Link shares his thoughts on some of the new items along with what he thinks of the new heroes. He takes us back to when and where he started playing DotA and how it'd evolved up until now.
Hello, please introduce yourself to our readers.
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Hey. I am Sylvester (Stallone) from NE, NORDIC-eSport, known as Link. Cheers.”Tell me about yourself. Where do you live, study and/or work?
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I currently live with my mom and little brother in Denmark. I am in my third year of afterschool, and hopefully I'm going graduate this summer. And I've got less than 30 days of school left! Because in February I'm going join the Danish military for at least 4 months. Gamers are, after all, the most dangerous folks on the battlefield.”When and how did you start playing DotA?
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I started to playing on Warcraft III on Battle.net, and I saw more and more games of "DotA" being hosted, and eventually I couldn't help but satisfy my curiosity and joined one. I do not remember any details about my first games, but I liked them. I started to play DotA regularly mixed with some tower defence games, Footmen Frenzy and mauls. Later, I met some dude who told me about Dota-:eague, and I joined right away and played Single Instant Games [sigs] there for the next one or two years. There I met someone named r3ap ,and we created one of my first clans: Method Gaming (M]Link). I downloaded Good Game Client to search for scrims in the clan war rooms. He started going out with a lot of girls, (go for it buddy!) and he didn't have too much time for DotA anymore, so I started to try my luck it IRC channels. I was randomly asking division 2 teams to give me a try-out, even though I sucked :D.
Most of them gave me a chance, and it didn't take too long before i joined RapE, another Danish team that existed at the time. Calculus and balsam played there too. I was still pretty bad, but I had some talent for farming, and I became the hard carry of RapE pretty fast. (Here's a video featuring RapE.dota at the time, made by valeur (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN7g3VKwU3E). I miss it, really. :D”
When did you in your opinion, start to play at a 'professional' level?
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I never really saw myself as professional, since professional means that you do it for living. I played my first competitive matches with RapE against some of the known teams at the time.”How did you happen to join NORDIC-eSports?
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I had a one or two month break from DotA, since I couldn't really find a team and the leagues became pretty boring, because it was the only thing I was doing. When I came back, NE were seeking an extra player, since they had some problems with their team's activity, and I was there to play almost every time I was needed, and after a few weeks they welcomed me in :)”Tell us about your team mates. How would you in describe each in three words?
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Calculus is our captain, he does the drafting for us, and most of the big decisions in games. He's mostly playing solo middle. Three words about him: Aggressive, poker, Shadow Fiend”
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Next is our main support, Kragx, although we call him kraven. He plays the tri-lanes, together with balsam and smiske. If our carries can't farm the lanes, he surely will. :D Three words: Calculating, basher-Maiden, defensive.”
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Smiske is our ganker/secondary support, and has been widely known for a long time, for playing in Met and Ravens. He likes some really weird, but delicious food. :D Three words: Mobile, happy, random”
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Our tri-lane carry player is Balsam. He privately has the most fanboys (I'm one of his fanboys as too). He destroys opponents on our tri-lane, and if he gets a good start, he will roam the map and make the game very hard for our enemies. If Balsam has something to say, he will say it bluntly. Three words: Strong (arms), 18 years old, my grandmother.”
Do you and your team have any special plans for this year?
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We just achieved promotion to Division 1 of Dota-League, beating GoD 2-0 in the qualifier. Our future plans are to attend as many tournaments as we can, and play our best. Recently, OJJE pulled out, because he decided stop his DotA career. So, sometime in the future we wish to add a new carry or all-round player. :)” Who do you think is the best DotA player and why?
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I have always been fascinated about Burning and I guess he doesn't need an introduction as most of you guys know him, cause he freaking destroys everybody. I have always watched his replays to learn, since he plays many of the same heroes/lanes as me.”Lately, we've often see that some of the new heroes are picked - namely Tuskarr and Phoenix - particularly in the MYM Prime Nations tournament, where the game mode is -cmub. What can you say about these heroes? Which of them do you like more?
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I find most of them somewhat imbalanced, however they are better than other heroes such as Weaver and Invoker which are broken in my opinion. Icefrog will have to revoke/nerf some of those heroes before he let in too many of the new ones. If he doesn't there wont be enough bans to remove all the broken ones as I believe teams should be able to ban depending on their strategy, not because you simply cant give some of the heroes to your opponents, regardless of strategy.” What do you think about the new items?
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I really like the Ancient Janggo of Endurance, and the Medallion of Courage - they're cheap and useful without being "imba". Smoke on the other hand, I hate.. You have to play withso much caution, well... Its just imba; you can pop out of nowhere and win the game, and to counter it your team has to walk together as five and "guess" where the enemies are.”
What games do you play besides DotA?
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A bit of Amnesia, but I am really too afraid to play it. :D I only start the game when I'm feeling really strong, but the feeling evaporates quickly when I'm walking down the dark corridors. :/”Thanks for the interview. A few words to conclude it?
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Thanks to everyone out there who supports DotA, and together I am sure we can make this game grow bigger.”Links
Dota.by - Source (Interview in Russian)
