Omar "Madara" Dabasas is the carry for Ad Finem, the Greek team that came from behind to place second at The Boston Major, earning a legion of fans along the way. That performance was enough to secure them an invite to the Kiev Major despite disappointing performances in the winter season. Madara spoke to theScore esports about his team, the Kiev Major and European Dota.

How did you react upon hearing Ad Finem was invited to the Kiev Major?

We were all in discord and during picking phase for our scrim, then the invite comes out and everyone started shouting their lungs out and started going insane for a minute. I have no idea how Spartan managed to draft that game

Did you think you would receive an invite?

I knew we would get invited because according to history every Top 2 in Major/TI with no roster changes gets invited to the next one so it wasn't really a surprise to me. Of course I had some doubts since our performance after the Major was awful, but I guess our placement on the previous Major overrides everything.

Ad Finem surprised many with their second place finish at The Boston Major. Looking back, how do you feel about your performance?

For our first Major tournament I feel very proud of my team and myself for getting second place, but I also feel bad that we lost and didn't get first place.

What did you do following The Boston Major?

I took a break for two weeks to sort some stuff out, relax and see some relatives. After one week I was actually so bored I needed Dota in my blood again!

Has anything changed for you since the Major?

I started working out more in the mornings. It helps me to stay more focused and energized for the rest of the day other than that nothing really just practicing all day long.

Since Boston, Ad Finem has so far competed in two qualifiers and Elimination Mode 3.0. What do you think of your performance?

Our performance was terrible it’s a number of things as to why, first of all I think we took a longer break than we should. One week is enough in my opinion.

Secondly we didn't find our comfort zone in our practice, everything wasn't clicking that well from plays and synergy to strategies. The last reason is we under performed individually and it cost us a lot of games.

What does a typical day in your life look like? Does the team practice together regularly?

Working out in the mornings and then just play Dota all day, but sometimes going out with friends to have some fun is refreshing. We practice six days per week for around five to six hours per day as a team.

How would you describe each of your teammates?

Alright I'm gonna describe each of them with one word:

Maybe Next Time - old

SsaSpartan - positive

ThuG - funny

SkyLark - emotional

Which European teams are you watching out for? Are there any that stand out above the rest for you?

Definitely OG stands out above every other team in Europe, then it's Liquid. Secret and B)ears that look really strong too. Europe feels super stacked, but that’s a good thing to have because you get better practice and more competition which is what I like the most.

Is there any team in the world right now that you are impressed by?

Team OG. Their teamplay, synergy and execution is just so good and consistent. They play good Dota and it's always very fun to play against them and watch their games. They are the best team in the world at the moment in my opinion.

The Kiev Major will continue the single-elimination format that was used at Boston. What do you think of the format?

Personally I don't really care about the format I just wanna play good Dota and win, but this format might be better for us because we perform better under pressure so thinking we don't have a second chance might be helping.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions!

Thank you for the interview. Shoutout to my sponsors gg.bet, epulze and dombai, and to my teammates. They are a bunch of monkeys but... gotta love those monkeys.

Preston Dozsa is a news editor for theScore esports whose journalism idol is Dino Ghiranze. You can follow him on Twitter.