Interview with Gunnar, where we spoke about the nouns’ new recruit, their TI12 qualifier run and Dota 2 patch 7.34.

A few months ago, we spoke with nouns’ mid laner Nico “Gunnar” Lopez after his team had qualified for the Bali Major. Since then, they’ve made a roster change and qualified for The International 2023 (TI12) through North America. With a lot happening in the past three months, we caught up with Gunnar again to talk about the change in team dynamics with the addition of Hector “K1” Antonio Rodriguez (referred to as Hector hereafter), the TI12 qualifiers and Dota 2 patch 7.34, amongst other things.

Thank you for taking the time to talk with us, Gunnar! Is the team on break, or are you at bootcamp?

The team is currently on break. We have two more weeks of break, after which we will be back at bootcamp.

Where are you planning on bootcamping?

We will be bootcamping somewhere near New York or New Jersey. There was a plan to go to Europe for the bootcamp, but we decided to stay in North America because a lot of teams are coming here [before TI].

Congratulations on making it to The International! You’ve been to TI as an analyst, but this will be your first TI as a player. How do you feel? Nervous, excited or both?!

I wouldn’t say I am nervous. Definitely excited! It has been a few years of second place finishes in the TI qualifiers, so it’ll be good to finally play at the event. I’ve worked two TIs as an analyst [TI9 and TI11], and I would prefer to play rather than watch others play.

Does it make it more special that the fight for the Aegis will be on home ground?

It is nice to see The International is back in Seattle. We have US pride in our team! Four of the five players are from the United States.

Let me ask the question every North American Dota 2 fan has on their minds – Why move Luke "Yamsun" Wang to position 5 and kick Husky to get in Hector? The decision to go for Hector is completely understandable, considering his experience. But a lot of people were confused with the positional changes.

After the Bali Major, the team decided a change needed to be made. YamSun brought up the fact that he had played support before, and Hector was willing to play with us, so we went ahead with it.

Did you expect to sail through the North American TI12 qualifiers like you did, or did you expect more of a fight from any of the other teams?

We went into the qualifiers with a lot of confidence. Even on the last day, Lelis was assuring the team that the NA spot was ours to lose. I don’t think I performed to the best of my abilities though. We lost two games throughout the qualifiers [one against Sand King Gomez and one against Wildcard gaming], which we probably shouldn't have. The first two days of the qualifiers, I wasn’t too pleased with how I was playing. But on the whole, it went just as we had expected.

Was sticking pieces of tapes on the wall to count the number of wins a motivational strategy?

Yes, that was our sports psychologist Edward’s idea. We told him we needed to win nine games to qualify through the upper bracket, and he put the tapes on the wall and told us to stay in the upper bracket.

It’s interesting you mention the team is working with a sports psychologist. When did he come onboard? Are there a lot of teams that have a sports psychologist as a part of the roster?

We’ve been working with him for a couple of months now. He joined us before the Bali Major, and will be with the team at TI12.

A lot of the teams at the top who win the major tournaments have a psychologist working with them. OG had one when they won TI9, Tundra Esports did as well when they won TI11 last year.

OG were the ones who brought it to everyone’s notice when they won their second consecutive TI. A few years ago, professional teams did not have coaches, and now a team can’t function without one. Do you think eventually, every team will need to have a psychologist as well?

It’s hard to say if it will be a necessity. At the top of the pyramid, if there are a group of teams that are similar in skill, then having a psychologist in their ranks will give them an edge.

Let’s get to the new player in nouns – What does Hector bring to the team? He has a lot of experience. Does he take part in the shot calling? Is he vocal in games?

Hector is really vocal in games, and he is also extremely fun to play with! He is a really funny guy, and it’s always beneficial for a team to have a player like that. No matter the state of the game, he will always stay positive. In games where we are clinging on to the small chance for victory, the way Hector talks will just take the negative sentiment that others might have and make you smile. And whenever we are winning, he is vocal and makes sure the team knows what he wants.

That is always heartening to hear! Dota 2 patch 7.34 was released a month ago. Any big changes that you really like? Has the game improved s compared to Dota 2 patch 7.33?

Overall, I like patch 7.34, although I am getting tired of seeing Pangolier in every game. Can IceFrog please nerf him for a year straight? I would be really happy if I didn’t have to see Nature’s Prophet and Pangolier at TI12.

I would love that too! But I doubt it will happen with TI12 being just a month away. What about the mid lane? We don’t see as many Universal heroes as before dominating the mid picks. Is there a bit more balance now?

For sure. Stat items like Rod of Atos and Spirit Vessel were nerfed, or in case of heroes like Void Spirit, the hero got hit hard with nerfs. A few Universal heroes like Lone Druid and Pangolier are decent [and Invoker is really carrying the flag for Universal heroes], but they definitely are the weakest category of heroes right now, which I would say is a good thing.

This is more a personal question than anything. Being a Dazzle player, it has been frustrating to see the hero be out of the meta for a long time. He has been buffed recently. What do you think of the Shadow Priest as a mid hero?

The buffs Dazzle has received recently are fairly significant. Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen has played the played the hero a bit in the last couple of weeks. I don’t have my mind made up about the hero yet. The patch is quite fresh, and a lot of times players just follow trends in pubs and pick the most broken heroes rather than experimenting, so I definitely think there are a lot of heroes on whom players haven’t done the research. I wouldn’t be surprised if Dazzle becomes a meta hero in the next month. There are definitely a few heroes that are undiscovered at this point. I haven’t discovered them either [so he says, until we see Gunnar’s mid Bane at TI12].

Any thoughts on the new TI format? Both, the overall format and the one for the group stage.

The International will definitely feel really long with the new format. From what I’ve heard from players, it already felt long with the old format. There will be multiple four day breaks. It will either be fun just to be there, or stressful if you’re still in the tournament. All the players care so much about TI and try their level hardest, that it makes break days stressful because you want to play Dota 2 for 15 hours and be ready for your next game without taking a break.

As for the group stage, it feels a bit weird. One team from the four 5-team groups will be eliminated, and the other four just have to play a best-of-3 to secure an upper bracket slot. The reason it is weird is all you need to do to get to the upper bracket is beat the worst team in your group, and then win one best-of-3. The day of bo3s that will determine which teams go where in the bracket is going to be crazy. You can crush your group stage [phase one] and mess up in the bo3 [phase two] and suddenly you’re in the lower bracket.

In the previous group stage format, every team got to play against nine other teams and were ensured at least 18 games. This year, it will only be against five teams before the playoffs. Is that a disadvantage for teams in terms of playing against multiple playstyles?

Probably. In the previous format, you would learn a lot by playing against more teams. There is more time to scrim this year because of the breaks, but it will lead to a loss in momentum. For me though, it is bound to feel great as it will be my first time playing at The International!

Interview with nouns' Gunnar: "No matter the state of the game, Hector always stays positive"