Stanislav "Mistakes" Danilov has a lot of things going for him leading into Overwatch League Season 2. With the invaluable experience with his former team, the Boston Uprising, Mistakes and with teams like 123 and TORNADO ROX, Mistakes is a serious talent coming out of the CIS and European region. After competing with the Russian national team at the Incheon Overwatch World Cup qualifiers, Mistakes had some time to speak with Esports Heaven about his time within the Overwatch League and what is what like under the Boston Uprising.

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The atmosphere was kind of stressful but promising at the same time. We felt like [we’re] better, but we lost, and we had a great chance to taking this series. Also, we were thinking that [a] draw doesn’t matter because if we win Volskaya, we will win the series.

I would say it depends on how many changes were released. Sometimes there’s a lot of changes even if there is only one hero, for example, Brigitte. In this case, I don’t think one week is enough to fully explore and adapt to the new meta. If [the] meta changes slightly, I can surely say it’s fine.

Overwatch League is a really stressful place to be. I can see why many players are getting exhausted, but I can’t really say the same about the motivation loss. I don’t think that a player who loses the motivation to play the game should be in the Overwatch League. Don’t get me wrong, everyone can be tired of the game, but being tired shouldn’t affect your willingness to win games. Personally, for me, it was mostly the lack of time to learn all the heroes I had to play for my team. This is, pretty much, the only pressure I had.

My play style was passive because, in my eyes, you can’t really give a lot of resources to both DPS players and I didn’t feel comfortable and confident due to that I just started playing all the heroes. I don’t think players should try to be passive but think about how you can help your team.

In my opinion, I’m underrated by a lot of people, but I had to play a more passive role and it might have presented me in a bad light. At that moment, I felt like this [was] the best solution for the team and I can say I don’t regret it. Looking back, I’m really proud of what my team and I we were able to achieve. Since viewers can’t see behind the scenes, they can’t understand why players do different things.

Personally, I always feel bad when I know that we are stronger but lose a match because we just played badly. I don’t necessarily think there’s any advice because everyone is different. All I can say is that you shouldn’t focus on a loss for too long. If you lose a match, you can go and cry it out in your bed after but make sure you wake up next day ready to work.

I’m not sure. I’m not on a team right now and as soon as I will find one I can play anything. I’m not a selfish player and I’m always ready to do whatever the team needs.

I would say it’s been a lot of work and fun. I don’t want to get into details, but what I can say is that there’s a team coaching (ultimate management, strategy for example) and personal coaching (how to better use primal rage or deadeye). Uprising’s coaching staff have always been really kind and helpful in and out of the game and I really want to thank them for that!

The biggest improvement for me is that I found a way to improve myself. Sometimes players just stack and don’t know how to do better. I basically tried to understand what I’m doing wrong and how to fix it. For example, if I died a lot I would think: “Hmm, maybe it’s because of my positioning? Maybe [I’m] overextending? Maybe I used my abilities badly? Or maybe it’s a miscommunication?” There are a lot of maybes and by thinking this way you usually can find an answer to pretty much anything.

It is really stressful. In my eyes, I’m an underrated player and I will be really surprised if I don’t get picked up. There’s a lot of great players right now and it’s hard to judge yourself in comparison to them. It’s hard to understand how you look from aside, so we will see!

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Joseph “Volamel” Franco has followed esports since the MLGs of 2006. He started out primarily following Starcraft 2, Halo 3, and Super Smash Bros. Melee. He has transitioned from viewer to journalist and writes freelance primarily about Overwatch and League of Legends. If you would like to know more or follow his thoughts on esports you can follow him at

@Volamel

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Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment