Favourite support?

I like Rubick

How do you like living in Germany?

I like it a lot, because it’s a very nice country. Very clean, nice people, good system, very social.

Are you Persian?

Yes

Why don't you stream?

I don't like streaming, so I don't think I'll ever re-stream, this is my stream now. I don't like to be so public, I like to play Dota and I don't have time to do much else. Streaming is stressful and you always have to put on an act, I don't like to do it.

Who's your best friend in NaVi?

Clement. I've known him for 6 years, so I'm pretty close to him. (That's Puppey btw)

When will NaVi start to bootcamp?

We're going to bootcamp after we go for The Summit, so around 10 June, I think, until TI4. That includes going to Frankfurt for ESL.

How do you like Cologne?

I think Cologne is a cool city. I like Berlin though. (was a bit muffled not sure if I got this one.)

Are you putting up an act now? (in reference to the previous question)

Well in front of a camera people are different. This is pretty much me when I'm talking to my family like my dad or something.

How is it like to be a pro gamer?

It's really nice, although it's very stressful at times. But if you find the right guys to play with... I have no regrets doing this. In my perspective it's a really cool thing.

Thoughts on support Troll Warlord?

I don't agree with support Troll Warlord

What's your favourite game besides Dota?

I mainly play Dota, to be honest. I used to play a lot of Nintendo console games when I was younger than 10 years old, but after that I pretty much stuck to Dota.

Are there language barriers in your team?

Overall, not really, we communicate in English. But the Ukranians and Puppey - they talk in Russian amongst themselves, but it doesn't bother me cause I understand it from the context when they talk about Dota.

Does NaVi hang out with each other outside of Dota?

No we don't, since we all live in different cities. Like Funn1k lives in Kharkiv, in the east of Ukraine. Dendi lives in Lviv, in the west near the border to Poland and Romania. Xboct is in Kiev, Puppey is in Estonia and I'm in Berlin, so we can't really hang out with each other.

**Funn1k or LighTofHeaveN?

I like playing with Funn1k

Do you speak Farsi?

Yes, I speak Persian as well

What kind of sports do you do in your free time?

I try to hit the gym, but it's hard because all the travelling will ruin it. You have to go to the gym constantly but I always have to go to some LAN, some bootcamp, some event like this one. I wish I had more time to do that. It's also difficult to follow a diet when you're travelling because you just eat random things which is not necessarily healthy for you.

Who keeps the team spirit up in games?

Everyone tries to contribute although it's hard sometimes to keep morale up when stuff goes bad. I think it's mostly me to be honest because Russians can be quite negative at times.

Do you speak Swedish?

No I don't. But I understand it because I think Germans have an easy time understanding Swedish, it's not hard for us unless they speak very fast.

What's the deal with all this soccer?

This game is old, I played it when I was a kid. I just like playing it because it gives me some nice memories.

Where is NaVi bootcamping?

We will bootcamp in Frankfurt because ESL is in there, at the end of June

What is the first thing you will buy if you win TI4?

I don't know. I don't think about money which I don't have, and I would probably not buy anything because I like to save money. Hard times will come and then you'll need it.

Do you prefer Germany or Russia/Ukraine?

I prefer Germany as a country. Germany's awesome

Thoughts on Chinese teams in TI4?

I think all the Chinese teams will be very strong this year. We already saw Newbee win the Mars TV League although nobody thought they would win. This means that the Chinese scene is very volatile and scary to play against. TI will be a huge competition and all teams will have a chance to win it.

What happened with your TI1 rewards?

I didn't win anything in TI1, so I guess nothing happened with it. (chuckles)

What's your favourite support after Rubick?

Depends on the patch. I usually play to win, so I don't really have a favourite support to play. I just like to play heroes which are useful.

What do you think of the current mouz team?

I think they are really good and will win the EU qualifiers tomorrow. I think RoX.Kis will have a hard time if they go to the final.

Why did you all forfeit your deciding DreamLeague match?

We forfeited it because Dendi lost the courier in mid lane due to lag, so we felt like there was no point in playing. The game was over at this point and EG was winning really hard. We suggested to load the game from before the courier died, where they already had a large advantage, but they didn't want to. It's ok because in competitive gaming you need to take all the chances you have and I think EG made the right choice to deny our request. We didn't feel like we could do anything after the courier died.

Is NaVi training for TI4?

Of course, every team is training for TI4.

What about RTZ, overrated?

No, he's really good, a really really good player. Good guy as well.

Which hero is the most underrated?

There aren't any underrated heroes in Dota. It's just that only certain teams can utilise certain playstyles and heroes. It depends on the combination of heroes as well. For example people were saying that DT's Brewmaster was really good, which is true, but DT's Brewmaster strength came from the combination of ET and Brewmaster. In the deciding games they didn't have ET and the Brewmaster wasn't as strong. *(not very sure about this one, datdota says DT only ran Brew+ET once and they lost that game.)

What do you think about NaVi's recent performance?

Well it's obviously not very good, but it's ok. We have ups and downs, it's natural and I'm confident we will bounce back.

Favourite movie?

I don't watch much movies to begin with. When I was young I watched Pulp Fiction which I liked a lot but I'm not sure whether it's my favourite. I also watched a Japanese movie, it's called Battle Royale, which is basically a bunch of kids killing each other. I liked this movie as well

Do you think C9 will beat DK tomorrow?

I think it's 50-50. I think they're equally strong. Maybe DK is 5% stronger, but I'm not sure whether that's true, it's probably 50-50 and C9 are a super strong team.

Will you be there for the fans at ESL One?

Yeah, I hope so. But when I'm on LAN I'm generally tired because I don't sleep much, maybe 4-6 hours on average, and so I try to save as much energy as possible. Interacting with many people is stressful and I'm not that kind of guy. At LANs they don't give players a table or something to sit down and sign stuff and take photos, so we have to stand and it's really annoying.

Do you own a car?

Nope

Which anime is your favourite?

Hard to choose, I like Hajime no Ippo, but I like some other animes as well. I don't get to watch much lately and this year I haven't watched any. Ah my favourite anime is Legend of the Galactic Heroes, I'm not sure if it's famous but it's really good. It's a little bit long, like 100 episodes but it's very political and I like it.

KURO GO PLAY DOTO

I don't want to play Dota because soon I will start practising a lot for TI4 and I came here to relax a bit. Sometimes you need to relax your mind. I play Dota all the time anyway and I can't do it constantly otherwise I will just strain myself. I came here to see my friends, relax a little bit, just put my brain off and chill. So it's better if I don't play Dota now, it's just 5 days and after that I can play Dota for real again.

What do you think about ESL One?

Well obviously it's really cool and everyone's excited to see how it will turn out.

Have you ever tried MDMA (ecstasy)?

Haha no, drugs aren't good my friend. Maybe you can give me some and we take it together.

Do you like cats?

Yeah, I like cats. But I'm really an idiot when it comes to animals, I don't know anything about them. I don't know how to treat them and I don't know what they're trying to tell me. If you look at human eyes you can tell something but if I look at animals' they're just empty. I don't know what they want, they're too scary for me.

I can't answer all these questions because some are too private and some are too weird, so excuse me. I'll try my best though.

Are you going to study something new any time?

I don't know. For now I really need to put my brain on TI, I can't put too much thoughts on other things otherwise I will be too confused. I'll just play TI and see what comes around. Either way I'm confident about my lifestyle so I don't worry about these stuff. No matter what I do I'll try to do it really good and I'll do it my way. It's worked out for me so far and I hope it'll work out in the future as well.

What did you study?

I studied computer science first, right after high school, because at that time I didn't know what to study and I just wanted to see how student life is like. I was just interested. Computer science is really cool but I thought I didn't want to work in this field. I have some older friends and they tell me I'm not a genius and there're some guys in computer science who are geniuses. They look at something and they understand everything. I wasn't that kind of guy. It was kind of depressing because I always strive to be the best in the field I work in. Also some people had told me that the job itself can be rather depressing so I thought, maybe I shouldn't do this in the end. But I like the topic itself, it's cool. And then after that I studied psychology.

What's your favourite food?

Any Persian food, I think Persian food is the best. I tried many other food from different countries, obviously I'm biased, but I think home-cooked Persian food is the best. It's like if you go to some restaurant and eat Persian food, it's not even 50% as good as home-cooked food.

Do you know Turkey?

The country? I suppose so..

Which team do you fear most in TI4?

I don't fear any team, only during the tournament I will know which team is scary. Because during the tournament the whole environment changes. Everything you see now doesn't matter. TI will spawn a new playstyle and a new dimension to the game, every TI is like this. I remember before TI3 mouz was doing really good and Alliance was doing rather badly, they were losing a lot of stuff. During TI3 it was totally different however, Alliance won everything and mouz couldn't even get past top 16. It's always like that in TI.

Are you a good cook?

Nope. I like the idea of cooking because it seems relaxing, and I try to cook sometimes, but I'm not good, so.

Any support tips?

Just play a lot of Dota and to be able to support, you just have to be a good Dota player. That means try to play every role in pub games, try to understand the game. When you watch games, don't just watch the support players, watch what all the other roles are doing too and see their combined efforts. Especially in very good teams you can see some combinations.

How did you get on the NaVi team?

It was 2013, Puppey was talking to me. They wanted to change the team cause there were many problems. One day he messaged me and asked me if I wanted to join, around the beginning of January when I was playing with mouz, so I declined because I liked the people I worked with a lot. They (mouz) were very dependent on me because they were new to the scene as well, I was the only really experienced player and I knew that so I stuck around for a month. After that I had to make a choice though, and my feeling told me to join NaVi. I always try to follow my gut. And after one month he (Puppey) asked me again. He really wanted to get rid of those players at that point. And I said ok. I was worried at first because I didn't necessarily want to play with Ukrainians and Russian-speaking players because I did it before and I didn't like the atmosphere, generally it's very hard to follow. But since Puppey was part of the team, and I knew Dendi and Xboct from before (I didn't know Funn1k at all), so I gave it a shot, and it was a really good choice.

Who's your favourite Chinese player?

I don't have a favourite player, I like 2009 and 820, but I respect them all equally to be honest. Everyone's doing their own thing. I like RotK a bit more, but that's because I know him personally, so that's a bit of an unfair comparison.

What other role would you play if not support?

I would play any other role, I like all roles in Dota.

Will you be at gamescom?

I don't know, maybe. I've been there for the last four years, so there's a good chance I'll go again. It's always been fun.

Who has impressed you the most in the past few months?

I think I have to give it to the whole EG team in general, because they have really stepped up their game so much. Like UNiVeRsE, he has been there for some time but since he started playing with his new teammates he's amazed me a lot. He's the key to them winning most games. Actually that's unfair because they all work together so good. And zai and ppd they play really good together. I don't need to say anything about Arteezy, he's good. And Mason is also pretty new, I don't know anything about him and I paid the least attention to him because I thought Fear would come back at some point. But it seems like he will maybe come, so I will start watching more EG games.

What's the hardest thing about being a player nobody knows?

I don't know what you mean, do you mean how to get more famous? You should just play a lot, people will notice you at some point, it always works.

Are you a Kurd Farsi?

Nope, I am a Farsi from real Persia

What is your impression of CIS?

Well they impressed me. It seems like they're DK's nemesis, because DK keeps losing to them, but they're just random. Sometimes they do cool stuff and win games, but sometimes they play pubstar style and it doesn't work at all. I'm happy for Black^ to be honest because he's a hardworking guy, I'm looking forward to meeting him at TI, haven't seen him for quite some time.

Opinion on iceiceice?

What's there to say about this guy... cool guy, cool player, he's been there for ages. I looked up to him like 7 years ago, he's as oldschool as I am and he's played Dota 1 as long as I did and played tournaments for nearly a decade. So he was really famous in Dota 1 already and he played really good. He always had this crazy playstyle which was much more rewarding in those days than now because players are smarter. He could constantly carry games on his own with all kinds of heroes. Like he played one game Terrorblade, it's 6 or 7 years ago and he put courier in the side of the map. At that time you could teleport to the courier with BoT and there was no backdoor protection. So what he did was when the enemies pushed in, he TPed onto the courier and started backdooring their base and back then they couldn't react fast enough with TPs and all that. He started as roaming TB as well in that game, he started in enemy jungle and found some satyrs. Any other camp would have ruined his game but it worked out for him.

Techies in the pro scene?

These are things I don't think about because I don't care about them, whether Techies is in the pro scene or not. In the end it doesn't matter. There's a chance he will be picked at some point - he definitely will be picked at some point - but he will never be a constant factor in Dota unless he gets huge buffs.

What do you think about Slark?

He's okay the way he is, the only thing they should change is when he Pounces, some heroes can blink out of it. I don't think anyone should be able to blink out of it. I know that Mirana can't Leap out of it and I think you can't Skewer out of it but QoP for example can simply Blink out of it and I don't think it should be the case, it's too random.