Malr1ne on matchmaking: “Playing with players in the 1,000s has been a thousand times more fun for me this past month.”
Team Falcons mid laner Stanislav “Malr1ne” Potorak spoke during Alexander “Nix” Levina, spoke about leveling up attributes instead of abilities, revealed his attitude toward training in matchmaking, and also reflected on Blink Dagger on Huskar and Mask of Madness on Faceless Void.
On leveling stats instead of abilities
Well, I really don’t get it. It’s, you know, like Watson not leveling Terrorblade’s first ability. I just don’t understand stuff like that at all. Not in the slightest.
On matchmaking
I’d say I practice the way I would play in ranked games; it’s just that these last few days, since nobody’s playing Dota, I’ve been losing my mind. To be honest, playing with the top-tier players has been a thousand times more fun for me this past month. Whenever I walk into the lobby—you know, like in a suit—and show up at an event like that, everyone addresses me formally: “Stanislav, hello! Stanislav, would you like some water?” They’ll come to mid, always help out, but when you play with the “thousanders,” people start explaining everything to me.
I’ve never used that one argument that Ammar [ATF] loves. [Did Int win?] Yeah, the last time I got wiped out, I texted the guy: “What are you explaining to me?” And I click on the Aegis at the fountain. Well, how else am I supposed to explain it to the guy? Overall, I’m just chill; I try to get along with everyone, but the top-tier players are actually much nicer people.
On builds for Huskar and Faceless Void
Let’s put it this way: there’s a character, and every character has their own responsibilities. They have their own gameplay, let’s call it that. And when you buy, say, a Blink Dagger on Huskar, you’re not just changing that gameplay—you’re turning him into a different hero. I mean, if you picked Huskar to gank, well, pick a different hero—pick Void Spirit. Pick a different hero who’ll be the one to gank.
Like, you have a hero with a specific gameplay style. Of course, patches change, maybe something gets outdated, something new comes along, but overall, every hero has their own gameplay. So Faceless Void is getting Aghanim’s Scepter right now, right? Because he scales really well, with infinite attack speed and all that, but when you get Mask of Madness, your gameplay changes completely—you have a different hero, and he becomes trash.
- Read also: Astini on cheats in Dota 2: “Soon all ranked games and online tournaments will become unplayable”
Earlier, The International 2025 champion Stanislav “Malr1ne” Potorak spoke out about the existing problems with Dota 2 matchmaking: “It’s dying, but very slowly, and the MMs are just dead—you need too much MMR, and people aren’t interested in grinding.”
