Interview With Mss: "I Packed My Bags and Just Left."

Arif “MSS” Anwar is a veteran of the North American Dota 2 scene, and the Dota 2 pro scene as a whole. The (presently) support player has gone through many rosters, teams, and positions over the years, and currently plays for the recent North America (NA) Dota Pro Circuit ( DPC) champion, Quincy Crew.Today, MSS is a name that’s often heard on the professional Dota 2 circuit, but few know that he had a less than traditional start to his esports career. MSS's journey in gaming and becoming a pro Dota 2 player Arif started playing games in the early 2010s, courtesy of his brother. He would watch his brother play Dota 1 but on account of having strict parents, he did not have a computer of his own. As is the case for many other veterans of Dota 2 esports, Arif was one of the first to start playing Dota 2 when its beta was announced in 2010.“I didn’t have access to a computer to play games during my childhood so it was rare that I got to play. But at one point, I got a laptop and started playing HoN (Heroes of Newerth)”MSS was one of the first players to get a Dota 2 beta key and immediately got hooked.“Then I just started grinding a lot. I played a bunch and eventually, I got recognized by some people, and then I started getting offers to stand-in for teams.” Back then, esports as a whole was not as developed as it is right now. Prize pools were significantly smaller and there was little stability in the life of a pro player even at the highest levels. One of the biggest challenges that young esports pros had to face was the decision of potentially skipping college or university to pursue their esports dreams along with which comes an equally difficult conversation with their family.“The only challenge was my parents. After I graduated, my two offers were to either join Team Liquid or Evil Geniuses (EG). Honestly, at that time I would have preferred to join Liquid because I knew the players better. But EG had a team house and my thought was - My parents don’t approve of this, I really want to do this, and EG will buy me a ticket, so I did something crazy. I packed my bags and just left!”After playing as a stand-in for various teams like Team Liquid, Evil Geniuses (EG), and Dignitas, MSS was signed as a permanent member or EG in 2013. But this didn’t last long as the team disbanded soon after due to poor performances. MSS then played in a number of teams in the following years from unknown rosters like Team Dog (which eventually became Mousesports) to prominent NA org, Cloud9 where he played alongside Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao.“My time with like NP and Envy was very crucial to my career. I wouldn’t say I particularly enjoyed it, but it was definitely a needed time period in my career because that’s when I think I learned the most in the early stages.”Eventually, he ended up in VGJ.Storm - the team that he won his first tournament with. When asked about his fondest memories of his Dota 2 career, MSS responded:“The first thing that comes to my mind is my experience with VGJ.Storm. We won our first tournament on that team and I’ll always remember that and the feeling of winning. It was the first real team for me. We were random “rejects” who were either kicked from teams or couldn’t find a place in the scene. And we actually did it and solidified ourselves. I really enjoyed that part of my Dota career.” Quincy Crew’s dominance in NA and qualifying for TI10 In September 2019, the team’s original and current manager, Jack “KBBQ” Chen announced the revival of Quincy Crew with the initial lineup that consisted of Syed Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan, Quinn “Quinn” Callahan (formerly known as CCnC), Yawar “YawaR” Hassan, MSS, and Avery “SVG” Silverman (now known as LoA).The first question that we asked obviously was the one that people have been asking about the most. Was Quincy Crew named after midlaner and player extraordinaire, Quinn?“A lot of people assume it’s named after Quinn” said MSS. He went on to clarify, “So on VGJ.Storm, our team house was in New York and the street that it was on was Quincy Street.” This was the beginning of the Quincy Crew legacy.The team had a shaky start with their performance leaving much to be desired. Quincy Crew went through a couple of roster changes until June 2020 and eventually, Rodrigo “Lelis” Santos joined the roster to play in the offlane role.MSS recalls this part of the team’s journey - the roster iterations from having SumaiL on the team to where they are now, as a stressful period.With Lelis on the roster, Quincy Crew completely dominated the NA Dota 2 scene during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, winning five tournaments in a row. They had eight tournament wins in total and four second-place finishes over the course of the year. But there was one problem. Quincy Crew was yet to face the team considered to be the ‘top dog’ of NA - Evil Geniuses.“It definitely feels good winning tournaments, that was a pretty happy time,” said MSS as he recounts the year gone by. “We were on top and beating everyone. We were the ‘kings of NA’ but there’s that underlying feeling of are we really the best? We haven’t faced EG yet”.To MSS, this felt like an excuse for fans to downplay Quincy Crew’s success, which is why they were eager to face EG at the earliest opportunity they could get.However, Quincy Crew placed second in the first season of the 2021 DPC NA Upper Division, losing the top spot to their NA Dota 2 rival. Their second-place finish earned them a slot at the One Esports Singapore Major, the first of two Majors in 2021. Unfortunately for the team, MSS ended up missing the event after testing positive for COVID-19. They brought in Wilson "Poloson" Koh Chin Wei (of team Galaxy Racer) to stand in for him at the event. This last-minute shuffle came as an unfortunate handicap which resulted in the team getting a 9th-12th finish after being eliminated in the first round of the lower bracket.This stumble did little to affect them. Quincy Crew returned with a vengeance and completely obliterated every team including EG in the second season of the DPC NA upper-division. They finished the season with a perfect 7-0 score earning them an upper bracket slot at the WePlay AniMajor - the second and last Major of 2021. With a 5th-6th placement at the tournament, this was enough to secure Quincy Crew a direct invite to The International 2021 (TI 10). TI10 was originally planned to be held in Stockholm, Sweden. But Valve ran into some problems with the Swedish Sports Federation which ultimately ended with them having to reschedule and relocate the event to Bucharest, Romania in October instead. We asked MSS how this change affected him or the team, and what their expectations are heading into TI10.MSS thinks that the change in locations doesn’t really matter. Yet, he acknowledged that the presence of a ‘TI crowd’ is something else compared to any other event. Two-time TI winner, N0tail also recently shared his experiences with TI and talked about how OG bounced back in the main stage after disappointing scrims due to the opponents being overwhelmed by the LAN pressure.MSS adds that the postponement is an annoying thing because it's just a wait for the next patch and that teams would just get more time to practice.“I think before the postponement, I had some decent expectations. I think we could have gotten top six pretty easily, maybe top four if we were playing pretty well. We like to be realistic, and we want to work our way to believing that we can win TI.” Dealing with COVID-19 as a professional Dota 2 player Much like the rest of the world, Dota 2 and esports were also hit hard by the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tournaments were thrown into disarray, teams released their rosters, and eventually, everything moved online - from tournaments and leagues to player interviews. And in the middle of it all, MSS, and Quincy Crew went through a myriad of challenges from constant roster shuffles to the saturation of the NA Dota 2 pro scene.MSS admits that he wasn’t immune to the effects of spending copious hours indoors. “For me, Covid..there’s definitely a lot of ups because we won every tournament, but there was a long period of time where I felt that I needed a break. It was not satisfying or fulfilling."One of the biggest struggles worldwide was the restrictions of the lockdown which especially affected fitness enthusiasts like MSS. “Not being able to work out was a big one, because for me working out is a form of meditation, and it’s something that helps me relieve stress. Home workouts aren’t the same.”MSS also shared some of the complications of the lockdown from a pro Dota 2 player perspective saying that after months of continuously playing the same teams over and over again without any diversity, there was no room to improve since they had already beaten the competition. The only option left was for them to try to improve as a team.With everything moved online. He also talked about missing LANs and the rush and hype of their environment.“And just not going to tournaments was a real heartbreaker because as a pro, going to LANs, seeing people, and playing in front of a crowd is a large part of the enjoyment. You combine that with everything else and it hits you hard.”With all of this surrounding him, MSS stated that his biggest struggle was keeping himself in check and not losing his sanity. All of this was compounded by the fact that they were looking for an org to back them the entire time. MSS talks about loss and how Dota 2 teams deal with it From raging keyboard and monitor smashing to complete breakdowns, we have seen how drastically a loss can affect Dota 2 teams. The quick and vicious trip from the rush of adrenaline after a victory, to a deafening loss can be quite painful.“As a pro team, you just can’t lose your composure after losing. You need to be able to reset after every loss or even a win and we’ve definitely talked about it as a team. Jack also gives us tips.""Everyone has their own coping mechanisms or something they do if they feel like they’re getting emotional or if they have negative vibes. Some people turn to music, others smoke. There are teams where some guy will deliver a powerful speech. SVG has been trying to do that more. Every team is different, most of the time we just do our own thing” MSS gives his take on recent events and the Dota Pro Circuit Following the conclusion of the regional qualifiers for TI10, many pros, personalities, and fans called for a Wild Card / last chance qualifier for the teams who didn’t make it. MSS has strong opinions about this subject.“I think it’s pretty stupid, you can’t just change the rules last minute. It’s just so unfair to every other team out there. And the only reason they’re saying this is because their favorite team didn’t qualify.”He admits and echoes the sentiment of other Dota 2 pros that the system is not the greatest. However, it is what it is and he hopes for an improvement in the next season.On that subject, we asked MSS what feedback he would like to give regarding the Dota Pro Circuit and what he would like to see changed going forward.“Personally, I would want to make it so we play more than one series a week. Because the 2021 season spanned two months with one series a week. It was really long and drawn out,” said MSS.“They should probably change the way the DPC points are distributed.” says MSS referring to the fact that a first-place finish in the DPC awards the same amount of points as winning a Major. This has also been touched upon by various personalities including SUNSfan and syndereN who have discussed it multiple times in their podcast - We Say Things.MSS also talks about the issue that many of the pros of the NA and South America (SA) regions have highlighted time and time again. “Every region should have a wild card slot. Either you remove a slot from other regions or just add two. It’s ridiculous that some regions don’t have a wild card.” says MSS about the fact that NA and SA don’t have a single Wild Card slot while EU and China have two.“And the fact that you can go to a major, come from the wild card, play all the games, get to the wild card and the group stage, and if you get eliminated first, you make no money. I think that’s pretty dumb.”The confounding fact that his statement provides has been one of the biggest complaints about the Dota 2 prize pool structure considering that TI continues to have multi-million dollar prize pools. Dota 2’s leading statsman, Ben "Noxville'' Steenhuisen elaborated on this as well. Why Quincy Crew and not any other org? “It (Quincy Crew) definitely means something,” responded MSS. “We stated that we’re going to TI as Quincy Crew no matter what. At this point it represents our struggle and grind throughout Covid, getting better and qualifying to TI.”After they secured a direct invite to TI10, Quincy Crew’s Manager, Jack Chen made a twitlonger post where he talked about the team’s journey and how they are heading into TI as Quincy Crew regardless of orgs or sponsorships.“It’s very easy to get an org and just abandon our name right now because we qualified for TI. But we talked about it and we asked ourselves, why would we do that? They could have sponsored us the entire time during Covid and now they want to sponsor us? Nah. It’s a nice reminder of everything we’ve gone through in the last year or two.” A word to the fans “To the people who support us, thank you a lot. There’s a lot of negativity in this community in my opinion. And the people who actually say positive things, you are heard. I see it through all the filth and garbage because it's very rare and when you see something positive and encouraging, it shines like a diamond. And to those people, thank you a lot, I appreciate your support and I hope you support us at TI.We’ll probably have merch come out soon and I hope you can wear that in Romania!” MSS and Quincy Crew have definitely gone through a lot. From hopping from org to org, to dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, they have made it to the top of North American Dota 2 and look strong and proud as they begin a new chapter heading into The International (TI10) in October 2021.Bonus ContentMe: The smartest people are also the craziest ones.MSS: I agree, I think most of the top players in Dota are insane. You can quote that. Lol.

Interview With Mss: "I Packed My Bags and Just Left."

Interview With Mss: "I Packed My Bags and Just Left."

MSS's journey in gaming and becoming a pro Dota 2 player

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