Dota Talk

Hi all you Dota 2 Fanatics! This is the second installment in a series of interviews I will be conducting with some players from different teams, that will be attending The International tournament held in Seattle, Washington.

Today we have the privilege to talk to Absolute Legends support/ganker player Darcy “Godot” Jose.

Darcy “Godot” Jose

Good day Godot, please introduce yourself to our fanbase and tell us what you do in Team aL

Gday to yourself aswell Andre, my name is Darcy Jose better known as “Godot” and I preety much play mainly the jungle/support role but I do sometimes play the solo role, with heroes such as TA/Invoker/Enig, I’m also known as the nacho lover in my team.

Hahahaha always good to start the interview off with a decent humoristic introduction, thanks alot. Now as we all have seen, the 16 teams have been drafted for the second installment of the international. What does Absolute Legends expect the tournament to be like?

Well… from what we’ve already heard and seen from the first and second International, also talks amongst Icefrog and the other teams, It’s definately going to be the most amazing eSports event ever!

Now we know this year that there are an abundance of Chinese teams, which can translate into some good games. Teams like DK, TongFu and iG that are all newcomers are sure to make a splash in the Dota 2 scene as most of them are known DotA powerhouses. What are your thoughts on the fact that there are way more Eastern teams than EU/NA teams?

I think the reason behind that is because most Eastern teams, expecially the chinese teams just take the game more seriously and why wouldn’t they, they have more opportunities in their country, great sponsors to support their superb players who dedicate their time to become the very best.
DOTA 2 for them is like a job, a very fun one.

 Regarding your previous answer, what stance does Dota 2 have for aL?

When it comes to attitude, we do want to be as serious as possible just like the chinese are, but it’s just very difficult, our timezones just dont match with EU/NA tournaments as we normally have to play from 4am onwards and even for majority of the asian tournaments we have to play at around 2am. As for training we wake up at approximately 2am as there will be no known teams looking for scrims before hand. But at the same time we have to study or work to manage a living here and try to play dota at your very best at the same time

Understandable, as you can’t live off the sponsorship you get provided like the Chinese do. Tell me a bit about the preparation for The International 2, what are the hours you guys put into practice and just plain working out strats?

I think we definately haven’t been preparing as much as we should be for TI2, but lately we have been trying to put in those extra hours of scrimming and analyzing our recent games (around 6-10 hours a day) so that we can improve on those mistakes and find the optimal playstyle suited for us and against teams at the International.

We have also prepared some hit and run strats, all we need is to wait for troll warlord to come out in DOTA 2.

Talking about the teams at The International, what team do you think will be the hardest to beat?

Honestly speaking, I definately think LGD will be the hardest to beat, they are just looking way too strong even amongst the chinese teams, zenith would come close to it aswell.

Recently we have seen Na`Vi in fine form when they defended their Starladder Title in the Grand Finals vs Mousesports. Even though the Chinese are looking good, do you think Na`Vi can pull it off?

I think Na`Vi definately has a shot at winning the International again, but so do many teams participating, coming from the EU teams I think Na`Vi and mTw would have the highest chance of grabbing the title.

Now we know that Absolute Legends are the most Renowned gaming organisation South of the Equator, what can we expect from you guys at The International?

We’re definately going to try our best and perform as best as possible, expect some ass kicking aussie style.

That’s what all our fans want to hear! Now with the last addition of Naga Siren, are we going to see insta bans on her in the first banning phase?

Definitely, that hero is just to overpowered!! So far I’ve only seen Naga Siren lose one game and it was used by EHOME against LGD.
Apart from the pinoy teams the chinese would know how to use her best so losing with such a hero is definately a game worth to watch.

So you mentioned Troll Warlord as part of  a “hit and run” strat. Now we know Troll is known for his ability to permabash a team to victory if given the opportunity. What other hero releases apart from troll, do you think would change the meta game completely?

I dont think any hero that will be coming out will be changing the meta game, infact I dont think following the meta game will give u the edge when it comes to playing in the International, unconventional and well thought out strats will take a massive play, as teams will be needing to adapt to each teams playstyle and lineup.
But I think Nerubian Assassin and Visage will definately be top picks by some teams.

Well lets hope for Nerub and Visage to be released before then so that we can strap ourselves in for some epic matches! Thank you for your time Godot and we hope that Troll gets released for you guys! Any shoutouts you would like to make before we conclude the interview

Shoutout to our sponsors, Absolute Legends, Razer, Special Tech and TwitchTV, shoutouts also to DotAUGaming, to all our fans whos been with us all this way and off course the mexlord.

The interview with Godot was just a taste of what we can expect from the second installment of such a fantastic event.

DotaTalk would like to wish Absolute Legends the best of luck in their upcoming preparations for The International 2, and any other tournament they might enter!