'We can prove Australia is an underrated country for DotA.'

GosuGamers brings you an exclusive interview with one of the established members of the Oceania DotA scene, Kinect's shatan, also known as blackshatan.

Formerly part of Australian DotA's flagship team LGD.au, also known as MCiTY, the team reached its peak with a third placement in MYM Prime Defending 12. Australian DotA, as with South-East Asian counterparts then entered a lull of activity, and the team slowly faded away. GosuGamers caught up with Shatan, now with a new team Kinect, and he talks about his activities this past year and his team's plan for the future.

What have you been up to for the past year - it feels like we haven't heard of much from you since SMM/ADC finished?
-"I've been more focused on my life activities this past year. Ever since musica left mcity I haven't put much effort at all into dota, mostly due to the fact i'm not a good leader and i'm very lazy. I've been playing casually ever since smm but i've never really had a solid team since mcity until now. I lost a lot of motivation for dota this past year since I never had a team to play."

Do you still keep in touch with your old Mcity teammates such as xMusica/toneeeh/escobar?
-"Yeh of course. When I play with a team I will always make an effort to become close friends with them. You spend so much time with these people even if they were the best players in the world I wouldnt wanna play with them if they are dickheads. DotA is most enjoyable for me when i'm joking around and stuff and I actually look forward to playing games/training if I like my team. I've had some really good times with musica, tony and escobar all over the world and hopefully more to come in the future."

What made you join Kinect after what seemed to be a long break from competitive DotA?
-"Life's all about opportunities and I took what I saw to be a good opportunity. Shortly after the Dota 2 prize pool was announced I was approached by r1sk, who is the leader of kinect and also an old teammate from MCiTY. He explained to me the team's situation and there was an opening for me. This team was already strong without me I thought with my experience and awesome skills we can be even better! So I guess what made me join was a combination of the potential to win some big prize pools and the potential to be one of the strongest, if not the strongest team in the world. But let it be known i've always enjoyed dota for what it is and not the money, it's just a great incentive to put lots of passion and effort back into the game."

Can you give a quick description of your current teammateís and the roles they play on the team?
-"r1sk is our leader. He alternates between support and solo mid. Tyranee is our hard carry/solo far lane. Cynical plays support, godot support/roamer/jungler. Anh plays anything and as for me I solo mid/hard carry. We feel like we can alternate our roles according to heroes we draft because we have enough individual skill in the team to adapt to different roles."

So, with the whole Asia vs Europe debate ñ where does Australia fit in? What do you think of the state of the Australian dota scene and its progression (or lack there of)?
-"Australia... what a great country to live in. not to play dota in. Thats my answer."

What do you think of Kinectís current form? Do you think you are able to compete with the top teams in Europe, Asia, and even China?
-"Definitely. I think r1sk as a leader makes the team very strong. We are having some flawless games in training but we are limited to australian and malaysian games at the moment. We've been incorporating the best of Europe and the best of Asia's styles into our style and we are balls deep in becoming one of the top teams in the world."

Do you have any favourite teams/players to watch or play against?
-"Don't really have any favourite teams especially since I can't keep track of who's in what team, it's getting out of hand. People keep changing teams, changing names I dunno wtf's going on anymore!"

Whatís next for Kinect? Do you plan on attending any big upcoming tournaments? Moving to Dota 2?
-"We're currently sponsorless but we're searching and we won't stop searching till my balls turn blue. We plan on attending whatever we can so we can prove Australia is an underrated country for DotA."

Alright that concludes the interview - any last words or shoutouts?
-"Shoutout to: the GoP (Ghost of Phanny). Been haunting my life since October 27, 1994."