Puppey on the reason for players’ high salaries: “The bubble is huge because everyone wants to get into esports right now”

Satanic is like a kid. He’s chaotic. He plays Dota 2 very well. He has an ego—well, I’d say he has a good ego; it’s not that strong, but it’s high, I’d say. He’s a really good person, but he’s gotten used to only talking to people… He only talked to Dota players. And that’s not a good community for you to be in. Playing Dota 2 for 10 years and only talking to them. As far as I know, he doesn’t really have many friends in real life. And he spent most of his time playing Dota. Well, obviously, he spent most of his time playing Dota. He’s the best player in the world. Who did he talk to all the time? What kind of ideas are going through his head? How does he talk to people? I’ve told him many times: “I don’t like it when you talk to me like that, because it’s not normal.” I get that there are other people around you who kind of fawn over you because you’re the best player, and you don’t even realize they’re doing it—because you’re a kid, you don’t get it. No one’s ever told you. Maybe you’ve just played too much Dota 2, and you were playing at a time when, you know, older people usually talk to their fathers about things like how there are people out there who are taking advantage of you, and all that sort of thing.” Well, I think he hasn’t really had those kinds of conversations yet, and he hasn’t even gotten, how should I put it…

[Well, from some adult figure, yeah, some kind of guidance.]

He hasn’t even been ***[smacked on the head] for it yet.

It doesn’t really matter anyway. I don’t really care about the legacy or any of that stuff.

[Well, I just mean, do you feel any benefit from it?]

Of course I feel some benefit, but I don’t feel it because of this, because I’m some kind of coach. I’m just working with a person who wanted to work with me, let’s put it that way. And since we’re friends now—because we are friends—I want my friend to be doing well, so to speak. If I see that he’s doing something wrong in life, I’ll tell him. If he makes a mistake, I won’t hold it against him, because he’s my friend. So that’s the situation.

And I don’t really care about a legacy at all, because we’re all going to die someday. So this legacy—it’s like, what’s the point to me if people talk about it, that I’m doing something there, that I’m such a... We’re all going to die, it’s all *** [awesome], sort of. It doesn’t really matter. People can think whatever they want about you, but what matters, I’d say, is what’s actually happening in your life—not what some people who don’t know anything about you at all are saying about you.

There was no money. [Tell us more about that, if you can.] Well, there was no money. [Well, it’s a combination of several factors. I mean, there are different kinds of money, from different sources.]

Back in the day, casino sponsors used to sponsor teams. These organizations received money for that and built a good team. But that money wasn’t usually that much, because who’s going to pour money into a team they don’t control, so to speak. And now, for them, paying out the cash isn’t that hard, because the organization is kind of like this for them: if they want to sell it or do something with it, then it’ll be easier, so they’ll put their money where they have full control.

[Well, it’s their asset, right?]

It’s their asset. That’s all clear. And you know what? The Dota players’ salaries will be higher—much higher. And a team like Team Secret, or Nigma Galaxy or whatever they’re called—they can’t really make ends meet with that. OG, as you can see, is having a hard time because salaries mean buying the very best players. And if you don’t win in Dota 2, if you don’t prove yourself, then sponsors won’t come to you either. So it works like this: the more you pay, the more you get. But right now the bubble is huge, because everyone wants to get into esports—ever since Saudi Arabia came along with the EWC and bought Faceit, bought DreamLeague, bought ESL, bought everyone, and built their own esports ecosystem—all of this means that, in a way, everyone wants to get into esports right now and is willing to pay big money for it. Well, eventually this will pass, and there will be less money. I think there will be less money from sponsors for the teams, and salaries will be lower, too. But now is the time. It’s been happening like this for three years in a row. And for Team Secret, it’s kind of impossible—why would you pay money for a team that isn’t going to win anything? It kind of drives me crazy, too—the fact that I couldn’t pay high salaries, I couldn’t force players to come to me.