Interview: Zephyr.Blitz

When did you know that Zephyr was going to win NSL S3?

In NSL, we've always won game 1, and the series vs EoT, we were super far behind, but we knew that if we stuck with the game plan, we could win. When we came back, I had a good idea that they couldn't compete with us in team fights. Game 2 I knew we just outdrafted them, and then game 3 when I got Storm, and Jeyo messed up and died for the first blood I knew it was over.

Did you have a favorite game of the tournament?

Game 3 vs 5inQ of the lower bracket finals. I was getting crushed mid by constant ganks, but we turned it around in the mid game and it was the first time I've ever heard Bamboe get excited in game. We were getting kills and started winning and in an engagement mid he started shouting and screaming, it was fantastic. Something I won't ever forget, it was so hype.

As a team, what was the most important lesson you learnt from the tournament?

Don't get complacent.



When you get complacent, people will work harder then you, and they'll prepare for you and its an easy way to look cocky and lose games. When it comes down to LAN games, anything can happen and a big part of what determines who wins is who was better prepared. The preparation for these types of games should always be more difficult than the games themselves.

If you could have done one thing differently during NSL S3, what would it be?

Feed less. I kept getting ganked because people realize my positionings greedy, and my mom watches these games and she keeps wondering why the casters keep talking about me dying. My sister sends me friendly tips like, 'you should stop dying it'll make the game easier.'



In all seriousness, nothing. Even the loss I really feel was necessary. It made us evolve and took us to the next step as a team. Before the loss we were somewhat cocky and we didn't learn enough from our games.

What do you think your team's biggest strengths and weaknesses are?

Biggest strength is probably our team fight execution and our overall game planning by Bamboe. Our biggest weakness is our lack of experience and we lack slightly in terms of individual skill.

Does Bamboe plan out how the game will play out in game?

No LOL. It's more like when were losing or when we start ganks he calls the shots, and for the most part he gives us individual freedom. Steven normally directs the trilane, and I'm just kinda left to myself mid.

Who does the drafting?

Bamboe does, but he gets input in the form of, how does this matchup do vs this etc for mid.

What do you miss the most/least about home?

In order of importance, I miss my girlfriend, my family and friends, then Wingstop. I cannot rave enough about Wingstop. I was telling Kevin the other day I would literally give up my pinkies if I had a Wingstop next door to us in Korea. Not even free Wingstop or anything, just like a place I could buy it would be enough. I probably miss the average person the least. Where I live anyways, its a bunch of teenagers that without even saying anything make me feel self conscious. Here in Korea everyone's just going about their own business and are generally very nice.

How does the team generally practice? What teams do you normally scrim with?

It's hard to find practices before 8pm, so we generally just pub as much as we can to get individual skill up, watch replays of our opponents, and watch replays of ourselves. Specialized practice for matches generally involve watching the other team, and asking people like Fluff what to do and if he notices any patterns that the other team does. The teams we normally scrim are the top Korean ones, MVP Phoenix, MVP hot 6ix, 5inQ, some other random Korean teams, and a smattering of SEA teams such as Scythe, Orange, Mith.Trust, First Departure.

Do you have any thoughts on where you fit in with the usual SEA teams? any aspirations of playing in SEA events?

I think we lost all our games vs Scythe and Orange, but the games were good. Its like 0-4 vs those teams, with 3 games being winnable, and we have positive records vs Mith.Trust, First Departure, and the SEA teams. And we'd like to play everything we can, simply to just get better as a group. More experience is necessary for us to improve.

Any idea how many scrims you play in a given week?

This week we've tried to relax after both KDL and NSL, but normally its around 3-4 a night 7 days a week, so I'd say about 20-25?

What's the general mood like in Korea around Dota 2?

Well for NSL, our live viewership was always really decent, but for KDL it like went up by 6x or something. I'd guesstimate our audience for the finals for NSL were around 100 people, but for our first match for Birdgang, we had about 600. Everyone seemed excited, and anytime our team did anything we could hear the crowd barely, and they'd all go OHHHH. It's kinda weird being the crowd favorites against an all Korean team haha.

Can you talk a little about the team atmosphere in the house? Do you all agree on who is the most annoying to live with yet?

It's good, everyone flames each other and we all have really crude jokes, and for the most part everyone is responsible. Bamboe is never wrong, Corey needs to learn to cook, and Eosin is the pork cutlet lord. The most annoying to live with for Eosin anyways is probably me. I cook and clean the most, but I also more or less sexually harass him at every point in the day.

That's it for now, do you have any shoutouts?

Shoutout to the lady that works at the cafe we go to, the 7 11 worker that Bamboe always harasses about his red candy shipments, and shoutout to Febby. That last one isn't sarcastic, he might have done wrong, but he owned up to it immediately, and he's the one that gave me the courage and opportunity to come out here to Korea and be able to do as well as I've done.

Writer: Heyoka

Gfx: TheEmulator

Editor: TheEmulator, Heyoka

Image via: Greg Laird

: Heyoka: TheEmulator: TheEmulator, Heyoka