EPT
KuroKy Community Q&A
Kuro "KuroKy" Salehi Takhasomi is as old as the hills. One of the most experienced DotA players on the scene today, he currently plays the #5 position for Na`Vi. However, perhaps the best intro we can give him comes courtesy of BTS caster David "LD" Gorman, who recently called him "a grizzled German vet" who has "aged like a fine wine".
In this quick interview, Kuro talks to us about his history with Puppey, the Dota 2 scene of today, and what he sees when he looks ahead.
More importantly, of course, KuroKy will be here on TL at our Community Q&A on Wednesday, Apr 10 5:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00) to answer your questions!
Interview
What's it like playing with Puppey again after all these years? What is your first memory of Clement?
It's refreshing! We have both developed and grown up in the course of time, and yet our friendship remained the same. I played with Clement the first time in 2007, in an inhouse league named DCE. I was part of the clan, so we played together. We played together, a CK/Sylla lane, and we stomped. He stole all my kills. He doesn't remember, but for some reason I can recall 80% of all the DotA games I've ever played. My brain saves useless information, I think.
You've been around for a long time in the DotA scene. What's the biggest difference between DotA then and now?
Back then teams that won were credited, now it's called throw. I think it's sad.
You were fairly negative about Dota 2 at the beginning, and yet you are now an integral part of its pro-scene. What changed?
I wasn't negative. I love DotA/Dota 2. I was expressing my thoughts, and most of your today's favourite players agreed with me privately. I spoke in public, and I got smashed. The game was in it's early stage, and I think I conveyed my message harshly. Valve is still the best thing that could have happened to Dota 2. They take care of the game and respond quickly. I believe they will bring many more great things to us in the future.
Describe each of your teammates (Puppey, Dendi, XBOCT and Funn1k) using one word.
Puppet - 41Hidra
Dendi - Superman
Xboct - 007
Funn1k - funny
Dendi - Superman
Xboct - 007
Funn1k - funny
What is your favourite thing about being on Na`Vi?
The professionalism. The organisation is very caring. My teammates are funny and more importantly, good people.
What do you think about the new G-1 league? Do you think you guys will make it through the quals?
Hard to say, the competition is very hard. The best teams in the west try to qualify, and it will be a rough battle. Teams like fnatic, VP, and NTH play really good. I'm looking forward to playing against them.
What are you looking forward to the most about going to China?
Playing iG, DK, LGD.cn, LGD.int, and other good teams.
If you could make one change to Rubick, what would it be?
Give him an Aghanim's upgrade, so he can steal two spells which then fuse together. He could steal Warlock Golem and Macropyre, and end up with Inferno hell golems burning the ground with fire. The Panda ulti would merge with Techies' suicide and we'd have three suicidal pandas blowing themselves up. The Crystal Maiden and Nightstalker ultimate would create a dark winter night and reduce the vision of all heroes to 200. The Sylla ulti and the Dragon knight ulti would give us a flying frost bear-dragon!
Where would you like to the see the Dota 2 scene at this time next year?
More tournaments! More offline tournaments with better prize pools, and less online tournaments that drag out 3-5 months.
You've been on many successful DotA squads. If there was one ingredient in common between these winning teams, what would it be?
Dedication and passion, probably.
Community Q&A
Kuro will be here in person at our Community Q&A on Wednesday, Apr 10 5:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00). 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.
- How is your training going? Are you winning or losing scrims?
- Long ago when you were on Mouz, you played vs MyM. You were dominating the game as broodmother, but when you had around 4k gold, you bought an Eaglehorn instead of a BKB. Consequently, MyM disabled you in teamfights and you lost the game. Do you remember the game and can you tell us why you decided to buy a damage item instead of a bkb?
- Remember that game you have Storm and Puck and snatched cheese AND aegis in the same time?
- besides china will you stay in germany? or have you maybe other plans
- What are you hotkey assignments?
- Are you learning russian? or do you guys communicate in a different language?
- We all know how much you hate Nyx (or specifically, carapace) - how would you balance him?
- did you see maelks dancing performance at the DLM 2009 players party? and how would you rate it ? 1-10
- Do you, as a professional player, ever care about major balance patches and the game direction that Icefrog choose or you just put your trust into him and only care about playing?
- When Liquid came back with two barracks down against PL/KotL in The Defense, what was that like for the team? What happened in game, what was the reaction after, and how did you guys rally to win against Liquid the next day?
- Do you think bottle crowing is imba? If so how would you fix it and how do you think it would effect the current play in the solo lanes?
- also y u no stream more?
- Are you happy with the current balance of Dota 2?
- As a support player, how does one differentiate between a good player and a great player?
- Are you all speaking english when in-game? Or are the "russian speaking" speaking russian, when talking to eachother and english when talking to you?
- do u think valve need to step it up and make a huge organized league like riot and blizzard?
- Is there any upcoming heroes being released that you're looking forward to?
- Who do think is the most underrated support hero? Which do find do you utilize best with the rest of Na'vi?
- How does communication work during games with Na'vi, does everyone speak english for everything? I don't believe they did before.
- What heros do you think are actually really strong but see little use ( due to bans or lineups)?
- How do you feel about meepo in dota 2 competitive play? I remember that you played him in competitive games in dota 1 and did quite well if I remember correctly.
- Do you prefer playing with autoattack on or off and is this only a matter of style or is there a relevant reason for progamers to play one way over another (aggro comes to mind). Do you even use some kind of script for it? Thank you.
- Been a huge fan of Na'Vi since the start of DotA 2. As with most of NaVi fans, we were hit rather hard when the line up change was announced. How long do you think you guys have to take to fully merge as a squad and bring back the results most of us have come to expect? How long does it take for Puppey to adjust to the hero pools?
- Changes on seeing Troll in the competitive scene if it's not nerfed or changed before CM?
- Do you have any plans for your post-DotA life? That is, do you think you ever will have a 'post-DotA' life?
- I admit I am not an expert on professional dota, but when I watch recently it feels like one team destroys the other in game 1, then in game 2 the other team strikes back, and in game 3 the first team destroys again. I'm not sure if this is the reason, but how balanced is the current CM mode in your view? Does the team that gets to pick first have an advantage going in, if the teams are about evenly matched?
- what do you think needs to be done to life the American/South American game to the standard of Europe and Asia?
- If you could put together the best trolling team in the world, who would it consist of and what would their strat be?
- Can you describe the immediate pre-game process for Na'vi at tournaments? I always imagine you guys have been practicing so hard, that all you really need right before a game is to relax and let the fingers fly, but sometimes I wonder if you all get really pumped off of a locker room style pep talk.
- For players trying to improve, what do you think is the most important thing to focus on?
- Back when Na'Vi were shuffling their roster, there was a lot of community speculation it would be a Russian-speaking player, especially in lieu of the NTH/EternalEnvy affair. Could you elaborate on the language aspects of playing in Na'Vi and how a team could overcome any barriers?
- Do you think yours and Puppey's bromance is the strongest in DotA?
- Why do you wear such Tight Shirts?
- IceFrog seems to be creating these Flavor of the Month(Year) type heroes i.e PL and Nyx, (AM and morph previously) with OP changes. Do you see this having a positive impact on the game?
- If DotA had no Rubick, what would be your signature hero?
- rank the roles from hardest to eastiest to play
- What format and duration do you think is the best for online tournaments?
- What is your favorite food?
- Favourite Video game outside of Dota 2. One Esport, and one regular game on any gaming platform from any period of time.
- Blond, Red haired, Brown or Dark?
- What do you think of the current western heropool? In my opinion, it is rapidly getting quite stale with Kotl, pl, nyx, naix, batrider, etc, whereas whenever I watch chinese dota I see a lot of heroes otherwise not used. Do you think the western teams are too afraid to experiment with entirely new hero lineups and compositions (ie. discounting incidental adventures on treant or OD), or what is the reason for the relatively small western hero pool right now?
- How much do you guys scrim vs other top teams? Are you satisfied with ur own discipline / with the discipline of ur team-members when it comes to training?
- How is the team spirit in Na'Vi? Are you guys motivated? Do you feel like you need much more training to reach your full potential or are happy with where you are currently?
- What do you feel was the biggest thing you took from your trip to SMM 2009 with MYM?
- Why do you think there is no real order between western top team? Each one seems able to beat any other on a good day. At the moment it seems almost random.
- how do you get so good at playing Rubick?
- Kill/Fuck/Marry. Puppey/Azen/Pajkatt (Sorry Miracle )
- How should Valve raise the "coolness" of the support heroes, so that people wouldn't call it bitch?
- At the start of the new Na'Vi we saw a very proactive, aggressive and effective execution. Past games, have been actually reactive, waiting for enemy teams to execute first. Is this the result of lack of training?
- Do you agree with the notion that people have that different heroes in the hero pool are assigned into tiers based on their tendency to be picked?
- How do you manage to be up and playing for long hours? Don't you get sleepy? Do you have an energy drink or something?
- Which team from the western scene do you think has the highest potential currently?
- Generally, as far strategy goes: it seems like you prefer to be reactionary. Figure out the opponent's strategy and then beat it by out-executing, exploiting their predictability, figuring out the weaknesses, and so forth. Would you agree with that? What do you think of teams who may practice a certain strategy or style so much that they believe they know how to play that kind of game better than their opponent, even if it's a little predictable?
- According to singsing bamboe has a small penis, can you confirm ?
- What kind of pizza are you?
- Alex wrote a post when you left Mouz and had some nice things to say about you. It's similar to the one you wrote for Puppey when you guys split ways. What was your reaction to that post when you read it?
- You were very vocal about the vast differences of eu and chinese pro scene in the time of the original DotA, how do you see the differences now (strategy, individual talent, teamwork, training)?
- What are things you think people should do to improve? (Beyond normal stuff like last hits,map awareness etc)
- How much competitive dota (tournaments, both EU/NA and asia) do you watch?
- At what point in the game is the overarching win-strategy discussed? Is it discussed how you want to win before picks, after the lineup is chosen? After laning phase?
- Whaddya think about Techies?
- what do u think is the best way to improve and get into competitive scene?And which tips u can give to new players?
- what do you do with all the extra items you get when you play? can i have them? ;D
- Lets say you have to play 5 man one lane from lvl 1, whats your lineup?
- How do you feel about mid Rubick? Any tips for Rubick?
- In a manfight between Singsing and 430, on who would you bet your money ?
- If every hero would be able to be picked only once per series would that make for some interesting picking mind games?
- 1v1 wrestling H4nn1 against you, who wins?
- What are some realistic hopes and expectations of yours with Na'Vi? Obviously you are aiming to improve as a team in China, but do you fear that losing the element of surprise against chinese teams may be a problem?
- You mentioned you prefer 3/3 bans over 2/2 bans at the start of the draft. Could you explain the difference between them and your reasoning for this?
- Please tell us your favourite heroes on solo mid/solo hardlane/jungler/support and also melee and range carry heroes.>
- What do you think about Visage as hero, is he too weak for competitive Dota? or does players lack micro skills to make him useful?
- What is your favorite stage of the game? draft, early, mid, late or super-late game? why?
- Must-watch games?
- Do you feel like at some point there will be a new divide in the DotA community between DotA 1 and DotA 2? Do you think people will pick up DotA 1 for the "purity" of the mechanics at some point? I see Dota 2 becoming a mechanically worse and less stable game every version that gets released with more cosmetic nonsense, does it bother you that the game has been in beta for over a year and many bugs remain in the game without answer as to when they'll be fixed?
Writers: riptide
Gfx: Hawaiianpig, riptide
Editors: TheEmulator, riptide
Gfx: Hawaiianpig, riptide
Editors: TheEmulator, riptide
