SVG on Malr1ne: “It’s hard to mess up with a guy like that on the team.”

SVG: Malr1ne is good. He’s a very strong player. His baseline skill level is incredibly high. He’s very effective, has a wide hero pool, and masters them all perfectly. He’s basically never outplayed in the lane. Honestly, it’s hard to mess up with a guy like that on the team.

Maybe they won’t win every LAN—I don’t know. I still have my doubts about the chemistry between these three stars. But you could hardly have found a better option on the free agent market, so we’ll just have to make do with what we’ve got.

I think they’ll be pretty strong. Even at their lowest level, this is a top-5 team.

SVG: I don’t think they’ll have any problems with the flexibility of their hero pool. The main question is something else: is there anyone on this team who can win you the game? Because I look at these three big names and… Okay, I can’t stand this analogy, but is anyone even driving the bus? You know what I mean? Or are we all just passengers? I don’t mean to say they’re exclusively passengers, but I don’t get the feeling there’s a driver on this team.

There’s no one like Yatoro. Yatoro drives that damn bus himself. You’re just sitting inside: whether you win or lose, he’ll be behind the wheel. I don’t know if I see any of these three in that role. Because before, it was Nisha. Let’s be honest: Nisha was driving the bus. He was the one moving you forward.

Cap: You need to explain this bus driver analogy in more detail. We heard the team’s discussions, and miCKe…

SVG: No, it’s not about the conversations.

Cap: I thought driving the bus was exactly the same as leading the team.

SVG: No, it’s not about who talks the most. It’s not about the conversations at all. It’s something instinctive. That kind of player makes the winning play exactly when the team needs someone to make it. miCKe does that sometimes, but not always. He doesn’t do it the way Nisha does. It’s hard to explain. It’s some kind of intangible quality in Dota. Some players have it, others don’t.

Cap: Here’s how Slacks described JerAx: JerAx might not say anything at all, but when he did speak, it was very important.

SVG: And I think JerAx really was one of the few supports who could carry the team on his own. You rarely see that. Because it’s different from just giving the team instructions.

SVG: You need someone on your team who’s capable of being the best player in that lobby. For me, it boils down to this: will you make it to The International Grand Final with the best player in the lobby? Because when Spirit makes it there, they have two of them. It’s just not fair. Or maybe even three, if you count that weirdo Miposhka, who’s some kind of genius. But if we’re talking specifically about the game, it’s not really Miposhka, right?

Cap: PARIVISION has Satanic, right? Well, he’ll be that very player. He’s the one driving the bus on that team. Team Yandex might now have ATF. He’ll be the best player in that damn lobby.

SVG: It’s such an intangible feeling: will this guy become the best player in the lobby and just bring you the win? Will he see it through to the end regardless of the draft, negotiations, everything falling apart—whatever it takes? I think JerAx really had that ability. And, to reiterate, there haven’t been many supports in history capable of that. Another player like that, in my opinion, is XinQ. That’s why I rate him so highly.

After all, we’ve seen him single-handedly win games when his entire team was falling apart. I don’t understand how he does it. He has this instinctive… I think MATUMBAMAN had it, too. And he possessed it while playing in the second position, which is pretty rare.

That’s what I’m talking about. And I don’t know if any of these three “big names” have demonstrated that quality yet. I’m not saying they’re incapable. I think they are capable. Everyone has the potential. It seems to me that you don’t like this analogy because all three are right on the edge: in many games, they actually do things like that.