Played in 4-5 tournaments so far, lost to the same 3 teams. Beat those teams, get as good as possible for TI is our goal.
Good friends with everyone on this team, known each player for a long while. We a very friendly atmosphere, we’re serious in the game, but we talk about a lot of stuff also outside of the game.
When I started out I didn't want to take more responsibility. But the kind of person I am I think it was inevitable.
I like being a leader and I like hacving my opinions heard. In general I study the game and teams a lot more then others, so I want to have more of a say.
One of the problems Ive had as a player, if something is unknown, if someone on our team does something weird, some people calls it tilting. I usually tilted a lot, but then I became aware of it, and I think I have become better at it. It usually happens whne things gets emotional, especially with so much money on the line. Getting emotional is bad, it separates the good and the bad, you need to be calm. When I understood what was happening I would just shut down and get frustrated at someone. But in the last year Ive tried if I am aware of it,I will just take a breath and understand that we can still win the game. and if we lose I will tell myself that its not the end of the world. Proud of overcoming this obstacle. Took a long time for him to understand that it doesn’t really matter and how bad it is when you’re tilted. Made me a better human being as well I think.
Play the hero a lot, watch a lot of replays of players that he thinks are really good. Try and understand what he does that makes him so good, that helped him a lot. As a coach it’s quite different, my goal now is to make my players play better and also have good strategy. I work with each player and suggest them things, thats part of the goal and then look at strategies, those are the two things I do. I also have a list of things we also need to get better at, so we work on that each day.
I was playing on a team, i wasn't the captain, we were losing games that we shouldn't lose, and i disagreed a lot with the captain. But i didn't say anything ,because i didn't want to overrule him. But in the end I said something and he got mad, but we did end up playing better, even though we did build up some animosity. That experience also showed me that I wanted to have a more leading role, I wanted my opinions to be heard.
They think im experienced, smart, that I understand the game well. Sometimes it confuses me that people respect me so much, it makes me happy that people respect my opinions. But it also surprises me a bit. I
coached EG at TI5 where they won. Both pro players and non-pro players ask me for advice or what my opinion is about different stuff. If I play a random game, like last night I was playing a random game and someone asked hey what do you think I should do here. That makes me respect them , because they admit that there’s
something they can do better.
Cant talk during the game, but participates in the drafts, picks and bans. Makes a game plan for the team that they can use during the game. The ideal goal is that some day the coach is able to make calls the team in game, but right now I just say some stuff to them before the game.
It’s a good balance, say your team is practicing, say they lose or win and if I see something that we could do better in terms strategy, like if we pick this hero we would maybe do better. The team who has a good strategy, its much easier for that team to play the game. Not just in dota, but whatever strategy you have, you wanna make it easier for yourself to do the job better. Thats my goal as a coach.
Mostly just through results, dota is a very results driven game. Maybe we’re much better than the team we’re practicing against, so it’s hard to gauge how well you are doing. There’s so many events all the time, so if we’re doing poor at these events it’s an easy way to monitor your results.
Im not really some football coach or something that goes in and gives a speech before the game or something, I dont really think the team would even appreciate that. I just try to make the atmosphere good and calm the guys down, maybe make a funny joke, maybe about one of the opponent players and make the team loosen up.
Has lost interest in Dota before, had it this last TI.Had focus on Dota since college, has been number one focus since he graduated college, it was all he really cared about. Now im a bit older, and you start caring a lot about other stuff as well, so after TI7 I was kinda like, not bored, but just a bit burned out. I see my friends and a lot of my college friends and some of them are getting married and settling down and I think to myself, when am I going to be able to this. I haven't really been in a stable relationship because I travel so much or stay in a team house with a lot of other guys playing dota. But then again, if I don't do this, I think I am going to be really bored, I am doing something that I really love doing. Grass is greener on the other side. I think about it sometimes, but I’m literally just playing video games for a living and then I feel better.
Some of the players I have a harder time explaining to, the person im the closest to is also the star player, and we argue a lot and when we argue about something, and I say he did something wrong, then he’s not just gonna accept that, we’re going to talk about it a lot and it will also make him a better player. I showed him the replay and explained a lot and eventually he gave in and agreed. The team is not just me and the captain talking to 4 players, everyone has a say. I try and relate from their perspective, and make it a humanizing experience for them.
Guess I am an influencer. Sometimes I go to events and meet the fans and they tell me that I inspired them and reading all of this is just really weird for me, because Im just playing this game. I guess we all got lucky in a way, I think it’s really cool. I started a blog recently talking about this and it was really well received. You meet all these people all over the world that are really inspired by you, so I guess with my position on the Dota scene I can kinda influence people.
When I joined this team, not to say i was shy, 5 players who has had a lot of success, a lot of egos on this team.
at the start it was a bit overwhelming, I was more of a supportive. My manager says, hey they really respect you, so I think I have become more dominant these last few weeks than I have been. So as I become more used to this job and more comfortable I will be more dominant.
Started coaching after going out in TI qualifiers. TI is your only goal throughout the year, didn’t watch to just sit at home, so he approached EG and asked if he could help them out. Coached a lot of different teams, but only for a few weeks. So this is his first real professional full-time coaching job.
Hard-working, analytical, emotional which both hurts and helps him, learned about this in the lasdt year and its something he’s working on. Very motivated to do well, both as player and coach. Dota is all I really have in my life, so he tries not to get distracted too much.
Most of the time I know if I could do better. I immediately load up the replay and see if theres something I could have done better. Something I could have done better in laning, mid-game, late-game.
Everyone gets emotional in a way, this is in general in all team games, even in sports. Everyone has an opinion on why they lost. So my job is to go in and say, this and this is what you could do better in the next game. Thats a way I can help them, maybe relieve them of stress, because losing does sucks. Thats maybe a problem weve a had, were a team that wins 8-9 games in a row and then we lose one game, and everyone gets very emotional.
This also goes hand in hand with me not being as dominant as I could. I should be more of a demanding voice, which is kinda outside my comfort zone.
It’s very obvious to me, I can tell who is upset and I can tell who really emotional or mad, they’re not really good at hiding it. He’ll usually come and tell me. I think I’m quite good at understanding them.
Filtering opinions, you need to have a good balance of filtering what people say. Misery and myself are the main voices for the team, that’s how it should be, me and him make the final calls for strat and gameplay. But if others have ideas, it’s my job to make sure that their voices are also heard.
I can’t really make a decision without misery, we talk a lot me and him. We’re in charge mostly of the strategy.
You can’t make everyone happy, that’s just life. End of the day it’s just me and Misery that are in charge.
A reason we keep losing to VP or Liquid is maybe that we’ve lost to them before. So I think we’re definitely a bit by that. When we hear we have to play VP it definitely does matter. A lot of Dota is about confidence, at this level most players are within each other in skill.
It doesn’t really affect us playing in front of a crowd anymore. It used to be very hard. I am not as calm as others, at TI2 I was in front of this crowd, and my fingers were shaking and I was feeling very stressed out. But now its way better, I don’t really notice it honestly.
Blue color, the college color was blue and I wear a lot blue colors. I’m light blueish, extroverted, I talk a lot as a person. Misery jokes that I spam, talk alot, outgoing and stuff.