Interview w/ coL.FLUFFNSTUFF after The International 2

We didn't really get to see much of Seattle yet, we've only been to downtown Seattle a couple of times. We got here on August 9th just to start our bootcamp down at Game Clucks and we've been here all the way through The International 2 working really hard to prepare.

We've visited the Space needle and walked around a little bit in downtown Seattle. But, for the most part we've been practicing and heading in an out of Valve's office and at our hotel.

The team has been practicing a certain style of heroes. We like to team fight and group up, and as far as introducing new heroes goes we try to find stuff that would fit into our play style and scrim that repeatedly. Then we try to find the best opponents to practice against like Na'Vi, mTw, CLG for example.

My experience with Valve has been really amazing. They treat all the players like rock stars. We get to go into their office and steal all of their food. They have really nice catering and they take care of us with assistants, basically Valve staffers or volunteers who follow each team around to make sure we get to where we have to be on time, setup our gear, basically help us out, etc.

I think that just Valve in general, the employees seem to really love DotA. They really enjoy it and they're all big fans of the players and the teams. They all seem to want to see DotA 2 grow as an eSport. Even Gabe Newell, he plays a lot of DotA 2 and really wants it to succeed.

I haven't spoken with Gabe much. When I did it was only briefly, we only really shook hands. He's a very busy guy.

Valve has a lot of awards; they basically have a wall full of awards. They also have a lot of replicas and pictures from their games. Like Team Fortress 2, they name a lot of their conference rooms after Team Fortress maps, like dustbowl. And they even have a lot of little memorabilia of stuff like Minecraft and other games. It is all really playful, a very playful environment.

Nothing really excited me too much. I was really impressed with the cafeteria though, they have a really good selection. It seems like they had unlimited supply of food and candy, etc. It was really nice.

We started in the Winner's Bracket since we placed second in our group stage, played versus Team Zenith in a best of three. The first game we were very confident, we basically just played our game. We knew their tricks and such. They wanted to give us Naga Siren in the first pick and we knew their reactions to that like Chaos Knight and Keeper of the Light.

Going into Game 2, we were on Dire side and that was also second pick. On second pick it seems like a lot of teams have trouble getting through that since first pick feels like it has so much advantage. They can get Naga, Dark Seer, Lycan, etc. and a lot of teams feel a lot of pressure. Facing a team like Zenith, we knew they had a lot of options because of this. We were pretty flustered because of this, we weren't sure what they would go for, or what their lanes could be and how they would draft their heroes. So, I feel like I got out drafted that game.

Going into Game 3 I think a little bit of that carried over. We wanted to counter their style and we thought that we had the answer but it wasn't actually. Looking back at it I think we should have taken Morphling especially since it was one of the most successful heroes this tournament. Maybe it was a little bit of an arrogant move to not pick Morphling and instead give it to them but we thought that we had the answer and it didn't pay off.

From there we dropped to the lower bracket where we played EHOME in a best of one. With EHOME, in the group stage we went 1-1 with them since we had to play two games. We thought we were very confident going into that match since we knew how they played. We were pretty confident with our draft, so we wouldn't blame that. We knew our strategy, we knew our game plan. They gave us heroes that we were comfortable with. I think what made us lose the game was that we kept getting picked off when we got complacent in the match, especially after we took the first Roshan. We didn't play our potential and I think after have the advantage for 25 minutes we just kind of lost it from there.

I really believe in Na'Vi. I think that Puppey sort of had a realization throughout this tournament, especially on his way towards the winner bracket final. I think he realized that in order to win this tournament, he had to overcome so called imbalanced heroes, had to think outside the box and overcome the meta game, which is something that a team hoping to win a tournament like the International would need to develop during the tournament. A skill like that is not something that you can prepare for, it's something that is really special to watch and Puppey is one of the gifted captains who have that ability.

Well, Na'Vi's team play is 10 out of 10, maybe even 9 out of 10 at the worst, especially in this kind of high pressured situation. I think all of their players are tremendously skilled but on top of that they have great leadership in Puppey. I think that Dendi is an amazing player; he's so clutch all the time. He plays with a high amount of finesse every time. I think the LAN experience also helps, they know the little tips and tricks or strategies to get their mentality up and ready to go.

As an aside, Na'Vi compared to us... Well, we went into this tournament trying to play the same way as the Chinese did, and when you play that way a couple of mistakes can lose you the game. Some of the games that we lost, we felt that we made minor mistakes. But, they can really come to bite you in the butt at the end. Na'Vi, they know how to develop their style throughout the tournament and because of this don't make too many mistakes. It's really amazing.

They also tend to have a centralized focus, Puppey does most of the drafting and he only gets some of the input from Light of Heaven. Our team, though, since we were in this high pressured event, I kind of went to my teammates a little bit, and I think our draft was a reflection of the too many conflicting ideas instead of my own. And I think I didn't own up to my responsibility of drafting for all five players. I think our ideas got messed up, whereas Na'Vi really respects and trusts that Puppey will make the right decision. And even if he doesn't there still is a focus and an idea behind it.

We're going to kind of take a small break, since we're home sick and we've been out for months basically. We do have ESWC against Potm Bottom really soon after we arrive back. So we're just going to see where we go from there. We definitely need to think about some things and just relax because it's been a really intense experience being here.

I'm not really sure, but what I'm sure about is it can only go up more because the community and the staff behind the game, they really support it and they seem really passionate about the growth of the game. And if there is any company out there that can make it happen, it's Valve.

Perhaps Dreamhack, I think that's the next big LAN event for us. We aren't participating in the Star Ladder because of a couple of complications in the past so we're going to have to pass that up. So, the next one will probably be Dreamhack.

I think we've narrowed him down. If there was a guy who I thought was IceFrog, I think I've found him. He just has the Icefrog look, and whenever I ask him he doesn't say no. I swear to God that's him though. I don't know how to explain his physique; he's just always around, very quiet and observant. He's everywhere, just walks all over the place, he's very involved. But, at the same time he's very subtle with how he moves around. He just is extremely mysterious and no one else is as mysterious as him so I'm gonna say that's him. Kind of a medium sized guy, maybe 6 foot and black curly hair. He walks around, does a little bit of the small work too. Sets up the peripherals, etc. He's everywhere, but nowhere at the same time haha.

You know, all of the Valve employees must have been trained really well to dodge the questions or leave really ambiguous answers like "Maybe I am or maybe I'm not'. I mean all of them, maybe 99%. And they're really, really good at keeping his identity guarded, it's crazy.

Shoutouts to my friends, family, my team, my fans. Shoutout to my sponsors of course, Gamma Gamers, Origin PC, PNY, Creative, QPAD, and Soundblaster. Also, a special shoutout to Game Clucks at Lynnwood and Chris the owner for giving us his facilities to bootcamp with.