Maurice Gutmann · @KheZu
30th Jun 2017 from TwitLonger
Post TI qualifier blog. Mentality, Instinct, Emotions, PLD
Post TI quali blog
Been awhile since I made a blog but here we go. Been very busy and trying to improve and overall just get the right mentality and understanding. Anyhow I really feel like writing one so here I am. I wanna give you guys a closer perspective of myself and dota in general. Writing this on my way back from London in my flight (shoutout to Faceit for helping us with the bootcamp.
I'll first start talking about Manila masters and slightly before. If I remember correctly my last blog ended with some Kiev major talk and further elaboration about the importance of confidence.
So we just flopped hard at Kiev and we just got our replacement for Pie. I'll give you guys some info on why and so forth. Pie left mainly because he just wanted a change and it felt fitting to regroup with people you've had success with before and perhaps some of them even improved in various aspects. So I respect his decision regarding that. I do think the timing was not the best, simply due to the fact that we showed great potential before the major and even in the groups. We just had one bad day in the major and sadly didn't have a chance to redeem ourselves. Anyhow, I fully respect and understand why he did it and I'm happy NP is doing well cuz I have a good relation with them and I fully respect them as players. I also think that in the end this move made both teams stronger.
To move on, this is where our replacement came in, Yapzor. We were thinking about some options and who we could ask, but Yapzor seemed like the most natural first choice for us.
Our first tournament with him was the Manila masters tournament in the Philippines where we had some rough games vs Newbee and NP which we both lost 2:1. This is where I realised that I really liked the way that NP uses the map and their movement. I believe they know how to abuse certain aspects of the game such as ancients (they prefer dire for a reason) there are more reasons like some of their heroes but I won't go into detail on that. Anyway I just really enjoyed how they played and moved around the map and used their heroes. Reminded me off OG atleast the movement part. After all these tournaments I'm fairly sad cause we only get to play like one game on stage and it's really awesome to play in front of a hype crowd. Also during most of this I'm not always happy with how I'm performing.
Moving forward
We had few days after Manila ended to get ready for Epicenter. We performed fairly well at Epicenter and got 4th place. Which was an improvement. We lost 2 0 to EG which didn't feel so good. We once again had a very long talk as a team and figured out alot of things about the games, drafts and ourselves as we had a very deep and meaningful talk. Also we all agreed we could really use a coach. Just to help us prepare, bounce ideas with people and just give us an outside opinion cause were sometimes very focused on certain things considering we see from our perspective (player perspective). It took us awhile but in the end we found a seemingly good option. It's a person MP had played with in the past. His name is Sunbhie and he's coached a few teams up to this point. For instance TNC last TI.So we asked him if he's interested and if he could join us at the summit. ( The summit was about to start in like 3 days from this point so it was very short notice) anyhow we made it work and he agreed and joined us at the summit. The summit was another tournament where we did fairly well. We end up losing to VP in the grand finals but overall, we got second place and we can feel the improvement in the team. Also clearly we feel like our coach and all our talks are helping us alot. Right after the finals the invites were announced. No shocker that we weren't invited. Perhaps we had a chance if we had won the grand finals.
Side note that I forgot - most top teams have a coach and you can really tell they all do alot for their respective team
We now know that we have to play the qualifiers for TI. EU has two slots so we feel pretty okay about the qualifiers. If everything goes according to plan we should be fine. Day one of the qualifier starts, we are, or atleast I called it the harder day of the day two before the qualifier started once we got to know the schedule.
We were set to play vs crescendo; my ex teammates from hon+ Loda, Alliance & Mousesports. We end day one 3:1 after losing vs Mouse in our last game of the day. The standings where very surprising. Most of us expected these teams to be doing better. F.ex Crescendo, Alliance etc. I was a little scared cuz we hadn't seen them in awhile so we were clueless as to what they play. But as I said they disappointed. On the other hand. Planet dog, Danish Bears and singularity were doing very well.
Day two was approaching and we knew we had to do good in order to secure first place in the groups. Luckily we were able to win our first game of the day vs 4p5 and then we had a fairly long break for our next matches. We had to beat Singularity, Planet dog & Danish Bears to be secured first. We win vs singularity and planet dog and match up vs db. Let me tell you. That was one the most goddamn scary and exciting game I have ever played.We screwed up alot in that game, especially once the laning stage was over. Crazy game anyhow. Somehow we were able to make a comeback. Towards the ending that was one of the biggest adrenaline rushes I've ever experienced myself. We comeback, we push their base after being two racks up. We end up buying back both our cores and travel back into the fight but we die again, leading into two buybacks. In this moment I wasnt sure wtf just happened. But goddamn I knew this ain't good. I was scared. They push, I buyback - luckily they screw up their positioning and I get to kill PA in the Chrono and in in the moment dodge a nyx stun resulting in the kill and I get to stall after. Suddenly were still in the game. I don't remember what now. I just know we win this game a few mins later when I get to use my refresher and kill the QOP in my Chrono who has no buyback. Game over after this point, they call it. Holy shit the atmosphere after that game. I was shaky for awhile and just full of emotions. It was one of the best games I had ever played and I was proud, I felt really good. And mind you, this doesn't happen that often. I usually am not satisfied with my play, It's very seldom that I feel like, that I did good enough. I'm very aware of when I do good/bad. Anyhow enough of that.
I want to go over to something else. Something that I believe helps me perform and overall improve. I've started running again. Whether it's outside or in a gym. It helps me clear my mind and get away from dota, even if it's just a little. It also makes me feel better about myself. The other thing is mentality & confidence. I've gained alot of confidence in my own ideas and my gameplay which makes me play alot better. Still not enough, but I do know it'll only get better with time like it has up to this point. I'm far from my full potential. I still make alot of mistakes, but with everygame I play, especially with this team, I'm only getting better; more knowledgeable and more of a natural in how I play. I've found a good balance in myself in understanding my mistakes and appreciating myself when I do good plays & calls.
Dota is so much about confidence - mentality and instinct. Ofcourse there are tons of other factors such as skill, strategy and chemistry and so forth. But confidence is all about YOU. Same with YOUR INSTINCT. And your MENTALITY. They matter so much, atleast I strongly believe so. I'll go a little into the instinct. Confidence and mentality are self explanatory I do believe. A good/smart dota player should trust his instinct most of the time. You play better when you feel good about your moves and so on and usually you'll feel good about what youre doing if it's natural and fast, aka your instinct. Dota is a damn fast game. Some windows of opportunities are only open for a split second, and if you don't go in that exact moment but instead you hesitate and let's say jump two seconds or even one second later, the whole fight might just go the complete opposite now. You must be confident and trust yourself (instinct), usually you want to let your team know you will initiate or however but sometimes in these moments you must just go. Situations will occur where you do not have the luxury and time to give your team a headsup and you really just goes do it.
Those are just a few of my points and general thoughts and how I value certain aspects.
There is a bonus thing I must mention. Sumail said awhile ago he doesn't play many pubs anymore. Yet he owns, hard, pretty much everybody. This amazed me, his statement and his current performance. It's no secret that he's talented like ****, but I believe it's just another situation of mindset and what makes him feel good and comfortable. I used to only feel good playing heroes that I was spamming in pubs because that made me feel confident and comfortable. But that is slowly changing. Main point I'm trying to make, everyone is different but certain things make us feel good - confident and secure.
Last topic.
I know this from my time in hon cause I was very good at my role back then in that game. Which was also the offlane. Obviously HoN is a different game but it's also very apparent that the two games share alot of similarities. I used to know nearly always know what to do in what situation and make the most out of my situation f.ex I knew my limits really well. Can I stay in lane and pressure or should I move. Like ganking mid/safelane. For instance if your a Sand King I had a good understanding of how to give myself a game. I'd gank mid and make sure my mid player has a good game because he's the tempo controller, alot of the times it was a mid Tiny/Puck etc. And the more I help him to secure what he needs, that means hell be ready earlier to make moves and apply pressure. Which now if you think about it, youre investing time into him, that later you'll get back in return. Probably even amplified and it frees your team and puts more pressure on your enemy. Just an example. I wish I had the knowledge in dota aswell, always knowing what to do. I know I don't, but I'm certainly getting better at it. That's another reason why I'm hard on myself, I was really good in hon and I knew my stuff. So when I realise that some things I don't understand, perhaps even understand wrong, I get upset. Because I know and understand deep down how it should be. Hard feeling to describe. Hopefully you are able to understand what I'm trying to say.
I do apologise for wording errors and so forth. I'll do this more professionally in the future if I keep getting good responses from these blogs.
I have more to write but I'll keep some for my next blog. If any of you have certain topics/points you'd like me to write about you can try asking me on my social medias and I'll try to implement them if I like the idea. I hope this read was enjoyable and that I was able to shed some light/insight certain aspects.
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