The first qualifier of the newest GosuGamers tournament just came to a close and has seen a colorful mixture of European high-caliber teams advancing. Gamescom attenders Virus and monkeybusiness (formerly known as nevo), alongside Macedonian flagship team Global Challengers and newcomer S4M join the top 32 of the tournament
Having competed in a bracket of 64 teams, each of the above-menioned had to win four games in order reach the semi final and qualify for the groupstage. We caught up with representatives of all parties for a quick response regarding their performances and more.
Eatenfish,  MonkeybusinessFirstly, congratulations on moving on towards the groupstage. How did you find the competition in this qualifier? were you worried about losing at any point? The competition was actually harder than we expected; since we had not heard of any of our opponents before we figured it would be pretty easy to get through. We weren't really worried about losing at any point expect in one of the games, where we actually got a bit pressured in midgame. Monkeybusiness (formerly nevo) has seen some player changes in the last week. How did it feel for you personally to play within a partially new roster? Was it harder to act as a team than with the old roster? We have been practicing a lot with the new roster over the past week, basically every time we had 5 out of 6 online, and so far the transition has gone pretty smoothly. I don't think its been harder to act as a team at all. That we're all Danes helps a lot in getting the communication going fast as well, I think. With Gamescom you entered your first LAN tournament as a team. Do you feel that you made experiences there that help you for the rest of your career in any way? Gamescom being my first lan event ever, I surely gained a lot of experience about how such an event works. We also learned the hard way that you shouldn't try and change your tactics because of how the other team plays. We had some push strategies prepared that had worked great in the beta that we never picked because we failed a "push-like" strat in the first game. You have been the support specialist of your team ever since it's formation. At what point in your career did you explore this role for yourself and what do you like about it? I have played support basically all my Dota career.. My first experience with competitive gaming was back in the -pick times, where I played Venge EVERY Sentinel game, and you lost every Scourge game by default. *smiles* I found out pretty early on that i don't work as a carry - not only am I not good at farming, I also find it very boring to do. I have always much preferred playing heroes that have to go out and gank, so the support role fits me perfectly. And you'll continue to serve your team well in the groupstage. Thank you for your time, so shortly after a long series of games. Do you have any last words? A big congrats to synderen for his new gig at joinDOTA! And shoutout to Balsam, Kragx and Smiske, who had to lose their team for ours to grow better!
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VirusFirstly, congratulations on moving on towards the groupstage. How did you find the competition in this qualifier? were you worried of losing at any point?
Thanks. Well, first we thought that we would have to play against some team we don't know, but it appears that we knew all the teams we had to play against. They were good but we played strong and didn't had many problems. I still think that we fall in an hard bracket, and I feel sorry for the teams we beat, especially the Germans. I think they deserve a spot in this GosuCup and I hope that they'll have one more chance in another qualifier.
We heard about your line-up changes today. How happy are you about the performances of Garter and fckinmad today?
We are really happy about their performance. Garter is giving us the "crazy" touch we lacked. He's a very skilled player and he permits us to play more aggressive DotA. Fckingmad is still a bit behind in general but he hasn't played in any top teams yet and he's improving fast so I'm very confident. I can now focus on the support role, as fckingmad is playing the role I used to play. I've a good understanding with mdj which we see early game as I'm not playing the "left alone" hero anymore, and it gives great results so far.
Virus attended three LAN tournaments in 2011. Before that you have been together for about half a year. When you look at the time-line, how significantly did you improve as a team, by attending these events. Is the amount of attended LAN tournaments a factor of general strength of a team?
We have improved a lot in the beginning, in the first 5-6 month of 2011 I'd say. But lately we've felt like we were not improving anymore, as if we had reached the best level we can and that's one of the reason for the line-up changes. LAN events of course helped us to improve as a team. It's a moment where you can discuss a lot with your teammates since you play side by side. Attending a lots of events is important, both offline and online. I want everyone to try it at least once. Playing online is just training for playing offline, because that's where you get the respect from (and the money sometimes) ! *smiles*
European DotA faces 'rough' times at the moment, seeing many teams quitting and/or losing their sponsors. How do you feel about whats happening in Europe right now?
I won't call that a "rough" time. Yes there is a reshuffle, but it's for the good. I feel like European DotA has never been so strong; at the moment we have 2-3 teams that are able to defeat the Chinese (Na'Vi, M5 and Nv.int) while we had only DTS one year ago. I've seen some threads on GosuGamers where people think that European DotA is worse than 6-8 month ago because only these 2-3 teams can expect to win European tournaments, like for instance Na'Vi through their inventiveness. I can assure you that teams like us are working hard to improve to be as good as them but it's not an easy task. *smiles*
Thanks for your time the Phoenix and good luck in the groupstage. Should you have last words or shoutouts please drop them below.
First thanks to VladTepes and 100kpm for the time we've spent together. We have had lots of fun and great emotions together. I wish them the best in the future. I'd like to thanks Virus and our sponsors Kasperky and Intel. Also a big thanks to our beloved managers, Shiba and luciqno. Thanks to Icefrog for the amazing job he did and will do on DotA 2. Gogo FRANCE in the Rugby World Cup, you can do it boys! And shoutout to v1lat and his brother, hope to see you soon!
kVAZER,  S4MFirstly, congratulations on moving on towards the groupstage. How did you find the competition in this qualifier? Were you worried of losing at any point? Yes of course, we played with one friend but we still manage to play good. The competition was very hard but we did our best . We have not seen much of S4M until kow. Please tell us a bit about the team. how long do you exist, how did you get into DotA and how much time do you spend playing the game per week? Well, we are making a new team with several old mates because the old one (PM) disbanded through inactivity. We've existed maybe two weeks max. We got into DotA like everyone else . Everyone plays by themselves maybe four or five hours per day, but as a team only two to three, and we don't practice every day. Now after successfully qualifying you have at least 3 more games in the grousptage, against potentially stronger teams, in front of you . How do you see your chances of advancing to the playoffs? Well, after we see the opponents we will can say better, but we will still give our best to move on to the next stage . Would you shortly describe the players in S4M a bit? Where do each of your mates qualities lie? The players are motivated but they also have fun when they playing even serious games. We have me playing semi support and also picking for the team. howtoplayhuman is a good farmer, inside_the_fire plays mostly solo mid and helps with the picks, brokendreamz_ is the other solo player, and weeDy- plays full support and puts wards in weird places. *smiles* Ok great, thank you for your time and good luck in the groupstage. If you want to do shoutouts feel free. Shoutout to weeDy- who couldn't play with us , teryskill happycarrot m3l0n and all who are fans of Tyga | Bote, Global Challengers Firstly, congratulations on moving on towards the groupstage. How did you find the competition in this qualifier? Were you worried about losing at any point? Thank you. Well, we won the first two rounds easy and I thought the next two would be harder since we played against better teams, but we didn't make any mistakes and everything went well. And we didn't worry about losing as always. Despite having never quite reached the absolute best of Europe, GC has been around almost 1.5 years and counting. What's the secret to such a long run of consistency as a team? Well. the thing is that I believe we can be the best in Europe, but we never get really serious about win any tournament (probably because we want better rewards *smiles*) and play all the matches without voice chat, even against the best teams. Actually GC (with IRL friends) has been around since the beginning of DotA but we never got noticed for the same reasons. So we've played all this time because we enjoy the game mostly. GC became a household name in the Balkan DotA scene, as you compete in the regional events regularly. Since you also know the world of F4F and pick league, how big do you consider the difference in skill? And: Do you think the Balkan scene may evolve to a scene as strong as the scenes in Ukraine or Russia? I don't think that they are much more skilled, or maybe they are just slightly stronger. However, I think we need to get serious to show how good we are to the rest of the world. *smiles* By the looks of it the scene seems to be evolving very slowly, so it won't get as strong as any of those scenes anytime soon because it will take some time for the gaming here to develop. Thanks for that insight, I'm finished and want to wish you good luck for the groupstage. Do you have any last words or shoutouts? Shoutouts to all from Arena, all MK doters, all DotA friends and to all our followers and fans. As for the rest... Global Challengers - Challenge everyone! |
Monkeybusiness, Virus, S4M and Global Challengers will be joined by another twelve European teams, eight American teams and eight South-East Asian teams in the ROCCAT GosuCup #4 groupstage.
Links
GosuGamers - Qualifier #1 Bracket
GosuGamers - Important replays
