Davai on Parker in Dota 2: “The most unpleasant person I’ve ever met”

Davai: We’d already been thinking about bringing in a new carry. We wanted Yuma, but Yuma decided to stay with Nouns for a little while longer. So we turned to Parker, who was our other option. And then, you know, kaffs said, “I know he’s had problems in the past, but he’s very talented. He’s ranked sixth. It’s worth a try. Maybe he’ll become a serious player on this very team.” And it worked for three weeks—which is roughly the average lifespan of Parker and the team. Three or four weeks.

Cap: So how did that experience go? When did you first get the feeling, “Oh, this is going to be a problem”?

Davai: Overall, everything was fine. First, we went to boot camp, played the qualifiers, and spent about five days at boot camp in Brazil. Everything went smoothly and without any issues. Then we went straight to PGL Wallachia. He played amazingly. In a way, he carried us. Although everyone played very well at that tournament, and we won. It was incredible. He carried us—he played absolutely amazingly.

And then the next bootcamp… We took a week off and went to a bootcamp in Germany before DreamLeague. In the first game, everyone played mediocrely—0:4. On the second day, he wasn’t even trying. He didn’t say a word; he just chatted with his friends in the group chat because we were playing against another Peruvian team. He just stopped trying on the very second day. It happened very suddenly. Yeah, he’d been playing public matches until about 5 a.m. every night. Every day, someone had to go and literally drag him out of bed at noon so he could watch replays and play Quick Match. Yeah, it was pretty exhausting after two days of boot camp in Europe.

Cap: Just two days. It’s crazy how drastically he changed.

Davai: Yeah, that’s interesting. He was motivated to play for two weeks. Before that, he hadn’t had a good team in a long time. He won the tournament. That was it—his job was done. He just stopped trying. On top of that, he was really toxic. <...>

He’s the most unpleasant person—not just the most unpleasant teammate I’ve ever had, but the most unpleasant person I’ve ever met, talked to, or worked with. He has very little empathy, no compassion at all; he’s a very selfish person. In a way, I feel sorry for him. I think he had a difficult childhood or something like that—a troubled childhood. But I think that all of this, taken together, really prevents him from being a productive teammate for more than three weeks.

Quinn: So what did you learn from KuroKy? Because he’s a guy who’s very… He’s in the public eye, but at the same time, it’s as if he remains in the shadows. Nobody really knows anything about this guy.

Davai: Yeah, that’s true. He really doesn’t like the spotlight. At the same time, he’s an incredibly smart guy with a ton of experience. He instantly sees a solution to practically any situation. He just has a massive amount of experience. He’s very smart. He just knows what needs to be done. True, he doesn’t always perfectly know how to express it or, perhaps, how to lead a team. But you understand why this guy has won so much.

As soon as I joined the team, I immediately realized: he knows what to do. He has that intuition, that experience, which allows him to understand what needs to happen in Dota 2.

Insania: Would you call him the most outstanding Dota 2 specialist you’ve ever worked with?

Davai: Yes. I don’t think anyone else I’ve worked with comes even close to him. He just has that experience, that understanding of the game, and his mind works very quickly.

Davai: He plays very well. He really helps the team. He plays well. Maybe if he played in public matches, he’d play even better, but maybe not. I don’t know. It’s not entirely up to me.

All I can say is—he really plays well. I have a lot to learn from him. And, you know, if he were falling behind, then, of course, that would be strange, right? But in reality, he plays very well. So, if he’s comfortable with it, then let him play. I can’t complain.