Malr1ne: “Dota has changed so much that players at rank 10 don’t understand how to play.”

He’s a versatile coach; he helps ATF with drafts and helps us with our gameplay. Factually speaking, I can’t imagine working with any other coach. Everyone has their flaws; obviously, he’s not perfect, but if you look at him strictly as a professional, he’s a genius. I have my own mistakes, everyone has their own mistakes, but in his field—he’s a genius.

Blink Dagger is actually a bad item. But you have to know how to use it. [What do you mean, why is it bad?] Well, because compare, for example: there’s the Blink Dagger, and then there’s, say, the Armlet of Mordiggian, which gives you a ton of stats, a ton of damage, or there are lightning spells that help you farm. I mean, the Blink Dagger helps you farm too, you just have to use it. When you have Dragon Knight, for example, and boots without damage, and you can’t kill anyone, but Puck, for example, has a Witch Blade. You’ll jump—you won’t kill him, Puck will just kill you, and then you’ll be out of the game because he has gear that levels up better and deals more damage, but yeah, he can’t start a fight.

Let me put it this way: even guys with a 10th-rank in pubs don’t understand how Dota works. Dota has changed so much that guys with a 10th rank don’t know how to play Dota. Even when we’re chatting with someone and looking at the leaderboard—one guy’s rank 5, another’s 15, another’s 20—they’ve got nothing in their heads; they don’t know how to play Dota. Even I don’t know how to play Dota: I have a better grasp of it, but Dota is too complex a game, and they’re still making it more complicated even now.