Dendi

" I think we showed 20-30% of what we are capable of."

Danil " Dendi " Ishutin was interviewed by CyberSport.ru during the second day of the playoffs in Moscow. He talks about Na`Vi's disappointing showing as well as why some favorites fell early.

— How do you like the tournament’s organization?

— I like it all a lot. Starting with the way they met with us at the airport, to the hotel, practice room and the comfort they provide for the players. It’s my first time in this arena and I like it too. It’s beautiful, clean, teams have their own zone — everything is great.



— Were there any problems with food during the group stage?

— I get annoyed when people complain about food or something on those lines. I personally think it comes from players becoming spoiled. We already get all we want, at our age: We go to fancy hotels, we have truly great food of our choice. Just live and enjoy it. But now, someone starts complaining. It’s wrong. You have to be thankful. I am happy with everything [on this tournament].



— Did you see the opening ceremony? What do you think about the stage and decorations?

— I haven’t really had a good look at the stage yet but I watched the opening ceremony online, just worked out that way because we overslept and didn’t go. It was awesome! I like it the last time as well. I think the EPICENTER organizers did well. They have a lot of cool ideas and they are slowly implementing them. I’m very glad for it, because this is the evolution of esports. Not only in the CIS region, but as a whole.



— Did you expect this level of play from LGD.Forever Young?

— Chinese teams always get underestimated, because Europe and America play better nowadays. I knew who played in LGD. Those players spent a long time in Dota. I was fully expecting that if everything would work out for them, they would play really well, but I didn’t know who would go past the groups and who wouldn’t. It could’ve been anyone — right now the level of teams is really high. LGD played well, they did a good job and played like a team.



— Team Secret are playing well on the EPICENTER. Is it all thanks to YapzOr, or something else? [Interview was taken before the EG vs Secret elimination match].

— It’s more about team’s morale. During their first LAN tournaments with this roster, they were still setting up, and now everything is getting better and better for them, they are picking up the pace. If they won’t fight each other within the team, if the chemistry is going to be good, then their results would only improve.



— Why did OG fail this tournament in group stage?

— We had a very strong group, anyone could’ve went through. They got less lucky I guess. Plus the new patch: Someone prepared better than others, someone found a more effective strategy, someone used their old ones.



— Many players think that the reason behind Virtus.pro's failures is them often going for the same drafts. What do you think?

— It’s hard for me to say what is happening inside their team. It is quite easy to predict what VP would pick, and you can prepare for it. Those are the last patch strategies and it’s unclear yet how well they would work in this one. Not enough time has passed to test that. VP pick what they are confident in. It didn’t work out this time, but will they change something or will continue to play the same way — time will tell.



— Why were Na`Vi so weak during the group stage?

— Our morale fell apart a bit, almost from the very first game. We just couldn’t get ourselves back up together in any of the next eight games. I think we showed 20-30% of what we are capable of. It’s sad that we couldn’t show the community everything we can do.