With this Community Q&A from TL, we take you deep into the icy North to meet Virtus.pro's captain, Yaroslav "NS" Kuznetsov. NS is a pillar of the Dota community, a well respected figure who understands the game and the scene on a very intimate level.
The Russian has played the game for a long time, and is best known for his thought provoking balance critiques, including his careful analysis of the Roshan advantage. Today, we are privileged to have him here for a pre-interview, thanks to our Russian translator dfs. Read on to find out what NS thinks about the current metagame, and more!
But that's not all! NS will be here in person at our Community Q&A. Have something to ask him? Just post in this thread. This could be your chance to get some very rare insights into how Russian progamers see the world of Dota!
NS Interview
You're one of the oldest players in the Dota scene. What was your favourite period of Dota over the years? What are your most memorable moments, both in Dota 1 and Dota 2?
It is difficult to highlight a most interesting period. Every time that I was in a strong and trustworthy team, it was interesting and nice to play. There were a few of those periods: first one was in Virtus.pro in 2007, second one was DTS in 2010, and of course right now I'm in my current team under the Virtus.pro tag once again, which is meaningful.
The most memorable moment in Dota 1 was the battle against City Hunter from China in the ADL 2009 semi-final (Alien DotA League). It was such a crazy bo5 match which will forever stay in my memory. It is more difficult to pick a moment for Dota 2; there has been a lot of interesting stuff, but nothing that is imprinted in my memory. It's probably because our team hasn't been performing very successfully in LANs, and the brightest impressions come from LANs.
I believe that the problem is in the Aegis itself. This item brings some kind of imbalance in Dota. A long time ago, you could just buy Aegis, it wasn't expensive and had 4 charges. A lot of people don't even remember those times. Over time people understood that it was crazy imbalanced and Aegis was changed into what we have right now. It drops from Roshan, it doesn't have 4 charges anymore of course, but the fact that it still brings the chance of resurrecting someone often turns the game into something weird. In my opinion the reduction of Aegis's duration from 10 to 6 minutes is a good nerf, but it is not enough.
What changes would you like to make to Dota? Anything regarding hero balance, Roshan, etc?
Sometimes you think that you could make changes in Dota to achieve great balance, buff this, fix that, but then you realize that IceFrog is already always buffing something, fixing something. I think it's impossible to achieve ideal balance, and perhaps this is one of the reasons why Dota is so interesting and popular. There is an infinite amount of possible strategies. I already talked about Aegis. I don't know exactly what, but something needs to be done about it. Another item that can bring a critical change in the balance is BKB. Because of the presence of BKB in its current form, we don't see almost a third of possible picks and heroes. The logic is always like, "what will those heroes do when enemy buys BKB?" And really, heroes like CM, Venomancer, Zeus, ES are almost never present in drafts, because they don't have a single skill that goes through BKB. Meanwhile, Lifestealer has become almost firstpick material for half the teams in the world, and his strength primarily comes from his Rage, a skill that imitates BKB.
Virtus.Pro has been performing pretty well lately. When did you feel the team was getting really competitive?
We started to fight for the top just a month after the creation of the team in September. It was a great success for us. I wouldn't even imagine that a team of new players would be able to compete against top teams that quickly. We managed to get on the Starladder 3 LAN Finals in October, and from that moment onwards teams started to respect us, and closer to the end of the year we had become tough opponents for anyone. I think that we became a true top team at the beginning of 2013. Right now, I believe that if we show our best play then we are able to compete against any opponent in the world.
You brought a bunch of heroes into the so called "metagame" of European Dota, such as Lifestealer, Clockwerk, and Dragon Knight. What other currently forgotten heroes do you think you might want to "rediscover"?
Inventing new strategies and bringing forgotten heroes in the game is one of the reasons for the success of any team. Surprising your enemy is half of the victory, so we always try to remember that Dota doesn't have only 30 heroes that everyone picks, but around 100 heroes, and almost every one of them can be used in one way or another. At this moment we have a few interesting ideas with heroes that no one uses, but I won't reveal all our cards yet.
What about non-standard skill-builds, like the infamous Illidan's no-breath DK? Does he have any other secret builds like that?
Professional players must always think big. Dota has an unbelievable amount of opportunities, and you can always improve on things that are generally used by default. Illidan's idea of building DK without the Fire Breath is quite interesting, and indeed, if you are farming on the easy lane as a hard carry without participating in fights for a long time, you don't really need the Breath. On the other hand, the almost-4 second stun with 9 second cd is very attractive, plus you will always have enough mana for the stun. You often do not have enough mana for both the Fire Breath and the stun anyway, especially if you face heroes like AM or PL with Diffusal. Maybe Illidan will surprise everyone with his Zeus build with passive + X. Who knows, you just have to watch him play.
Statistics show that most Nature's Prophet players in the West follow the "Midas/Mekanism-or-Shadow Blade" build, meaning that he needs a lot of time before becoming active in the map. Despite this big window of weakness, Nature's Prophet's winrate is quite high. Why don't teams punish such a greedy build?
If Nature's Prophet buys a quick Midas, then he becomes very useful thanks to his quick level growth. It is very difficult to punish this kind of NP, and if he and his team plays well, then, most likely, if you try that they will punish you instead.
Quick Mek is very useful as well. Mekansm is a very important item. If one of the teams gets it quickly and the other one doesn't, then the team with it has a giant advantage in teamfights, which is obviously very good. On the other hand, Shadowblade is an item for which the meaning is hard for me to see. In my opinion it is a very pub-ish item, which can be easily punished by a strong team. Nevertheless, the statistics shows otherwise indeed. Maybe I am wrong about this.
What do you do IRL outside Dota? Anything interesting that the community doesn't know about you?
Dota is the most important part of my life, almost as important as my girlfriend. For me, Dota is a hobby and a job at the same time. A lot of people have boring jobs and look for a hobby on the side that brings them enjoyment. I got lucky, I don't need to look for anything. However, outside of Dota, I am very fond of History and Travel. I dream of visiting some interesting historical places, but unfortunately, I cannot afford it right now. I believe I will definitely do some of that in the future.
Thank you for this interview! Any shoutouts?
Thank you for this opportunity Shoutout to all our fans, thank you, you're the best! And, of course, shoutout to our haters, you are great as well! Also shoutouts to KozaDereza, Smile, v1lat, Toby, n0tail, Jolie & Tevton! And thanks to our main sponsor - BenQ!
NS Community Q&A
NS at Techlabs Moscow.
Yaroslav "NS" Kuznetsovwill will be here in person! Have something you'd like to ask him? Just post in this thread, and he will get to as many of your questions as he can. The questions he answers will be linked here.
what do you think about Vigoss as a player in the current state of DotA? Other than Navi, non-other CIS teams were be able to compete against the asian teams. In your opinion, what make Navi so different than the rest of the russian speaking community? If your team is invited to TI3, how would you prepare and what would be your goal?
If the whole (majority balanced) hero pool was at TI3, how do you think the event would go compared to last years being that most games were involving the enigma/tidehunter/darkseer/naga combo?
What can be done, in your opinion, to fix the problem of unstability in your team's play? Sometimes you peak and destroy the enemy. Sometimes you just play very sloppy. Is your team addressing this and trying to find a solution?
What are your thoughts about American and European/Russian teams playing together in online leagues, how big advantage does the server location give in those games?
Do you miss the old times with mass blink daggers and chain stunning? VP 2007 was so excellent at that version it was a pleasure to watch <3 Jolie, vigoss, NS, smile, admiration my all time favourite team!
Definitely agree with his words on BKB. I really like the item, but maybe it could be made more expensive, and possibly tweak it to have 1 less second.
Or the item can remain the same and certain heroes can have buffs to their abilities through magic immunity.
Before the last StarLadder final it seemed you were valuing Nature's Prophet very highly, in terms of your own picks and not letting renowned NP playing teams have it as well. This seemed to work very well for you, but when the final came around the priority placed on NP previously had drastically diminished. Why was this? Was it a matter of not wanting to do the same things as you were doing right before the final as teams would be studying you? Or did you lose faith in that style of play?
~
Also thanks to TL for the interview, and good luck to VP in the TPL playoffs and with TI invites or qualifiers.
On April 28 2013 02:42 garlicface wrote: Definitely agree with his words on BKB. I really like the item, but maybe it could be made more expensive, and possibly tweak it to have 1 less second.
Or the item can remain the same and certain heroes can have buffs to their abilities through magic immunity.
I think there's a certain mis-attribution going on because I don't think BKB has anything to do with why these heroes are/aren't strong (at least in the case of the one's he cited). Let's not forget that all of these heroes were strong before even with BKB the way it is. Earthshaker was first round ban/pick status for a LONG time in DotA 1, and is only bad in DotA 2 because of the differences in how he plays between the two games. Venomancer was good in DotA 2 (he was picked all the time leading up to and at TI2), and got totally crushed by nerfs in 6.76 (mana cost and damage on rank 1 Venomous Gale got destroyed).
On April 28 2013 02:42 garlicface wrote: Definitely agree with his words on BKB. I really like the item, but maybe it could be made more expensive, and possibly tweak it to have 1 less second.
Or the item can remain the same and certain heroes can have buffs to their abilities through magic immunity.
I think there's a certain mis-attribution going on because I don't think BKB has anything to do with why these heroes are/aren't strong (at least in the case of the one's he cited). Let's not forget that all of these heroes were strong before even with BKB the way it is. Earthshaker was first round ban/pick status for a LONG time in DotA 1, and is only bad in DotA 2 because of the differences in how he plays between the two games. Venomancer was good in DotA 2 (he was picked all the time leading up to and at TI2), and got totally crushed by nerfs in 6.76 (mana cost and damage on rank 1 Venomous Gale got destroyed).
He had a big blog post about it, simillar to his Roshan blog. He talks about the shift from magical damage to physical damage, hence those heroes are rarely picked; he basicly blames the BKB for it.
I personally feel like BKB isn't the cause of this, but it adds another reason to not pick those heroes.
I think bkb ties the game together in a way. If it wasn't in the game yes some heroes would get more popular, but many others would just become absolutely unplayable. Shadowfiend for example would be 100% useless, and other bkb carries. I think DotA would become the game of nukers and every hero would just stack raw hp and some magic resist. Also, I think it's cool such an item exist, it adds variety to the game, it's a powerful and unique effect, when picked up on many heroes it changes how the game gets played from that point.
Well it's all about balance. I don't think he's suggesting it should be removed, but it could be made so it's at least a more difficult decision on certain heroes by making it more expensive or build from less useful items or tweak values of the item itself.
Since you talk about Roshan (aegies) and BKB potentially too strong and eliminating too many strat.
Could you give insight about some items or strategies that would need small tweeking to become really powerfull and how theoreticallly that could happen?
Like say u drop one of the orb in skadi ( so u drop the price by 2k), makes storm rushing skadi actually viable????
On April 28 2013 02:42 garlicface wrote: Definitely agree with his words on BKB. I really like the item, but maybe it could be made more expensive, and possibly tweak it to have 1 less second.
Or the item can remain the same and certain heroes can have buffs to their abilities through magic immunity.
I think there's a certain mis-attribution going on because I don't think BKB has anything to do with why these heroes are/aren't strong (at least in the case of the one's he cited). Let's not forget that all of these heroes were strong before even with BKB the way it is. Earthshaker was first round ban/pick status for a LONG time in DotA 1, and is only bad in DotA 2 because of the differences in how he plays between the two games. Venomancer was good in DotA 2 (he was picked all the time leading up to and at TI2), and got totally crushed by nerfs in 6.76 (mana cost and damage on rank 1 Venomous Gale got destroyed).
He had a big blog post about it, simillar to his Roshan blog. He talks about the shift from magical damage to physical damage, hence those heroes are rarely picked; he basicly blames the BKB for it.
I personally feel like BKB isn't the cause of this, but it adds another reason to not pick those heroes.
agree with both. cm and zeus have far more annoying issues than bkb really. i do think bkb is more or less a little too strong, but there are more important balance issues than bkb.
Registered just to ask this question. Do you and LightOfHeaven have some personal quarrel or dispute ? I remember that you have been in the same team ever since competitive dota started and you would always switch teams together (until Na'Vi) ... I still remember that ASUS final vs VirtusPro when you guys were stacking the ancients with a dominated creep and LoH would farm them with Luna. After the first game VP saw what you did and they did everything possible to stop him... sent trilane vs him (BUT YOUR SUPPORT play kept him on the lane) ... they started warding the ancients to prevent the spawn (BUT YOU instantly dewarded). Eventually he got fat WITH YOUR SUPPORT and you guys won. I think that LoH stooped playing carry not because XBOCT was better suited but because he didnt have your support play anymore.
It has been noted that you formed VP from relatively unknown players (or maybe you don't see it this way?), and I was wondering what your thought process was in forming the team? Did you guys just happen to play together a lot, or was everyone chosen for certain talents you saw in them, and if so what were the reasons?
NS you think BKB is very powerful, as you have stated. Why do you think, then, that omniknight is not more popular? He has a BKB-like repel, though it can be purged, and he has a heal, and an ultimate that makes his team impervious to physical damage. Why is he not picked more often as a support? Is it the lack of disables?
What is your opinion about bottle crow? Do you think it should be reworked and how? Considering it makes some heroes ie. magnus just so easy to play in mid with just spamming shockwave and bottlecrowing.
On April 27 2013 22:07 DoNotDisturb wrote: Having played Dota for so long, is there anything about the game that makes you want to keep playing?
NS: Dota can never just bore you, because it is constantly changing, even if it wouldn't change that often it still has no limit to perfection and abilities to think of something new. Plus the competitive nature of Dota, I love to compete and to win.
Дота никогда не может просто взять и надоесть, потому что она постоянно меняется, а даже если бы она менялась не так часто, то в ней все равно практически нет предела совершенству и возможностям придумать что-то новое. Ну и плюс ко всему в доте меня привлекает спортивная состовляющая, я люблю соревноваться и побеждать.
On April 27 2013 22:16 FreakyDroid wrote: Did you try to bring in LightOfHeaven in VP and how did that go?
NS: We are paying attention to the "free agents" at this moment, just in case. Nevertheless, we do not have any problems with our roster, so no, we didn't try to get LoH.
Конечно мы обращаем внимание на тех игроков, которые являются "свободными агентами" в данный момент, так сказать на всякий случай. Тем не менее на данный момент у нас нет проблем с составом, поэтому нет, мы не пробовали.
On April 27 2013 22:24 Kipsate wrote: If you were to describe your team, how does it differ from other teams? What distinguishes Virtus Pro from the other teams?
Also Pugna has been mentioned by Illidan, what do you think about this hero, do you think it is underused?
NS: I think that our distinctive feature, as well as our strong and weak point is our aggressive playstyle. We almost always trying to take advantage at the start, and often if we fail at that - we get serious problems. I believe Pugna deserves more attention, you need to remember about this hero at least sometimes, the ward is imbalanced, especially against certain heroes.
Я думаю нашей отличительной чертой, а также одновременно сильной и слабой стороной является наш агрессивный стиль игры, почти всегда мы стараемся захватить преимущество уже на старте, и часто если эти попытки не удаются у нас начинаются серьезные проблемы. Что же на счет пугны, да, я думаю этот герой заслуживает более пристального внимания, покрайней мере иногда о нем не стоит забывать, его вард поистине имбалансен, особенно против некоторого набора героев..
On April 27 2013 22:53 NB wrote: what do you think about Vigoss as a player in the current state of DotA? Other than Navi, non-other CIS teams were be able to compete against the asian teams. In your opinion, what make Navi so different than the rest of the russian speaking community? If your team is invited to TI3, how would you prepare and what would be your goal?
NS: Vigoss is a great player, but I think he is not serious enough about what he does. Our goal at TI3 is obviously to fight for the victory, you can't go to a tournament just to place top-8, only to win! Although, placing top-8 at the TI3 - is definitely a good result
Вигосс замечательный игрок, но мне кажется он недостаточно серьезно относится к тому, чем занимается. Наша цель на TI3 конечно же бороться за победу, никогда нельзя ехать на турнир за попаданием в топ-8, только победа! Хотя попадание в восьмерку сильнейших на TI3 - безусловно хороший результат .
Who, in your opinion, will be the next great talent coming from the CIS scene? I mean, an unknown guy that you've played with and you think he'll be pretty good as soon as he receives a chance in a pro team.
On April 28 2013 00:37 chisuri wrote: What can be done, in your opinion, to fix the problem of unstability in your team's play? Sometimes you peak and destroy the enemy. Sometimes you just play very sloppy. Is your team addressing this and trying to find a solution?
NS: I belive that a lot of practice can fix any problems. I hope that the bootcamp that is coming soon will positively affect our development. + Show Spoiler +
Я думаю более количество тренировок исправляет любые проблемы, надеюсь что предстоящий в скором времени буткемп также положительно повлияет на наше развитие.
Your team notably has an aggressive playstyle and are among the teams that can bring out those memorable 20 minute win performances. What western team do you think resembles your team the most when it comes to playstyle?
On April 28 2013 01:22 cecek wrote: What's yur oppinion on the new 2 ban first, 3 ban second drafting? Do you think it's good, or would you prefer going back to 3 bans first?
NS: I think that it is neither bad or good, it is just different. 2 bans at the beginning will bring a little more diversity in general picks, also it is easier to prepare the strategies, the is a slightly higher chance that your key hero will be left in the pool, not banned.
Я думаю это и не плохо и не хорошо, просто по разному, думаю 2 бана в начале все таки чуть более разнообразят общие пики, да и становится чуть проще готовить стратегии, шанс того, что твоего ключевого героя оставят в пиках становится чуть выше.
On April 28 2013 01:29 Kentakky wrote: Do you miss the old times with mass blink daggers and chain stunning? VP 2007 was so excellent at that version it was a pleasure to watch <3 Jolie, vigoss, NS, smile, admiration my all time favourite team!
NS: Sometimes I miss those times, I was young, carefree and we had a great time together as a team, but I do not miss those Blinks They were definitely imbalanced and had to be fixed.
Я иногда скучаю по тем временам, я был молод, беззаботен и мы отлично проводили время вместе с командой, однако я не скучаю по тем блинкам) Безусловно они были имбалансны и их стоило пофиксить.
On April 28 2013 03:32 teapoted wrote: Before the last StarLadder final it seemed you were valuing Nature's Prophet very highly, in terms of your own picks and not letting renowned NP playing teams have it as well. This seemed to work very well for you, but when the final came around the priority placed on NP previously had drastically diminished. Why was this? Was it a matter of not wanting to do the same things as you were doing right before the final as teams would be studying you? Or did you lose faith in that style of play?
~
Also thanks to TL for the interview, and good luck to VP in the TPL playoffs and with TI invites or qualifiers.
NS: Sometimes it happens so you don't know what strategy you should play and what is more effective. Maybe the fact that we forgot about the Nature's Prophet was our mistake.
Иногда бывает, что и сам не понимаешь какой стратегией тебе лучше всего играть и что приносит наибольшие плоды, возможно то что мы в тот момент подзабыли о фурионе было нашей ошибкой.
On April 28 2013 11:11 SuperMorten wrote: Are you happy with the current balance of Dota 2?
Do you talk to IceFrog about balance changes?
NS: Yes, as I said in the interview you can never achieve an ideal balance in Dota, it will always be somewhat imballanced, which makes it the way we love it. I try not to distract IceFrog with mere nothings, he is a very busy man.
Впринципе - да, как я уже говорил в самом интервью идеального баланса в доте вероятно не достичь никогда, она всегда будет в чем несбалансирована и это делает ее такой, какой мы ее любим. Стараюсь не отвлекать АйсФрога по пустякам, он ведь очень занятой человек.
On April 28 2013 13:52 Artic wrote: Really nice interview, the answers NS gave were great. My eyes think the color combination is questionable though
- - What gives you inspiration to use in dota games or life in general?
Do you enjoy watching other esport games?
What do you think is a weak point in your play or something you are looking to improve upon? What is your strong point?
NS: I am inspired by the success and the realization of the fact that the goal I put before myself was achieved, so I try to work to achieve success and to achieve my goals. I like to watch CS:GO, also I follow Starcraft 2. I liked to watch WarCraft 3 as well, when people still played it in the tournaments.
Меня вдохновляет успех и осознание того, что цель которую я себе постаивл была выполнена, поэтому я стараюсь работать, чтобы добиваться успеха и приходить к своим целям. Да, я люблю смотреть CS:GO, также слежу за Starcraft 2, любил смотреть WarCraft 3, пока в него еще играли на турнирах.
On April 29 2013 09:56 YesNoMaybeDunno wrote: Registered just to ask this question. Do you and LightOfHeaven have some personal quarrel or dispute ? I remember that you have been in the same team ever since competitive dota started and you would always switch teams together (until Na'Vi) ... I still remember that ASUS final vs VirtusPro when you guys were stacking the ancients with a dominated creep and LoH would farm them with Luna. After the first game VP saw what you did and they did everything possible to stop him... sent trilane vs him (BUT YOUR SUPPORT play kept him on the lane) ... they started warding the ancients to prevent the spawn (BUT YOU instantly dewarded). Eventually he got fat WITH YOUR SUPPORT and you guys won. I think that LoH stooped playing carry not because XBOCT was better suited but because he didnt have your support play anymore.
NS: We do not have any quarrels with Dima (LoH), we talk sometimes, but because we haven't played together for so long we rarely meet, maybe there will be the time when we will play together again, but not right now
нет нет нет, никаких ссор с Димой у меня нет, мы иногда общаемся, но так как давно уже не играем вместе пересекаемся редко, может быть еще и придет время, когда мы снова будем играть в одном коллективе, но не сейчас .
On April 29 2013 11:58 BedoPear wrote: What are your thoughts on the current view that your team is "bad mannered". Does you/your team care?
NS: Actually I don't like this at all, because all of this "bm" is just a joke or a troll in one way or another, most people get it, but some people don't. I thought that not everyone undestands this kind of "humor" so I try to be more carefull about what I write in chat lately.
Насамом деле мне это не очень нравится, потому что весь этот бедманнер шутка/троллинг в той или иной степени, в общем-то большинство людей это понимают, однако некоторые - нет. Я задумался над тем, что подобный "юмор" не всем понятен и последнее время стараюсь быть чуть более остарожным с тем что пишу в чат.
On April 29 2013 12:31 theaxis12 wrote: It has been noted that you formed VP from relatively unknown players (or maybe you don't see it this way?), and I was wondering what your thought process was in forming the team? Did you guys just happen to play together a lot, or was everyone chosen for certain talents you saw in them, and if so what were the reasons?
NS: At the moment when we were gathering this team (August - September 2012) we didn't have have much choice, every well-known and big-named player already was in one team or another, so we (I and Santa) had to look for the guys from Russian semi-pro teams, fortunately Dota is very popular in Russia so there are a lot of those teams. We were choosing for a long time, we tried about more than 10 candidates and ultimately stopped on KSi, Crazy and Illidan.
На момент, когда мы собирали эту команду(август-сентябрь 2012го) у нас просто не было особого выбора, все именитые и известные игроки уже находились в тех или иных коллективах, так что нам(а нам это мне и Санте) пришлось отыскивать ребят среди полупрофессиональных русских команд, благо в России дота очень популярна и этих команд довольно много. Мы довольно долго выбирали и перепробовали больше 10 кандидатур в итоге остановились на Ksi, Crazy и Illidan'е.
On April 29 2013 14:27 NitroS wrote: Why are u so mad about Notail? and rat doto
NS: Actually I feel fine about N0tail, we made a little show from our "conflict", without these things the sports and cyber-sports would be kind of boring
Насамом деле я нормально отношусь к нотейлу, из этого "конфликта" устроили небольшое шоу, ну и пусть, без подобного что спорт, что кибер спорт был бы довольно скучен
On April 30 2013 06:52 wherebugsgo wrote: NS you think BKB is very powerful, as you have stated. Why do you think, then, that omniknight is not more popular? He has a BKB-like repel, though it can be purged, and he has a heal, and an ultimate that makes his team impervious to physical damage. Why is he not picked more often as a support? Is it the lack of disables?
NS: I belive that Omni is one of the underestimated heroes at this moment. There were times when many teams were using him quite successfully, but then they forgot him, quite possibly that he will be back in the picks soon.
Омни, на мой взгляд, один из недооцененных героев на данный момент, были времена, когда многие команды использовали его и довольно успешно, но потом позабыли, вполне возможно, что скоро он снова вернется в пики.
On April 30 2013 19:34 Nicolas Cage wrote: What is your opinion about bottle crow? Do you think it should be reworked and how? Considering it makes some heroes ie. magnus just so easy to play in mid with just spamming shockwave and bottlecrowing.
NS: I think that maybe it should be fixed somehow, on the other hand I am not sure about this, if you ban this, then the amount of heroes that can stay at midlane will redice by a lot, which will reduce the diversity of strategies.
Думаю, что возможно и стоит как-то пофиксить эту возможность, с другой стороны я в этом не уверен, если запретить эту возможность, то пул героев, которые способны стоять в миде очень сильно сократится, что в свою очередь уменьшит и разнообразие стратегий.
On April 30 2013 23:13 fascistfromhell wrote: Who, in your opinion, will be the next great talent coming from the CIS scene? I mean, an unknown guy that you've played with and you think he'll be pretty good as soon as he receives a chance in a pro team.
NS: Possibly the solomid player of ICCup. Resolut1on has a very big potential, he is very young, I believe he is only 16 y.o., but he is already showing a very high level of play.
Возможно соло мидер команды Iccup - Resolution имеет очень большой потенциал, он очень молод, помоему ему всего 16 лет, но уже показывает крайне высокий уровень своей игры.
On April 30 2013 23:13 Kaal wrote: What do you think it would take to get Illidan to turn his name back to Airman ga Taosenai?
NS: Illidan is a big fan of Osu!, as far as I know the "Airman ga Taosenai" is the name of his favourite level (song) in this game. I don't know why he changes his nicknames back and forth, probably it is like a change of image, sometimes you just want to change it, at least for some time
Иллидан большой любитель игры Osu!, насколько я знаю Airman ga Taosenai это названией его любимого уровня в этой игре. А уж почему он меняет ник туда и обратно я не знаю, наверное это как смена иммиджа, иногда его просто хочется взять и поменять, хотя бы на время
On April 30 2013 23:15 Hermanoid wrote: Your team notably has an aggressive playstyle and are among the teams that can bring out those memorable 20 minute win performances. What western team do you think resembles your team the most when it comes to playstyle?
NS: It is probably the old Empire, with Funn1k, Goblak and Silent. It is not a big secret that we took some of our ideas from them.
On April 30 2013 23:27 MotherOfRunes wrote: What advice would you give to all those people crying about PL picks in pubs? ^^
NS: I don't really know Generally I would advice not to cry in pubs, crying is very annoying and often leads to a loss. Actually PL in pubs is not the worst hero, it is much worse when you are playing against two friends, when one of them plays Wisp and the other one plays Ursa :D
Даже и не знаю Я в целом посоветую не ныть играя в пабе, нытье так раздражает, и чаще всего приводит к проигрышу. Насамом деле ПЛ в пабе далеко не самый противный персонаж, гораздо опаснее, когда против тебя попадаются два друга, один из которых садится на виспа, а второй берет урзу :D
On May 01 2013 00:03 idscy wrote: What do you look forward to most on your upcoming trip to the USA?
NS: For me the most interesting thing in this trip will be The International, of course. To be able to attend this tournament and to compete against the best teams in the world is probably the dream of any professional Dota player at this moment. And of course I am very happy that I have got the great chance to make a trip to another side of the world, to watch the local culture, to watch how people live on the other side of the Earth, this is really interesting, I love to travel and visit new places, and I have never been in America before.
Самым интересным в этой поездке для меня конечно будет сам The Inerntaional, попасть на этот турнир и побороться с лучшими командами мира пожалуй мечта любого профессионального дотера на данный момент. Ну и конечно я очень счастлив, что появляется прекрасная возможность совершить путешествие на другой конец света, посмотреть на местную культуру, посмотреть как живут люди на противоположном конце Земли, это действительно интересно, я люблю путешествовать и посещать новые места, а в Америке я до этого еще ни разу не был.
On May 01 2013 00:11 Kipsate wrote: Have you ever tried out LoL ?What are your thoughts on it?
NS: I tried it, to be honest I am not impressed, if you compare LoL and Dota 2, then Dota 2 clearly wins in quality, you can see that people worked hard on Dota 2 and put a great amount of effort into it to make it as wonderfull as it is now. I didn't get the same feeling when I was playing LoL. That is my personal opinion, I may be wrong.
Пробовал, честно говоря я не впечатлился, если сравнить LOL и Dota2, то Dota2 явно выигрывает по качеству, видно, что над D2 трудились профессионалы и вложили просто невероятное количество сил, чтобы сделать ее такой замечательной, какая она есть, при игре в LOL подобного ощущения у меня просто не возникло, но это мое личное мнение, я могу быть и не прав.
What advice would you give to work on my support play other than just simply practicing? I play a lot of aggressive support in pubs but my ganks and movements never seem to work out well.
NS, how do you feel about windrunner offlane these days? You rarely see it anymore, and I personally feel you can zone her out too easy. Since the hero is quite level dependant to get a good midgame, it seems like other choices such as bounty hunter, darkseer, or clock are better right now.
Also, what do you think about WR mid, or as a lanesupport?
If you could be an animal, what animal would you be? What 3 things would you take with you to a deserted island? Do you prefer Hot or Cold, and Sweet or Spicy?
Do you think this current patch has been figured out or are there still areas left unexplored? If you could describe each of your teammates in one word, how would you describe them? (EX: Puppey - troll)
On May 01 2013 00:27 shostakovich wrote: NS, who do you wish to fight in TI3?
NS: I want to try myself against the best Chinese and Asian team, in general I just want to play against the team that I had no chance to play against, we play against EU and US team quite often. Most of all I want to win againt iG, and maybe Zenith/Orange.
Хочу попробовать силы против лучших китайцев и азиатских команд, ну в общем хочется поиграть с теми, с кем не удается поиграть на других ивентах, с европейцами и американцами мы и так довольно часто встречаемся на разнообразных турнирах. Больше всего хочется конечно сыграть с iG и, наверное Zenith/Orange.
On May 01 2013 00:36 Spicy_Curry wrote: In your opinion who do you think is the single best player in the west (not from your team)?
NS: It is hard to say, all players are divided by their roles, and every role has it's stars. Nevertheless I can say that I like Ferarrari', Chuan' and Dendi' play. When these guys are on peak of their form every one of them is capable of true miracles
Трудно сказать, все таки игроки делятся по ролям и на каждой роли есть свои звезды. Тем не менее могу сказать, что мне очень импонирует игра Ferrari, Chuana и Dendi, когда эти ребята находятся на пике своей форме каждый из них способен на настоящие чудеса
On May 01 2013 00:38 riptide wrote: How does one go about defeating a team like iG? Are there any teams outside China that can take a series off them at the moment?
NS: I think that at this moment almost no one has any chances to win a match against iG, iG play on a different level, their strategies are excellent, and what's more important - the execution is inimitable, and of course the presonal skill of every player is on a cosmic level. Athough no one is unbeatable, many teams have capabilities to prepare to this battle in the coming months and surprise everyone with their play.
Я думаю, на данный момент, шансов выиграть матч у iG нет почти ни у кого, iG показывают игру на немного ином уровне, их стратегии великолепны, и что особенно важно, реализация стратегий просто неподрожаема, ну и конечно же личный скилл каждого из игроков находятся на космическом уровне. Однако, непобедимых нет, и многие команды имеют все возможности за ближайшие месяцы подготовиться к этой битве и удивить своей игрой.
On May 01 2013 00:38 MBV wrote: What advice would you give to work on my support play other than just simply practicing? I play a lot of aggressive support in pubs but my ganks and movements never seem to work out well.
NS: Just playing pubs and improving your general skill is very important, every professional player trains like this in their free of team practice time. I can advice to watch the replays of professional supports, I think you can learn a lot this way. Also you should never get upset because you couldn't gank someone in pubs, quite often your teammates won't be very skilled and you can only count on yourself
Просто играть в паблике и повышать свой общий скилл это очень важно, так в общем-то и тренируются все профессиональные игроки в свободное от командных тренировок время. От себя могу посоветовать смотреть реплеи профессиональных саппортов, я думаю ты сможешь там очень многое для себя подчеркнуть. Ну и никогда не стоит расстраиваться из-за того, что не получилось сделать ганг в паблике, под час союзники не радуют своим скиллом и рассчитывать остается только на себя
NS do you think your team could win a game vs. an eastern top team such as iG at TI3, and if you were to do it do you think you would use a surprise strategy or you would play your usual, most practiced style?
On May 01 2013 00:40 Buggington wrote: NS, how do you feel about windrunner offlane these days? You rarely see it anymore, and I personally feel you can zone her out too easy. Since the hero is quite level dependant to get a good midgame, it seems like other choices such as bounty hunter, darkseer, or clock are better right now.
Also, what do you think about WR mid, or as a lanesupport?
NS: It is popular to put on a hardlane a hero who will just go to the forest and farm there, if it would be impossible to stay on the lane (perfect example - Nature's Prophet or Dark Seer). Windrunner can't just farm in forest like this, so teams stopped placing her on the hardlane. Solo-mid WR is quite good, it is not that popular lately, but it doesn't mean that no one will remember her again. Support WR is viable as well, Alliance use her a lot as a support, and EGM almost every time shows that it is not a bad choice.
Сейчас стало модным ставить на хард лайн героя, который в случае, если стоять там не получится просто уходит в лес и фармит там(идеальный пример - фурион или дарк сир), Виндраннер же не сможет так просто фармить лес, поэтому ее и перестали ставить на хард. Соло мид ВР очень не плоха, последнее время она стала менее модна, но это не значит, что вскоре про нее не вспомнят опять. Саппорт ВР также имеет место быть, Alliance очень часто ее используют как саппорта, и EGM почти всегда показывает, что это далеко не самый худший выбор.
On May 01 2013 00:40 chisuri wrote: What do you think of the current Navi? Will they be able to achieve the same height they did and even reach higher level or they will fall short?
NS: Current Na`Vi is very strong, but in my opinion with LightOfHeaven and Smile this team would have had more potential and hidden abilities . + Show Spoiler +
Текущий состав Na`Vi очень силен, но, по моему личному мнению, с Lightofheaven'ом и Smile'ом эта команда имела больше потенциала и скрытых возможностей.
What do you think of the CIS trend of taking on non-CIS players and switching to communicating in English during games (Na'Vi, Empire)? Do you think VP would ever explore this option if you had to make a roster change?
Do you think ping difference is significant and changes the results of series, especially for Russian teams which have high ping to US East servers (or conversely, NA teams that have US West players that have high ping to Luxembourg)?
Who do you predict will win the TI3 western qualifier?
you had a close series with liquid in the premier league after beating them 2:0 before in the same tournament. in your oppinion, why did they beat you the second time and what could you have done differently to take the series?
On May 01 2013 00:43 Spicy_Curry wrote: If you could be an animal, what animal would you be? What 3 things would you take with you to a deserted island? Do you prefer Hot or Cold, and Sweet or Spicy?
Do you think this current patch has been figured out or are there still areas left unexplored? If you could describe each of your teammates in one word, how would you describe them? (EX: Puppey - troll)
NS: I would be a cat, I think. I would take my girlfriend, Dota and Internet haha :D I prefer Hot and Spicy.
The last patch was quite figured out, but Valve should pay attention to bugs, especially the bugs after the load.
On May 01 2013 01:11 Psyl4rk wrote: NS do you think your team could win a game vs. an eastern top team such as iG at TI3, and if you were to do it do you think you would use a surprise strategy or you would play your usual, most practiced style?
NS: It will be very difficult, but I believe that it is possible. In any case we will train hard to show good games against the best Asian teams. Will we try something special? Most likely we will try to think of something to surprise the opponent, it is important to surprise, often it may bring an easy victory.
Это будет очень тяжело, но я верю, что возможно. В любом случае мы будем упорно тренироваться, чтобы показать хорошую игру против лучших команд Азии. Будем ли мы использовать что-то особенное? Скорее всего постараемся что-то придумать, чтобы удивить оппонента, удивлять врагов очень важно, часто это может принести легкую победу.
On May 01 2013 01:17 Kraznaya wrote: What do you think of the CIS trend of taking on non-CIS players and switching to communicating in English during games (Na'Vi, Empire)? Do you think VP would ever explore this option if you had to make a roster change?
Do you think ping difference is significant and changes the results of series, especially for Russian teams which have high ping to US East servers (or conversely, NA teams that have US West players that have high ping to Luxembourg)?
Who do you predict will win the TI3 western qualifier?
NS: I don't really get the point of picking english-speaking players and mixing them with russian-speaking. It trully leads to a small loss in communication, however teams know better, maybe they are doing the right thing, time will tell. Yes, I believe the problems with ping often affect the results, especially for some teams, for example Dignitas have unbelievably high win percentage on US server and unbelievably low win percentage on EU server, I think this is not just a coincidence. I think EG, Mouz, Kaipi, Qpandas, Iccup и Rox.KIS will compete for the qualifier slots, it's very hard to name the winner for me, all those teams are worthy of each other and can win, however I see more chaces for EG to take the first place.
Я не совсем понимаю смысла брать англоязычных игроков и перемешивать их с русскоговорящими, это действительно приводит к небольшой потере в коммуникации, однако командам виднее и может быть они поступают верно, время покажет. Да, я считаю, что проблемы с пингом часто влияют на результаты, особенно у некоторых команд, например Dignitas имеют невероятно высокий процент побед при игре на Американском сервере и невероятно низкий при игре на Европейском, думаю это не просто совпадение. Думаю что за слоты поборятся EG, Mouz, Kaipi, Qpandas, Iccup и Rox.KIS, назвать победителя мне крайне трудно, все эти команды достойны друг друга и могут выстрелить, однако больше всего шансов взять первое место я вижу у EG.
Is any of the recently released heroes gonna be seen play in competitive Dota? (namely Tusk, Drow, Slark, Bristleback and Skywrath). Also, I have heard much about Tauren Chieftain (now Elder Titan) in Dota 1, what do you think of him?
P/S: How is that showmatch with Rox.KIS coming along? :p
On May 01 2013 01:19 phos4 wrote: you had a close series with liquid in the premier league after beating them 2:0 before in the same tournament. in your oppinion, why did they beat you the second time and what could you have done differently to take the series?
NS: Liquid is a great team that does not forgive your mistakes. After our great first game with Wisp+CK we frankly played the second one bad and out of our style, Luquid on the other hand were unstoppable. In the third game everything was going our way, but we made serious mistakes at the key moments, which Liquid took advantage from. Also it is worth to mention the bug in the Roshan pit fight, when everyone dropped from the game, and when everyone got back we greatly loost our position because heroes start running to the base when the players disconnect. I think that if not for this bug the game could have moved on a slightly another direction, because we would have definitely won that battle.
Ликвид отличная команда, которая не прощает ошибок, после того как мы здорово отыграли первую игру с Виспом и Чаосом мы откровенно плохо и не в своем стиле сыграли вторую, Ликвид же наоборот были неудержимы. В третьей игре все шло к нашей победе, но мы совершили серьезные ошибки в ключевые моменты, которыми Ликвид и восользовались. Также стоит отметить тот баг на рошане, когда дота просто повисла у всех игроков, а когда мы вернулись в игру то уже очень сильно потеряли позиции, так как герои при дропе просто начинают убегать на базу, думаю, если бы не этот баг игра могла пойти слегка по другому, потому что ту битву мы определенно должны были выиграть.
EPT
It is more difficult to pick a moment for Dota 2; there has been a lot of interesting stuff, but nothing that is imprinted in my memory. It's probably because our team hasn't been performing very successfully in LANs, and the brightest impressions come from LANs.
