Merlini: 'Puppey is the best player that I have played with'

On Wednesday, March 3rd, Nirvana.Int Merlini joined TGBF.tv shoutcaster Mark 'Madmortigan' Dravland for an interview where some of his questions addressed his new captain Puppey. That day, his team Nirvana.Int battled Storm Games Clan (SGC) for the Farm4Fame semi-finals.


In your opinion Merlini, who would you say is the best player in the world right now?

-Playing under Puppey has really opened up my eyes to how good a Dota player can be. He is, no insult to Jacob who I played under in MYM or Fear who I played under in EG but I think, Puppey is just a step above each of those guys both in theory crafting, acting as a captain and as a player. His play usually exceeds my expectations and I’m always pleasantly surprised by how well his strategies work out and the way he plays. He is always very very serious about the game and tries as hard as to win. He never fools around or you know get rapier or smashing somebody, I’ve never seen him do that. But in my opinion, he is the best player that I know of at the moment. But then again I haven’t played with many of the Asians and there could very well be someone that is much better on the other side of the globe but I haven’t had enough experience to say that Puppey is the best player in the world but I can definitely say that Puppey is the best player that I have played with.

Has anyone paid for any of your 1 vs 1 lessons yet? I’m sure a lot of people would like to know the answer to that one!

-Yeah, we started our lessons around two or three weeks ago and by the second day, we had 30 or so requests that never might seem kind of surprising but most of them were for replay analysis, not actual 1 vs 1. I think the customer will benefit a lot more from replay analysis. It’s just much easier for us to help you if we are looking at a 5 vs 5 because Dota is a 5 vs 5 game not a 1 vs 1 and if you do want us to help with your 1 vs 1 skills, I think the best way would just present an appropriate replay where you know you make some mistakes or you wonder why you lost this lane and after that we can move to something else. But you know, most people focus too much on their individual skills, and 1 vs 1 or how to solo whereas I think there are many more important things they can concentrate on. So, the 1 vs 1 has only been a couple and most of our requests have been for replay analysis.

Pretty interesting. Here is an interesting question: What do you think of the direction Icefrog is taking Dota, in terms of balance etc. ?

-Every version since the blink dagger version, I think it was 6.48b, ever since the blink dagger nerf, I’ve really liked most of Icefrog’s changes. He tends to buff the underpowered heroes and nerf the overpowered ones so that the viable pool of competitive heroes remains as big as possible. So you know, we can see PA on occasion and Void and you know just the heroes that people usually associate with pubs. I know we used like the Drow/Huskar in lane one time a couple months ago but overall I like the changes and the items are great for a fast-paced ganging play style. Also I know he is making a lot more friendly as a competitive Esport. A long time ago, he permitted having observers and then he had observer screen. And now there is reconnection tool and all this other stuff. And he’s really just done a great job of making Dota into what it is today. There was no way Dota would have come this far if it wasn’t for his active support and trying to make it a really really big thing for everyone of us.

Nirvana.Int Merlini also gave his insight about Naga Siren in competitive gaming: “I think Naga is just a little bit too weak of a hero and is too easily countered by ghost scepter to be used in CM right now. Hmm maybe when the pool is a little bit smaller, then she is more viable but hmm you saw Fear got an early ghost scepter and you know you can still force scepter so it’s not that great. It owns in many different games but if people know how to play against it, then you know it’s not that effective.”

Coming back to the interview, TGBF shoutcaster mentioned:
Puppey, a guy who has been hailed for his creativity with his picks. And all you guys are so damn good that it allows you to show the versatility of your ability to play multiple kind of heroes.

-Well thanks!

Is there anything you want to shout out, any announcement you want to make before we go off the air?

-Well, thanks for your support and everybody else’s support. I know our whole team appreciates you guys support and you know without it Nirvana wouldn’t have come this far, hmm so thanks again everybody.
-I'll like to say shout out to all of Nirvana: Puppey, Kuroky, Demon, Fear and March as well as our Manager and to Grant and Steve. Thanks!


Please do check the link below to listen to the full interview as Nirvana.Int Merlini discusses his new sponsor as well as Nirvana.Int's plan for upcoming LAN events.
http://www.tgbf.tv/read.php?item=242

Links
TGBF.tv - Source
mymym.com - Source Picture
it.com.cn - Source Picture