PIG: It was an option we had open

posted by HolyMaster, 1 year ago

Hey guys, Sayuri's announcement a few days ago caused a lot of controversy, especially within the North American DotA scene. What led her to give answers that you and your teammate Korok seem to take such exception to?

This question is very hard to answer because of all the things occurring behind closed doors, but needless to say I think all party members involved would agree that the announcement was very rushed and lacked proper preparation and planning due to a multitude of reasons. To say that Korok and I had never thought of joining her team would be a false notion, as we considered it a possibility, but nothing was set in stone as far as our plans for joining any team. We were contracted to GoSu at the time as well as finding out we came top 4 in StarLadder and qualified for the StarLadder finals in Ukraine as well which added even more uncertainty to the situation.

Some users criticized the way joinDOTA handled the situation. What actions would you have wished for?

Honestly I don't feel there's any need to criticize joinDOTA. The article, as it stood, a few hours after it was posted, did not have any weight to it at all. Not saying it was one party's fault and not the others, but an article which holds no real substance shouldn't be a topic of discussion nor something people should come in and read about. I believe that joinDOTA strongly made the correct decision in deleting the article for these reasons. Things were extremely up in the air at the time, which made the situation very difficult to deal with in the first place. I think the situation played out the best it possibly could have.

How much of a possibility was this theoretical team? Was there ever much of a chance for it, had the interview controversy not occurred?

It was an option we had open for sure. We were still looking at all possible options, but honestly speaking, like I previously said, everything was extremely rushed.

Are you on good terms with Sayuri? Is a future cooperation still possible?

Yeah personally I'm still good friends with Sayuri, although I don't think there will be future cooperation as far as teams go, simply because we have our roster set in stone and we're all extremely dedicated to seeing it through.

I thought our previous team was going to stick together through everything from the time I joined to the International - and unfortunately we were flaked on despite doing extremely well as a team in every event. This time around I made sure the roster we have is going to be a roster that's reliable. We took getting flaked on hard in all honesty, and we aren't interested in having something like that occur again.

Let's talk about It's Gosu. The organization recently announced that 1437 and PowerNet's team Captain Planet will henceforth play under the It's Gosu tag. Naturally, there are a lot of rumours about your team. Have you guys disbanded?

It's GoSu was put in a very difficult spot as an organization. In tandem to that, we were also put in a very difficult spot as a team. We had the strong core of our 4 long-time members, but one who shall go unnamed had an offer from another team he was more interested in I guess. There's nothing set in stone as well there either, as both sides had their fair share of conflicts with the situation. For the past 2-3 weeks, everyone in the scene knows that we've been in an inconsistent state because of these problems.

It's GoSu relies heavily on its Dota 2 division as an organization and found it vital to have a Dota 2 division representing it. Over these two weeks I have talked with Scott, the manager from It's GoSu, about potential futures for having me lead the GoSu Dota 2 squad. However, it appears I was taking too much time to reform our new squad and went ahead and took his liberty to sign with Captain Planet. It's a shame as I loved working with Scott and It's GoSu but the time we took was of necessity to make sure that we would be able to reform our squad into a team capable of living up to our former reputation. I am proud to announce that with this squad, we, without a doubt, have the potential.

As for the last part... No, we haven't disbanded at all. We have, however, unfortunately lost our spots in a few leagues such as TPL and the reverse draft hosted by joinDOTA.

So, you guys are definitely determined to stick together now? Is joining other teams not an option anymore?

This team is sticking together for sure. Everyone we've recruited to our current squad is fully motivated and roaring to show off that we can play up to the standard that the previous It's GoSu had. Korok and I have been long-time partners in crime, wreaking havoc across the Dota realms and we're looking to continue doing so together. Joining other teams at this time isn't even in our mindset. Our goals right now are to prove that we're a stable team capable of previous achievements such as winning the joinDOTA Masters cup, and achieving top 4 results in StarLadder.

Who are the stable members now? A lot of fans have certainly lost the overview. What's the team's name going to be until you find a new organisation?

The stable members right now are Korok, LastHitMagic, previously known as Sorcery, Solace50 who went to ESWC 2008 California as a qualifier winner, Solara, an up-and-comer in the North American Dota 2 scene and myself as the captain. Universe unfortunately has some other obligations at the moment eating up his time, but he'll be our 6th man/ringer for the time being.

We'll be named ex-GoSu, because we want to make it clear in the upcoming tournaments we're participating in, specifically the GosuLeague qualifiers and It's GoSu's monthly madness. We want everyone to know that we're still a team capable of bringing home trophies with our new roster. We've talked with a few organizations about our future but our current focus is just winning every tournament available.

You placed fourth in the Star Series but are unable to make it to the LAN finals nevertheless. What prevails: The satisfaction of the great results, or the disappointment of not being able to compete for the title?

We placed fourth in Star Series, which we were actually quite happy about considering we lost 3 games in a case where we had to use 3 ringers in. Despite this, we still ended up top 4 which made us extremely happy as a team, to know that we could throw away 3 games due to roster issues and still achieve that kind of placement. However, the greatest thing about Dota 2 is playing against strong opponents in hard-fought matches and coming out as the victor. I would have to personally say that the disappointment of not being able to compete for the title prevails over making top 4.

If we were able to participate in the LAN finals, I truly believe our old roster had the ability to beat any team under a good practice regime, even Na`Vi. Playing the top team in the world such as Na`Vi is the greatest feeling you can get as a competitor. Our team would have been extremely excited to face them in the first round as we considered them a benchmark to surpass. When we train and practice, we don't imagine playing against any other team than Na`Vi themselves. They were our one and only goal throughout the duration GoSu was together.