Maelstorm: “The way Save- plays is just a nightmare so far”

Everything’s been clear with NAVI for a long time now. Four years ago, when the new DPC era began, I was already commentating on their matches. Their rosters have varied, but it’s as if they’ve been treading water. And this is especially true of the current roster. They’re constantly teetering on the fine line between Tier 1 and Tier 2.

In “One Punch Man,” I think there are hero divisions. The strongest Class A hero is much stronger than the top-ranked hero of that class should be, but he acts as a sort of barrier that prevents others from advancing to the next level. To move up, you have to beat him. NAVI is also a sort of roadblock like that.

NAVI will beat any team that isn’t very well prepared today, is playing poorly, or didn’t make the draft. But as soon as they face a truly good team, they get crushed without a chance. They’re like a tennis serve-training machine: at first, it serves really hard and you can’t return it, but once you learn how, you’ll have no trouble returning 100 out of 100 serves.

Getting knocked out like that after finishing in the top 2 at Valachia is, of course, tough. But the field at Valachia was really very weak, so that result was, in its own way, to be expected. Here, Nemesis stepped it up a bit; they just had a better day—and that was it; NAVI were out.

Unfortunately, BetBoom Team doesn’t have a mid laner. They have three supports. The way Save- plays is just a nightmare so far. He picks Muerta, stands in mid, then goes to two camps, which he farm endlessly, and that’s it. He never helps the team accomplish anything. There were a few token appearances: he’d go out, get a kill—and then return to those two camps. Everyone there already knows he’s camped out there. This guy came over from support to mid, and he has absolutely no experience in that position. Obviously, he’s way better than the rest of us—he’s a great player—but the difference between the roles is apparently huge.

You can even sense this in the way professional players commentate on Dota. Yatoro was commentating once, about a year ago, and he was literally only watching what the carry was doing, commenting only on his actions. And when asked what was happening in the mid lane, he replied, “I kind of get it like this, but I don’t really understand the mid-lane matchup at all.” Dota right now is like a nuclear power plant: the person in the basement in charge of the pumps understands the general principles he needs to know, but doesn’t grasp the intricacies of what’s happening in the reactor room or at the control panel. It’s a rough comparison, but something along those lines. Everyone understands their own lane: the “five” and the carry have a better grasp of the top lane, the side lane players understand the side lanes, and the mid laner understands the mid lane. And the fact that even the world’s best players struggle to navigate other lanes speaks to the complexity of this game.

And now Save comes to mid and finds himself one-on-one with players like Topson, who constantly plays mid in public matches, comes up with genius builds, and has spent his entire professional career in that position. He played for two years, won the Intels, and left—and played mid the whole time. What could Save possibly bring to the table against someone like that? I watched these matches, and I disliked BetBoom’s play so much that I was rooting for them to lose on all six maps. Not because I’m a BetBoom hater, but because of how the games were unfolding. Even on the first map, I had this feeling: this is some kind of nightmare.

Everything’s clear with Liquid: MidOne really ruined it for them. Everyone already realizes that Malr1ne needs to join them. Although many have doubts even about this move—saying that without Insania, this team will struggle. But I’d watch them play with Stas first, and then draw my conclusions.

Who knows how he’ll fit in. Better than MidOne, for sure—that’s all I can say. There’s definitely no worse player right now. For one thing, MidOne isn’t in top form, and for another, he’s always been too one-dimensional. And judging by how Liquid played, he doesn’t fit in with them at all.