Onetrick.Pony, a German DotA Clan, with the players aHCoS and Fire from the German National Team, just advanced to the 4th division of pickleague, after losing in a very thrilled game for division 2 against apteka. GosuGamers came together with
Frank Marian 'aHCoS' Eilers, 24, for an interview. Read about the German DotA scene, the ENC, tournaments and the international scene, as well as some personal information.
GosuGamers: With your latest addition, Fire, you have a solid lineup. In the German scene you are well known, international many good German teams are hidden in the shadow of dmZ. What aims do you have in the nearest future? What are your priorities (Pickleague or Tournaments)?
aHCoS: To be honest, we don't have any clear aims for now, which is caused by the lack of any greater tournament where we could prove ourselfs at the moment. We are playing in the "ESL Bundesliga", a league set up for german teams only, and our aim is to reach the playoffs and maybe take the victory, but beside this, we don't have any clear aims at all. =)
Talking about the "Pick-League" - we missed the qualification for div2 in a 100+ min game vs. apteka who disbanded shortly after that, and we will be playing in div4 next season probably.
GosuGamers: Yes, with Farm4Fame ending and Dreamhack having a small prizepool and only a few top-notched teams who participate do you think DotA passed their peak already? Or is it just a cause of the financial crisis?
aHCoS: Well, as you can see many greater publishers are trying to evolve an dota-based game on their own. Games like demigod, leagues of legends etc. will be released this year or even have been released already.
That given, I think dota can grow even more and hasn't reached its "peak".
I'd rather say that it's a lack of professionalism in the dota scene that causes big teams and sponsors to step back from their "investment" in the dota scene.
GosuGamers: Like clans forming and disbanding pretty fast and frequently, do you think that the players should act better, or maybe even the organisation of tournaments? And coming to tournaments: Whould you prefer a higher amout of tournaments, or expanding the existing ones?
aHCoS: Most important thing for the "big clans" is that they can rely on their teams. You can't "sell" a team to a sponsor if you can't be sure if that team will exist in one or two months.
So, yes, I think it's a real problem that there aren't enough stable teams in the scene.
Back in the days when Counterstrike became big, teams were also splitting up almost every week, but at this point there wasn't a real infrastructure like there is today in the esports.
GosuGamers: So the DotA scene has an advantage over Counterstrike, or do they have to make their own mistakes, and develop out of them? Do you see a chance for the DotA Scene to become as professional as the CS scene is right now?
aHCoS: There's no problem if the time for dota to step up to the big esports titles takes a little bit longer than expected by some of the people in the scene.
In my oppinion, it's always better to have something that has grown and gone trough everything, cause that forms a scene you can rely on.
Dota rather has a disadvantage towards CS cause it came up later, but yes, I think it's important for all the players to get their own experience in the business. =)
As the most important thing for a game to get succesful is how many people are playing it, I believe that DotA has a real chance to become just as big as CS, maybe even bigger.
Regarding tournaments, I'd prefer to build up the tournaments that exist already. Don't get me wrong, I like it when new tournaments come pop up, but to strengthen the dotascene it's the best to focus on several "big" tournaments rather then on plenty of small ones.
GosuGamers: I heared that DotA-League.com will change their format, and Farm4Fame will not exist in the way it does now. Do you think this is better, since D-L often acts as a pioneer in new formats and extending boarders? So should the Tournament stay stable or the organisation behind it?
aHCoS: It's much more important that the organisation behind the tournament stays stable, for sure.
Dotaleague has done a great job until now, and I believe that they will do a great job with the new tournament aswell.
GosuGamers: And changing tournament formats will fresh up, and maybe keep teams sticking longer to the competitive scene. Regarding changes and fresh wind, DotA is a "game" that is changed/improved often. Just right now 6.60 popped up. Do you like to see DotA being faster? What do you think about 6.60b. Some heroes which once were must-haves returned (like Viper). Is it balanced in the competitive way?
aHCoS: Nope, not even closed to beeing balanced. =)
I really like the way Icefrog tries to speed up the whole gameplay, in my oppinion he could go even far behind the point he has reached by now.
If we talk about balance, as I already mentioned: the balance isnt really good for the moment.
Especially the "new" heros and hero remakes are imbalanced or close to it.
But I believe that Icefrog could do alot regarding balanceissues by just changing some rather small things.
I'd really love to see some versions from now on only focusing on balance, versions that take a break with "new" content and rather evolve the game towards balance.
Just take a look at the changed phaseboots: only small changes, but they changed the phaseboots in a really good way towards being balanced and still useful.
GosuGamers: Yes, I think IceFrog has this in mind as well right now, since he told so for the upcoming 6.61.
aHCoS: Yep, and I'm glad that he does so. Quoting KuroKy: "If icefrog had taken 59d and changed some rather small things about it every competitive player would've been happy!"
The new content brought in with 6.60 is great, but now this version really needs alot of balancefixes.
GosuGamers: Quoting KuroKy reminds leads me to the German DotA Scene: Do you think with Wicked disbanding a rival for DiamondZ get lost, or did they made way for other German teams, who try to place themselves in the international scene now?
aHCoS: Well, in the short run the disband of wicked has weakened the german scene to compete with international top-teams, but now, after a short time where dmZ was the only german team beeing able to face the "big names", some fresh new teams have come up.
Don't get me wrong, in my eyes dmZ is still the #1 german team, and the other teams still aren't ready to really matter in the international scene.
But maybe if you wait half a year, the running-ups team-thermaltake, currax.dota and onetrick.pony could be able to beat at least some of the big teams.
GosuGamers: So let us hope, that they will remain stable till then and further. And for the majoritiy in Germany it is said that they are unmannered, and maybe as well young. Do you think they exhaust their potential?
aHCoS: I don't think that the german scene is more unmannered than other scenes - it's just one of the biggest, and where there is a lot of light there's naturally alot of shadow ;)
I'd rather say that alot of players waste their potential by not trying to improve theirselfs.
There are alot of really great players who can't step up just because they're too ignorant or unwilled to change themselfs or their playstyle.
GosuGamers: Do you mean that there are to many people following the way of a carry-role because you can directly see your "skill" right away, or it is easier to shine?
aHCoS: Particular, that's right.
GosuGamers: Let us come to you as a player now: You are seen as a tactical mastermind in picking and tactics/synergies/combos. To what level do you dominate this part in your team, who else intervene with you there?
aHCoS: Oh well, I think it's said way too much to call me a "tactical mastermind" or something.
GosuGamers: But you love the tactic behind this game quite much, am I correct?
aHCoS: Yep, that's correct, and I love to discuss strategical aspects of the game with teammates or friends.
But still, regarding picking and strategies, I don't have much to say in the teams I play at the moment. ^^
In onetrick.pony, we pick as a team, and I'm not able to completely bring through the picks I'd like to try, at least not all of the time.
In team.ger, equinox and moods are the strategical masterminds, and I'd say they're far better in that point than I am at the moment.
But still, I've learned much in the last time, so maybe I can step up to them somewhen in the future.
It's not completely wrong to say that I'm interested in tactics, and it's also not that wrong to say that I'm not bad at all, but "mastermind" or something goes way too far. :)
GosuGamers: With the recent changes in team.ger and beating Russia, where do you see Germany in the ENC? What are the expectation against Ukraine?
aHCoS: Okay, hard question, just because I'll receive alot of hate for my answer. ^^
To be honest, I somehow knew that we could win when PGG is playing. I respect him as a player, and he's definiately a GREAT player, but in the last few months his skill wasn't that good at all in my oppinion.
That said, I believe that the game against Ukraine will be even tougher than the game against russia. In my eyes, they're the strongest opponent in our group.
Russia has great solo skills, maybe the best of all ENC teams, but I like the teamplay the Ukrainian players showed much more, and teamplay is the victory.
I'm not quite sure how far we can get with the German team. To reach the playoffs is - of course - the goal, but there will be waiting really hard opponents.
Against Ukraine: as I said, this will be our hardest game, just because Ukraine wont underestimate us now that we won against Russia.
GosuGamers: Do you think, that the "smaller" ENC nations prepared better, and maybe the dominating ones, took it to easy?
aHCoS: Yep, that's for sure. Alot of so-called "small teams" showed really good performances, and I believe that that's the cause of alot of practise.
But wait, who said, for example, slovakia was "small"? They have great solo skills (I've always admired tulex , love his gameplay). It's a big mistake to underestimate enemies just because they don't have the "big names" in their team.
GosuGamers: So you admit that Ukraine has a high chance to win the ENC this time. Who do you see as their hardest rivals? Who do you think will win it?
aHCoS: Yep, Ukraine is one of my top-favorites. Beside this, I think sweden and denmark have a really good lineup. Personally, I hope for Sweden (and Germany of course ^^) to take the win home.
GosuGamers: Okay let us once again (and for the last time) to Onetrick.Pony: Fire joined your team because he liked the atmosphere. Do you think a friendship based or a hierachy/dominated atmosphere fits better for the top teams?
aHCoS: Uhm, hard question. Friendship is really important in any team, I don't think that a team where everybody messes up with each other can come up to the top. To be honest, I don't think that you really need something like a "leader" who screams and gets angry, as long as every player in the team acts professional and friendly. After all i'd really say that we've a great team spirit, a spirit I've never experienced before in any team. Of course we get angry sometimes and debate about lost games or something, but that never lasted for long and after some minutes we were already laughing and making fun of each other. In my eyes, a leader is most-important to advise his teammates to improve or to get rid of mistakes they always make, but that's something everyone in our team does for each other (maybe I do it more often than my teammates actually^^)
GosuGamers: That is my opinion as well, so tell us the story of you becoming a supporter ingame. Was it needed? Do you like it most? What is the magic behind a Supporter.
aHCoS: Well, the whole story would take too long, but in short: I've started dota after I quitted playing WoW, and I started it to play support, just like I did in WoW (I was a healingpriest ;) ).
And yes, I like it the most. The only thing that frets me sometimes is that support is so much underestimated by too many players out there.
You gotta see it like this: support carries the other teams trough the game and does everything that they can shine in every single way, such as farm and kills.
For winning the game, support often has to be carried also, but till then a good support player has done incredible amounts of game-winning stuff for the team, such as good warding/antiwarding, winning a lane or sitting a carryhero trough the earlygame, defend and push towers, kill enemies and so on.
Most big mistakes support players do in a game: don't farm enough, don't level enough, die too fast, overall: don't think about themselves enough. You just can't participate at every early/midgame gang with a maiden for example - that way you most likely will be killed, lose farm, lose XP and so on. You got to have intuition for when to go in a fight and when to go out. I don't believe that the "worse" players should play support, as a good support player you have to play just as good as a carry, it's just that other talents and skills are needed as a supporter, and most players don't take their time to evolve these skills.
GosuGamers: So in a special way Germans are talented for supporters with their ego-thinking. Before we reach the final Shoutouts question: Have you ever think of droping DotA and do something that has more positive effects on your reallife? Like maybe normal Sport, or things like that?
I'm a PC addicted since i was 3 years old (there's a foto of me sitting in front of a Atari back in the 80's - just three years old), so: no, not really thought about quitting. My "reallife" takes enough of my time, but yeah, in the past few months i may have spent too much time in front of the PC, but somehow this pays off.
GosuGamers: Okay, then there is only one thing left to say for me: Thank you very much for this huge interview. Good luck for Onetrick.Pony and yourself in future. Any shoutouts? Any final words? Wishes?
aHCoS: Shoutouts to my team first of all ofc, also to team-thermaltake who are some real cool guys aswell, big THANKS to dmZ for their vent which we use as a clan aswell ^^, greetings to anyone in the dotasource community, and finally: Dr.Affe = noob! Thanks for the interview, thanks to everyone who took his/her time to read it.
PS: gosugamers.net = best site for replays !!!
