syndereN on Save-‘s move to mid lane on the BetBoom Team Dota 2 roster: “I think the team will be weaker overall.”

syndereN: How is it even possible to make a mistake like that? It’s just so weird.

SUNSfan: Well, actually, yeah, it depends on the situation.

syndereN: Because they didn’t change Immortal Draft. If they had at least changed Immortal Draft, you could say, “Oh, they were changing the code, and then…”

SUNSfan: Maybe they were testing it. Maybe they were testing it internally to see how it would feel for players of different ranks, and then they just accidentally pushed it to the live server. Because when you’re working with different versions… Not that Valve is on my level, of course. I’m clearly way above them. But I once accidentally pushed a change that wasn’t supposed to make it into the release, and I was like, “Oh, crap, I forgot I’m on the wrong branch right now.” I think that’s exactly how it is. Honestly, it seems to me that developers are actually—and I’m not kidding here—I think they’re more disorganized than I am.

KheZu: That’s taking it too far.

SUNSfan: I’m not exaggerating.

syndereN: He doesn’t come across as a coach at all.

KheZu: No, I think he can. Wait, why not?

syndereN: I don’t know. It’s just my overall impression of him… How can I put it? I don’t know to what extent his strength as a player lies in his strategic perspective from the sidelines rather than directly in-game. I don’t know if that makes sense.

KheZu: If you remember, he made some really good calls on True Sight when they beat LGD. I think, from a draft perspective, most likely… I’m almost certain he also looked at Miposhka and thought, “I want to do that too.”

syndereN: Well, I don’t think he doesn’t want to play anymore. It feels like he’s not done with the game yet, right?

KheZu: Okay. I think you’re probably right. But maybe he didn’t have any good options, and this was the next best thing for him.

SUNSfan: I think he’s too impulsive to be a coach.

syndereN: Do you think he’s a better coach than boolk?

SUNSfan: I have no idea about boolk. I think he handles their drafts, so that’s pretty important. Or at least he used to. That guy… I don’t know, I’ve never talked to him.

syndereN: I’m a little worried about this TORONTOTOKYO team because the drafts could get too chaotic, and it really depends on how they set up the process. Because with boolk, they had a clear structure for how everything worked. I’d be worried that there’ll be too many cooks in the kitchen here, unless they actually say, “TORONTOTOKYO, you’re in charge of the draft.” But I just don’t know until I see it with my own eyes. I don’t really believe this guy will become the next big draft specialist, but maybe I’m just seriously underestimating him.

KheZu: I agree about “too many cooks in the kitchen,” but they don’t have big egos, so I don’t think it’ll be hard for them to let just one person handle it.

syndereN: On a scale of 1 to 10, how good do you think Save- will be in the mid lane?

KheZu: I’m always skeptical of such major role changes, but Save-… Actually, Save- has been their best player for many years now, in my opinion. Maybe alongside gpk, because that guy has also improved his game a lot. Right now, or how good do you think he could become?

syndereN: Let’s look at the short term—the next two tournaments.

KheZu: I think he’ll be at a level of seven or eight, probably. Because he’s a “four.” He’s a playmaker—how many heroes does that roughly mean? He plays Keeper of the Light a lot. He can probably play Lina. Maybe Queen of Pain, but there are still a lot of other heroes he needs to be able to play.

syndereN: It seems to me that good players in the fourth position won’t have any particular trouble picking up Spirit heroes. For example, he plays Earth Spirit, after all. Do you think the team will have to change its overall strategy because of this player compared to gpk? I’m guessing that swedenstrong will simply take Save’s spot and do most of what Save used to do.

KheZu: The only thing about these lineup changes is this: Save- really can be very good in the mid lane, and I believe he’s capable of it, but will he ever be better in the mid lane than he was in the “fourth position”? I think the answer is no. So then the question is: couldn’t we have just taken…

syndereN: Some other mid laner?

KheZu: Yes, that’s exactly how I see it, and that’s why I don’t like this substitution. <...>

syndereN: I have quite a lot of faith in him as an individual player, but I think the team as a whole will be weaker. In particular, I’m concerned that the synergy between their three core players won’t work as well with him in mid. Most of BetBoom Team’s games were actually won because gpk got a lot of farm. And I just don’t think Save- will play best in a style that relies on a lot of farm. It seems to me he’ll be making plays. Instinctively, he’ll want to be very active on the map. Which means the player in the first position, Kiritych, will need to… In other words, he knows how to play as a hard carry when necessary, but they need to find that balance. And, I think, overall, MieRo might need to take up more space, although I don’t actually consider him the best player for that.