March’s last chance at The International, Capitalist’s very own WAOW and all the callouts

March plays for MVP

Interesting: March is 28 and he has to go into army service for 2 years, which he deferred since he was 22. He cannot go overseas from next year onward, but doesn’t know when he will enter into service. Thinks that Vega is really random and he doesn’t know much about them. He knows much more about CDEC. Vega will be the strongest opponent if they are at their best.

Their coach, Du, is 6.7k MMR, the highest non-professional player MMR in korea.

Meh: MVP split due to everyone having their own ideas on how to play the game. More importantly, they wanted accessible scrim partners.

Admitted to relying heavily on individual skill last year instead of teamplay (See QO carrying the whole team)

Says he will not draft Core Warlock in games anymore.

Hot_Bid and Chad:

Chad plays for Team Archon.

Interesting: He’s a fourth year in geophysics.

He’s been to Ti2 and now Ti5. He feels that Ti5 has become so big that the atmosphere is very different and less close-knit. On the flip side, the better facilities and conditions make it a much better experience.

TMZ Gossip: Went to eat medieval food with his team. Called out IXMike on eating messily, with his hands.

“Gerg’s our manager, he sucks”.

Hot_Bid and No[o]ne with @xeozor21:

No[o]ne plays for Vega Squadron.

Note: Not much is known about No[o]ne, and he has trouble speaking English. He is a humble and unassuming interviewee and Hot_Bid asks questions mostly to flesh him out as a personality to the Dota 2 community.

Interesting: Thinks LGD is the best team, comparing them to VG, iG, newbee and EHOME. “They are too strong”, he laments.

Ti5 is his first LAN and his first Ti. No[o]ne started playing dota 2 since Ti2.

TMZ Gossip: He’ll be going into Programming at a technical university. This is his first experience travelling outside of Ukraine.

He is a passive and easy-going person.

Hot_Bid and MSS:

MSS plays for team Archon

Interesting: Had to go to The International 4 behind his family’s back last year. He finished 11~14^th place, earning 38,257 split 5 ways. He was 17 then.

Picked up by Archon, a team owned by Amaz(Hearthstone pro). They were running into sponsorship problems (companies cheating them/not paying up) when they approached team Archon for the deal.

Intends to continue playing Dota 2 professional due to the Majors announcement, saying that “you would be dumb not to continue playing Dota with the Majors being announced.”

TMZ Gossip: Callout to Mouz for giving his team 30 seconds picking time and still getting outdrafted.

Hot_Bid and Capitalist:

Capitalist will be casting main event games.

Interesting: Always aims for the main event, sees the limited casting slots as a competition of recognition, having to “beat” other casters to get the slot.

Is not confident about Vega’s chances in the Wildcard in spite of their improvements.
“It is important to search for feedback” To “look for constructive feedback”, look at people you trust, the general public is too disparate to consider everything from them, self-analysis is also very important

States that Blitz is a strong co-caster and commentator, having a myriad of qualifications (ex-pro player, ex-dota 2 coach)

Thinks that having a catchphrase is good for getting your own personal brand out there, but it’s not necessarily good to imitate having a catchphrase and centering commentary around it.

TMZ Gossip: Has 6k MMR, highest of all casters playing Dota 2. LysanderXonora is close behind, at 5k.

Considers himself hanging at the “top 3 of every category (of casting)”, but not being the best at any (hype, analysis)

Hot_Bid and PyrionFlax:

Pyrion will be at the analyst desk at the main event. Pyrion wins the most entertaining interview award as of 26th July.

Note: This interview is more of a podcast-esque chat, which, while entertaining, reiterates a lot of known information

Interesting: Thinks that the current format is “good” to all teams going to Seattle. Teams that bomb the group stages still can go to the main event.

Players are allowed to take a notebook into the booth – this is in the tournament rules.

Says that Secret is a notch higher than all the teams, “they have something else”.

TMZ Gossip: Noxville cannot hold his drink. He falls asleep.

Chen Yiji
The Gaming Ground
Twitter: @TheFreakofnatur