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General11 years agoGosu "GosuGamers" Gamers

Gosugamers interviews SUNSfan.


As per the poll conducted by Gosugamers SUNSfan from Dota Cinema leads the poll by a narrow margin and hence Gosugamers sat down with Sunsfan for an interview. SUNSfan one of the major guy behind Dota Cinema and his hardwork behind providing the weekly videos for the Dota2 community speaks a lot about him.



Before moving into Dota 2 you used to cast HoN games. Was it difficult for you to give-up casting HoN games and move over to Dota 2?

-"Last December I had to make a decision on whether to come to Dota 2 permanently or stick with HoN. This wasn't really a difficult decision. HoN had been going downhill for quite a while and I knew having support from Valve and IceFrog meant this game would have longevity.

The real difficulty in my decision is knowing that I would not have time to cast anymore, which is a shame because it's something I love to do."


There must be a specific reason you shifted from HoN to Dota 2. Was there something in HoN which did not go as per your expectation? If so, do you find that thing getting fulfilled in Dota 2?

-"Well, the funny thing is people call me a HoN player. I played HoN for 2 years, DotA 1 for 4.5 years, and Counter-Strike for 10. If anything, I'm a CS player. I switched from DotA to HoN because the game was actually good in beta. Once something changed (which I'm not allowed to talk about because of an NDA), the game progressively went downhill.

Then Dota 2 was announced, which I was elated about. I even emailed IceFrog in my excitement. Despite him getting a million emails, he found the time to reply, which speaks very highly of his character. It's reasons such as this that made my decision that much easier."


Since you have seen both the communties of Dota 2 and HoN from the beta stage of the game. Can you compare the HoN community and Dota 2 community?

-"They are extremely similar, but still different in their own way. The DotA community has a lot of elitists that never want the game to change in any way. In some ways this has been good, but turning a blind eye to things that could easily be improved upon is also a very slippery slope. It's important to realize that once this game is released, a LOT of new people will be playing, which is great for the future of Dota 2, but also means that tweaks need to be made to ensure they will continue to play over the long-haul.

And not to get off on a tangent, which I'm very well known for, but I have to say that from my perspective, the only reason Valve has not released the game is because they know the ridiculously steep learning curve will drive new people away. Everyone thinks they haven't released it yet because they need to port all the heroes; in my opinion it's because they desperately need an in-game tutorial and coaching system.

Getting back to the question...HoN players are tougher to gauge because a lot of the players that were playing during my time were DotA players. I will say there were definitely a lot more trolls in HoN than DotA :)"

You have attended The International 2, can you share your experience there? Are there any future tournaments that you are looking forward to attend?

The environment in which the Valve employees work makes you super jealous

-"It was an amazing experience to say the least. I got to meet a bunch of great people, including Neil (who is the owner of DotaCinema) for the first time. We also got a tour at Valve, which I'll admit was the highlight of the entire trip. The environment in which the Valve employees work makes you super jealous; I remember wishing I had any amount of the skill required to work there.

Since I'm not casting currently, I probably won't be going to any tourneys aside from the International 3."


DotaCinema tries to bring out new content everyday for The Dota 2 community. Can you discuss with us how much effort and the process that the entire DotaCinema team puts in to bring this content for the community?

-"Well it certainly has been a long road. During the earlier stages, most (if not all) of the work was done by Neil and myself. Thankfully now that we've gotten bigger, more people are willing to help. People always ask me how many hours I work and there is really no good answer. I'm on my computer 12-14 hours a day, but I'm not always working.

All I can really say is that there is a reason I'm not casting anymore; it's because this is a full-time job. We're making efforts to lessen the workload and make our process more efficient, so that I will hopefully have some free time to cast in the future."

You have recently joined hands with the creators of Dota Mythbusters PixelLaboratories. What can the community expect from this partnership?

-"Awesomeness. I always loved the PixelLaboratories videos and the guys behind it are very smart. I'm looking forward to meshing our two styles in order to make the best possible mythbusters series."

There are only few heroes left to be released in Dota 2. Has Dota Cinema planned something to replace the Hero Spotlight series after all the heroes have been ported? If so, can you share any hints as to what it might be?

Also, because Dota 2 is one of those games that is ALWAYS in development, new heroes will continue to come out.

-"When we first started getting popular, a lot of people asked us what we would do when all the heroes ran out. Luckily, with the success from the Top 10 and Fails series, we haven't been getting that question much lately. Also, because Dota 2 is one of those games that is ALWAYS in development, new heroes will continue to come out.

But as far as something more concrete, we're always looking to help give exposure to community members who create videos that we feel would fit on our channel (ie. PyrionFlax & XVRogue)."

DotaCinema has launched their own site. How has the response been from the community? Are there any specific changes that the community has asked? Will those changes be implemented on your site?

-"The response from the site has been overwhelmingly positive. Aside from a few bugs that we've ironed out, the process has been going well. The site is still under heavy development, but people understand that the website is still in Beta. We realize that aside from the forums, there is no real reason to stay on our site. This will be fixed when the Shoutcasting section is released.

As we have advertised, the website is community built and community driven. This means a couple things:
1) The members helping us create the actual site will take 100% of the revenue earned from the website.
2) The general community can help shape how the site turns out.

We have a general idea of what we want to do, but we've created threads in our forums asking for specific input so that the website will better serve the Dota 2 community as a whole."

Does DotaCinema have any plans to host its own tourneys?

-"I've had a plan in mind since January (not exaggerating) that has yet to materialize. Believe it or not, we are having trouble finding sponsors."

Thank you Sunsfan for the interview. Any last Shoutouts?

-"Thanks for interviewing me! Shoutout to all those that help us, whether it be our volunteer top 10 watchers, website programmers and designers, or video editors. In reality, there are way too many people to list. I'd also like to say thanks to the people that support us! I wake up everyday having to pinch myself to make sure this is all real, and that is thanks to the viewers. Just remember that we, as a community, have a great chance to make Dota 2 an amazing experience. Let's try and work together in order to make eSports a force to be reckoned with.

And finally, a big thanks to Reaves for letting me verbally bash him when he's playing worse than a monkey behind a keyboard."



Dota Cinema has recently started a giveaway event called as "Advent Calendar" which is in conjucntion with Dota2traders. In this event Dota Cinema will be celebrating Holidays until Christmas for more info visit the Dota Cinema's site.

Links
Dota Cinema - Advent Calender

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