DOTA: INTERVIEW WITH MANIA, ANGEL AND MAELK "MiseRy had some behaviour problems"
Two days ago, Roskilde Ravens kicked moods, KwoM and MiseRy- out of their team to add four former MYM players: Maelk, MaNia, PusHer-Street and Merlini. We spoke with Maelk, MaNia and AngeL about the new team, behaviour problems with MiseRy and the reason why Merlini suddenly joined the "all-danish lineup". Further themes are the preparation for ENC and the future of DotA.
fragster: The last few days have been a little bit confusing. Can you tell us what exactly happened out of your point of view?
Brian 'MaNia' Strandby: For me it started a few days ago when H4nn1 informed us that he was joining Kingsurf.international. We had been practising for a while with Miggel and Angel from Ravens for European Nations Championship. We thought about recruiting them both for MYM a bit before last Dreamhack but after PlaymatE did such a good job at LAN, we decided to get him into our roster instead. Now when we were clanless our old fire for playing on the same team rekindled and we finally made a serious decision out of it. I'm of course sorry that it mostly went out on Misery even when Ravens were doing so well.
Misery told us that you kicked him out of the team without any reason.
Martin 'AngeL' Oslson: Ever since he joined he had some behavoir problems. We spoke to him about them more than 5 times. After he couldn't change it, mostly me and Miggel decided to kick him. He was not only being unfriendly towards other teams but he was also really good at racking us down and whining. That's the main reason why he's not in Ravens anymore. And it can't be a shock for him, since we have been asking him so many times to try to change, otherwise this won't work out.
Some people mentioned his poor performance lately. Could that have forced the drop as well?
AngeL: Not as much as his personality.
MiseRy said in his interview that he thought he would be friends with the old Ravens team who could trust each other. But when looking at all these posts on DotA-Allstars.com, one get the impression that he was more a usefull tool to be successful. What exactly is the case?
AngeL: I still see him as a friend of mine. But I could not enjoy DotA together with him in the end. Our paths separated, and let's see how it works. I wish Misery the best luck in future.
How will your lineup look like now?
AngeL: Whoever is available at the arranged date. Our trip to DTS-Cup in Ukraine will be Maelk, Mania, Pusher-Street, Miggel and I.
MaNia: At the moment we are just practising by mixing all together and just getting to know who plays which heroes the best and what type of players they are.
So you don't plan with a steady lineup which would be most effective?
MaNia: It will mostly be like with MYM, we just use those who can play and if we are more than 5 that can play, someone is always willing to sit out. It has never been a problem before.
Jacob 'Maelk' Toft-Andersen: Like Martin and Brian mentioned, the lineup at DTS-Cup is miGGel, AngeL, PusH, MaNia and myself, but for the rest of the summer we expect to fly in Merlini and all seven of us meet up to bootcamp in Roskilde e-Sportsclub.
Your statement was that you want an all danish line-up so moods had to go although you won a lot of games with him lately. And now you got Merlini in your team – sounds a bit strange, doesn't it?
MaNia: Yes, it sounds very strange. You would have to ask Smiske about that one because I have no idea why he would say we were using an all-danish lineup since we from the start talked about bringing Merlini with us.
Maelk: I think Smiske did a so called 'brainfart' and simply remembered who practised the night before. Ben is as much a part of the team as the rest of us, he's just been busy the past month with school. Maybe Smiske pictured that our starting five would be an all-danish team since Ben is very shifty in wether he can play or not.
Smiske: Merlini is a part of the team just like the rest of us. moods is a great player and was very very strong for the team. There are a lot of reasons why he is good for us, but also reasons why he is not and that's why he's not a part of the team now.
So the merge with Ex-MYM was more wanted as continuing with the good ravens line-up which was able to compete with Ks.int and EG?
AngeL: I saw this as a "one in a lifetime" opportunity. As Brian already said we've been speaking about this before Dreamhack winter, but after Playmates really good performance they took him. It was a chance that I could not let pass me by, since there's been a lot of trouble about Misery the latest in the team, and moods saying that he can't go with us to Ukraine. I therefore spoke to Miggel and Smiske about it, and here we are.
What are your feelings about the "new Ravens"?
MaNia: I am looking forward to play together with my new teammates in some important matches. We have been scrimming a lot together and I really enjoy playing with our new comrades Smiske, Miggel and AngeL. It also helps a lot when you can talk danish in the game. That's also why Ben is coming to Denmark for 2-3 months so we can teach him danish. We can finally put his brain to a good use.
AngeL: Like Brian said, and I think everyone is excited to see how it works out in official matches.
So your next plans with Ravens are DTS-Cup, eXperience and Dreamhack?
AngeL: Yeah, this summer.
Maelk stated that Ks.Int would be even stronger with H4nn1 in their ranks. Is that your point of view too?
AngeL: I dont know if they are going to be stronger with H4nn1 than before, but I think we have a decent chance of beating them. I guess time will tell.
MaNia: I think there are many top teams at the moment, where everyone can beat each other. H4nn1 is one of my favorite players so of course I think his addition to Ks.int is a plus but it still doesn't make them invincible. It depends mostly on the form of each team at the present day.
Which will be the teams to beat besides Ks.Int?
AngeL: All the teams on our way to the top. We have to beat everyone standing in our way.
MaNia: I think it's obvious for everyone that EG is very strong at the moment. They have a nice balance of players in the team. Their whole lineup is very experienced and skilled, so they are a big threat.
How is the preperation for ENC going on? Will you be able to bringe the trophy home this time?
MaNia: Well, teaming up kinda screwed up our danish national team. (smiles) We will have to find new fish in the sea.
AngeL: So our focus right now is on Ravens.
So maybe Misery could be an option for the ENC team?
MaNia: Haha, that would be funny. But yeah, sure, we could use Misery and PlaymatE. In Misery's interview he said that he might play with us if we would ask him.
AngeL: I don't think we have to answer that!? (smiles) If me or miggel are playing I'm pretty sure we've had enough of his whine/flame, but I don't know for sure about the rest.
Maelk: I have never actually had the pleasure of playing more than a few games with Misery, all of which was won very easily, so I haven't experienced his "bad side" so to say. I wouldn't rule out that he's an option, if he's interested and everyone can get the chemistry going. I definitely expect Amel (PlaymatE) to be a part of the team, there are no hard feelings between him and me nor anyone on our team. Amel is one of the most interesting persons I have met through DotA, and I take pride in being able to call him a friend.
PlaymatE said yesterday in an interview that he got kind of ignored in your team so he left it before you teamed up with Ravens.
Maelk: Yes, as stated by both of us the past week, the Kingdom team had too many angles they wanted to play. Kai appreciated Ks.int's style a lot and wanted to go that way, Loda wanted to play somewhat like he did in SK, I had my ideas, MaNia wanted to win and Amel wanted to solo!
Why did you decide to finish Farm4Fame with MYM? It does not seem as if there is much motivation left to reach something with the old lineup.
MaNia: We decided to finish Farm4Fame #9 because we weren't allowed to play with our new teams yet and we wanna break up the team on a good note. We aren't playing on the same team anymore, but we still are very good friends and have been friends for more than two years. Farm4fame #10 is being played with our new teams. It's only this round we keep playing together.
Maelk: Yeah, I think everyone within the team wanted to show each other that there were no hard feelings and that we're all still good friends. Playing this tournament through, possibly even winning it, would mark a nice end to some great years.
Any idea where Loda is going to?
Maelk: According to Loda himself, he's actually pretty pleased with playing on his own without being tied down to a team. I think he'll continue doing so for another month or so, then organize an all Swedish team for Dreamhack.
Last week you kind of tested the new Zotac Cup and you were tied up a few days to the top rank. Why did you stop?
MaNia: It was very exhausting playing that many games, but it was funny competing to stay at the top. I had a good streak going there, but I stopped playing Zotac after I found out that the admins from the D-L site had a topic going about me abusing the ladder. I took that as an offense, and then I told them that I would gladly stop playing Zotac if they thought I was abusing it. (smiles) So my impression about Zotac was good, but my impression about the admins was bad plus I'm banned from dota-league.com now.
Lately there have been a few interviews and statements of clan/league related persons who claim that the scene is not professional enough and all this changes would lead to the dismissing of DotA by big clans like SK and mouz.
Maelk: I somewhat agree. But I don't like the way they generalize the entire scene, though, as there are exceptions. As soon as I saw mouz.Rene blame DotA's lack of professionalism, I had a talk with him on IRC and informed him that I thought he did a mistake by trusting Drayich to make a team from scratch after having somewhat failed the first time. As for SK, I don't think they necessarily lack interest in the scene as they lack funds to support a team. Sending five players around the world, or even Europe, can be quite costy and all DotA-teams have events they want to attend. I think SK simply chose to focus on the three mainstream games and take in console-gamers that aren't high maintenance. Also, as for dopeshows opinion that DotA lacks personalities, I beg to differ. Loda is one of the most hyped players ever to exist in any game, and I believe anyone having witnessed the former SK or us (MYM) on LAN, would dare saying that there's plenty of fun spectating us.
How do you see the future of DotA as it lost some prestigeous tournaments and clans? Even if new ones are popping up, there are still no big steps forward.
Maelk: I think the DotA scene realized that it needs to make events of their own and not rely on any global tournaments. DotA has gotten big in Asia, and now rest of the world needs to follow suit. Would be nice, if Asian tournaments would invite the Western teams too, though, like it has been done in CS and WC3 for years. I am not too concerned with the lack of support from a few bignotch organizations. If they aren't interested, then they probably didn't have much to offer anyways nor were they willing to from the get go.
Any last words?
Maelk: I, personally, would like to thank Roskilde Ravens for their immediate support and how fast they made us feel welcome within the organization.
[INTERVIEW] Ravens responds to Misery- statement
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