While Evil Geniuses was not able to capture the Aegis of Champions, the pride of North American DotA 2 defended home court in Seattle honorably, finishing 3rd place to take home over $1 000 000. Captain of the EG Dota 2 squad Peter EG.ppd sat down to discuss his experience at the year's pinnacle Dota 2 event.
Chris Paredes
Hi Peter. First off, a big congratulations on taking 3rd at The International 4! Not only was this the best result for any Western team this year, this was the highest placing ever for a team with a primary North American core. What has helped put EG in a position to succeed where other Western teams faltered?
ppd
Personally I think we have some of the strongest individual players for each position, and we were incredibly motivated to succeed. Like I've said before, I don't think anyone wants to win as much as we do. I think other teams were probably held back by a lack of leadership and not having our drive.
Chris Paredes
Many casters and commentators talked about the higher parity between East and West coming into TI4 compared to previous years. However in the end East re-emerged as the dominant region. What do you think accounts for China's rise back to the top?
ppd
That's a tough question. It's hard to pin down. It definitely helped that they performed well under pressure and stuck to what they knew best. In the end, I think China just stepped it up this year.
Chris Paredes
Momentum seemed to play a huge role in this TI in particular. Champions NewBee struggled in the group stage only to catch fire and steamroll through Phase 3 and beyond. VG wasn't a favorite coming into the tournament, but they picked up steam at the right time allowing them to finish 2nd. When you are facing a team that has the proverbial wind at its back, how do you prepare to stop them?
ppd
For me, it's a lot of strategy and metagame. Going into a big tournament such as TI, I generally don't believe that we can win when other teams prepare for our typical playstyle. Because of that I try to develop other styles which we practice, but sometimes they don't work out. When that happens, we have to fall back onto what we know best which somehow manages to work out. I think that we probably overthink it sometimes.
Chris Paredes
On the topic of pocket strats, there has been a lot of talk about the Bo1 format for the group stage. You mentioned that there's already a disincentive to play your typical playstyle, does the format unduely increase the incentive to develop and use pocket strategies?
ppd
I think pocket strategies are generally best used in high stakes situations. We saved the majority of ours for the playoffs (especially versus DK). But, I actually think that playing safe is the way to go in a Bo1 format when you honestly believe you are the better team.
Chris Paredes
You mentioned you don't want other teams to be able to prepare for your typical playstyle. How do you assess the pros playing a style you are more comfortable with and using heroes you are better with vs. the con of your opponents being able to predict you? For example, Alliance seemed very predictable last year, but even if everyone knew what was coming Alliance was able to come out on top by consistently forcing opponents to engage them on their terms.
ppd
I never got to play Alliance in their prime TI3 form so I can't say for sure, but they were probably confident that they were the best team so they just played what they were comfortable with. For us, I don't think we were the best team at TI, though I still think we could have won. DotA is very complex, and the "best" team doesn't always win.
Chris Paredes
On the otherside of momentum, we saw two of the other favorites, iG and DK, start to stumble at the end. Did these teams get figured out at the worst possible time, or was something else at play? As a Captain, how do you change your fortunes when the losses suddenly start piling up, especially at a bad time like during TI?
ppd
Generally when your team is having a rough time and starts losing a lot, you need to try to separate yourself from the emotional aspect and figure out why you are losing. Fixing the initial cause of the problem is often difficult, but it is usually the only way to find a quick fix.
Chris Paredes
Does the fact that other teams will study you and how to play against your style create a perverse incentive not to be a top team going into TI? It seems like many felt DK spent most of the year as top in China only for it to backfire in the end when everyone else put a target on them. Many people argued that fans shouldn't look at tournaments too close to TI as predictors because teams would be hiding strats.
ppd
I think the idea of sandbagging before TI is more or less a joke; teams should strive to do their best so they can learn the most. Playing below your full capability will only hurt yourself and your team more in the end.
Chris Paredes
You mentioned in your blog that losing against Liquid on the first day of TI was a major blow to your confidence and put you on tilt. What did all of you do as a team to keep your focus and recover from the setback?
ppd
That night we mostly kept to ourselves and tried to forget about what happened earlier. The next day we had plenty of important wins so I think it helped us to keep our focus on moving forward.
Chris Paredes
The Riki pick surprised most people. Given that you take the position that you should play safe when you believe you are the better team, and the fact you were 14-1 vs. Liquid this year until that match, what motivated that pick? It seems pretty unsafe to me. Was it a strategy you wanted to test before the more important stages, or has it actually worked well for you in scrims?
ppd
We've actually played Riki multiple times in practice matches and scrims. We were confident in the hero and the strategy. It was a vast number of uncharacteristic misplays that cost us the game.
Chris Paredes
You stated you didn't want to rely on what had become "predictable" strategies. Is that part of the reason you veered away from the farming mid cores, like Shadow Fiend and Phantom Assassin, that EG had become known for?
ppd
I think that PA is a great hero, but she had many counters that were used frequently during TI such as Void, Doom, and Razor compared to when we used it at The Summit. SF isn't that strong, but we probably could have used it if we wanted.
Chris Paredes
Speaking of Razor, why do you think many teams seemed to coalesce around the Razor and Skywrath picks this year; was this something that started becoming very popular in scrims before TI, or did teams start copying each other after seeing how effective they were?
ppd
Skywrath's buff to his movement speed made him a great early game hero and roamer. Was probably a bit too much in my opinion. Razor just wins lanes and has a huge impact late game. Hard to argue with his power as demonstrated by Arteezy and Mason.
Chris Paredes
Despite Razor's popularity and the strengths you expounded on, it actually finished under 50% win rate with only EG and VG having good success with it. Why do you think EG and VG were able to run this hero more effectively than the rest of the field?
ppd
I'm not sure if the other teams knew how to use Razor as well as we did. Also, it's one of Arteezy's best heroes and he is very good at getting the most out of an advantageous 1-on-1 match-up
Chris Paredes
There were complaints about how narrow the hero pool seemed to become at TI, especially later in the tournament. This happened despite 6.81 being seemingly having one of the most diverse and broad spread of competitively picked heroes before the main event. What changed at TI? Given that a few heroes emerge as constant bans and picks every TI, is it natural to see this sort of collapse?
ppd
Metas always emerge during LAN tournaments, TI was no exception.
Chris Paredes
If you could change one thing about the event, what would it be?
ppd
I would change some of my decision making. We'd all love to complain about the format or something meaningless, but in the end its up to the players whether they win or lose. We lost and it was mostly my fault. But it was a great learning experience and I'm looking forward to prove myself this upcoming year.
Chris Paredes
You place a lot of of blame for the team's 3rd place finish on yourself. What do you think you learned after going through the tournament?
ppd
I think I learned that if I want to be the best, I need to train myself to be the best. That's a little vague. It's complex, but basically I need to prepare myself better as a leader. Decision-making is what makes or breaks strong teams, and I know could have done a better job. Especially on the things like drafting and strategy.
Chris Paredes
What do you think was your weakness as a Captain/drafter comparative to others, and how do you intend to try to improve?
ppd
I think my weakness shows itself in high pressure situations. I worry too much about doing what my team thinks best rather than what I think is best. I think about my drafts and our strategy more than anyone so I need to learn to trust myself to lead our team to victory.
Chris Paredes
You mentioned in your blog that drafting Mirana in G3 vs VG was a mistake caused by you taking too much input from the rest of the team. Can you elaborate on why?
ppd
I think picking Mirana into Furion is generally a poor decision. Mirana is great for her laning phase, but when a hero has units to block the arrow it defeats the purpose. She also lacks any kind of anti-push.
Chris Paredes
Speaking of de-push, what do you feel is the counter to the re-emergence of the super push strat? Last time pushing was very prevalent in the meta, KotL became very popular as a counter for his wave clearing abilities. Do you have any thoughts as to why the hero hasn't been utilized as a counter despite the recent buffs?
ppd
I think the best way to deal with a push strategy is to have strong lockdown heroes and 1-2 late game heroes. Winning the laning phase is a great and easy way to beat a team who loves to push early. KotL could be useful in that regard, but simply having depush doesn't merit a pick unless there's a cohesive path to victory with him.
Chris Paredes
On the subject of strong lockdown with late game heroes, the Game 3 draft against VG started out looking very similar to G2 where Universe's Chronos and late-game carry potential helped you weather the storm. Why did you decide against trying to outplay ViCi with the same strategy? Were you being cautious about replaying the line-up thinking they would have been able to punish it this time? By comparison, rOtk seemed to be content to fall on his sword and have VG go out playing their favorite lineup even after NewBee had cracked it.
ppd
When I saw the Furion and Venomancer picks, Timbersaw jumped out at me as a game-winning hero. I really wanted to work in the hero somehow. Of course, we could have done other things, but trying to explain the draft process to everyone during the game was way too chaotic.
Chris Paredes
There's obviously a lot of speculation about how the meta will change once new patches are introduced, where would you personally like to see the game pushed? Different trends in the meta reward teams with corresponding styles of play. Are there directions that you think are "healthier" for DotA? For example, since TI3 we've been hearing incessant complaints about Alliance's split-push style saying it is boring.
ppd
The whole of idea of what is "healthier" is kind of pointless in my opinion. I'm not sure where balance shoud go, but I think a few nerfs to some of the stronger heroes and buffs to the weaker ones is always a good start.
Chris Paredes
Will Techies be the end of Dota, or is Arteezy just bad with him?
ppd
Apparently Techies is still pretty beta-status in terms of functionality according to Artour. There is a lot that needs to be done on it. But getting Suicide at Level 1 is a no-no, though I think it was just part of the show...
Chris Paredes
Okay last question. Give me your predictions on the first team to disband AND the first reshuffle team that will fail and disband.
ppd
I actually know what teams are disbanding and reshuffling, so I can't answer that because I don't want to spread any rumors.
Chris Paredes
Thanks for your time Peter. Do you have any last words for those who may be reading?
ppd
Shoutouts to our sponsors at Monster, Razer, HyperX, T-Mobile, CyberpowerPC, BenQ, and Planetside 2 and everyone that supported us.
Sources: Evilgeniuses.gg
Author: Chris Paredes
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