Interview with el’Pride

 

 

Rapture Gaming was able to interview el’Pride, who recently had two roster changes. We had a chance to sit down with their captain as well as new addition Nestlik as they shared with us the ins and outs of team el’Pride

 

RGN: Hello guys, can you introduce yourselves to the DOTA 2 community?

Massacre: My name is Leonard Urih, I drink a lot of beer, love to ride my bike and play DOTA of course.

NeStlik:  I don’t care about the players in my team or the sponsors. I just want to play DOTA.

 

RGN: Can you share with us your team lineup and the roles that each player has?

Massacre: Me playing mid, mostly I'm just trying not to get killed, steal runes and type "ss", so my idiot team mates won't flame, especially NeStlik, he is like crazy.

Capjack is our farmer, I never see him in games but i like to know that somewhere on the map, is our carry farming and soon he will rape. Does not happen often though.

Xakoh is now our off-lane player, never knew he was such masochist. I'm pretty sure he is dying on purpose to get satisfaction.

Android and Nestlik’s are our supports, trying to gank, mostly failing, so everyone keeps laughing. You can call them the funny guys in our team. Android usually plays hard-to-play heroes like Chen, Enchantress and Nyx because nestlik is high all the time and keeps flaming me for not calling "ss"

 

 

RGN: Give us one reason why you guys feel that you could work together as a team?

Massacre: We still get pleasure playing DOTA even when we lose games.

Nestlik: The main reason why i joined el'Pride is because I really enjoy playing with Massacre and Android and I think the synergy between us is really great.

 

RGN: Do you practice with any local teams? Any points that you look for when choosing your opponents for practice?

Massacre: Not really at this point in time, we are taking small steps, like getting used to each other and trying to find our style to play, so we play against almost any team. We are trying a lot of stuff, fixing issues then trying again.

 

RGN: How did it all started as a eL’Pride? (like your first tournament or first game together)?

Massacre: We started as Lions Pride during the StarLadder Star Series Season IV, which was our first experience against really good opponents.

 

 

RGN: As the captain, which areas are you focusing on for the team to work together?

Massacre: We have got 2 Europeans and 2 Russians in the team and as captain I feel that the key is to bind the team and keep the team motivated.

 

RGN: How were you (Nestlik) recruited by the team? What was your initial reaction when you were told that you will be playing with el’Pride?

Nestlik: Massacre spammed me for like 1 month "Nestlik come play with us. Your the god of DOTA, we need you," and my 1st reaction was like "oh dear god.. I won’t play with dumb Russians but Massacre promised me bitches and bling-bling and I was like... ah well I could give it a try."

Massacre: I knew him for maybe 2-3 weeks, just played a few match-making games with Skype, it was fun and he promised me 'weed', so I invited him to play with us because he is a good player and my main condition in team is for everyone to be a normal person, without over self-importance

 

RGN: What made you guys leave your earlier teams? Do you think the reasons that caused you to leave your previous teams will repeat themselves in this team?

Nestlik: The team synergy was gone then chemistry was like zero after losing games. We spent hours blaming each other instead of analyzing the games and I didn’t felt that we're making any progress. It was like going in circles playing 2-3 days really well then having a day that felt like we're taking two steps back. Two reasons why I don’t think similar circumstances will repeat themselves. 

1) I like the guys even after we lose games

2) You can see progress even after a couple of games and it does not feel like we are running in circles

 

RGN: Are all the players from your team full time DOTA players or do they have other commitments?

Nestlik: I'm a student but I'm finishing my studies this summer but I see myself like a full-time DOTA player because from the moment I wake up till I sleep, I am either playing with the team or I'm discussing with Massacre about the team or I’m analyzing replays and thinking about strategies.

Massacre: Capjack, Android and me are full-time players while Xakoh is studying.

 

RGN: What is the daily routine for you guys? How many hours do you guys invest everyday for DOTA 2?

Nestlik: We mostly train for 5 to 6 hours per day but besides that, Massacare and me spend a lot of time analyzing the games, watching replays and talking about what we could do better and how to improve.

Massacre: Yes, we are training like 5 to 6 hours a day and when we do not have our full roster of 5, we will be analyzing our games.

 

RGN: What is the toughest part when trying to break into the 'pro scene' with all the big name teams?

Nestlik: Since we have both been in the scene for ages, I don't think there's a though part. It's just, rape or get raped and with hard work you won’t get raped.

Massacre: According to me there is no tough part, just practice and not hating each other

 

RGN: Which are the top teams in your opinion and why?

Massacre: Fnatic, iG and Mouz but I like specific players from those teams, not the entire team.

Nestlik: Within the European scene, Nth is my favourite team since I love the way they play. iG / LGD.Int are the best teams in the world. Both these teams are kind of unbeatable at the moment.

 

RGN: What must European teams do to stand a chance against the Asians at TI3?

Massacre: I am not sure about Asians but I feel that EU players are more emotional and that is what makes them unstable. Every player in your team must be ready to play every game at his full potential.

Nestlik: I think the main problem in EU is discipline. According to me hard work equals success and I don't think that any EU team is ready to put in that much work in a project unlike the Asians. I think it's a big waste if one guy plays with the attitude that he can play at 80-90% of his ability.

 

RGN: When Valve adds new heroes during their updates, does that affect your team's meta-game? What do you feel about the changes done in the 6.77c map version?

Massacre: We won’t pick Keeper of the Light since we haven't played for a long time so it doesn't really matter.

Nestlik: Easy, we won’t pick Keeper of the Light anymore. It doesn’t affect us as we have our own play-style which we try to perfect. @Valve, please nerf Phantom Lancer instead of nerfing useless heroes.

 

RGN: What went wrong for el'Pride during the Eizo Cup March Qualifiers?

Massacre: My fault, bad picks and bad decision making.

 

RGN: Which upcoming tournaments are el’Pride planning to participate in? Any LAN tournaments?

Massacre: No LaN tournaments for sure. As for the rest I don't know because we have some problems with management, since we spent a lot of time completing our line-up.

 

RGN: Massacre, what are your views about Nestlik as a DOTA 2 player and for Nestlik, what is your view with regard to el'Pride?

Massacre: Nestlik will make a good player since he is not retarded and is motivated to make love with Android.

Nestlik: eL'Pride is a nice organisation where I trust that has players with really big potential and the will to become better.

 

RGN: Any shoutouts before we conclude this interview?

Massacre: Shout out to my girlfriend, FrauFortune ;)

Nestlik: Shout out to Ginso, one of greatest guys I've met in my life.