Bach: “My biggest regret is the years when I didn’t make it to The International.”

Bach: I think most people probably assume that my biggest regret is losing at The International 10. But I used to think that way myself when answering this question. However, if I dig deeper and ask myself honestly, my real biggest regret is the years when I didn’t make it to The International. When I was with EHOME and Azure Ray, I also had great teammates, like Cty and fy—really good people. And my biggest regret is that I wasn’t able to play alongside them at TI.

Bach: I think that in recent years—with Azure Ray and Team Tidebound—it’s become more and more about my desire to play with good people and feel like I can help them. For example, Azure Ray needed a player for the third position, and they reached out to me several times. At first, I wasn’t sure I wanted to play, but they kept reaching out, and eventually I felt like I wanted to give it a try and that I could help them.

It was the same with Team Tidebound—I could see they were good players and good people, and I realized that playing with them could be a great experience for me. So that’s the main motivation: I also enjoy competing, and of course, I won’t win every tournament I enter, but it’s okay with me if I don’t win.

Bach: I thought I wouldn’t play again for the rest of my life, but that changed, and back then I didn’t have a very mature perspective on the situation—I couldn’t understand how life and I myself would change in the future.

Quinn: What was one of the main turning points? What specifically changed that made you think, “I should come back”?

Bach: When I first retired, I was really exhausted and just wanted to get away from Dota 2. But a year later, I traveled a bit, tried different things, and eventually realized I needed a job. People need a job to make a living, and I need a job to support myself, too. At first, I was worried about income, but after thinking it over and talking with my wife, I realized it wasn’t such a big problem—I don’t need too much money to live; the bare minimum is enough. But the bigger problem is that I need to be constantly doing something, to feel like I’m growing, and to know that I’m doing something meaningful. Starting something new outside of Dota 2 turned out to be difficult because I’d been playing for so long and wasn’t very good at handling other things—I didn’t have a consistent approach to doing things regularly and systematically. For example, I tried to learn to play the piano or make games, but it didn’t go as well as I’d expected. Partly because of unrealistic expectations, and partly because I’m just not very good at structuring the process and doing things consistently.