Mantis, LuCky, eQual, 13eaR, R_O_N_I_N

With incredible resolve and drive, NEXT.kz emerged victorious in a tense sixty-minute final against 4FC yesterday in the fourth qualifiers of GosuLeague. Andrey 'eQual' Railyan shares his thoughts on the finals last night in a GosuGamers exclusive.

Hi eQual, congratulations on winning our qualifiers last night. The first question is about your team - how is Black adjusting in NEXT.kz?
-"Hello. When RONIN left the team, we took Black as a standin, but now he isn't in our roster anymore.

I see - so who is replacing RONIN?
-"There are a pair of candidates we are considering for replacement, but I can say nothing right now."

After your team was dropped by NEXT, what was the general attitude of your team to the news?
-"The NEXT organisation is still supporting us, so huge thanks to them. When we lost most parts of our sponsorship deal, we resolved to not dismiss the team.

We don't get a salary any more, but we still want to play and we don't want to disband."

So you are currently playing for NEXT without salary?
-"Right; they are still supporting us. For example, we can play at their internet cafe for free."

Onto the GosuLeague - in terms of familiarity, how would you rank our three qualified teams (Captain Planet, Mousesports and Team Infused)?
-"About team Captain Planet, I don't have much to say but I think that all American teams are really strong at the moment.

Team Mousesports has such a great playstyle - I don't know how to explain it but I guess they brought it over from HoN.

And about Team Infused, I can say that they know how to play standard picks and strategies but I guess they won't come up with anything unusual."

*laughs* Infused actually tried a dual jungle Ursa Warrior and Skeleton King strategy against Na`Vi yesterday (see).
-"I played 14 hours of Dota 2 yesterday so I missed the game. I went to sleep immediately after the qualifiers. *smiles*"

How about NEXT then? How would you describe your team's 'playstyle'?
-"Hmm, I won't say too much. Everything is pretty standard as well, especially now when we have had to put trainings on hold due to some problems. We haven't been coming up with anything innovative recently.

But what I can say though, is that one of the main parts of our strategy is not to give our opponents full map control (not to allow our opponents to farm our woods or to stand on our half of the map, for example)."

GosuLeague Qualifier IV
Sweden

4FC

NEXT.kz
‎BANS
anti mage

‎PICKS
leshrac

‎LANES
queen of pain

lalk (Mid)
enchantress

bom (Jungle)
sandking

eresloco (Top)
leshrac

stranby (Top)
bounty hunter

Dirichlet (Bot)
riki

eQual (Top)
tidehunter

570 (Top)
storm spirit

Mantis (Mid)
windrunner

13 (Bot)

asd (Top)

Your team did manage an incredible comeback in yesterday's finals though. Did you have any expectations of how the finals would play out before the game?
-"Thanks, the game was cool. *smiles*

Before the finals, we discussed what we would pick and how we would play, but I guess because of their aggressive triple lane and time (it was 2a.m. in the morning for us) we made a lot of mistakes.

In midgame we managed to start fights because of Storm Spirit and the only way to win was to take out one of their heroes and force four on five fights."

Yeah, at around twenty five minutes, your team was suffering a deficit of more than 10 kills and almost 14,000 gold. What was going through your mind at that point in the game?
-"Well, when you're in game, you don't know how huge the disadvantage is, so we simply tried our best, and after two to three teamfights I guess both teams were in equal situation by then."

Did you feel additional pressure playing the carry Riki? It was pretty much do or die at thirty minutes into the game.
-"Before RONIN left, I played the solo lanes and in this finals it was still a bit uncomfortable playing the carry hero but I didn't feel any pressure even after a ton of deaths. *smiles*"

How did you and your team feel after the final GG call was made?
-"With a feeling of executed duty, we went off."

Alright, I have a couple of short questions - favorite team?
-"No favorites in Dota 2."

Hardest match you ever played?
-"Some game against Na`Vi, I guess. *smiles*"

Your favorite fun build in pubs?
-"Drums of Endurance, Eul's Scepter, Yasha, Phase Boots"

On any hero? *grins*
-"Yup, it doesn't matter. *smiles*"

We're done. Thank you for the interview. Shoutouts?
-"Shoutout to those people who were watching us - huge thanks to them and I hope you enjoyed our games. Shoutout also to GGnet and thanks to our sponsor NEXT."

Roster:
Kazakhstan Andrey 'eQual' Railyan
Yernar 'Mantis' Urazbayev
Daniyar 'LuCky' Kassenbayev
Roman 'StOrm' Khaziakhmetov

4FC vs NEXT.kz, Grand Finals

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eQual: 'We simply tried our best'