photo credits: eslgaming
Despite being the one constant at Team Empire for over six months now, Yaroslav 'Miposhka' Naidenov is not exactly the most known player of the Russian organization. Perhaps because of his genuine way of being and because he kept himself away from dramas, preferring to rather focus on his own improvement as a pro player.
The Russian outlet dota.ru conducted an interview with Miposhka in which they tried to unveil to the community more of his personality. Courtesy of dota2.ru editor in chief, we are able to share with you the English translation of the Miposhka interview.
Hi, Yaroslav! We’d like you to tell us something about yourself. What do you study? Do you have any other hobbies aside from Dota?
Hi! Well, I’m a professional Dota player (what a surprise!). I studied to be a programmer for half a year. However, I took a break for a year when I got invited to Team Empire. I don’t have plans to further study at the moment. And yeah, there are plenty of things that can catch my interest aside from gaming.
You were at the Comic Con Russia 2016 with your team.
Yeah, I really enjoyed the cosplay.
How often do you go out with your team in general?
We go watch a movie at the cinema sometimes. We also used to play a bit of football together. Now we don’t, though; there is no such possibility.
You reached 8K MMR by only playing support heroes. What is the key of your success?
I don’t think I do anything special. Maybe I’m just really lucky. :)
The 6.88 patch is considered to be the most balanced one in the history of Dota. Do you enjoy it?
I’m quite enjoying this patch. It is considered to be balanced since nearly all the heroes are being picked now.
Do you agree on all these Earth Spirit nerfs? You were one of the best ES players in 6.86.
He might be overnerfed actually. I used to enjoy him more. :)
If you could make three balance changes in 6.89, what would they be?
Not quite sure, but I would definitely change Morphling a bit.
You were a part of that very famous Yellow Submarine roster that emerged victorious in the TI5 Open Qualifiers. Now you are the only one who is playing in a tier-1 team. What is the reason of your success and why didn’t other players like barash and fervian build a good career?
We all had some possibilities but everyone took them in different ways.
In one of your interviews you’ve mentioned that all the decisions in YeS were made by PSM. Do you have a leader in Team Empire?
At the moment, God is our captain.
Your average training time in YeS was six hours. How long do you usually train with Team Empire now?
Aside from playing pubs, which all of us do a lot, we play an average of six scrims per day. Days-off do exist, of course.
Do you think it would be useful for CIS teams to have a very strict discipline like Wings do for example?
Yes, I think it is a good idea. It is very important to grow as a team. Being together a lot makes you trust each other more.
What is the difference in training and bootcamping with a big organization like Empire and a semi-professional one like YeS?
Well, training sessions are not that different, but bootcamps are indeed awesome and Empire ones have been at a top level so far! As for semi-professional bootcamps, I have nothing to say, as we simply didn’t have them back then :)
Who were the most pleasant players to play with during your Dota career?
Those with whom I learned to play professional Dota, I guess.
Your new roster with God, ALOHA and Ghostik seems really interesting, but you’ve only won a few matches so far. What do you think is the reason for this rough start?
We haven’t played together long enough, at the beginning we didn’t even know each other well. Right now we are still testing and trying to figure out what we should play as a team and what strategies fit us the most.
I noticed that you are keeping your twitter in English exclusively. Would you like to try and play in a foreign team sometimes?
Well, “keeping a twitter” is a bit of an overstatement. :) Yes, I’d like to try that of course, but I’d need to brush up my English first. I do know some foreign players, had fun with some of them at an after party. :)
Thanks a lot for the interview, we wish you best of luck in your Dota2 career!
I’ll do my best, thanks for the interview!
