Cover-Credits:
Despite the fact that there has never been any doubt about Syed "SumaiL" Hassan's technical proficiency, there have always been whispers about his arrogant personality. A former teammate of SumaiL, Max "qojqva" Bröcker, discussed his opinion of the player as he recalled his experiences with him. Qojqva perceived SumaiL's arrogance in a very similar light as the community’s, but he found that the time he spent with SumaiL to be quite pleasant in the short while they were squad mates. At the same time, qojqva mentioned that SumaiL was quite confident concerning his choice of heroes.
Qojqva shares that SumaiL is not as arrogant as his reputation suggests
During a recent Twitch livestream, qojqva discussed how playing with SumaiL changed his perception of him. Despite qojqva believing SumaiL to be a player with an "entitled" mentality, he was able to have enjoyable interactions with him both within the game and outside as well.
“I have a good idea of how SumaiL is in a team. So, before SumaiL joined Liquid or before he stood in for us for a few months, I thought SumaiL was super entitled, very arrogant, and hard to talk to but when I played with him in Liquid, I thought he was very nice to talk to, good to hang out in real life as well, discuss ideas so I very much enjoyed my stays with SumaiL in and outside of the game.”
For a little more than a month in 2021, SumaiL stood in for Samuel "Boxi" Svahn. After placing second in the regional league, the team failed to meet expectations at the WePlay AniMajor 2021, finishing 13th.
Qojqva also discussed Sumail's "ego" during the drafting stage, in addition to noting that his experience playing with Sumail only lasted for a brief period, so his views might not be completely representative of reality.
“He had an ego for sure because he would be like - just pick me any mid hero, the other guy is f**king awful anyway but it was not towards other people so it was fine. It wasn’t like - you guys are so bad and shit, no but I really liked playing with SumaiL. I think he was nice as a teammate. It wasn’t the whole picture obviously because he was a stand-in but from what I saw during the stand-in times, he was good.”
As qojqva pointed out, SumaiL's first aura of arrogance comes from when he lifted the Aegis of the Champions with Evil Geniuses at The International 5 (TI5).
“It’s definitely a reputation thing that people thought SumaiL is super cocky and arrogant. Because I mean probably that is what he was back in the day when he won TI, right? I can definitely see that.”
As of late, SumaiL has struggled to achieve the same level of success he achieved with Evil Geniuses. He has not risen to those heights during his time with OG, Team Secret, and Nigma Galaxy. As the player has stayed with Nigma for the upcoming Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) 2023 season, it will be interesting to see if he can finally break free from the shackles of the unimpressive last couple of seasons.
