Puppey discussed his approach to working with PARIVISION’s Dota 2 players

[Gorgc: “Did you view this series as a grand final in a sense?”]

No, for us it was a very important match. That’s because we have a player who left to join Yandex.

[Gorgc: “You’re thinking about that, right?”]

Who wouldn’t? We traded offlaners. I wouldn’t say it was exactly revenge for the players, but it was close to that.

Nobody likes playing this hero right now. Sure, you win the lane, but heroes like Ember Spirit can just go farm if the game slows down, whereas you’ve got Huskar, who can’t do anything. I think Malr1ne is the only one capable of playing Huskar well enough to actually make it work.

[Gorgc: “Yeah, it’s hard to play this hero perfectly. I’ve always had the same impression about Monkey King.”]

No, at least Monkey King can run around the map and do something

[Gorgc: “What percentage of the draft is up to you?”]

90%. When I was thinking about joining the team, I assumed the group had already settled on their preferences and what the guys wanted to do. I’d just help them better understand how to move around the map and all that—what to do after a couple of kills and how to act if they can’t seem to kill anyone. I thought I’d mostly be talking about that. But it turned out the team was in a situation where they didn’t necessarily have disagreements—they just didn’t know which approach was best. One person thinks one way, another thinks differently, so there was a lot of trial and error.

[Gorgc: “That’s the strategic aspect—what about the emotional one? Do you prefer to cheer on the team, like Ceb, or stay calm?”]

I usually stay calm. When I’m watching a game, I might get emotional: “Dude, you could’ve killed him!” Obviously, saying things like that during a game is a total no-no. You can’t talk like that in a game—you’ll ruin everything. But they can’t hear me, so it’s fine. It’s like commentating. When you’re watching a game, you’re like, “What the heck are you doing? Couldn’t you have just ambushed him?” You don’t think I’m an emotionless robot, do you?

But I talk to the players normally: “Okay, guys, that was pretty tough to pull off. Let’s try a different approach.” There’s no point in taking it all out on them—you’ve already let off steam while watching the game. For me, it’s much better to watch the game with total commitment and emotion, as if you’re watching a soccer match—like Beckham, who also watches the English national team with great emotion. But if you’re talking to the players as a coach, you won’t say, “You could have done that.” There’s no point in that.