We'll have another blog post coming in the next few days. But as a sneak peek: we use self-play to learn everything that depends on an interaction with the opponent. Didn't need to with those that don't (e.g. fixed item builds, separately learned creep block).
There's probably a huge disconnect between what an AI engineer entails with a certain word and what the layman then comprehends. At the same time, I think we (nadota) probably latched onto certain words and downplayed the ones that would make it more impressive to us. Just a result of itching for information without there being much out there.
Really cool work, really glad you're doing it in dota, and eagerly awaiting your blog post.