Save on his role change: “For 11 years, I’ve wanted to try something new, but I never had the chance.”

We’ve been practicing against OG, and I’ve already played against them before, so it’s nothing new. I also faced them in a ranked match yesterday. He’s a great player, but I don’t pay attention to who I’m playing against. If I hold my ground well, I’ll put on a good performance. Right now, my main concern is playing well on the lane; otherwise, I’ll run into trouble. I’m trying to improve every day, and I’m getting help with that—especially from TORONTOTOKYO, my new coach who won TI as mid.

For 11 years, I’ve wanted to try something new, but I never had the chance. Every year, my performance in the “four” just kept getting better, and I wondered: why change roles if everything’s going well? However, now, having finished fourth at TI for the second year in a row—and with this being my fifth loss at The International—I realized I need to try something new and see how it goes. Maybe I’ll mess up and go back to my old role, or maybe not—we’ll see.

I’ve played mid before. I had two roles: mid and “four,” and I had to choose which one to play professionally. In the end, I chose support—that was about 7 years ago. I played better as a “four,” though I always wanted to play mid; I like that lane much more. Finally, I’ve gotten the chance to try my hand at it—let’s see how it goes.

I’ll play standard heroes and occasionally pull out some signature characters that no one else picks for mid lane. But I don’t plan on running around the map like a support without gold—I’ll be farming, because you can’t win in Dota these days without it. We’ll see. I still need some time to figure out my playstyle.

We’ve been playing with this lineup for about two weeks now, and in my opinion, swedenstrong has adapted pretty well. Plus, four of the players are the same as before, so nothing new there. My move to mid lane is the only issue.