[Music]
uh hi guys I'm here with Paul
so how do you enjoying this tournament
so far it's been fun yeah I've watched
most of it from home though cuz
obviously I haven't been here so I've
had to watch it all from home so it's
been a bit hard because I do a day job
and then stay up all night and watch
DOTA so it's been some long days it's
nice to be here though okay um you have
been commmentating for a long time and
over 100 years yes and now you're mainly
host yes uh so do you which role do you
like the most
I kind I like them all I don't I don't
really have a favorite role you know I
like doing desk host I like being a
stage host but I also like commentating
as well I like them all they're all
they're all different but I like them
all do you like daughter yeah I don't I
mean I'm not very good at it um and
playing wise it can be very frustrating
for me because I'm old you know I'm like
75 so you know playing is is hard now um
but watching it is really cool yeah I
love watching it um the international is
the important events for all community
and um do you feel honored to be the
main host yes of course I
mean it's you know it's the biggest
tournament in the world right now it's
almost $18 million it's you know it's a
world championship it's the best teams
the best players great Arena great City
it's everything you could ever want to
come and host so um I watched last last
year and I watched the year before and
you watch it getting bigger and then you
know as a host or a commentator you want
to go and do the big events you want to
do all of the big events you know you
want to do BlizzCon you want to do Quake
gon you want to do TI um you want to do
World Championships World Finals all of
these things and uh there isn't anything
bigger so I've always wanted to do it I
would love to have done it last year but
it didn't happen and then I I get to do
it this year so yeah I'm really honored
is it new experience for you yeah yeah
and it's
and I'm quite old and I've done it for
quite a long time but the thing is is
I'm genuinely very excited about coming
to do the international it's I actually
have butterflies did you get butterflies
of course yeah I get butterflies every
time I think about the stage is going to
be great lots of people it's going to be
yeah a lot of fun this is my first uh
International too okay so I'm very
excited so we're both International
virgins yes that's
good uh how much did you prepare in in
Dota
know uh in total knowledge not a huge
amount um I did a lot of that last year
I got used to the game more I learned
more about the heroes I learned more
about the
abilities um but I don't really need to
know a lot about that side of it the
commentators do and the players do
obviously and we have really good
analysts and you know Quality quality
analysts who've played the game at a
high level and so my job isn't really to
do that my job is to try and get that
out of them get them to talk about you
know which hero is great and why and
what situation and so I I didn't really
spend a lot of time in the game this
time I spent more time you know hundreds
of hours if not a thousand hours
watching videos and watching old
tournaments and watching old TI I
actually sat down um I spent four days
maybe five days watching all of The
International four in a row literally
one after the other and walking around
the house with wireless headset on
listening to DOTA and doing washing up
and the washing and all the all the
normal things but listening to doter in
my head um so I did an awful lot of that
a lot of statistical preparation
um working with KNX and uh looking at
things like not just statistics but
statistics that make story lines so you
know is there a is there a a moment so
is someone going to play their 100th
game at the international um what if
someone goes 30 on uh a particular hero
and understanding those are story lines
as well so that we can make people
excited about them so I focused a lot on
that and then I think the last part of
my preparation really last week was
learning more about the players and the
teams and understanding their chemistry
and how they fit together and how they
get on um but also looking at rivalries
so it's really cool that we have
complexity versus EG because there's a
player on either side who don't like
each other they used to be in the same
team together and then he got kicked
because the other guy wanted his brother
to come in so there's some real rivalry
tense rivalry and then on top of that
Evil Geniuses and complexity have a long
rivalry outside of doter as well so it's
it's looking at things like that and and
you know educating myself about the
players you did a really good job I
think thank you and do you follow some
team um I know you've only asked me that
because you know it's
na'vi yeah no I don't mean cheated no I
mean I don't necessarily follow any
teams I think it would be wrong for me
to do that cuz I need to stay
independent but I do have favorite
players um and they're not really
favorite players because of the way they
play the game it's more because I know
them outside of the game so dendi is one
of those that you know I've done for a
little while now and he's always been
great I always like talking to him uh
he's very kind to me as well so um loer
is another guy so I was really unhappy
that Alliance aren't here because
obviously loer couldn't make it so that
was pretty sad for me uh no tayor get on
really well with we have a lot of fun we
we joked about last year because he
changed his name to Big Daddy and I sent
him an image of a wrestler from the UK
called Big Daddy and I said that's now
what you are and he thought that was
even even cooler um so yes I got along
with a lot of the a lot of players um
but I don't I don't have any favorite
teams what do you think about uh such a
big price pool do you think uh this priz
pool in influence the
players um I think it does it's hard not
to it's you know 17 nearly $8 million
and and it's once a year so you know
much as it's like for casters and
analysts if they don't make TI then they
feel really bad because they've kind of
put the whole Year's worth of work into
coming and then they don't get invited
so it's harsh for them it's the same for
the players and the team's probably
worse so for them because you know the
two teams that went out on Sunday in the
wild cards have gone home with nothing
but they've flown out here they've had
to put in the same preparation as
everyone else they've spent 11 months
training and putting their effort in
Soul into coming here to earn good money
whatever position they finish at and
they go home with nothing um and that's
it's not healthy to do that and that's
obviously W Val are going to change
things next year so that's good um on
the other side of it from a
sporting perspective it's really
exciting for us you know so it's it's
really it's quite harsh for the players
but it you know I mean the quarter
finals of the upper bracket are all $1
million games if you win you're
guaranteed a million and that's that's
crazy the pressure on these guys is
enormous um so I don't envy them but at
the same time it's great that they get a
chance to play for this much money and
you know that wouldn't have happened
five years ago so yes what do you think
about um major tournaments that 12
announcement um will it stabilize the
DOTA scene um I think it will help a lot
yeah I think having four of them a year
or or however many they're going to do
um and having those you know regular
tournaments have got to be better than
doing one huge one the problem happens
is if they're as popular as the
international and they're all 20 million
tournaments and what do we do then
because that would be crazy um but yeah
hopefully it will help do you think the
smaller tournaments will die I think
some will yeah I think it's it's
inevitable that they will um but overall
I think the big ones will be fine um and
then maybe it becomes part of a you know
a wider circuit you maybe we have maybe
we only have 12 to 15 big events a year
but that would be that would be amazing
um Formula 1 has 19 20 races a year
maybe DOTA you know is a bit more like
that in terms of big events and then the
players can handle it a bit more and we
get a great season anyway and we see
some great events um but I I would still
miss the fact that we don't have one big
event to Crown the world champion cuz we
won't necessarily have that anymore and
I think that's a bit disappointing
too okay um the last Internationals was
very became very popular because of
analytic desk and commentator were funny
and sometime uh foolish so do you think
this is necessary for DOTA audience or
the better way to be more uh formal and
traditional approach I think it's
difficult
um I think for the community they they
want the fun they want the the banter
they want you know people to be enjoying
themselves they're not too worried about
professionalism the problem is is that
this is a this is a huge tournament and
it goes out everywhere and it and it and
valve and the sponsors and everyone else
want they want the tournament to be seen
seriously they want it to be taken
seriously and unfortunately to be taken
seriously we need a higher level of
professionalism and sometimes
professionalism means that you can't
quite have as much fun as you wanted to
have or be a bit cheeky and have as much
banter as you want but I honestly I've
not been told don't have fun or don't
have banter I'm I'm going to have as
much fun and banter as I can on the desk
so uh hopefully we can make it a nice
Middle Ground where people can still
enjoy it and have some fun but actually
other people looking at it for the first
time will go actually this is really
cool this is really professional it's
like a sport um and then we we hopefully
we we pull more fans into doter as
well where did do you see Esports in 5
years from now that's a crazy question
um you know five years ago people asked
me where do you see Esports in 5 years
from now and I was like well I think
we'll have some bigger tournaments and
you know maybe we'll start getting
100,000 people watching on our streams
that was 5 years ago and now we're
getting millions of people watching on
our streams um 5 years from now
wow I I don't know anymore I thought I
knew but I don't know anymore because we
could literally have tens of millions of
people watching
um and regular prize pulls of of 10
million on every tournament I mean we
just don't know it but it it's getting
bigger and bigger and bigger so all I
know is it's going to be
enormous okay we going to finish this
interview thank you very much for your
time and do you have something to say sh
outs just thank you for the interview
and uh thank you to all the great guys
at na'vi we always uh always talk about
you guys been been really cool and you
know keep rocking in all the games that
you play not just in Dota um and also to
my my friends back at home at gfinity I
miss you guys because they're busy still
working hard and I'm out here having fun
sorry it's bad of me and also thanks to
Val for inviting me to do the
international so hope I hope I do a good
job yes I I think you will thank you so
uh see you guys soon at Nai Channel bye