Marking their first title together under new sponsors Keita Gaming, the team took out GosuLeague's eighth qualifier last night after spectacular performances against mTw and Quantic. Mathias 'bonzajajaj' Andersson was quick to share his thoughts about last night's games as well as his new team.
Welcome, bonzajajaj. It looks like the last time we reported on an interview with you was back when you were still captain of FEARZ. Back then, you said you were 'currently unemployed' (see). How are things working out for you now?
-"Well, I have actually been working full time for almost half a year back now. But last month, my working hours were changed and it kinda f***ed up my real life commitments, so I actually had to cut down on my job to work only from time to time. My focus is fully on Dota 2 at the moment!"
So basically, you're back to where you started - unemployed? *grins*
-"Well, I'm not really unemployed. I'm getting quite some work hours a week. *smiles*"
Right, in the same interview you also pointed out Na`Vi and XBOCT as your favorite team/player respectively (that was before Dota 2 was even announced). Is it still the case now?
-"Well, of course Na'Vi is a great and awesome team to follow, but it feels kinda 'mainstream' to say that they are my favorite team here in Dota 2, so I have to say that I'm a big fan of Russian-playstyle. After the 'comeback' and big succes of vigoss in Dota 2, I have to say M5 and vigoss are my favorites for now."
Does that mean you're rooting for M5 at StarSeries? They're about to play their semifinal match against Na`Vi coincidentally.
-"Yeah, I would say that I am rooting for them, since I think they are the team who can really surprise us. Alot of people think they don't have very big chances against teama like Na'Vi, Darer & CLG, but it's an offline event, and you should never underestimate 'PGG+4'."
"It's an offline event, and you should never underestimate 'PGG+4'." Well said. Let's talk about your team now - why don't you describe each of your teammates using one adjective and one noun?
-"Oh, that's a tough one, but I'll try.
Niqua - 'Secret talent'
Pinoy - 'Big troll'
QuiX- - 'Awesome analyst'
Wall-eater - 'The one that is always missing (no clue how to make that into two words!)'
Is there still poi?
-"Nope, there is no more poi. We tried out having a 6-man roster, but when it came down to more and more tournaments, we all wanted to take part, and we decided to cut it down to a 5-man roster. This current lineup was the best "role-wise" - don't get me wrong, poi is an awesome player and I wish him all the best."
That's a pity, but now that you mentioned about the team, what is different for you now playing in Keita vs playing in youBoat?
-"Well, youBoat have always only been a 'fun name' and something we just liked to play under, while Keita is a pretty newly formed Swedish organisation that will help us out with the things we'll need to be able to take part in offline events.
So far, so good - Keita seems to have an awesome management and we are very pleased to be able to give back great results to the organisation."
How involved is 'management' in running the team? Do they have a training schedule for you guys, chat regularly with the team, etc?
-"They speak to us everyday, and even though the 'management' don't have so much Dota 2 experience, they always try to stream our games and follow the scene as much as they can. We are working out a deal with a manager for us now, and that will hopefully help out with scheduling our games and training."
Anyway, Keita is the last qualified team for GosuLeague. How would you rate the other seven teams? Or - to put it this way - which teams will stand out during the first season?
-"Moscow Five and Mousesports would be the favorites I guess, but I think there are very good and upcoming teams here, so it can turn out either way. Nevertheless, I belive in my team and can assure you that we will fight for the top spots in this tour."
Quantic
Keita Gaming
Koga (Mid) Link (Bot) 360FLIP (Top) Ryze (Bot) M (Bot) bonzajajaj (Bot) Niqua (Mid) Browskie (Top) Wall-eater (Bot) QuiX- (Bot)We saw a glimpse of that fighting spirit yesterday in your semifinals against mTw. How did you feel after that amazing win?
-"Well, we came into the game against mTw very confident and we really really wanted to prove ourselves against such a great team as mTw. I think after we pulled out a really good laning phase, we were in a pretty good position going into the midgame.
But this is where we have to improve - we took some extremely bad fights and ingame decisions that gave them the chance to come back into the game. But after getting up some good farm on every hero and of course with the Aghanim on Dark Seer - we came out as winners and that felt really good."
Let's talk more about those team fights. There were four Black King Bars on the Dire side - did you guys expect that? How did that impact the game?
-"That's absoultly something that made it hard for us in the fights. We were expecting it, but it came up earlier than we thought, and this made it very hard for us to execute our combos to full potencial."
Well, they also had an insane team fight pair of Tidehunter and Enigma which they pulled off pretty well, I must say. Was your team actually prepared to play against the two heroes after you passed them in the draft?
-"Yeah, we discussed whether we wanted to try to side-push them out, or try to fight their heroes in team fights, and we eventually decided to try to fight them head-on. Therefore, we picked up a Sand King and a Silencer to try to win the clashes. But like you stated, their Black King Bars kinda made it harder than expected for us."
Silencer is 'unusual pick' in the sense that Absolute Legends are the only other competitive team that can really pull off a good Silencer. So was the rationale behind the Silencer last pick more off to counter the combos that Leshrac, Tidehunter and Enigma had?
-"Yes, and since we decided to use Sand King as semi-support, we chose to pick Silencer to try to let Sandking get out some good Ultimates before he reached his dagger."
I noticed that Invoker made it through the ban phase in both your semifinal and finals games against mTw and Quantic. Are teams beginning to underestimate the power of the hero? Is the hero getting weaker?
-"There simply isn't enough bans to ban out every strong hero anymore (since there are so many now). I still consider Invoker as a really really strong hero, but he might not be that game changing as some of the others."
What are 'the others'?
-"Lycanthrope, Lond Druid, Nature's Prohpet and the jungle support heroes (Holy Knight and Enchantress) and Leshrac for his heavy push."
The pushers!
-"Exactly!"
Okay, let's end this interview with a couple of short questions now - favorite support hero?
-"Venomancer."
Blink Dagger or Force Staff?
-"Force Staff. *smiles"
Favorite Ultimate?
-"Ancient Apparition's Iceblast."
Cool, thanks for the interview. Shoutouts?
-"I would like to give a shoutout to all the people who believed and supported us. Big shoutout to iNs8T and the rest of Keita-Gaming! Also, I would like to thank our sponsors Xtravaganza Studios & GameEffect, and of course my awesome teammates!"
Roster
Mathias 'bonzajajaj' Andersson (Captain)
Niclas 'Niqua' Westergård
Dante 'Wall-eater' Rönnlund
Alexander 'PiNoY' Flores
Björn 'QuiX-' Granström
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