Community Spotlight: Interview with Peppo_oPaccio

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This is the first interview we've ever done, expect many more soon to come! The first person we're highlighting is Peppo_oPaccio, one of DOTAFire's most active and loved veteran and guide writer.

He has been around for a very long time and I'm sure he has some interesting things to share with all of us, including his vast experience about out beloved DotA 2.

For how long have you been playing DotA ? ( both DotA 1 and 2 )

I've been playing Dota 2 for more than a year now (started in September 2012). I used to play DotA sporadically and I left it a couple years before Dota 2 came out.

What do you enjoy the most about this game?

Teamwork and competitivity: Dota reminds me of those RTS games I used to play, but I got bored of them because I mostly played single player. Years later I discovered Steam and started playing games like L4D2 and TF2 with friends, but wins in Dota 2 are much more satisfying! You can make hundreds of different drafts and still win if performing well with good teammates. Good laughs with friends are also ensured when playing against clueless enemies.

The MMR system has been recently added, do you think it is a good addition to the game?

I personally don't mind it, as I've never played solo MMR and I rarely played it with friends. I think I should start working my solo MMR though, people say it makes a big difference when looking for good teammates.

Which is the main problem the DotA 2 community is facing right now, in your opinion?

Like a lot of other gaming communities, Dota's hate on games of the same genre - LoL especially - annoys me. I don't play League of Legends (I think I played it for a couple months when I was 15 or so) because I don't like some of its features like runes and Champion rotations every week, but insulting it doesn't make Dota 2 "better". LoL is more player-friendly because of the easier mechanics, but nonetheless I think very few Dota players can play it for years without abandoning it. We could say they have the quantity and we have the quality (though there are good players in LoL, too).

What would you change or add to the game and why?

First, I would change Witch Doctor's skin. As soon as possible.

Other than that, I don't think there is much to change as long as monthly patches keep the game variegated. Maybe add a map editor and some new gamemodes?

More and more teams are rising, who do you think will win the fourth International?

I support Cloud 9, so I really hope they get to the top 3 at least. I think they can win the International if they come up with other safe and hardly counterable team compositions like Luna + Wisp, and even though some people complain about Eternal Envy I hope they won't change their roster. Right now, I think the usual eastern teams - Fnatic, Empire, Na'Vi etc. - minus Liquid are still strong, and even if C9 doesn't win I'll still be happy with a good performance of theirs.

Which is your favorite team and player?

As said above, my favorite team is Cloud 9: I follow them since pieliedie played for KaiPi, and
I must say they've made some improvements. I like the way they play, focusing on some Heroes they play really well and filling the empty gaps of their team with good all-round Heroes. As for the player, I'd say both Admiral Bulldog (from Alliance) and Puppey (from Na'Vi) taught me a lot of stuff. Na'Vi was the first team I started following in competitive gaming because of their fame, and the Chen Puppey used in TI2 motivated me a lot. I remember I once played ten Chen games in a row, though not on the same day. And about Admiral Bulldog, I loved the way he played Lone Druid (I guess you realized I like micro-intensive Heroes) and made me want to play off-lane in pubs at all costs, improving my overall understanding of high level matches. I had very little hours of playtime back then, and strangers didn't just trilane or pick a jungler. I remember that, sometimes, they
even went dual off-lane with me after I said I wanted to go solo, leaving the poor carry alone.

Have you ever tried to form or join a competitive team?

I've never formed a "serious" competitive team, but I like playing team matchmaking with some friends of mine. We have a fun team called Bear Grylls's Team of Survivors, and playing versus other teams (though most of them are clueless) already makes me feel like a charismatic leader. I'm the captain and, even though I prefer supporting, I'm also the team's hard carry because I'm the best farmer between my teammates. I sometimes watch the replay of a match I played the day before, and even though it's way different than watching a competitive game I can clearly see the mistakes my teammates and I do. Overall, I try to keep my team "in shape" without stressing my teammates with constant match requests: if, for example, one of my teammates doesn't play well (our mid most of the time, as he's not good at farming) I ask them if they want me to mentor them or if they want to play a lobby match, even though we never practice together.

Why did you start creating guides for the community?

Chen is probably the main reason why I wanted to release my first guide: I had played a good amount of matches with Chen, I knew what was the most used Chen build in competitive thanks to Puppey and still the only Chen guide on the site was poor and could use better item builds. My formatting wasn't the best, but it was full on information and I liked it. My second guide involved a support Beastmaster like a player from LGD.int (I believe it was xiao8) used to play him in TI2, but I realized he wasn't played as a support anymore so I scrapped it. The other guides are still there, and I improved my formatting and my game knowledge a lot since then.

How did making multiple guides improve your DotA 2 experience?

I realized that having too many item builds confuses readers and players in general, so all my guides (at least the most recent ones) use a standard "core" and then some different items depending on the situation. Keeping it simple is the best way to learn Dota, and that's how one learns the item builds of all Heroes. I also learnt to consider the Black King Bar much more useful than the majority of the other carry items, and I hope all the players that read my guides understood that, too.

How do you feel being the author of fifteen top-rated DOTAFire guides?

I actually didn't realize I wrote so many guides. I just do that in my spare time when I don't have anything to do and some Heroes need an updated guide - especially if they are top-tier picks. Sometimes people on pubs ask me if I'm the "Peppo that made guides on DotaFire" very few people do that, and I'm glad I'm not some sort of "Dota celebrity" as being famous on Dota means random friend requests and constant chat spamming. Still, some people said that they learned to play Dota with my guides (especially support players), and that makes me smile every time. I'm glad I made the support role look more entertaining than people think, at least for that 2-3 players that recognize me.

There are many people working on guides right now, do you have any advice for them to create a successful guide?

My biggest advice is: keep it simple. Don't write 11 builds for the same Hero, and accept criticism if you think the other person is right. Also, try to make your guide appealing: add images and links, but don't mess up the format with big images between words or a big copy paste from the Wiki (unless it's for the lore or the skills). Still, I'd rather +1 a guide with only one good item and skill build that justifies the item choices instead of a long guide with 4 outdated builds.

Is there something in particular you'd like to share with our members and your readers?

I don't really know what to put here, so enjoy these "trivia" about me:

- I use the inverted Y axis when playing FPS games.
- I'm left-handed.
- I have a twin brother.
- I like listening to punk-rock and generically rock-based music, but also popular soundtracks and "epic" music by groups/people like Hans Zimmer and Two Steps from Hell.

I'd like to thank Peppo for his time and effort he put into answering my questions, and also for being one of the greatest member of our community!

Message me if you'd like to join our official Discord server!