20 Questions

20 Answers

1. Every team loses once in a while. What does Fnatic do after a loss? Do you have a debrief on what went wrong and how to prevent that in future or is there something more to it? What about after a victory? In other words, how much time does Fnatic spend on analyzing their gameplay? [Deityh]
   
   
   
   We kind of suffer more after a loss than most teams, I’d say. We try to figure out what went wrong and what to do in the next game, but it’s safe to say it’s one of our weak points. If we have a lot of time to go through our mistakes we're gonna use that pretty well and learn a lot, but after a loss in a series not so much.



2. Would you say your success with Tiny/Wisp is due to you and Era's individual skill or your guys’ chemistry? [Targe]
   
   
   
   It’s both for sure, because I think you can’t play proper Wisp combos without one or the other.



3. What is the most important reason to why Fnatic have kept the same line-up for (what in Dota terms is) a very long time? [WindWolf]
   
   
   
   Most important I would guess is that we enjoy playing together, and share the same passion for the game.



4. With whom do you have the strongest bromance on Fnatic? [Sprouter]
   
   
   
   It's hard to say We are all bros, but everyone has their own bro-relation with each other.



5. I've always heard that you control the Visage familiars even when you aren't on the Visage. How did that situation come around? [ReignSupreme.]
   
   
   
   I don’t anymore. Just before we went to TI3, Fly ended up playing Visage quite some time when there were certain heroes that I had to play, like Nyx especially and sometimes SD/Naga. He didn’t feel comfortable controlling them, so after he struggled with that for a bit he had the idea in the shower to share it with me and we did it for a while and it worked, but since then we started playing heroes where I can’t comfortably control familiars (Wisp in particular) so he picked up on controlling the birds again



6. In a recent interview Kai (H4nn1) said that he is the playcaller for now, but it's really hard for him to farm mid and make calls simultaneously. Do you guys plan to switch roles again? Do you personally think it would be a good decision? [pandello]
   
   
   
   Well, he makes calls more after laning phase breaks up. It’s not really possible to focus on lane control while making calls, and I’d still say at least 50% of the time it’s a team decision, but often he will man up with calls if he sees that they work. I still wouldn’t say we ever pinned down the captain thing 100% on a single person.



7. Any chance of ever seeing you back in the mid role? [Gandalf]
   
   
   
   Not with this roster for sure :p



8. Do you think your experience from HoN gives you an advantage, as a team or individually, over teams that haven't been a part of the changing metagame of Newerth? [Bulldozor]
   
   
   
   Experience is experience. I think it would’ve been better to have spend our time in Dota 1 instead of HoN if we knew we were gonna switch to Dota 2, but we no one regrets playing HoN since we had a good time winning everything :p



9. If you could port one hero from Heroes of Newerth to Dota 2, which one would it be and why? [omnikaush]
   
   
   
   Bombardier would probably be my choice, he was one of the funnier heroes for sure. Could semi-carry much like some Intelligence heroes in Dota, but had global presence with very funny spells, much clicking, so wow.



10. What heroes do you hope to see rise out of obscurity in pro Dota, outside of Meepo? What the hell did you just do with Wisp in the D2L? You were supposed to warp back to where you relocated, but instead you like disappeared and reappeared. [Dexington]
    
    
    
    I hope to see more heroes like Templar Assasin, Tinker and Omni. I think those heroes have a lot of potential, but they’re not easy to use.
    
    I dont know what happened in that game, but it has happened once to me since. I don’t play Wisp in pubs ever, so I don’t get to experience a lot of bugs, but I was just as surprised as everyone else I think.



11. What is your opinion on H4nn1 often rushing BoTs when he has a good start mid? [PerryHooter]
    
    
    
    Learned from the best



12. Can you think of any changes in the latest patch that you feel pro players have yet to fully understand and exploit? Some examples could be Smoke of Deceit; heroes like Dazzle, Tusk, Shadow Shaman, jungle camp changes, etc. [Aisikle]
    
    
    
    Obviously people are still gonna need more time to catch up. The meta changed a lot recently, but its far from being fully understood. I think if you look at Dota now and then at TI4 it’s gonna be some of the same stuff, but definitely new stuff too.



13. I want to ask you about Disruptor. Isn't he one of the best supports who can really change teamfights (especially after last patch with Scepter addition for him)? And ganking with glimspe is like getting a free kill every time. Please tell me why no one picks him. [eMka]
    
    
    
    I would love to play Disruptor every game, but its really hard to force pick him when there are so many stronger supports being played. I do think he could fit a Crystal Maiden role fairly easily, but he has nowhere near the fighting power of an Enchantress early levels. Hard to fit but definitely scary hero.



14. What's your opinion on Hand of Midas? [SimoH]
    
    
    
    There's a good and a bad Midas. I do think its rarer now to be able to get 5-man Midas like earlier. I think people draft differently than when during Midas-era, but sometimes its just the safer choice--instead of forcing fights/pick-offs/towers you can just spam Midases when you’re ahead and slowly win.



15. What for you (and your team) is the hardest part of playing Dota? Is it playstyle selection, laning, laning against unorthodox heroes or combinations, picks, strategy, micro, teamfights or anything else? Just simply the most difficult thing for you and (separately) for your team in the game. [idscy]
    
    
    
    I think if they will throw us for a loop with completely new heroes we might lose horribly. I still think we can read it fairly fast and usually will have a good answer, but I think it goes for us as for most teams--if you get someone out of their comfort zone they will play worse.



16. I've often heard commentators praise your micro, and I've been impressed by it a lot. Is micro a skill you put a lot of focus on in practice or is it a natural talent?
    
    Fnatic tends to draft differently from most teams. Outside of your Tiny/Wisp that most other teams won't or don't run, you also draft heroes like Undying and Meepo every once in a while. Is it safe to say that your team is less concerned about the Western metagame than other teams? [DavoS]
    
    
    
    Practise. I really wanted to get the micro thing straight once we switched to Dota 2, so I spent a lot of time practising these heroes like Chen and Enchantress. But once I played Meepo and got into the hero I just wanted to play it every game and that definitely helped on dem michael skillz.
    
    I think we follow what we think is good, whether it fits the meta or it’s out of the ordinary. We tend to like more what we think enemies don’t expect in general, but we have always liked to try stuff as long as I can remember.
    



17. Do you have any suggestions for those people who are interested in playing the support role? Does your experience in the support role add to your ability when you switch roles (like going solo mid) during the laning phase? [soanparlell]
    
    
    
    I think its a good idea to play all the roles once in a while--in pubs or where ever--since you realize what you want from the other lanes for the game to go your way. Support wants a carry to do this, carry wants support to do that and so on.



18. Dota is now a 2v2 game and your partner permanent. Who do you want to play with? [Nisyax]
    
    
    
    I'd have to choose between me, myself, the guy who's also me and that asshole who I call myself (Meepo joke xDxD).



19. Assume for a second that you became a real life Meepo. Would you want to form an entire Dota team by yourself or make better use of your clones during the game e.g. one to massage yourself, one to sneak into the audience and watch the game from your opponents’ point of view, etc.? Also as Meepo who would your teammates be? [Mafe]
    
    
    
    I'd probably have arguments with myself all day until we would play together and it would be a giant shouting fest although the massages sound tempting. I know how good I am so it must be nice getting one from me.
    
    If I was Meepo I’d want 4 more Meepos as teammates, like 5 in total that would turn into 25 Meepos, 3 support, 7 offlane, 5 middle, 4 carry and 6 running around taunting.



20. If you could swap one ability between any two heroes that you think would makes both heroes stronger, which two heroes and abilities would that be? [TanGeng]
    
    
    
    Skywrath’s nuke for OD's imprisonment. Skywrath becomes a “better” support hero in one sense, and OD becomes the sickest laner.
    
    It's hard to think of one that would buff both heroes in every way But playing some LoD Dota there are for sure hilarious combos if you get to pick from most heroes. Dota is very balanced and a hero's spells synergize so well that its not easy to take one out from two heroes and have both feel “buffed”.