Pusher interview part 2: Asians make the shittiest hero usable

Today we present you the second part of the interview with MYM|Pusher. He describes why he almost stopped playing DotA and the ability of Asian players using new heroes in competitive DotA.

Has there been a point in your career where you thought of quitting DotA completely? Or where your motivation was below zero?

- I strongly considered quitting after pride nations since I was so embarrassed at my own performance and that I let down Slahser, MaNia and Maelk who all worked really hard. I felt that I let them down, but Maelk and the others said that there was nothing we could have done; the Russians were just too good that year. Also I learned not to listen to all the crap people write on forums (D-A). It was the main forum at that time and I got flamed so hard there after that final was like 6 pages of people saying I sucked and lost it for Denmark, which at that time was really discouraging for me since I was just starting out. I thought it wasn't worth the shit I had to take.

I learned it doesn’t matter what bullshit they write about you as long as your team and the persons you have to deal with on a personal level are behind you and support you.

After all that years playing DotA on such a high level, don't you ever get bored? How can you keep up the motivation game after game?

- My motivation comes from my competitive spirit. I just have to compete whether its Jamlegend or how long u can hold your breath or juggle a football, the drive of competition is enough for me even though it can become really REALLY boring playing babysit warlock.


» MYM posing at the Gamescom 09

Do you have any special preparation before the games or any tics during the games? I for example always avoid cold fingers and if they get cold during playing, I go wash them with hot water.

- Funny you should ask that. I actually love playing with cold fingers I have always have an open window when I play. I just really love cold weather anything above 10 degrees Celsius is to hot imo. The only ritual I have is that I never shave when we're on a winning spree which was why I had such a long beard at Gamescom and also a long one before our loss to DMZ ^^.

I remember that game. The unknown German team beat the unbeatable MYM.

- They were the better team in those games. Nothing to add.

How does the average Pusher’s day look like? How much do you play per day? And what do you do for living?

- An average day for me is atm is usually just getting up making breakfast, checking forums etc. Usually it just takes maybe one or two garena games before the rest come on, then we usually scrim from 19-23 depending on how many official matches we have the week, as for work I’m currently unemployed but I saved up a few bucks during the course of 2006-2008, of which I have been living for this year.

Got the money from gaming or working?

- I got the money from going to a production school where you do work and get paid while you go to school.

Why don’t we see you playing that much inhouse games like pgg or Loda do? Prefer playing with your team?

- I don't play a lot of inhouse games since usually there are too many retarded egos that I really can’t be asked to deal with and there's only a few people that are really worth playing with. Mostly people that put hero kills higher then creep kills are worth playing with if u want to have fun in an inhouse game imo.

SMM is only a few weeks away. Did you or will you prepare especially, like boot camping, for that event? And are you ready to show the world which continent holds the crown at DotA?

- SMM is our main focus at the moment. We're preparing hard for it and take all teams going extremely serious, as for a boot camp we're not gonna do that since the logistics behind it are just hard with one person in Germany and school for MaNia. But we're training really hard when we're not playing. We discuss about strategies and our opponents’ playstyles and how we are going to deal with it.

As for the whole ASIA VS EURO thing I really don't want to get into that since I believe that European DotA has its strong points and Asian DotA has its own strong points. For example I think that Asians have this unique ability to make even the shittiest single target hero usable, but let’s all wait and see what happens in Malaysia. We will come prepared!

What will be your biggest rival in Malaysia in your opinion?

- From what I’ve seen I would say EHOME looks incredibly strong. Their movement is just really strong and they're the only Chinese team I’ve seen that don't rely on a single player farming. Their teamplay is really amazing and they don't compete in any online tournament at the moment, so their replays aren't published which is a plus imo. They're prolly our biggest rival from my standpoint.

KuroKy or Maelk, who is the better player for SMM?

- Kuroky, since Maelk is too distracted with his new girl friend and school.

What are the future plans for MYM? Will we see you at other tournaments soon?

- Well the EDC started we will aim for 1st in that one, and Kuroky says that we're also aiming to win all the F4F 2.1, but my calculations are that you really need to win just one to be qualified for the final 4 =) But we will compete in all that comes our way, whether its LAN or online and we always aim for #1. We hold a lot pride in being consistent since I believe that's the true challenge, showing consistency, provide results and not fluke like OS.ONE.

It seems MYM really likes the current version. Do you think the latest changes IceFrog made will lead DotA into the right direction or is there anything you dislike?

- I personally really like the current version of DotA, not a lot of games above 50 mins anymore. The only thing I really dislike is the price of manta style and that heroes that already are awesome now have an escape ability which makes these heroes insanely easy to play. But DotA has already moved a lot since the melancholy days of 52e.

I would like to thank you for taking the time. Now it’s your turn to shoutout to the visitors here.

- I would just like to add that I really appreciate the DotA community and all the community sites that put a lot of free time into a game which started as being the joke of all of e-sports but is now the strongest one of them. Every single person out there playing DotA daily helped to make that happen.
This had made it possible for me and my friends to travel around the world, to compete in something that we derive a lot of pleasure from. Thanks to the fans/haters, anyone that follows DotA and keeps doing so because this game is only growing and if it keeps going like this: SKY'S THE LIMIT :)

Shoutouts to Merlini, Hanni, Darka, Ducky, Misery, ReiN and everyone on my team and anyone that read my much to long interview. I apologize for the massive wall of texts, but I took a chance since I don't get interviewed a lot.
Keep cheering for us and support us even if we lose.