“Mid is now the fourth position in MLBB”: an interview with Troublemaker

Hi! Even though we finished fourth out of four, the tournament was awesome overall—I really enjoyed it. Working with the organizers was a breeze; they responded very quickly to all requests. 

The teams were more or less evenly matched, and the scoring system added an interesting twist. If they could somehow make the draft process more public—maybe do a stream where the captains pick their teams—it would be even better and more exciting.

Yeah, to be honest, I think my rating is too high—I’m not an active esports player. It’s actually really hard to rate players. But I think we need to focus more on the current MSS season. Players on the top-tier teams should be valued higher—and if they play for weaker teams or don’t play at all, they should be valued lower.

If possible, of course, I’d like to see more teams: though I understand that there aren’t that many pro players and streamers, so that might be difficult. Maybe some interactive elements that would make the tournament truly streamer-focused—adding challenges or making things easier.

For example, a list of tasks where completing them earns you an extra point. Like one point for winning a map, and another for completing those quests. Something like the challenges in MCC Season 8. 

I don’t know, I expected much less from TpaBoMaH. Surprisingly, he played really well. So, in principle, it’s a great idea—to bring in guys from other disciplines. But it’s important that Timur wanted to play MLBB himself; he enjoyed it. And that’s why we need exactly those kinds of people—the ones who show a genuine desire to participate.

Otherwise… I guess only players from MOBA disciplines will be able to quickly get the hang of it and play Mobile Legends. For example, I can’t really picture someone who came to MLBB from Counter-Strike—someone who hadn’t played Dota—but immediately understood what to do.

If they set a goal and grind 24/7, then there’s probably a chance. But it won’t be easy: it’s a 5v5 game, and the player will still need to find four suitable teammates. The fundamentals of MOBA games are the same; Mobile Legends is even simpler, but it also has over 100 heroes, each with their own items—you’d definitely have to spend half a year to a year to understand all the heroes, their abilities, passives, and so on.

Yeah. He understands the general mechanics well, but he had a really hard time because so many different heroes were being picked. Sometimes he doesn’t get it and asks, “What does this hero do? Guys, who am I up against?” Those kinds of questions come up. But you could tell he had a general grasp of the game, and he’s better than most beginners: he knows when to push the lane, split-pushed well, defused, and used Purify at the right moments.

I don’t play Dota 2 at all, but I’d love to participate in the BSB for Counter-Strike. It’s interesting to try different disciplines, but Dota is probably too tough. Some people play it—as far as I know, the current Team Yandex roster plays Dota as a whole team. But I’m more into CS.

I started playing when I was 15 or 16. One day, my older brother came home from school and said, “Let’s go play ML; we just played it with our classmates, and it seems like a cool game.” We logged in, played a few rounds, and I liked it. I started spending time on it, got hooked, met some guys, and that’s how we made our way into esports together—Yustinian, who I started out with, now plays for Yandex.

Yes, the scene is bigger in Dota 2 and CS, but that’s just how things turned out. I understand how hard it is to get into esports on purpose. I hardly have an extra 2–3 years to purposefully learn how to play Dota 2 or CS at a professional level. It’s really hard.

The roster simply didn’t live up to the organization’s expectations. You could say they disbanded us and signed a new roster. As for RAKUZAN, we parted ways toward the end of our time at Yandex—apparently, the coach and the club decided I was the problem. They decided to replace me, even though they didn’t exactly put up great results after that either. And then I stopped talking to the guys, and they got another mid-laner.

I don’t know—I’d like to play at the pro level, but only to win. As for losing… it’s like I don’t really want to make a full-fledged comeback. I just realize that I don’t have a team yet that can win consistently.

For the next MCS season, I’d put together a roster myself; I wouldn’t wait for an invite. I know some pro players who are available. It’s just… I don’t know, I tried to put together a roster for two or three seasons in a row, but the players realized it would be tough to compete against teams like Team Spirit and Verso—which is now Yandex.

I offered to put together a team with Magistor, Ptenchik, or Marbon when they didn’t have rosters—and they always turned me down. For the most part, they’re waiting for invites from Virtus.pro or some other clubs. Everyone thinks that some new teams will pop up or spots will open up on other teams. A trend has developed—no one wants to try random stacks; everyone’s just sitting around waiting for invites.

Take Ptenchik, for example. He’s a very strong player, but he’s inactive, and I don’t know why. I reach out to him, and he says, “I don’t want to embarrass myself.” Players aren’t willing to register with no-names; they want the team to have five strong players right from the start.

Those guys are really great. It’s tough for them right now because their real journey is just beginning. But the team has a shot at the playoffs; they really want it—they even held a boot camp right at the start of the regular season.

I only played with them in the matches against Spirit and Yandex. We didn’t really go head-to-head with them, nothing like that. But they played pretty well. I especially liked their new jungler, sulagolodny.

I really don’t like the trend of simplifying mid—where supports play without dealing damage. To be honest, I’m not happy about it at all. Because of this, my role is becoming, you could say, useless. Anyone can play it. 

This, by the way, has been a trend in recent years. First, they nerfed the Clock of Destiny, making it a more default item, then they weakened the Staff of Lightning. This has been going on for at least a year and a half.

I was recently rewatching MCC Season 2 on my stream—my matches in Umbrella Squad. Back then, I could kill any ADC solo as a mage—even as Valentina—just by casting. Now that’s impossible even in theory: I don’t have enough damage, and the gold laner always has more farm. In short, the situation for mid laners is very bleak. 

And that’s unlikely to change anytime soon, because the developers have no plans to buff mages. With every patch, they either nerf mages, leave them alone, or tweak some useless heroes. It seems like mages are becoming the third or fourth-tier roles in MLBB—if they haven’t already. The support role is more useful, and the jungle is way more useful. Most likely, mid is now the fourth-tier role in MLBB. That’s just sad.

To be honest, I doubt it. Generally, I don’t pay attention to heroes until they’re released on the main server, because their damage—and sometimes their skills—get changed. But even if that’s the case, a single new mage won’t change the situation—he’ll just get banned. The mechanics need to be tweaked a bit here. Let’s say the mage has a choice at some point: either deal massive damage to core heroes or consistently chip away at tanks. So that, potentially, you could take down 50% of an ADC’s health. Some kind of choice like that, because right now you’re just pushing tanks, and there aren’t any stats for one-shot kills.

I think the Genius Staff needs to be reworked, because right now it’s a useless item slot. The Starlium Scythe could also use a rework: currently, it’s not really used by any mage except Harit, and he’s played on the gold lane. 

I’d like to see buffs for Valentina, Selena, and all skill-dependent mages. I can’t remember the last time any of my main heroes got buffed. That probably never happens at all, haha.

Basically, the game is becoming more team-oriented. That’s cool, too—but only when you have a team. And when you don’t have a team… You play Dota, right? In Dota, in theory, you can push mid and win the game solo. You can farm the jungle, get overfarmed, and win. That doesn’t happen in MLBB—it’s such a team-based game that if even one person isn’t playing their part, you can’t win.

When I first started playing, mid was practically the second most important position—almost the first. Every game, you’d be the top damage dealer and MVP. There was just this aura around mid—now it’s just a disgrace. If I’d known it would turn out like this, I wouldn’t have gone mid at all, haha.

Yeah, of course. But here’s the thing: like I said, I tried to put together some lineups, but some people didn’t want to play because there were one or two average players on the team. And if you’re going to switch roles, it’s important that the others accept it. You have to be tough—and you have to be tough right away. You can’t say, “Guys, give me some time—I’ll become a jungler.” They’re not interested in that. Especially since in our discipline, it’s unheard of for a support player, for example, to switch to a carry role.

Yeah, Q1let switched from mid to roam. But at that point, he was one of the most mocked players in the region. People were constantly making fun of him and so on. Personally, I don’t pay attention to that kind of thing—let people play whatever role they want. But in the region… 

Yeah, why not?

I’d like to say hi to TpaBoMaH. Thanks for setting up that match for us on Mi!