Photo: ESL One

By Anand ‘Warhog’ Tapadia

Special to VPEsports

Keen Gaming took the plaudits at ESL One Mumbai by defeating Mineski 3-0 in the grand finals. After a shaky start in the knockout stages, the Chinese team came back strong in the lower bracket to knock out The Pango, TNC and Na’Vi before facing Mineski. At the end, the team did a combined winner’s interview and VPEsports managed to get their responses as well. They are good Dota 2 player, but as you’ll realize from the interview, not the chattiest of people!

Third place in the Bucharest Minor, 6th place in the Stockholm Major (an upgrade as they qualified for the Major) and now first place here at ESL One Mumbai. Are you expecting yourself to win the MDL Disneyland® Major?

We expect to do better than the last Major, so get a top 4 finish.







The second game in the grand finals against Mineski was a very close one (one and three were easy wins for Keen Gaming). In such scenarios, how does the thought process work? What’s going on in your heads?

During the second game, we had different opinions on how to proceed. But towards the end, we came to similar conclusions on how to proceed and what the plan should be, which is why we won it in the end.







You lost to Na’Vi initially and then you came back strong to defeat Na’Vi. Was that the turnaround? Was that where you knew you were going to win the tournament?

Yes, we think so. The 2-1 loss to Na’Vi was an accident.

The 2-1 loss to Na’Vi was an accident







Is the team disappointed that none of the five won the MVP award and didn’t get the Mercedes?

Yes, very disappointed *all of them laughed*.





If you had to pick an MVP from Keen Gaming, who would it be?

Manager: In my opinion, it should have been Old Chicken who got the MVP.

It should have been Old Chicken who got the MVP







Did you expect so much support from the Indian crowd?

We thought there would be more people and more support from the Indian crowd!





In any of the final games against picks, was there pick from Mineski that surprised you?

The Naga pick in the second game surprised us.





Are you confident on qualifying for The International 2019?

It will be difficult to qualify to TI9 from China as there are a lot of strong teams.

It will be difficult to qualify to TI9 from China







If you were given the opportunity to come back to India to play in a tournament, would you come back?

Yes, we would! We love India.