attacker_name is empty for purchases).
  2. Item NPC name. Use gem.constants.item_display("item_tango") → "Tango".

Common log_type values

Value What it records
DAMAGE Damage dealt (ability or auto-attack)
KILL A unit died
HEAL HP restoration
ITEM Item activated (smoke, ward placed, etc.)
PURCHASE Item purchased from shop
ABILITY Ability cast
MODIFIER_ADD Buff/debuff applied
MODIFIER_REMOVE Buff/debuff expired or dispelled
GOLD Gold gained
XP XP gained
PICKUP_RUNE Rune picked up
BUYBACK Player bought back

wards[]

Ward placements with exact map coordinates extracted from the entity stream.

{
  "tick": 24315,
  "player_id": 1,
  "placer": "npc_dota_hero_nevermore",
  "ward_type": "observer",          // (1)
  "team": 2,
  "x": 15607.5625,                  // (2)
  "y": 17761.65625,
  "expires_tick": 35116,            // (3)
  "killed_tick": null,              // (4)
  "killer": ""
}
  1. "observer" or "sentry".
  2. World coordinates in the Source 2 coordinate system. The Dota 2 map spans roughly 0–16384 on each axis. Use these directly for heatmaps.
  3. Tick when the ward will naturally expire (360 seconds × 30 ticks/sec after placement).
  4. null if the ward was never killed. Populated if an enemy dewarded it.

roshans[]

[
  {
    "tick": 52697,
    "killer": "npc_dota_hero_pugna",
    "kill_number": 1       // (1)
  },
  {
    "tick": 77715,
    "killer": "npc_dota_hero_sven",
    "kill_number": 2
  }
]
  1. Roshan kill number in this match (1-indexed). Used to determine which drops were available (Cheese on kill 2+, Aghanim's Blessing on kill 3+).

aegis_events[]

[
  { "tick": 52699, "player_id": 7, "event_type": "pickup" },   // (1)
  { "tick": 77729, "player_id": 0, "event_type": "pickup" }
]
  1. event_type is "pickup", "stolen", or "denied". player_id refers to the slot index matching players[].player_id.

towers[]

[
  {
    "tick": 42663,
    "team": 3,                                    // (1)
    "killer": "npc_dota_hero_nevermore",
    "tower_name": "npc_dota_badguys_tower1_mid"   // (2)
  }
]
  1. team: 3 = the Dire tower was destroyed (a Radiant tower death would be team: 2).
  2. NPC name encodes the team (goodguys/badguys), tier (tower1–tower4), and lane (top/mid/bot). tower4 = Ancient.

smoke_events[]

{
  "tick": 23855,
  "activator": "npc_dota_hero_bane",
  "team": 2,
  "smoked": [                          // (1)
    "npc_dota_hero_sven",
    "npc_dota_hero_bane",
    "npc_dota_hero_slardar",
    "npc_dota_hero_shadow_demon",
    "npc_dota_hero_nevermore"
  ],
  "x": 13898.0078125,                  // (2)
  "y": 20347.984375
}
  1. All heroes that received the smoke buff. Full 5-man smoke here.
  2. Centroid of the group's positions at activation time.

Empty group edge case

If the activating hero was inside a sentry ward's truesight at activation time, the smoke breaks instantly. smoked will be an empty list — the item was genuinely wasted, not a parsing gap.

teamfights[]

Detected fight windows where multiple heroes exchanged damage.

{
  "start_tick": 76186,
  "end_tick": 77572,
  "last_death_tick": 77122,
  "deaths": 5,
  "centroid_x": 13834.40625,    // (1)
  "centroid_y": 16177.85625,
  "players": [
    {
      "player_id": 0,           // Sven (XG carry)
      "deaths": 0,
      "buybacks": 0,
      "damage_dealt": 9957,
      "damage_taken": 5141,
      "healing": 0,
      "gold_delta": 0,
      "xp_delta": 1902,
      "ability_uses": {
        "sven_warcry": 2,
        "sven_gods_strength": 1,
        "sven_storm_bolt": 1
      },
      "item_uses": {
        "item_black_king_bar": 1,
        "item_mask_of_madness": 1,
        "item_blink": 1
      }
    }
    // ... 9 more players
  ]
}
  1. Average position of all kill events during this fight window — useful for placing the fight on the map.

Participation vs. presence

A player appears in players[] for every fight. They are considered an active participant only if deaths > 0, damage_dealt > 0, damage_taken > 0, or healing > 0 (healing a different hero). Players with all-zero stats were nearby but did not engage.

chat[]

All-chat and team-chat messages with tick and slot.

[
  { "tick": 23603, "player_slot": 4, "channel": "all", "text": "GLHF" },
  { "tick": 23715, "player_slot": 1, "channel": "all", "text": "gl hf" },
  { "tick": 23721, "player_slot": 9, "channel": "all", "text": "hf" },
  { "tick": 24013, "player_slot": 0, "channel": "all", "text": "gl" }
]

channel is "all" or "team". player_slot maps to players[].player_id.

Further reading