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From what I understand so far, a hero's net worth grows over the time of a game. The value seems to include the hero's inventory and its current gold. Therefore I get that position 1 and 2 players usually have a higher value than those on position 4 or 5.
I just heard them say on stream, a really underfarmed support had a lower net worth after five minutes than he had at the start of the game. (Winter Wyvern in this screenshot)
How would that be possible?
Net worth is simply calculated by taking the gold in your bank, the gold value of your items in the courier and of those in your inventory (purchase value, not sale value).
You start with 625 gold as a hero but there are various ways to lose gold, among them:
The last one is the big one for a support, sure you start with 625, but most of that goes to a courier (120 for the base one and later on another 220 for the flying one). Once you use that courier it's not in your inventory and doesn't count for your net worth.
Same for consumables like tangos and wards, you use them, you "lose" net worth.
So, yeah, a support generally doesn't decrease in net worth, but it's certainly possible.
In this case, I think the implication was that the hero had a "low net worth" relative to where that hero should be at this point in time. I.e., the player was not farming sufficiently or had lost enough gold through death for it to be of significant concern.
In the case of DotA strategy, the "5 position" support character generally does not need much gold and will often spend gold buying supporting items for the team, such as wards and dust. The problem then is that they may not be buying enough items to improve their survivability, making them a prime target for abuse by the other team.
The caster then was likely noting just this, that the character had insufficient gold for improvement at this juncture in the game to keep up with the damage output of the other team, making it more likely that they'll give the other team gold.
