Fishman: “In my opinion, Astini is the best coach I’ve had in my career.”

“This was Nisha’s worst year since he entered the pro scene.” I’ve actually been thinking about that, too. Nisha has always *** [dominated] hard, but this year it seemed like he didn’t play quite as aggressively.

“If you ask whether Puppey was the most talented player of every generation—most likely not.” I, by the way, disagree. Most likely, yes. Just think about it—the guy’s been playing Dota for 15 years and has always been at the top, always. Or how long has it been now? Maybe even more than 15 years. He’s definitely super talented. Not only is he super talented, but he also knows how to build teams, captains them, and takes on a lot of responsibility. He works hard, apparently. He’s a real gem.

“Puppey hasn’t been the best Dota player all these years.” Just so you understand, Puppey didn’t play matchmaking for about three years, and before he was picked up by PARIVISION, he went from rank 1,000 to 80th in just a couple of months. From 1,000th to 80th at age 35. The guy’s a genius—100 percent—he’s the best player of his generation, what are you talking about? ...> At 35, he reached rank 80 in just a couple of months. He started using a mic in public matches, calling out plays. I played against him, and it was super easy to play with him—it was a total blast.

“Korb3n on TaiLung: I wouldn’t be surprised if they unbanned him. When did they unban Solo, ten years ago?” That would be unfair to other trash players, wouldn’t it? How many trash players are banned? They banned this one—why should they unban him? Just because he was 17? SmAsh from Peru wasn’t unbanned—so why should this guy be? I don’t think he should be unbanned; let him serve as an example to all other young players that trolling is bad and will ruin your career.

“Astini joined PlayTime as a coach for the qualifiers.” In my opinion, Astini is the best coach I’ve ever had in my career. I wish him the best of luck.

Why was Astini kicked out of PARIVISION? Astini was really upset and, I’d say, took offense at PARIVISION. Whenever he has to make predictions, he always puts PARIVISION in last place. At the same time, he was their coach, and I think what they have now is thanks to him. The fact that PARIVISION is one of the strongest teams. But the problem was that he had a baby, and he came to some tournament with his baby and his wife. *** [Damn], what’s a kid doing at a tournament? I was told there was a kid at practice. He often came to practice with the kid.

Obviously, when someone has a baby, I’d say their productivity most likely drops just a little. Or maybe not just a little: the baby cries at night, you don’t get enough sleep, your mood might be worse, and your motivation might take a hit.

Astini is a Tier 1 coach, but he got the boot because he had a child. That’s a shame. But I know his wife was over 35, and they really wanted a child, but they couldn’t conceive. And they finally succeeded, so I don’t think he regrets it one bit, and I wish Astini all the best with his child. I used to call him “amigo”—“friend.” He’s a good coach; I really like him. I have fond memories of Astini.

When I got kicked out of Cloud9 because I’m a loser—because No[o]ne- said:

— You’re out, Fishman, sorry.

— Please, don’t send me to the bench.

He says, “That’s it, you’re out.” And Dima DM said, “I don’t *** [care] who I play with. I’ll play with Astini because Astini is a *** [great] coach, and the secret to success is a *** [great] coach.” Then No[o]ne- got a crew together with Dukalis and 9Class, and they needed a hard-hitter, but there weren’t any. There weren’t any, and there won’t be any—that’s the feeling. There’s always a problem with hardcores. And DM says, “I don’t *** [care], I’m with Astini.” They were thinking of putting together some kind of semi-Brazilian roster and moving forward like that, but No[o]ne- convinced DM to join their roster. And Astini, it turns out. Even though No[o]ne- historically—I won’t claim this for sure, of course… I suppose he drew his own conclusions; I won’t say more, but it seems to me that he didn’t really care much for DM either.

When Astini was teaching us something, everyone agreed—roughly speaking—but Vovan [No[o]ne-] asked questions and didn’t always agree. Vovan is the kind of guy—a captain—who has a mind of his own and a firm opinion about the game in general. Later, we met up with Vovan after PARIVISION had already won their first tournament, at a get-together in Warsaw, and he said: “Astini is a genius—he really showed us how it’s done, and what he said actually works, big time, and we won that tournament because of it, because Astini set us up.”

And now, when people say that Puppey is a genius and so on… Puppey is obviously a genius—he’s a total Dota whiz—but Astini, too, I think, played a huge role in getting PARIVISION to where they are now. Well, good luck to him with PlayTime. Is there any information on who will be playing for PlayTime? Stormstormer. Stormstormer is one of my favorite teammates. Stormstormer is a great guy.