The duo was present on all of the three-day event, to the delight of many fans. They generously gave out autographs and posed for pictures, and they were very game on whatever the activity is. Both of them participated on showmatches, including an All-Star battle and a 2v2 exhibition. Ex-MYM player H4nn1 also played a DotA showmatch, playing Goblin Techies on a game he admittedly had not played for around six years.

The following interview was conducted by Ren "Pacific.Ren" Vitug on the 31st of August, the second day of the event. The entirety of the interview was done informally and over a basket of nachos, and thus the questions and the responses are edited to be fit for reading. The changes were made with an effort of preserving the intergrity, context and content of both the questions and the answers.



To start off, why is it only the two of you here and not the full team? Did you volunteer or?

H4nn1: MSI (one of the sponsors) asked for two players to come to the Philippines. Last year it was Fnatic’s SC2 players who went.

Trixi: I was asked first. I can go, but I don't want to go alone. Danny, our manager, asked H4nn1 as well. I wasn't that motivated to go not because I don't want to, but because we have been abroad for two and a half months already: Serbia for two months (Fnatic's bootcamp) and the States for 2 weeks. I finally got home and I was there for two weeks, and already I have to go to the Philippines. Life is full of choices. *laughs*



So only two players were invited and not the whole team itself?

Trixi: I don't know about that but I think the others don't want to travel, at least that's how I feel. Era and Fly didn't want to go, and n0tail probably wanted to go to Sweden instead to see some Internet girls. *laughs*



You probably were asked a lot already about your previous tournament, but I hope you won’t mind that I throw in some TI3 questions. You finished a joint 7th-8th place last The International 3. Considering how the other teams actually fared, were you satisfied or disappointed with your finish?

H4nn1: I think everyone is happy to be placed 'in the money' but if we would have had a chance to face European teams like Na`Vi or Alliance again, I think we would have fared better. Everyone is saying that Alliance is unbeatable but we feel that we have the best chance to beat them. In a way, we were like their scrimming partners - I think we scrim them the most and they scrim us the most during the preparations for TI3, and we were like 50-50.

Trixi: I was very sad about the game with Orange. It was Best-of-1 and we could have won. We were disappointed because we played bad, lost strategically and made stupid mistakes and choices. We were ahead, we think we could have won the game - not easily but we could have won the game. When we lost, we came to think that you get at least more than double the money if we win. That is a big difference for one game.



What do you think was the crucial point of your match against Orange?

H4nn1: Well, everyone was blaming my Skadi build on Shadow Fiend. It’s a nice fighting build, but we never really fought. If we wanted to siege, I could have just bought a Butterfly and Satanic. I think the biggest issue is we didn't really have a plan on how to finish the game. It was like, we could have pushed but we really didn't want to push. We could have taken at least a lane of barracks, but we decided to back-off. We really didn't go for anything, and the game was so passive and nothing was happening. We were very far ahead on the early-middle game I think farming wise, but we didn't make anything out of it. We really had no game plan.

Trixi: I had a very early Mekansm for Dark Seer for example, and we had Chen as well.

H4nn1: I felt like the issue was we thought that Morphling is going to farm up and we will win late game. But now I think Morphling is kind of a misplaced pick in a way, because we were held back because of his lack of farm leading to us deciding not to push. It was just bad decision making for us. You go against your own strength in a way, how you think the game is going to progress. Usually, the way we play Morphling is that, at one point, Morphling becomes strong and you win the game - that is our experience with that hero. But it didn't really get to that point. Anti-Mage got way more than what Morphling had.

(you can watch the Fnatic-Orange game here)



So it’s really having second thoughts about pushing or farming some more?

H4nn1: It’s thinking that your strategy is going to work out. Morphling is a good counter to Anti-Mage in a way, but it really didn't end up that way - Morph had triple the farm of AM.

Trixi: And you made Skadi *laughs*



You said earlier that you are quite confident about facing Alliance. Do you think Alliance feels that way too, and that is the reason they chose LGD over you on the first round of the playoffs?

H4nn1: Yes. They also knew that they will have a better outcome against a Chinese team. They have figured them out really well and they know what will work best against them. I think the biggest issue for the Chinese is that they can't deal with the three core heroes - Lone Druid, Nature's Prophet and Batrider. Alliance is getting at least one of them, and then the Chinese don't really know how to play against Wisp. Wisp is the most retarded hero in the game and they can't play it for some unknown reasons. It gives such an advantage because the Chinese has to ban Wisp every time because Alliance has a really good record with that hero - practically almost every European team has a good record on Wisp.

The finals sort of go against it though. When Na`Vi has Wisp, Alliance should have won the game but they underperformed. Wisp wasn't used anywhere near its full potential. It was a bit sad watching the finals because you would expect the best Dota, but then it’s not the best. It’s good, of course, ‘ still good - but its not used to its full potential. The fifth game was the only amazing game because it was not a stomp, but I still felt Na`Vi should have won the game. They just threw so much, they got a lot of money, but they could have gotten a lot more.

I'm sort of happy with the outcome though because I feel Na`Vi didn't deserve it. They should have dropped off earlier, like the Pudge game against TongFu was so stupid. *laughs*



So how would you sum up your experience in Seattle, what is the best part about it?

H4nn1: I guess it is the whole concept of the event. It’s not entirely new, but everything is well-organized. You expected, but then they went over the top. I just feel like it couldn't have been better. They made sure everything was okay, especially for the players. They made sure everything is fine. Even if you have concerns, they will encourage you to come to them so they can fix it.

Trixi: And they always have one guy working for you - one special guy organizing for your team. So he will walk you around and take care of you, ask if you have a match or if you have any problems or if you want to get anything.

H4nn1: If there is one thing I didn't like, it’s the shady rule that came up on the Orange match. The issue was why we didn't get the first pick when there was no coin toss. The rule before that was whoever has the higher seed from the preliminaries will choose the pick order. Suddenly, the new rule came up that they get to choose because they took one game over Na`Vi in the Upper bracket. In theory, they have the second and fourth spot and we are clear third so it should still at least be a coin-toss. The rule came out of nowhere and no one really talked to us about it.

Trixi: The rule just came suddenly, it’s like an on-the-fly decision. And another problem was before the Orange game, we have a day break where we don't get to play anything. And on the day we are playing, there was no way for us to warm-up. We should have laptops or something. We get to play instantly, on a best-of-1, without having to play a single game on the day or the day before.

H4nn1: Every time we have an official match, I play at least two games before it. It doesn't matter if it’s a scrim or a pub, but I want to warm-up before. I know I'm going to play worse if not - you just get in the game better and concentrate better by playing games before. We didn't have a chance to, and that could be something they could improve on.



Moving forward, we have seen the announcement of the new season of Starladder. Except for Alliance who of course is sporting the whole crew, pretty much every team is being seen a different line-up now except for you guys. What can you say about this, were you guys certain that you will still have the same roster after TI?

H4nn1: I think we are one of the few teams that character-wise are happy with each other, we are friends and there is no awkwardness within the team.

Trixi: There was a chance that we might not play together. H4nn1 wanted to move to the States but that didn't work out I guess. We were already discussing if we have to get a new mid player, but then he said that he will continue to stay in Europe for at least another year so there is no reason for us to change the roster. It’s going to be interesting to see how Starladder goes, you see a lot of teams and you get curious on how their new roster will play out. The thing is I haven't even followed the changes. If I see something, I'll be interested. But I'm not the guy who will research and dig up replays and ask on Skype, so I will just wait and see what happens.



Since you are comfortable with each other, let me throw a theoretical question. If you guys finished worse on TI, would you still say that you'll still play together with as much certainty as you have had?

H4nn1: It depends. I would say that we would still stick together, because it’s just all about learning how to finish the game. We had issues on our team as well but we solved them within the boot camp. I think it’s also one of our strengths – every time we have an issue, someone has to man up, which is usually me. We talk about the issue. That is something that is hard to do for a lot of people. You know the problem, it’s on the table, but you don't want to talk about the private stuff. But you have to - if one player is unhappy then he will drag the entire team down. It would always be that way. You can't play unless everyone is satisfied with each other.



Do you think that you have a certain advantage over the next coming tournaments because your roster is still intact?

​H4nn1: I think the team who scrims the most is going to win. The whole experience of TI is still important, but I still think it’s just how much how much everyone is scrimming and how on par are you with the picks and the new heroes. I don't think the changelog is that big, but the team who scrims the most will end up on top.



What are the future plans for the team - SL, MLG and EMS and other tournaments are coming one after another. Do you plan another boot camp on Serbia or any other specific actions?

H4nn1: We don't really have specific plans, just scrim and attend every tournament possible. Plan is just to participate in every one of them, and do our best and hopefully win. That is pretty much what we have.

Trixi: We haven't really scrimmed after TI, so it’s something that we have to look into. I think the meta-game might change again because of the new heroes and whatnot, the drafting and strategies, so we have to adjust on that and then maybe invent our own stuff. If you can be nerdy like Goblak with his Weaver and Treant, then you can have an edge.



​I see. Okay, let’s talk about a different thing. You guys are very familiar with switching games - from Heroes of Newerth to Dota 2. Actually, both of you have also played DotA as well. So what do you feel about changing, is the transition hard or comfortable or?

H4nn1: From DotA to HoN, I guess it was quite easy for me. I just looked for a game without delay, and that is probably the main reason why I switched. Playing at Battle.net, then at Garena, the delay was terrible. And you play HoN and suddenly there was no delay. It was really smooth and thus it was nice to play, then you get used to the game mechanics with a very nice turn rate.

Trixi: I just play what I'm comfortable playing with. I played DotA for a long time and then I got bored of it. Then I played HoN and then got bored of it as well. So I left the Fnatic team to play Dota 2 because the other guys want to continue playing it. That's pretty much it. If I get bored with Dota 2, which is unlikely to be anytime soon, I will find another game.



You guys quit HoN while you were at the peak. Usually teams switch when they are failing, but the team moved over when you were dominating. Why did you decide to switch to Dota 2?

Trixi: We started playing Dota 2 early 2012, but we weren't good enough. So we decided to continue playing in some HoN tournaments. We went back to Dota 2 and won Dreamhack Summer 2012 but all of us had the same mindset that this will be our last HoN tournament. We will not play HoN anymore.

H4nn1: The decision was made before. Everyone knew that that is going to be the last tournament and I could play like one hero - Shaker every single game. I don't even want to play another hero anymore, and they implemented a new system and everyone just bans Shaker. I was like, 'Whatever, I don't want to play HoN anymore'. *laughs*

Trixi: Nova wanted to continue playing HoN. That's why I entered the team again.



Filipino players are still on some sort of transition from DotA to Dota 2. We have monthly tournaments, where DotA LAN tournaments usually fetch at least 500 teams, and online Dota 2 contests has around 50 to 100. Do you have any words of encouragement for the Filipino people to switch?

H4nn1: You just have to force yourself to play. You may not like it, it may be hard. I'd say it’s kind of easy though to move from DotA to Dota 2 as opposed to HoN to Dota 2. On DotA, you will experience delay and Dota 2 offers a better platform. It’s much nicer, and besides, saving the game every now and then is troublesome.

Trixi: For me, it was kind of obvious that when Dota 2 comes out, I would switch. I guess that is how it’s like for most, that they'll switch regardless if they are from DotA or HoN. I guess there are just other things to take into factor why they don't switch.



​Since we are talking about these Filipino gamers, let me ask you this. I'm sure you guys are not new to great public reception during tournaments. You've been met by fans on Dreamhack, TI - what can you say about the Filipino fans?

Trixi: In America for example, people are more open in a way. They are very comfortable when talking to you. Here it’s like people are scared, a bit shy. It’s nice and warm. People are really friendly, but I guess just a little too friendly for me. Everyone is addressing me as Sir and whatnot, and I don't really like that because I'm not higher than anyone else. *laughs*



The Philippines has a big, young gaming population. I know that 'professional gamers' are very rare here given the support given to them, but what should be the goal of these players if they wish to turn pro?

H4nn1: The important thing is not the prize pool; it’s about having a steady income. You shouldn't be based on the prize money. Its one thing that I was disappointed with about TI. The compendium was meant for all teams but the bottom eight gets nothing. It would have been better if there is some sort of compensation for 9-12 and 13-16 because some people who bought these Compendiums are supporting these teams. We invest too much into gaming. This is the biggest issue for the players - you are working a job that won't land you much money.



That is e-Sports indeed *laughs* A quick question: I was wondering, if you can make the game more interesting, how would it be?

H4nn1: I wish that a rune be set in a way that it starts randomly as normal, but then it will go on one to another. Like it starts on one side, and then spawns alternately.



I think that is makes good sense. It kind of encourages action because the teams would then contest runes.

H4nn1: Yeah. Luck is still in the game but it kind of minimizes it. You may be winning the middle lane, but then you get a big disadvantage because the guy gets lucky with a rune on the other side.

Trixi: It’s kind of a strategy as well. Do you want to go for the rune, do you want to fight for it or will you just let the other guy have it? You may get a little more experience (on the lane) if you give up a rune.

H4nn1: You waste so much time and the rune may not be there, and then you miss a few creeps. Usually, you will push the lane then you will go to the rune spots so you won’t lose experience, but this is a way that you really don't have to do that. The top rune is easy to go to but the bottom rune is very far.



I guess that is about it. Thank you very much. Any shout outs?

H4nn1: Shout outs to MSI for making this happen. It’s pretty nice, getting an opportunity to come here.

Trixi: Thank you to the other sponsors as well.: Steelseries, Eizo and Winamax.



Anything for the Filipino players?

H4nn1: Switch to Dota 2. *laughs*.

Trixi: Thanks to the people who came to meet us!