PERSONAL LIFE

Hello and thank you for taking time out of your day for this interview. First off, would you like to give us a little introduction about yourselves?

What do you do for a living?

How difficult is it for you to balance playing Dota 2 and your personal life?

Now how did you first get into competitive gaming and how long have you been doing so?

What do your real life friends and family have you say about your gaming? Are they supportive of it?

DOTA 2

When do you think Dota 2 will be released?

Do you think Dota 2 will completely replace Dota once it is officially released?

What heroes are you looking forward to be released?

What was the craziest thing you've ever done in Dota (Item Build or Skill build)?

COMPETITIVE SCENE

What are your opinions on the current pushing/ganking meta of Dota 2?

Now that more of the Asian Dota Teams are getting their keys, how do you think there transition to Dota 2 will change the competitive scene? How much will it change the meta?

There have been some unusual heroes seeing play in the completive scene such as Morph and Silencer, do you think we will start seeing more unusual picks in competitive play?

What do you think the recently ported heroes (Shadow Demon, Syllabear, and Lycanthrope) will bring to the scene?

Who is your favorite player and why?

How do you think Dota 2 as a whole will compete against other games like League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth?

What do you feel about the state of eports in NA?

TEAM

Tell us about your team. How did the team first form?

What are the roles on the team and what role do you play?

A lot of people have been saying that Captain Planet was just a team of friends. What would you say about that? Is Captain Planet a team to be taken serious?

Currently Captain Planet is unsponsored, have you guys been contacted by or considering any companies?

Alright. We are going to play a game here. I will say one word and you are only allowed 3 words to describe it. You ready?

1. Koreya

2. Celdur

3. Demise

RECENT TRIUMPHS

It was reported that the match between your team, Captain Planet and World Elite was broadcasted in China and had almost 1.4 million viewers. How surprised are you at the number of viewers?

If you had known over 1.4 million people were watching you play, how nervous or pressured would you have felt?

Congratulations on your latest victory in the Gosu Gamers Qualifier, therefore officially securing your spot in the Gosu League. It was your team's first "official" tournament, what were your feelings going into it?

How do you feel about your team's performance in the tournament?

Will we be seeing more of Captain Planet in online tourneys and maybe even the International?

FINAL WORDS

I also am aware that you were a former It's Gosu member. Why did you end up quitting to join CP?

Thank for your time, are there any last words you have to say? Any shout outs?

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Today, we had the amazing opportunity to sit down and talk to not only one but two big names in the Dota 2 Competitive Scene, Tim 'PowerNet' Moon and Theeban '1437' Siva from Captain Planet . Coming off of a 3-0 win against World Elite and winning the Gosu Gamers Qualifier I, Captain Planet is surely making a name for itself. We got a chance to talk about their current state as a team as well as Dota 2 and its competitive scene.Power.Net: Hi, my name is Tim Moon and I like to play DotA.1437: Hello, my name is Theeban Siva and I am the Captain of Team Captain Planet.Power.Net: I am currently finishing up high school and planning on attending university afterwards. I plan on majoring in chemical engineering.1437: Currently I am a student studying in the field of awesomeness, and possibly business in the near future.Power.Net: Earlier in the year I actually had to take a break from the game when I was on team It’s Gosu because I was participating in varsity bowling. I don’t really have a lot of other things going on other than that that would be hindered by a large investment of time into DotA.1437: Playing Dota 2 has become a huge part of my everyday life and honestly, there has been no difficulties balancing both life and Dota 2 since I can make room for either if need be.Power.Net: I had been playing DotA casually for about two years before I had even known there was a competitive scene for the game. Had someone named 'yourdoom not' introduced me to the awesomeness that is playing with a team, I probably would not be where I am today as far as DotA goes. Four years later, I find myself fascinated by all competitive gaming scenes, but I plan to pursue DotA 2 the most.1437: I have been playing Dota for about 6 years or so on and off (mostly just public games and in-house leagues, but not a lot of competitive play). About 2 years ago, I decided I really wanted to play with a team, and at that time, I was very good friends with PowerNet, so we made a team from scratch, practiced every day, and climbed up the DotA ladder, all the way from the bottom to the top !Power.Net: My friends think it’s pretty cool that I’m somewhat known on the interwebz. As for my parents, they are deeply ashamed of my involvement with competitive gaming.1437: Well, my family and friends know that I play a game, but that’s the extent of their knowledge. Some of my friends that do actually know about DotA are definitely supportive of it though.Power.Net: I have no idea.1437: I hope that Valve gets everything ready to go by at least the end of this year, but realistically I think its release will be in early 2013 (assuming we aren’t extinct).Power.Net: I have no doubt that Dota 2 will completely replace the original upon release. With the beta being so popular already, and the competitive scene booming, the transition will be natural.1437: I think it will replace Dota In USA and Europe once it gets released but I don’t think I can say the same for SEA and China since they still play a lot of Dota and have tournaments for it. Eventually I think everyone is going to have to switch over to Dota 2.Power.Net: I really loved playing Luna and Panda in Dota, I hope they are soon to come. Oh, and maybe they can get around to adding my favorite hero, Medusa, pretty soon.1437: To be honest I have become so accustomed to the heroes in Dota 2 I tend to forget there are still many more heroes to be released, but I am really looking forward to Templar Assassin and Panda !!!Power.Net: I don’t particularly remember any crazy item builds or stuff of that nature, but I’d consider doing level one roshan from sentinel side in a tournament pretty funny. I don’t quite remember what tournament it was for, but I do recall Demon being very sure that it would work when he was picking it, and that the strategy would never work again.1437: The way I see it, most games currently are based around pushing and defending. One team tries to push, and the other team tries to defend. If the pushers don’t win or get enough of an advantage by a certain point, then the defenders almost always win. In every game you can see that Chen and Enchantress always end up being banned because you don’t want to be on the team that doesn’t have either of them since you will end up getting your towers constantly pressured and out farmed with the jungle hero. But chen and enchantress aren’t the only key heroes to these strategies. There are still auras, such as Beastmaster's and Vengeful's as well as summons with Enigma and Leshrac’s Edict. Overall towers have become the main focus point of today’s metagame and if your team is unable to capitalize on them or have anything to destroy them you will find yourself outfarmed very quickly with your map being 76% black.Power.Net: I believe that their transition into the new competitive scene will be welcomed. Everyone was so scared in Dota 1 of any team that was based in China, or Asia for that matter, and that beating teams from that region were major accomplishments. What made the those teams so prominent in Dota 1 was that they took the game much more seriously than any other region, and for that reason, practiced and succeeded much more.I think now that everywhere else is taking Dota 2 much more seriously as far as what opportunities will be available in the competitive scene, and what will be needed to take full advantage of those opportunities, Asian teams will find the competition much tougher. As far as the meta-game goes, I think that the days of Chinese teams dictating what is standard will be long gone. Every team will have their ace strategy, and I don’t see any radical changes in the “standard game” to come just from the introduction of Asian teams.1437: Currently, anything and everything is absolutely viable. Its all about the team and what they enjoy playing that will really dictate on how successful the “unusual” pick will be. I feel that these uncommon picks and strategies always take teams by surprise and that will always result in them being slow to react to the situation that they are up against which end up giving the other team an advantage in the game.Power.Net: I think that these heroes were considered top tier in Dota and will continue to be top tier in the sequel. From my experience, Lycanthrope is already being banned as much as Invoker, Shadow Demon is still a very strong hero, and Syllabear, when introduced into Captain's mode, will continue to farm a 20 min rad despite everything. I doubt Lycanthrope and Syllabear will see many games competitively just because of their ridiculous pushing powers and the heroes’ ability to farm quickly even when shut down.1437: There are a few players that I really admire. Since the Ok.Nirvana days, Fear has been my favorite player because he’s very confident in himself as a captain and overall the most solid player in my opinion.1437: I personally don’t know anything about either of the games since I have been loyal to Dota. I believe even if Dota 2 becomes the dominant game amongst the three there will still be many people playing the other two games. From what I hear, most of the HoN professionals have been moving to Dota 2 which means the HoN competitive scene is most likely going to take a big hit. On the other hand there haven’t been any sightings of any pro LoL players making a move to Dota 2 or anything and the LoL community is looking quite healthy.Power.Net: I think that e-sports is a growing franchise in America. With games such as Starcraft 2 and League of Legends (to name a few) being fairly main stream, and their competitive scene being quite lucrative, gaming has nowhere to go but up as far as exposure and population go. Hopefully Dota 2 can join the ranks of such popular titles with the help of Valve’s million dollar tournament and a devout Dota 1 following.1437: After my departure from It’s GoSu, I no longer had a team to scrim with, so PowerNet and I just got people on our friends list together to just play some mix scrims for fun. After some time, we had played with a wide array of different players and had a lot of fun in the process, but others there was something unique about this particular group. We all had pretty similar ambitions and enjoyed playing with one another, so we decided to make a team and go for the gold!Power.Net: The makeup of our team consists of me usually playing the trilane carry with Celdur and Demise/1437 as trilane supports, Demise/Koreya on the solo lane, and 1437/Demise/Koreya as long lane solo. There is a bit of overlap as far our roles go, but that is due to some us having certain “specialty” heroes as well as just being versatile.1437: Just because we are a team of friends doesn’t mean we aren’t to be taken seriously. Building a team around just known/already established players doesn’t necessarily mean that the team will be successful. Sometimes having fun is simply the key to victory!Power.Net: We haven’t been specifically sought after by any particular organization, nor have we really looked into acquiring sponsorship quite yet, but we feel that a sponsor will be necessary in the near future. Hopefully we find an organization that will facilitate our upcoming success.1437: night stalker daisyPower.Net: dave korean daisy1437: go to schoolPower.Net: celderp kung-fu GO-PLANET1437: please no off-lanePower.Net: biggy jairo rhastaPower.Net: Well, we put in a lot of work for that show match and all that it entailed. It’s nice knowing that our efforts were well recognized to more than a small group haha. The real prize for us really is knowing that we are able to perform well under some kind of pressure, the unexpected amount of exposure is certainly an added bonus though. We could do this all night like "np hehe we dont sleeeeep".Power.Net: For me at least, I don’t really think about how many people are watching. There’s always just the feeling of calmness since I’m playing in such a relaxing environment in my home. Only at the very end of important games do I remember the presence of shout-casters and streamers, whether it be a win or a loss, shoutouts are always necessary hehe. I’m sure in a different setting, such as a major LAN event, there would be a lot more nervousness going around.1437: Going in to the tournament we made sure we didn’t underestimate any teams that we would face. At the same time we were still confident in our strategies that we had already worked out and went in to the tournament expecting to win !!1437: I am relatively happy about our performance. We gradually improved as we progressed throughout the tournament. There were a good deal of mistakes that could have been avoided, but wins are wins.Power.Net: We do plan on participating in as many tournaments online as possible. Hopefully we have enough success to get us invited to compete for the million dollars!1437 and Power.Net: When GoSu first began (EZ style) I had a plan for the team and assembled the right players for what I thought to be a championship level team which included PowerNet, BulBa, Inphinity, and Universe. After some time, Powernet ended up having to leave due to real life commitments, and shortly after, inphinity also took his leave. Once these 2 core players left, it was VERY difficult to find adequate replacements. After multiple tries to reform the team, I came to realize that what the team had become was no longer the team that I had planned for, and was no longer my team. Sometimes it’s just better to just start from scratch and form a fresh new team, rather than try and replace irreplaceable players.1437: Oh yes, Shout out to Nadota, BuLba (from Tim as well), Curo, Nitr4x, Hypnotiqbig, Driftr, Universe, Ezzy’s crew, Sayuri, Snoopy, CWM, lahnas and to all our supporters!!Power.Net: I’d like to thank the one that will never see this, my inspiration, Irma.TNTyler