Team Liquid's

Sam "BuLba" Sosale

February has been a great month for the team, where you guys are going on a pretty long winning streak. How has this affected the team, and what things can you attribute the success to?

Liquid`BuLba

It has given us confidence. We had a reputation of picking unorthodox heroes, and people were blaming the loss on that, but it was our play that was not fitting up to our abilities. We made a lot of mistakes in all parts of the game. We also hadn't practiced much as a team before mid -January because of Christmas break and vacations. We can attribute the success to our play just being a lot better. Hard to pinpoint other things but games are just going better and we know what to do because of the experience we have achieved through practice.

A lot has been made of the variety of picks in the last few weeks, including Liquid finding success with Clockwerk recently. What are your thoughts on the the range of heroes we've been seeing?

Liquid`BuLba

Hmm, I enjoy the range of heroes. It is exciting to watch and it just shows that they are confident in exploring other ways of winning. Sometimes teams don't know how to deal with a hero, like NTH in their first game vs Dignitas' Warlock pick. They kept trying to force 5v5 fights in places where the Warlock could get 5 people in rock and Fatal Bonds. Just an example, but teams have to be more prepared now for a curve ball as well.

Liquid is known to shuffle the roles played by TC, Korok, and yourself, usually depending on the heroes drafted. How do you think this has worked out?

Liquid`BuLba

It has been going fine. We lack predictability, and so many other teams don't. It also means we have to practice more for everyone to get acquainted with each other's play styles since we can all lane with each other.

What has been your favourite moment so far with Team Liquid?

Liquid`BuLba

Probably winning the BTS weekend cup. Also beating EG, because it's EG.

What do you think about the divide between the Western and Asian scenes? Do you follow much Chinese or SEA DotA?

Liquid`BuLba

Yes of course. I try to watch as much as I can in both VODS and the late night casts with LD and Winter. LGD.int was a real inspiration for the teams over here because it showed that with practice and dedication, you can go really far. It's been said way too much, but it's true (as for the dedication). As for the divide, I can't wait to see what the G-League finals has in store for us. Most of the G-League/Chinese games dictate what the European teams pick for the following months. For example, when the teams in the GEST cup picked Luna, all the European teams started picking her as well. It was a breath of fresh air though. I detested the way teams played in Dreamhack; it was disgusting.

You also currently attend school. What is it like having to balance professional gaming with your studies? With how many tournaments the team currently plays in, how often do major conflicts arise?

Liquid`BuLba

I have made my schedule allow for me to practice after 1 EST on weekdays. This means that i have to schedule a class at 8 AM, and this has not been done since high school for me so it's damn hard getting up. I have enough time to finish most of my work at night and get enough sleep. Playing matches is also really exhausting, and there are so many tournaments these days. It feels like most of our practice comes from matches itself, but that's fine with me since winning a match is an amazing burst of adrenaline.

A few of us were wondering a few months back where you got the Shadow Blade Bounty Hunter build. What was the inspiration?

Liquid`BuLba

After the Shadow Blade buff, I got the item on every hero. The stats were amazing and I just decided to use it on Bounty Hunter. I saw that you can Shadow Blade and Shadow Walk at the same time and get the Jinada buff doing insane damage.

We were all wondering because one of the TL Staff writers, kupon3ss, actually wrote a guide for it on TL in September. He was sad that no one gave him credit.

Liquid`BuLba

Well I saw the guide after I did it in the match, but I had a love for this item on every hero, not just exclusively Gondar.

Thanks for the chat! We'll see you soon.

Sam "BuLba" Sosale is currently a member of the Liquid Dota 2 squad who are tearing up the scene with a tremendous win streak in the past couple of weeks. He is a continuous contributor to our front page articles with his "BuLba Says" segments, and we wanted to dive further into his thoughts with this interview and Q/A session to learn a bit more about his team, their current run, and how his experience with Liquid has been so far.