Virus on the rise - Socks chats about the progress

Virus DotA at ASUS Spring: Vladtepes, Socks, Shiba, Phoenix

French DotA team Virus managed to surprise positively in the past weeks, not only since their appearance at ASUS Spring. Their victory against Moscow5 in the Battle of Masters quarter final was only the tip of the iceberg, as Virus also managed to win the fourteenth season of Argh League. We asked a very talkative Socks about the development of the team and his opinion, regarding several topics all around DotA.

Hello Socks and thanks for joining me today. You and Virus are in a pretty astounding shape right now; you didn’t lose in the last seven matches, winning Argh League XIV and reaching the semifinal in the Battle of Masters tournament. Do you consider this your best phase as a team ever?
Yes of course it is! We finally perform well and successfully in an online tournament. After our good placing at ASUS Spring, we fell into a not so good shape. We played really bad and had big issues when drafting our heroes. We tried to find a suitable solution to put an end to this bad streak and changed the captain. Now we are picking as a team and everybody talks during the draft, which turned out to be much better. Before Argh League and BotM, we despite being not able to advance, had good results in our Intel SuperCup group, which belonged to the harder ones (tied both OK.Nirvana and M5) and finally showed our best in both Argh league finals and the BoTM quarter final.

You mentioned the ASUS Spring, to which you attended as the only western European team. What did you gain from the tournament? What experiences did you collect that make you better as a player and Virus better as a team?
It was our first LAN with the full roster so we didn't know if we would play as well as online, because it’s totally different. Now we know that we can perform well under both conditions and having this confirmation was the most important point for us. During the event, we talked a lot together, be it either during a game or in our pauses and we understood that this is really important because we didn't communicate enough before. Now we also encourage ourselves during game more often and I can only say, it really helps.

As you know the environment at offline tournaments is not always the best; it is very loud at times and tons of people stand closely behind you. Was it uncomfortable for you to play that way?
Definitely not. Sometimes it's even better than online, because all those people behind you, who applaud when you pull off a great team fight or gank, make you transcend yourself and enforce you to play even better. It's awesome!
I think one of the most important abilities for a player to have, is to be good in any situation and under all conditions.

Will we see you at the upcoming ASUS Summer again?
I just recieved the confirmation from my manager about one hour ago, that we will attend the next ASUS again!

That’s great to hear. I would like to shortly talk about the DotA scene in France, which despite your success, seems to have decreased significantly in the last months. As you are an insider, is that assumption true? And are there any newcomers from France, who we should keep our eyes on?
Yes, unfortunately it is true. Actually, the DotA scene in France is quite dead. The most important French ladder being Argh league one, closed one month ago. The last thing we have is the French VIP ladder, but there are only about thirty people left, playing on it. My only hope is Blast's new team, which seems to be motivated and I hope that the admins will give them a chance in the next tournament, because they are definitely good. Besides, there are still some really good French players like Topaz Vaurkk Funzii, who hang out on GosuGamers sometimes, but they prefer playing for fun only and don't want to make a serious team.

Where do you think lie the reasons for this development. Do any competing games like HoN or LoL gain more influence in France, or did the national leagues/tournaments lose just potential throughout the past months?
Yes I think HoN and LoL are the main reason, besides Starcraft 2; a lot of people switched to either of these games. Also, the amount of participating teams on LANs decreased in general, so more and more organizers stopped taking DotA. Maybe people grew tired of Warcraft 3, even if it IS NOT POSSIBLE! I'm not too sure about it however (*smiles*).

Virus seem to be taking good care of you however, since you are now able to attend your second DotA LAN in 2011. You came into the organization from BLAST, as you were formerly called. What changed in your gaming life since you are in Virus? Is it connected to any further assignments for instance? Do you have to appear at promotion events, or can you just focus on your next online match?
Virus is the prefect organization for us. The major improvement for us is to be able to attend LANs out of France. Sometimes we have to create articles for our website and stream occasionally, but it's rather a pleasure than an obligation. We can always stay focused on our next online match, which is really important. We also get well supported, by two managers (Luciqno and Shiba), one DotA news-writer (Sol.Invictus) and we are about to recruit an English streamer for our webTV. Since you mentioned promotion events, our next one will be ASUS Summer (*laughs*). We are really lucky to have a place in this family; thanks Virus!

When we look at the European clan-scene there are MYM, Na`Vi, GosuGamers, M5, OK.Nv, nevo followed by sort of a second row, with you, FM, SGC, TR, FEARZ, NE and others. Where do you see Virus when entering the upcoming competitions? You will place top four in the Battle of Masters. Do you think Virus can breach into those top six out of the second row?
Even if Argh League isn't a famous competition, all the "second-row-teams" were there, but we managed to win it and defend our title; this gives us some great hopes for the prospective tournament. But firstly, we have to focus on our Battle of Masters semi-final against either OK.Nirvana or Fearz. We have already done better than expected and our goal is now to play as good as during the beginning of the tournament. And why could we not win our first big online event (*smiles*). After the BoM and depending on our result, we will fix our goal to the Asus. Our aim is of course to try beating the best teams even if we know that it will be hard, because the hardest thing isn't to reach the top, but to stay on top. Consistency has always been our main problem.

You achieved a big part of your latest victories on 71b. How do you like the newest release? Will it change your playbook strategies or commonly played heroes?
Yes 71b matched our gameplay very well. I don't play on 72c that often, because like you said many events are still played on 71b. We will have to adapt our strategies and bans I guess, but not our common heroes. There are some important changes on melee heroes, which is a really good thing for us because 100kpm loves some of them, especially carries. The new item Veil of Discord is also a good addition, because some strategies with tanks were overpowered in 71b in my opinion. We don't know the played version at ASUS yet, so I’m not sure whether we will have to think about the switch before or after the event. Let’s wait and see (*smiles*)

A user opened a thread at our forum yesterday, asking whether people prefer having allied/enemy colors activated at the minimap. What do you prefer and why?
I always play without allied/enemy colors. Even if I can understand why some people would prefer it, I'm pretty sure that it's better to play with all colors. At the beginning of the game, I always open the board and check all heroes and their colors, so when I see a color on the map, I instantly know which hero it is. That’s a really important factor for me, since I have always one eye on the minimap. This is just my take on it though.

Do you also follow DotA from other continents? An MPGL tournament took place in the Philippines this weekend, and the professional teams in China are currently playing the ECL finals. Is that something you are interested in, meaning do you try to pick up new things for your own play from there, or do you fully focus on Europe?
Yes I’m interested in DotA from other places as well. I don't pay attention to the results of a competition, but I watch all available replays and as many streams as I can. Sometimes we tried to pick up some ideas for our drafts or use some not as frequently played heroes, that we saw on a stream, but the Chinese and European style and mentality are very different, so it's nonsensical to just copy Chinese picks. We experienced it first hand against NE, what a fail (laughs*). Despite all that, I am definitely more focused on the European scene, as I watch lot of replays of our direct competitors and all live streamed matches when I'm not playing an official game at the same time.

Would you stream yourself while playing DotA as well?
It's not in my plan and I don't think people would care! But I would like to start shoutcasting some matches in English, because i love shoutcasting. I already did it for Argh league in French, but I have to improve my English first

When is the next Virus match?
The better question would be: When is the OK.Nirvana vs FEARZ match? After that I will be able to tell you (*laughs*)

Thanks for your time once again. Do you have final words or shoutouts to give?
Firstly I wanna thank all admins, news-writers and other staff, who spend so much time voluntarily and make tournaments possible. Shoutout to Virus, especially SkyBoot and RoD, to all the sponsors, especially Kapersky and Intel.
Shoutout to all people who follow and support us; to the GosuGamers community. And to Adp.Tiger aka NKZ <3 and of course to my mates!