Interview with Na'Vi Blizzy at ESL One Mumbai

At ESL One Mumbai, we saw Na'Vi surprise the world with a scintillating 3rd place finish. We spoke to their offlaner, Blizzy right after Na'Vi secured the Top 3 spot after a win over eventual winners, Keen Gaming about his career in Dota 2, the CIS region and all things Dota.
 

Gfreak: Hi Blizzy, Congrats on a Top 3 placing at ESL One Mumbai. How is the Morale in Na’Vi at the moment?

Blizzy: Hello everyone. We feel pretty good, after the Group Stage. We got to the Winner Bracket and beat Keen Gaming. We feel very good.
 

Gfreak: Can you tell us a little bit about how you started your Dota 2 career? And how you caught the eye of Na’Vi?

Blizzy: It was 6 years ago. I started to play in 2012, after the second TI. So I started to play with my friends… Just LAN tournaments in my country. I started to play and I liked it, so then I decided I wanted to be a pro player. So I tried to raise my MMR and just played Dota.

I was playing in Vega Squadron and I had a good rating (MMR). I was Top 10 MMR and then Sonneiko asked me to play with him. That’s how I ended up joining Na’Vi.
 

Gfreak: Were your parents accepting of this esports life right from the start?

Blizzy: Like all parents, they didn’t accept it before I started earning money. They said, “Oh you’re playing computer games, come on do something like go study or go work.” But I told them to please give me some time to show them that cyber sports are good.
 

Gfreak: When you wanted to become a pro player, who was your Idol?

Blizzy: Like everyone, it was Dendi. I was watching him play in TI2. He was doing so well, his Rubick was awesome.
 

Gfreak: Speaking about TI, how confident are you of getting to TI9?

Blizzy: I think we have a good chance. But I am not really sure because teams in our region are really strong and we don’t have DPC points, so if we don’t get some DPC points we need to play in our qualifier. It’s a 50-50 chance that we get to TI, but its a really good chance.
 

Gfreak: As you said, there are a lot of strong CIS teams at the moment. But do you still think that there are new talents in CIS that are yet to be found?

Blizzy: Yes there are a lot of good new talents. They just need some good captains and some good teams so everyone can see that they’re good.

About the CIS region, every time we have a new team going to the Major. So its 50-50 at the moment.
 

Gfreak: What do you think about the new offlane?

Blizzy: I actually have my pool of heroes which is a bit different. I have Brewmaster, Dark Seer, Pangolier, Doom and all these heroes that I can first pick. I don’t care about who I play against, I just say “Give me this hero, and I am going to win”.
 

Gfreak: Do you like playing offlane in this patch more than the previous one?

Blizzy: It actually doesn’t matter for me, I like playing offlane in every patch.
 

Gfreak: What are your thoughts on this season’s DPC compared to last year’s? Last season had so many tournaments, this season it has become a little bit relaxed.

Blizzy: It’s a little bit relaxed, but still teams going to the major can’t just relax. After the major finishes, they need to go home and play the qualifiers again for the next major so it is a bit hard. But yeah, it is a little easier.

But the bad thing is that the total prizepool from this year is much lower than last year. So I think that that is a bad thing.
 

Gfreak: Any bits of advice for aspiring pro offlaners?

Blizzy: Just raise your MMR, that’s all. All you need is MMR to be picked up by a good team.
 

Gfreak: Do you watch Game of Thrones? What would you like the ending to be?

Blizzy: Yes of course. But I haven’t seen the eighth season, I wanna watch it after I get back home. I am concentrating on Dota right now, no Game of Thrones.

It’s hard to say. Of course, I want Daenerys to be the Queen of Westeros.
 

Gfreak: Do you have any shoutouts for your fans?

Blizzy: Thank you for cheering for us. Big thanks for the Indian fans here, we really appreciate it. Thank you, everyone.