Post-TI4-Roster-Shuffle-Predictions

Hello, everyone. The International 4 is over and we are here for our traditional interview with Dendi. Hi, Dendi.
Nice tradition. Hi!

I don't really consider it as a tradition, people just want to know a lot of info from you. Let's start. Last year and the year before you said that you regretted about efforts, you had been putting during the year, didn't bring the wanted result. What about this year?

Yes, this year is the same. It's hard, when you've been putting almost all your time in something, but it doesn't work as you expected. It's offensive, of course. Feels like you've lost a year.

So, the whole year after TI3 was finished, you'd been concentrating on preparing for the next one, hadn't you? Or do you prepare for TI in few month before, leaving time for other tournaments?

I wasn't preparing for the TI, I was just training a lot. A lot. Well... that's the answer.

How much time is "a lot"? In hours, days, games?

It's always different, no certain time. However... Between pleasures and trainings, I always choose trainings. Though, many people would choose pleasures and rest, if they were me.

Can you tell us about your practicing, I mean, about heroes. Do you train some certain hero, or do you have a list with your strong and weak heroes? How do you train heroes?

It's hard to answer such question. You can train a variety of things on any hero. Whether you play alone or with team, you choose different things to practice them. You play, like, 10 games alone, without the team. With your team you practice teamplay, synergy, games are different because it's team vs team. We usually play with strong opponents, games there are really close to ones at tournaments. When you play alone, it depends on where and with whom you play. It's more likely MMR, where even top players are weak. So there you can train some certain aspects of the game. You can say to yourself, "I'll play 20 games now and I'll focus on map awareness, I'll be watching ally and enemy heroes. So, you can work on this aspect by watching them and guessing, where they can hide. So, you keep a close eye on minimap, watching for ganks, avoid them. Then you play 20 games trying not to die. So, you try to survive whatever it takes. Then you play 20 games for another goal. It's infinite number of tasks that you can give yourself in order to progress. Then you play 20 games on single hero because of some reasons. You train one thing, then another. You can train and grow up in game for, like, ever. But when you start to take it this serious, you realize that you don't have time for training, because you're training all the time! That's the feeling. Of course, the most efficient training is with your team, but if they can't play with you for some reasons, you don't have a choice. So, if you want to continue working on yourself and to grow more, you have to train anyway.

Is it true that if you don't play for a few weeks or month, you lose your shape?
Well, not you personally, but tendencies and balance of power in Dota in general? I think it's different for everybody and it is hard to agree on that. Some think that if you miss a week - play a week and it's okay. I think, it's progression. Missed one day - it's two days for recovering. Two missed - four days then. You missed a week - it's even three weeks to recover. There's a good level, very good, extremely great, and there is a sky level and you should play constantly a lot to keep it. When you see and feel a lot, when some of your moves are done automatically, but right, in that case you have a lot of space for thinking during the gaming process. And that allows you to make global decisions. That distinguish strong players from top players. That's the point where you level change. It takes a lot of time to reach that level, but only a short time to lose it. You can fall from very strong to strong player, but you can restore it in a week or so. But if you fall from being top-tough player, it takes a long time to restore this one. However. you can discover something new. If you play good, you keep approximately the same level. But if you are climbing back to top, you can change your style and learn some new things, for example. So, it's very complicated, but those who play well - they will understand.

How much did you learn from this TI? Were there any tricks that you didn't know and learned?
Of course, but I can't point out some certain things now. When you watch other top teams, you learn a lot about Dota. This game teaches you constantly. That's why people like it: it's new every time, there's always something to discover. Something you forget, something you learn. That's how we play.

Another question about level. Now we have a lot of young players that came through high MMR. They just rushed into top - Xcalibur, Arteezy. How do you think, is it possible to compare oldschool gamers who walked all the long way and new gamers like Arteezy, who played hard for two month and rushed into top. Does their level correspond to the level of old top players?
Well, you gave a bad example of Arteezy, he's been playing for a couple of years, not month, already. The point is: if you made it - you made it. It depends on many factors, Their meta is appropriate or they can play on some heroes, etcetera, etcetera. But you can't drink away your experience. Old players will always be ahead, especially at tournaments like TI. New versions will come out, Dota will change. One, who sparkles today, may sink tomorrow. Or they can perform even better if they can adapt to the new Dota. But oldschool players will always be afloat, no matter what. I will be happy if all the new players stay and continue to show good results. It will be more opponents to play with.

So, you're not afraid of competition. are you?
Of course. I don't feel pleased when I play simple match making or so. I enjoy playing against top teams. Even if lose every single game, I'll enjoy it. I'm interested in reaching something, winning someone, stuff like that.

During the in review before TI you said that you had been training a lot, more than ever. However, results are not that good. It's a standard question, but still. Describe in two words: why such results? Or not in two.
It's not that we practiced more, but we were in another town. Even in another country. Only before the TI1 we had been playing for 20 days, we lived at some apartment. But at all - our bootcamps were 10 days or so before TI2, 10 days before TI3. Well, of course we had were playing constantly, online tournaments or so. But here it was different. Week or so before ESL, then after ESL, then here in Seattle.

Ragged practice?
Yes, but we played a lot every day. In Kyiv we played 3-4 games and that was it. Guys started to play pubs, walk around the city or so. But when you in Cologne, you don't have friends around so you won't be gadding about. We only went out for dinner sometimes and took a few walks around the city. We had been training all the time, everybody understood that 10 millions are 10 millions, you have to work. So we played more than ever. But I'm still not satisfied, you should be working during the year, not last month. Those teams who had been working for the whole year, who worked more than others - they got top-4. Players in my team have are skilled, so if we trained hard, we would make it to the top.

Talking about the results. Can you comment NewBee's, champion's performance?
They played not so good in group, but then they got a winning streak and so, they won in the final. How do you think, does their level matches the championship?
They won, so you can't deny that. There are a lot of factors that show your skill and it's not only playing on some certain heroes. It's the ability to come back from hard situation, to play your game under the pressure of thousands of people, to use your moral advantage, to communicate in your team, etcetera, etcetera. There are a lot of factors that you need to fit if you want to win. They were tough where it was needed and they won. Plus, many Dota teams have their style. They know their pros and con and try to use pros to win. So, some teams are stronger than some, some - than other. So, NewBee could be lucky. They finished 7-8, so, 8 games were hard to them. But then they'd changed something and went on. Who knows, maybe, Vici Gaming were suitable opponent for them, as they train a lot in China. So, they might have won easily, 3-1, but they totally deserved it. As well as Vici deserved top-2, you can't deny it. In my humble opinion, winners of this International were the teams who
did everything right in the beginning and then pushed and pressed their opponents. Who knows, we could have won if we had played like this. That's Vici style, that's why they tool top-1 in group and walked easily through loser's bracket. DK and iG are more late game orientated. They play greedy, but still cool! If you try greedy gaming against them - they will smash you, so it's hard to fight with them. Vici Gaming say, "We don't care, we'll push you down". And they pushed down DK, iG, they reached NewBee, but NewBee is not their convenient opponents, so they lost. Something like this. These are only my thoughts, I may mistake. One of VG players said that they lost 9 of 10 games to NewBee in China. This speaks for result.

Anyway. You won Vici as well as NewBee. Do you agree that this top-8 doesn't reflect real situation? That teams could be placed differently? That every team from that eight could win the tournament?
That was known before TI: every team could win under certain circumstances. Each year TI becomes harder, now it's seen more clearly. So, team that won deserved it. The same goes for sport. You can expect some teams to be better or worse, but they are approximately equal. It's hard to predict. They won - they deserved. That's it.

Can you compare two states in the team: when you do well and you feel some synergy and when you fail? I mean. can you feel it in the middle of the game? Can you fight it and change the result? I even... can you repeat?
When you are winning, you have a certain atmosphere, synergy that immerses you in a special feeling. But if you're losing, it's not the same.

What's the different between these feelings? Can you change it during the game, how is that possible for you?
That depends on so many things. On picks, can you allow it or not, on luck, on bad luck or so. But, when you're winning, you communicate more, you're positive, everything seems easier in the game.
You less worried and just do what you need. When you're losing, you're quiet, you're closed, communicate less. When you're losing you understand it's hard to fix, cuz now Dota is like snowball. If team gets advantage, you should be very lucky and do only right moves to stop it. So people close in themselves, become quiet and you even feel this atmosphere when you sit together. You start to make silly mistakes, team as well starts to mistake. It's hard to overcome this feeling. But that is another sphere of skill as well. You need experience, experience of playing at big tournaments. That helps gather up, gain some moral, change the game.

Not every team can do it.
It is really hard. yes. And this depends on players, they should feel the moment and cheer you up.

KuroKy and Funn1k are quiet guys. Maybe that's the reason, maybe you lacking of initiative guys, who can say, "Guys! We're losing! Let's gather up and do something"? Are you lacking such guy in your team?
Well, everyone in our team can say so. I don't know about quiet or loud. Yes, Hlib (Funn1k) is silent, he rarely gives info like "Go there, do this", that's others. KuroKy speaks more often. But when we're losing... I don't know, I don't usually keep a track on who's talking and who's not. But that's a good skill - to influence your team., to inspire them to do something. But it's many factors here. Not always guy says, "Let's go!", you go and change everything, there's no formula.

Right, let's talk about Cloud 9. You stumbled over them, Lost one game, won second. The third, deciding... your idea was clear, but explain to viewers. Why did you play on Banshee and XBOCT took Panda? What was your idea?
Well, I usually play on mid heroes, Death Prophet is one of them. We played some CW, few games where XBOCT played Brew, I played Banshee once. But, in result, I played awful. We all played not so well, but I can take a lot of guilt on myself. My skill order was wrong, some of my actions were wrong, I played more by template, wrong template. I can explain. I didn't follow the games where top Chinese teams picked Banshee, I didn't follow skill order, I just got used to her. More logical decision for me would be buying boots, not bottle as a first item. And should've max not Swarm but passive, it gives you bonus movespeed. I could be like 1-3-3-1-3. So, I could have second Swarm and third passive and boots. I'd have a good movespeed, so, chance for escape would be a bit higher. Yet I don't know if I could've run away, cuz Ember just chained me, BH came and hit - and I was dead 100%. But that could save my life just once and that could help us change the game. But in general - yes. We were playing by template, we decided to do this-this-this. XBOCT was playing Brew, on which he wasn't as confident as on other heroes cuz he played only few CW games on him here, in America. He had never played on Brew before, it used to be me or Hlib. Even Brew on safe lane - that was me. So, XBOCT could play on DP as well. When I was training on her, I did the same, Swarm in 3. If during CW I took Swarm and passive, here I took silence in 1, I don't know why. So, I had 3-1-1. I was very slow and and bought bottle as first item. They were killing me, I had 650, bought bottle and died. Then guys bought me tp, I came back, but... Every time BH came, I died though I had sentries. Ember Spirit just ran ahead and chained me when needed. Maybe, boots wouldn't have helped me, he could chained me anyway. After one death he's lvl 6, chains you in jump and so on. Probably, our strategy was broken. No, it was actually broken. We had a template: Furion against Clockwerk - good. DP against Ember Spirit - good. Our triple lane that can push with Furion or so. But we were confused by their last pick BH, we tried to think what they would do. But they put three solo lanes. Doom's jungling, Skywrath solo bot, Ember - mid. Bounty Hunter is running somewhere, trying to do something. So, only because of this change, DP is no more stronger than Ember, cuz Bounty can attack. Furion is no more stronger than Clockwerk cuz Bounty can attack. Doom farms his jungle in peace. And Skywrath Mage doesn't care about those three heroes, he's fast with his boots on safe lane. Three guys cannot do anything to him, they just steal xp from each other. They can't hunt Doom in jungle as well. They can't push a tower. Hlib doesn't pwn Clockwerk, it's vice versa, so he didn't take initiation into his hands. He could fly and summon treants, they could destroy tower. Or fly to me with some support when I was dying,so we could at least exchange. It'd be good cuz they were diving under the tower sometimes. We lost many chances, played badly. There's no one to blame, we all were bad.

No one, but there were mistakes. BH against you, you should've understand that he would come for a gank.
Yes, that's why we bought sentries on lvl 1, for me and Hlib, But it wasn't enough. Doom came from jungle to mid with BH and Ember. Three heroes from three direction - and you understand that you're screwed. There were a lot of moments. I bought a bottle and asked for a tp. Support bought it and left without money, cuz farming is for Brew. If we had destroyed tower, they would have got some money. And other little stuff. We could adapt, we could leave two heroes against Skywrath Mage, it would be the same as three against him. One of range could come to me and I wouldn't have died. Two range against three melees - we could smash their faces there. If Rasta or Apparition had come - we would have been sweet. And there was no sense for Furion to stay on top if there was hell.You just try to do some global actions. Either you go and kill someone, or you come, but some early Basilius for armor and go, destroy tower, gather enemy's supports, they had no heroes to even defend. We didn't do it, we were confused, so, we lost.

Think about one moment, not against C9, which had broken a game, in which you would have acted differently. E.g., in group stage, when you realize that you've made a mistake. What would you change?
Oh, I'd change a lot! I'm always up for aggression. pushing. I think, that in my team has the best players for each role. So, we can play any heroes, So, why don't we push all the three lines? Then just snowball and exterminate them everywhere we can. I don't why we don't play so, I would like to perform such style.

So, you agree that aggressive dota dominated this tournament? And you didn't adapt though it's your origin style.
I didn't say aggressive, I said early aggression with lane domination in order to guarantee easy pressure, push. Yes, partially it's our dota, but be also took some ideas from EG and DK. I still consider them as two strongest teams at the tournament. However, they placed 3rd and 4th, so, my mistake. Or, just coincidence of some facts. Simply coincidence.

Okay. Top-8 is 5 Chinese teams, 2 American and 1 European, I guess. Does it mean that Euro scene is far behind Chinese? Or just bad luck?
It's hard to say. I wouldn't say that European or Chinese scene is behind. That all depends on many factors. Europe trains with Europe, China - with China. hey progress with different speed and in different directions. Something like this.

Okay. In the beginning of this interview you said "players were". I mean...Will it be a roster changes? How do you think, do you need changes to...
What do you mean "players were"?

You said one phrase. You answered "There w e r e good players in my team". I meant, for that moment.
Yes, I got it, but...

continuing this topic: does team need changes?
Yes, tough question.But to be honest...

Why so compromising? C'mon. I can tell you what kind of info is out there, about roster and stuff. Of course, you decide it and so, however, the reasons are. How do you think... can this roster live or it needs fresh blood? Maybe, you want to play with someone new, maybe, you're tired on international communication, maybe, you want to speak Russian all the time?
I'm not bored. But people get tired of each other, it's okay when you close for a long time, even live together. So, the atmosphere is not the best, especially when you don't reach expected results.So you either come to a conclusion or depart. In our case - I don't know yet. It's hard to play in such atmosphere, we don't understand each other, don't listen to each other. We don't have the same unity as 1,5 year ago, I guess. So, it's complicated, I don't know what to answer.

Okay, I won't be torturing you, official announcements will show everything. So, just few questions. You said it's hard to win in American pub. Tell us why, is the level that high?
I think, American pubs have lower skill than Europeans and that's why it's hard to win. If you have high raking and you come to America, play with them, it rarely gives you players with high raking. Or it's just a few of them. So, you have to play with guys with low raking. I feel like 5000 raking here is like 4000 in Europe. Maybe, it's my mistake, however. So, it's hard and not interesting, at least, for me. It's impossibru to win, it puts 4500-4600 in your team.

And you?
6200-6300. And guys against you are 5200, 4800. And it's random. Ranking or not, people play differently. E.g., guy with 4700 is worse than 4300. Or worse in this particular game or so. Dota-ranking doesn't show anything. But players are pretty weak and it's difficult to play. If you don't play a hero that can win alone, you depend on your team, which means, on random.

Okay. 7-8 and 9-10 places, pretty big gap in prizes, 450 thousand. Of course, you'd be more upset if you finished lower. Do you agree with such distribution and in general, what about this TI's format?
Format? What do you mean?

Holding system. One group, so many games, docking matches, such play-off?
I like more TI2 and TI3 format. Two groups, more teams go to winner's bracket. And you don't go to grand final after two games, at least three. More intrigue, struggling. NewBees had to wait two days for grand final. It's not cool that on first day the whole upper bracket was over. It's not good for viewers. And for players... well, for NewBee it's okay. And the difference between top-8 and top-9 - it's okay. I don't see any bad thing about it. It's nice for 9-14 to get at least some money. Plus, they get a lot of sweet memories, travelling and so on. The International gives you unforgettable impressions. The little difference between top-8 and top-6 is fine for me too. And at all, between 3-4-5-6-7-8 difference is not that big. But it's hard to tell, cuz when you're in top-4 - it's very cool. Big gap between top-2 and top-1. I'd shoot myself if I placed top-2, really. It is hard to realize how close you were, but you lost. I enjoyed my prize for 8th place, actually.

Okay, about you personally, two more questions. How do you like this TI? A lot of people, fans. Did you have some free time or everyone is trying to catch you?
No, I had almost no free time, only during the group stage. That was the best time. All players together in hotel, almost on the same floor. We just walk, talk, - We had our own computer club. - Incubator-gaming. We played ping-pong, kicker, watched some shows and so on, nice atmosphere, we had a nice time there. No one bothers you. But then... When we moved to Westin Seattle, at Key Arena, that was very hard. Everyone stops you, they want something from you. You get exhausted. Wake up at 6, move on at 7, the whole day you move, come back at 9-10. You have to fall asleep and the next day everything repeats. So, as players we... Well, for me it was hard to enjoy this tournament as much as group stage. Everyone wants something from you all the time!

How many e-signatures did you give?
Almost all, very quickly.

How many in total?
1000, if you believe rumors. Maybe more. But they were flying. If there are 17k people in Arena, 1000 is not that much, actually. And some players want something from you. And some Olegs (interviewer's name) too. Someone promised 50 signatures for Olegs - Name Olegs... So, if those signatures aren't played on Na'Vi's resources, you know, whom to blame. Everyone thinks the same, just want to take... -

But you promised, promised us!
You promised ZeroGravity

How do you want to rest? I know that family came to you here, that you'll stay in America for a bit.What are your plans for America and later, what are you going to do?
I fought with Goblak.
I see it.
You haven't seen Goblak. Goblak is a special guy. I said to him, "You are a green Humpty-Dumpty", and he got mad and threw my card at me.

It was card?
Right here. Luckily, not in the eye! I said to him "Nice shot!". The next day, I decided to start a fight. I said, "You are an awful green Humpty-Dumpty". And he punched me, right here.

Did you hit him back?
I almost did.

Couldn't jump that high?
I locked him in the toilet.

Okay...
That was tough. I'll go around the America, but for a few days I stay here, in Seattle. I don't know where exactly, but yes, my family stays here and we're going to have a rest.

The last question. Goblak. I wanted to ask you, was his analytic convenient for you to get and was it useful?
I'm thankful to him, he helped us a lot. We could have not reach even 8th place without him. He knows dota as back of his hand. He has a lot of knowledge, experience, he could gave all the info about our mistakes right after the game. Constructive critique, without personal attachments. He could tell anything to everyone. That helped us a lot, though I have a feeling that Clement wasn't listening to him at all. He agreed on some things but then he did them his way. So we can't blame Arthur in our fails. He's done his best, so, I'm really thankful to him.

Would you like him to continue to be Na'Vi's coach? Or analytik?
Of course, it's nice to have a guys who helps you, but we need to listen to him, actually. Not just look at him. But he's not likely to agree, he wants to play. He wants to come at TI5 and win. Okay, I guess, we should finish now.

Last words, shoutouts to all your fans who couldn't make it to Key Arena. Something for them.
Shoutout to everyone, thanks for your support, I'm surprised, I thought, people would flame in the internets about our loss.

They did.
I don't know, in my VK or Twitter I had only positive, 90% positive messages. It was really nice to read such supportive messages. I even wanted to go home and start training again! So I'm thankful, it's very sweet, support us. We'll try to please you with our further results.

We'll hope. Thank you for an interview, it was Dendi. Bye!