Hi there and welcome to the NAVI Dota 2 channel.
Today, I'm joined by swedenstrong aka Georgii, and this is his very first interview on our channel.
- Hey, Georgii. Welcome to NAVI! - Hello! Thank you.
I want to introduce you to the NAVI viewers, so let's start from the very beginning.
Tell us a bit about yourself. How old are you?
I'm 19. I've been playing Dota for 8 years now and here I am on NAVI.
How did you start playing Dota? How did you discover your passion for this game?
When did you decide to go pro? What was this journey like for you?
My classmates invited me to play with them and I actually hated Dota before - I was a kid and I was making fun of those who played it.
Why? What was wrong with it?
I don't know, it's just the internet was full of 'Dota is for nerds' stuff,
and I was like, "Yeah, Dota is for nerds and I'm not a nerd."
But then I tried to play with my friends and I got hooked.
I started skipping classes and playing more and more.
I was watching tournaments and wanted to be here myself.
How did you end up becoming a pro? Did it happen naturally because you were really good or was it your goal to make it to this level?
It was my initial goal - back when I was just starting out, I realized I wanted to be a pro, attend a TI, tournaments, LANs and win them.
It was my goal that I was working towards.
What motivated you? The TI money or other things?
Competitiveness - I want to be the best.
It's not about money or anything.
How did you get to know your first teammates and find your first team?
My first team? I had 5000-6000 MMR at the time and I made a post on the Dota2.ru forum that I was looking for a team.
I got a lot of invites from a lot of stacks to my surprise.
I don't remember which was my first one but I recall I was just switching teams doing tryouts and trying to be the best.
What turn did your career take after that? What teams did you play for?
I checked your profile, obviously, and it looks like NAVI is your first big team, but what were the ones you played before?
Before NAVI, I played for Nova - Team Unique's academy.
I joined them in the summer of 2021 and was there for about 8 months.
We had a couple of rosters and tested a lot of players.
Nova was my first pro team because we had our first contracts and bootcamps and the approach was more serious.
Other than that, I just played with some stacks without an organization.
It's great to know about your past. It's been recently announced that you've joined NAVI,
but what happened on February 24 has changed all our lives, probably yours too.
How has your life changed? What was going through your head when you woke up that morning realizing the war had started?
Were you afraid for your life, career, your family? Can you describe what it was like for you?
When it started, I was really concerned about everything, including my future and my career.
I was really worried and I wanted it to end.
Where are you now? I know that you've relocated? Mind filling us in on that?
Yeah, it made me move from Russia to Belgrade, Serbia.
NAVI helped me relocate and I'm really grateful to them for that.
I'm renting an apartment and living here with my mom.
So your mom also moved. Was it hard for you and mom to make this decision?
It must be harder for older people. What made you do it?
Actually, it wasn't hard because when it started, I immediately thought it would be better to leave Russia.
Because you thought it was the right thing to do or for safety reasons?
When the war started, I was deeply shocked and it was really unexpected.
I have a lot of friends in Ukraine, and my family traveled to Ukraine and they told me how great it was in Kyiv,
about its people and how beautiful the city was.
So I was really concerned about this situation and that's why my mom and I decided to move to Serbia and I'm in Belgrade now.
I'm still in shock as I read the news.
I ask my friends about how they're doing and always text them.
You've moved to Belgrade, Serbia, and I know that a lot of Dota players are there now.
Are you hanging out with anyone from Spirit, PuckChamp? As far as I know, some guys from HellRaisers are there too.
I'm not hanging out with anyone here in Belgrade but I stayed with PuckChamp for some time before I moved into this apartment.
Other than that, I'm not friends with any of them but maybe I will make some with all of us being here.
Is Belgrade a large city? I've never been there.
Just an average-sized city. It's not large.
Then you'll surely meet and bond as a Dota community.
How did you end up joining NAVI? Who contacted you first? When and how did it happen?
It was really unexpected and happened the day before the start of the DPC season.
The previous Stockholm Major announcement really came out of nowhere for everyone, and I guess for NAVI too.
Lyosha Solo contacted me one day before the qualifiers and asked me whether I wanted to play them with NAVI.
I was on Nova at the time and it actually took me 2-3 hours to mull it over.
I told the guys on the team and they supported me telling me to go ahead and give it a go and wished me luck.
I said I was ready and they added me to the team.
We played scrims for one day and then the qualifiers started.
Were you surprised when Solo got in touch with you? Did you talk to anyone on NAVI before?
No, I didn't talk to anyone.
I had no contact at all with any of the four players before, except for coming across them in matchmaking.
So yeah, it came as a huge surprise.
A lot of players regard Solo as arguably the best captain in the CIS region being a legend everyone wants to play with and talk to because of his personality.
Did you ever think you'd be playing under Solo's leadership? And now that you've played with him, are you not disappointed with your experience?
No, I'm not disappointed at all, and yes, I thought about playing with him but it was a long time ago back when he was on Virtus.pro.
I had 6000-7000 MMR and I pictured myself join their team and play with them.
Eventually I did.
Cool, dreams do come true.
How did the other guys welcome you? What's communication been like?
You haven't seen them in person yet and I hope you'll get to soon, but how did they welcome you?
Really well. I've been comfortable being here since Day 1 and it's been easy to communicate with the guys,
getting ideas across and sorting out any issues together.
So yeah, props to them. They're easy to talk to and they're cool guys.
You've mentioned that the DPC season and Stockholm Major qualifier were really unexpected coming out of nowhere, yet it was your debut with NAVI.
How did it go? Any mistakes you can point out now that it's been some time?
Our first official games were tough because we'd only had one day of practice and scrims,
and Alik didn't have his PC for 2 months because of the whole situation.
The official games were hard to play since we didn't have our teamplay going and everyone was just playing off their individual skill.
That's why it was challenging against more synergetic teams.
However, I do believe we did pretty well all things considered.
Yeah, I agree. You put quite a good performance in your first games.
Did your hero pool fit the team? Were you nervous during the qualifiers?
I wasn't nervous at all. The only issue was I had to go to Moscow to get a visa and played one game from there, which was problematic.
All in all, I was calm and collected, and it was easy to play because the guys took me in and were really open.
As for my hero pool, I play the most OP and meta heroes of the patch that are annoying to play against.
So I think my hero pool fits any team on every patch.
What are the most annoying and OP heroes right now?
The most annoying are IO, Marci, who should be added to Captain's Mode, and especially Doom.
Okay, the Major following the qualifiers wasn't that spectacular in terms of performance but BetBoom managed to surprise a lot of people.
What do you think about the Major results and our teams' showing? Did you watch the games?
I couldn't follow the Major properly because it was happening at the same time as my relocation, so I only watched it on my phone sometimes.
Overall, I thought Spirit would do better. They looked pretty sloppy in the qualifiers and I thought they would have better form coming into the Major,
but I guess they didn't have time to prepare for it.
BetBoom did well and I think they could've placed higher - they lost the last series 2-1 and it was really close.
I think they have a good chance to qualify and do well in the next tournaments.
As for others, the Chinese were unable to addend and as a result, we had 3 European teams in the top 4.
So it was kind of a European-dominated Major.
Besides, half of the TSM players who placed second play European matchmaking, so Europe kind of prevailed at that Major.
OG won the title with some veterans on the team. How do you think they managed to pull it off?
Was it because other teams weren't quite in form and China wasn't even present?
I considered them one of the favorites before the Major and I was surprised they dropped down to the lower bracket after losing to TSM 0-2.
Besides, they had Ceb who was a huge motivational and morale factor with his pep talks and N0tail as a coach,
who must have helped the youngsters with their experience big time, including how to deal with pressure at the tournament and so on.
Dota is kind of about young talents while two veterans just came in and got the job done. That's kind of amazing.
Yeah. They have 3 young core players and they're good. Like really good.
I like watching them play.
So yeah, I think it was a natural result.
Good combination. Okay, walk us through your daily routine.
What's it like in terms of practice? Do you have a PC with you? We talked about V-Tune not having one for 2 months. Tell us about it.
I finally moved into an apartment a few days ago and it's like at home now so I can play Dota all day long,
which was a problem while I was looking for a place to rent because I either had no PC or had to go somewhere and do some things.
Thankfully, it's been sorted and I can play and practice now.
What are the plans for the team? The bootcamp is clearly off the table now but still, how much do you practice together?
Fill us in on the short-term plans.
We're practicing every day. I can play now and we are ready to grind.
We're playing a lot together, watching games, playing MM, and practicing hard.
The plans are to play the upcoming DPC league and do well, qualify for the Major and win it.
Cool, I wish you good luck. I really want you to get back on track and make it to the Major. I hope you can do that.
Thank you for the interview. Make sure to follow Georgii on social media.
Which ones do you mainly use? Twitter, Instagram?
I only have Twitch, that's all - twitch.tv/swedenstrong.
Okay, have a good one! Thank you guys for watching and make sure to subscribe to our channel.
We'll try to make more content and deliver good results. Cheers!