MYM|MaNia- speaks

Yesterday's match versus SK-Gaming

You defeated SK-Gaming in the second round of The Frozen League. Last time you played them were in the DreamHack Summer 2007 final. How was the talk among the team players before the match?
- We didn't really make a big deal of it, since some of our players are on vacation. We haven't been practicing since DreamHack. Some of us have just played IHCS and fun stuff. We just wanted to have as much fun in the games as possible.

No special strategy, we just tried to brainstorm while picking, so we would get on top with the hero picks. We were discussing the heroes a lot, and took what heroes we could all agree with playing.

In the first game, you played Lina, then Leshrac and in the third game Sand King. Explain why you chose them!
- Well we only had one guy wanting to play warlock, which were LevenT, and he normally plays our Lina. But because he was forced to play Warlock, I played Lina the first game. In the second game it was kinda the same deal, we just took what heroes we like playing and fits with the members of the team.

MYM|MaNia- Name: Brian Strandby Age: 22 Location: Denmark, Brønshøj Clan: MeetYourMakers IRL favorites Food: Duck Music: Anything but heavy and stuff like that Book: Haven't read a book in years Movie: The Butterfly Effect Game: DotA Drink: Jägermeister TV: One Tree Hill DotA favorites Hero: Priestess of the Moon Lane: Any Item: Boots of Travel Version: 6.43b Mode: xl Player: i)arkarax, he's my pet Site: humorfreak.dk League: MYM PriDe

Why did you end up losing the first game? Any special key points that can explain the loss? Was it because SK were able to hinder Leshrac from doing any major damage in the crucial battles?
- Nah, we fucked a bit up in the picks, because we couldn't really agree on the heroes. We picked warlock which crippled us a bit, because Silencer always got his ultimate off right after we dropped Golem. So we agreed on that if we should have picked warlock, then we needed to take silencer too, but we didn't. And if we picked Viper we needed Beastmaster instead of Warlock. That was kinda the two different picks we would have made, if we could do it over.

Their Beastmaster/Sven also tanked us very well, so we were unable to engage them, but i would say SK played very well the first game. Nice performance of the 5v5 strategy. In the early game we were kinda in top leading the kills but their combo owned us in the end.

You bought yourself an Energy Booster in the first game, but then sold it and bought an Eul Scepter instead. Why did you do that?
- In the start I wanted to get a Soul Booster, and I started out buying Energy booster because I needed a bigger mana pool and at the point I needed it I had 1000 gold, normally i buy the 1200 booster. I saw that we needed a hex, so I didn't finish my Soul booster, and at the time I had hex, they all had hoods, so Aghanims would be stupid to get. If I sold the Energy booster I had just enough for Messerschmidt, so thats why I sold it :)

In the second game you played Leshrac, and went with LevenT (Lina) in the bottom line. What did you think the key points were in the second game that eventually gave you the win? What was your strategy?
- In the second game we just wanted map control, and since we had removed Silencer, we could easily get our spells in. The fast book on Queen of Pain at 26 minutes, helped us contain them. The didn't really have any lategamers, so we tried keeping them off pushing by ganging them every time we had the possibility. LevenT had much fun with their Pugna :)
First game we didn't have any books, and we realized that we needed two books as well in the second and third game.

How much pressure did you feel in the third and deciding game? There is only a 23 minute replay available, could you tell us what happened?
- Actually we were very pleased with the picks in the 3rd game. We made them pick between Queen of Pain and Sand King in the first pick, and hoped they would pick Queen of Pain, so we could get both Sand King and Silencer - and so they did.

The third game was kinda a gangfest. We were all over the map, and ganged constantly. I would dare to say they got badly raped last game. Almost all of us had dagger, so we kinda stalked them a lot. Loda ended up with 11 deaths with Queen of Pain. :)

The playoffs in The Frozen League

Next up MeetYourMakers will play Check-Six in the Winner Bracket final. What do you think of your chances there?
- Well we are gonna do our best, we know Check-Six has performed very well lately. I like their playstyle, and I consider them one of the best teams. Nevertheless I think our chances are good, and we will certainly give them some good games!

About slahser and new recruits

You have been playing with slahser as a standin instead of the players currently on vacation. What is your take on this player? Is he MeetYourMakers material, is it a possibility that we will see him with the MYM tag in a near future?
- Well I have played a lot with him at the Danish national team, and hes a very skilled player. If he is gonna be a part of MYM, I cannot say at this point, because we will have to revalidate the situation when our players come back from vacation. If we decide to add another player to the roster it would most definitely be him.

The Frozen League used 6.41 in the regular season, but for the playoffs they went with 6.43b. Was it a positive or negative change?
- Well it hasn't changed that much from the 41 playstyle to the 43b. Nevermore became very popular in 41, because of his large area nukes, but it seems like hes still getting picked in 43b.

MaNia- and his relationship with the rest of MYM

How would you describe yourself as a player? What are your strengths and weaknesses?
- Well I can play carry heroes, as well as support, but for MYM I usually play support heroes, because we got better solo players than me. It's hard to say what my strengths and weaknesses are, but if I should say anything, I would say my weakness is that I usually don't back down from a fight, which is also my strength. I rather suicide for the teams sake, if i have the opportunity. Like my Leshrac in the second game, I had like 1-5 in the start, but gave alot of kills to my teammates.

How much of a strategy person are you? Maelk is your ingame leader, but how much "overall strategy" are you involved in when playing with MYM?
- I give my opinions, and give input to what heroes we should pick. We kinda all get to give input and we decide strategies together.

In two out of the three games yesterday you went on the same lane as Maelk. How is your relationship with Maelk, seeing as how you were both in Team JOY, both of you hail from Denmark - are you good friends?
- Yeah, me and Maelk are good friends, we have known each other since we both played wc3. At that point we only knew each other through the ladder 2v2 games. He introduced me to Dota at a higher lvl, when he invited me to join BTo (Boomtown.odense). Since then we have just played mass DotA together, and as you see we still do. He has been visiting me some times too IRL, and I've been at his place to barbecue and get wasted.

You have been in the team since the 15th November 2006, and you are one of the core players in MeetYourMakers. Tell me, what is it like being a member of the team?
- We have a nice relationship within the rooster. We often play DotA games together, and it was very nice meeting my team members at the DreamHack event. Even though we've never been together IRL, then it felt very familiar to talk and be together with them.

MaNia- about his team mates...

Maelk His strength is that he has an ability to avoid dying, if you've ever played with him in IHCS games, you know he is the master of avoiding deaths, even though he always participates in the battles and kills. His weakness is that he sometimes easily gives up if it doesn't goes his way. Mostly when hes dying, he likes to say hes going afk :) As a person he's a very fun guy, he's always joking and making us laugh. Sometimes he goes into his gaymode where he likes to touch Walter :)

Merlini Merlini is one of our solo players, even though he can play support heroes just as well. He has a lot of strengths, I'm sure people noticed, since he has a "god-like" status in the DotA world. The word people use a lot when talking about his strengths is his ability to cluster. I can't think of any of his weaknesses, he's basically a DotA-machine, that doesn't need sleep. He owns at power napping in chairs :) I like him a lot as a person too. He's a really nice guy, who's funny and a master at making pasta!

Fang Fang is another of our support/engage players. he plays heroes like sand king, shaker etc. Like any other on our team hes very aggressive in his play-style, and he often creates gang situations. I only know him through Ventrilo, so its hard to say anything specific about him, but I can say that he is always happy. He often tries to calm us down if we get a bit excited when we get owned :) He can always turn something bad to something good. I like and respect him as a player and a person.

H4nn1 Hanni is our youngest player, and he is known for his deadly solo-carry. When performing at his best hes one of the worlds best players. He has the ability to make any hero carry

LevenT Levent is another support-player/chicken buyer ;) , but he can also play carry heroes like viper, when its needed. His main hero is lina, which he likes to ninja with. He is a nice person, and i like playing high level games with him :p

p0c p0c is mainly our support-player, but he plays a wicked Queen of Pain too. Hes always participating in gangs and his hobby is to buy lots of wards. His strength is his wisdom in the games and his ability to whats needed to win the games. Walter is down to earth and really kind. He was also my room mate in the time he stayed at my place.

Paccie Paccie is one of our old solo-players, but since he doesn't play that much anymore, he has been playing Beastmaster for us a couple times. Hopefully he will get back soon, and own every1 again. He was with me and Jacob to the other DreamHack in the winter. He is a good friend of me and Jacob, and we have fun together.