QPAD Red Pandas

ADVERTISING:

Emocore

Team Infused

Pulse eSports

Hello Wagamama and congrats on getting the invite to cast TI3!

Hey man, thank you!

Were you surprised when Toby informed you he wanted you to join him for Seattle?

A little bit maybe, but I feel we had a really good time casting everytime that I joined him. I was more happy than surprised!

Have you talked to Toby about whether you will try to get in some more casting together before TI3?

We talked about it, and we will definitely try to get some games where we can just cast together again to get a good flow together.

Many pro players including yourself used to be regular co-casters during the early days of Dota 2. Why do you think we see pro players appear more rarely these days as co-casters in the West?

I think it mainly comes down to how limited you are when it comes to time. You want to spend most of your time with your team, but I still think casting a game as a co-caster gives you good chances to in-depth analyze the playstyles of the two teams (Then its up to you whether you want a voice all those thoughts or not).

You are well known for your attention to details and coming up with innovative builds. Which recently popular innovation has impressed you the most and why?

I don’t know about that, but the thing that Alliance did against DK with the TP-->Lvl1 Rosh was quite a surprising move!

If memory serves, you were one of the first to popularize Divine Rapier on Gyrocopter. Would you like to take this chance to apologize to the Dota 2 community?

Haha, I think we've all seen quite enough Gyro, but I doubt I’m the one to blame ;) I don’t think I was necessarily the first, but we did use to run BKB into straight Divine back in dota 1 as a wildcard strat.

As the Captain of a professional team, where do you find most of your inspiration for new strategies? Do you follow the different scenes and take your inspiration from watching other players or is it solitary contemplation that does it?

Most strategies that we ever tried were results of theorycrafting using experience from games we watched or played. Watching replays of teams from the asian scene is the most interesting to me right now, but I think you can find inspiration from the top teams all over the world right now, Western as well as the Asian ones.

Wagamama along with Pulse eSports at StarLadder Season 3

With 6.78b now being live and going to be the version for the upcoming DreamHack Summer LAN event, how do you think the metagame will develop at DreamHack and further on?

Its hard to predict how it will affect things when all is put to the test of time, on paper all we really know for sure is that people will try a lot of new things.

After watching your countrymen upset the Chinese at G-1 League, was there anything in particular that surprised or impressed you?

Apart from the fact that they played incredibly solid, I think the most surprising part to me is that their style during the LAN was pretty much the same as the Alliance we knew from before. They didn’t try to change and adapt to the opponents, they ran their own thing, which ended up working really well this event.

Who will benefit more from resetting the clock right now? The West as the strategies the Alliance employed at G-1 are now obsolete, or the East as they get to tackle the new patch without having to spend the time making up for any developments in the West that they neglected?

The clock is not really reset, it’s a lot of changes for sure, but the overall playstyle is what is most important. The west and east have the same time to adapt to the changes, I think its more about who finds the best style for this patch and less about who finds the best things to exploit.

Do you think there will be any longer term impacts, looking to TI3 and beyond, of the G-1 results?

I think its too early to look beyond TI3, there’s no way I can think about that right now, I’m only thinking about what TI3 will be like! I think G1-League will, if anything, motivate teams to prepare even harder. West and East alike!

What expectations do you have for the Western teams going into this years International? What will be the weapons which can help others follow in the footsteps of the Alliance?

While Alliance performance at the G1 was amazing, teams don’t necessarily need to follow anyone. As I previously said, Alliance ran their own race at G1 and didn't seem to worry too much about what other teams did at that time.

What will be the Eastern teams keys to success at TI3? Is there any benefit for them of changing their style of play, or should they keep developing their own game as before?

I have the highest respect for the powerhouses in the East, and I think that they will come a lot more prepared when it comes to TI3. Whether it’s a change of style or fine tuning of what they do, they know best what to adjust and how to find their peak performance again.

Any last words or shout outs?

Shoutout to James aka best.standin.ever! And of course huge thanks to all the viewers and supporters of Dota2, it’s really amazing!

Wagamama has been around the Dota 2 scene since his team by the name ofbecame, competing under this moniker for most of 2012 up until last years International. After a short period on their own, the team then became, until the opportunity to joinWehsing '' Yuen in creating the QPandas came up, eventually bringing with himHampus '' Olsson andJerry '' Lundkvist for the earliest incarnation of the new teams roster.Besides being a consistent leader of Swedes in Dota and loyal to his teammates, Wagamama is also known for being a skilled carry player, previously in particular well known for his love of heroes such as Anti-Mage and Templar Assassin. Over time he has however also been seen playing different roles within his teams, in particular playing offlane from time to time. He has a unique vision of the game which has been expressed through his teams and a broad knowledge base, which viewers have been able to take part in from time to time since he became a regular co-caster during the early days of Dota 2.While pro players today are a lot more busy, so has also Wagamama dedicated much of the past months to his team and their journey together. As such, we have taken the time to talk to Wagamama, in order to introduce new fans of Dota 2 to the man himself as well as give older fans some insight into his thinking around some of the burning questions on everyones mind as we lead into the International this year.