Hello, everyone! We've traveled 350 km to spend the day with Crystallize.
We are in his hometown of Rivne, and right now Vlad is getting a haircut.
This is the first time I see you wearing glasses.
- Do they look good on me? - Yeah.
Vlad, you've just got back from the bootcamp with a pleasant victory.
Aside from the result of that qualifier, are you satisfied with your teamwork?
Yes, everything is great. Mag started to be more involved recently, because he was afraid we could get eliminated,
he took a lot of responsibility taking some pressure off Akbar allowing him to focus on captaincy.
Things are great right now.
About the new meta, did you adapt to it over the course of the tournament?
Considering the result, it seems like it.
We adapted some strats from other teams,
also we are trying something new:
Mag sees some cool ideas in his dreams and tries to implement them in practice.
How did the patch affect your heroes? Has your playstyle changed?
Yes, I've started playing hard carries, we pick them more often.
Razor and other playmakers are less relevant for me.
Are you glad?
Yes, absolutely. Finally the patch I've been waiting for, I don't like those playmaking heroes
as I'm not particularly fond of playing actively in the early game, I'm not completely confident doing it.
Looking back at the time you've been in NAVI, this year and a half, I can see your growth in different aspects.
How do you feel about that? What has changed over your stint here in terms of your game and other things?
Here comes Vlad.
- Hello. - Hi.
Nice to meet you.
I've grown a lot as a player thanks to XBOCT: he helped and taught me a great deal, I'm extremely grateful for that.
I've also improved in other aspects, like playing at tournaments.
What do you mean?
Handling pressure during competitive play and stuff like that.
Do you put pressure on yourself, or does the audience pressure you? Or maybe the team?
It's mostly about myself, I think.
Sometimes you have a bad feeling that something's wrong, you have to tackle it.
Liquid were third.
- Liquid, Right? - Yes.
What can NAVI learn from those teams?
Secret are all about drafts, they invent a lot of stuff, if they succeed, others use it as well.
For example, Legion Commander, Brewmaster position 5, Luna position 4, they invent a lot.
Virtus Pro have very stable drafts, their drafts are simple, but they execute them perfectly.
They make the most out of their drafts.
Liquid is more of a 4+1 gameplay probably.
Vlad, what are the three main goals you've set out for this year?
Probably the first is to achieve top 1 of the ladder, the second is to...
Wait, you need to hold that number one spot as well, you can take it and lose the next day.
You achieve top 1 and then stop playing.
- And start smurfing? - Yeah.
Next one?
The second goal is to qualify for TI and to do our best to place in top 3.
The third goal is to take care of my health.
What do you mean exactly?
Sports?
Everything is fine, you have to improve everything to some extent.
Okay, let's have a meal, we are pretty hungry.
We'll continue our conversation there. Let's go.
I want to talk about your teammates, this roster has been playing together for half a year now.
I want to start with Akbar, a lot of players from outside say that Akbar has a lot of impact on the game, both micro and macro.
I want to hear your inside perspective about Akbar's impact.
The most impact in the team is from him coordinating team plays.
He has his own view of the game, tries to teach us his ways, and we have to understand his logic.
He tries to teach us his fast-paced Dota with quick responses, most of the macro calls come from him.
He controls our smokes, provides a plan for every couple of minutes.
Sometimes we can just stand there protecting a ward near our base.
As I understand, he dictates the way you play, does he listen to your ideas as well?
It sounds like he has a lot of power, and you should completely follow his orders.
What if you have a different idea, does he listen to it?
From outside, it might look like he does everything, but quite often he says we should do whatever we want on the map.
If someone feels something, he should do it, and after the game, we discuss if it was a right or wrong move.
So is individual initiative welcomed?
Yes, it is, he tries to teach us that everyone should communicate in the team.
There's a small fountain around here.
We are strolling through the local Rovno park...
Am I saying this correctly? Is it the Rovno park?
In Russian, yes.
- So, Rivne then? - Yes.
We are walking in the Rivne park, we wanted to check out swans, but they seem to have flown away.
Everything's frozen and it's pretty cold outside, but the park is nice.
If there are some post-match conflicts and misunderstandings,
I mean, you've finished a game and started to debate over who made what mistakes,
how long before the atmosphere gets back to normal?
Is everyone on the team easily appeased?
How long might the tilt after the game last?
Tilting is not an issue, it's just that sometimes when discussing an in-game situation, our opinions may differ:
for instance, three of us say one thing, while the others say another,
and then everyone goes on for 20 minutes explaining why it should've been done this or that way.
Do you ever have a falling-out after a poor game that ends up with everyone going to their room and not coming out until the next day?
Or do you sort everything out right away?
It's interesting, conflictology and stuff.
Well, we never argue, really, just sometimes after we've played a game,
and especially if it was the last one, we need to take a few minutes to walk away and calm down, and only then have a chat.
- Do you not hold any grudges against each other? - Never had any of that.
That's great! You know, conflicts always pop up, but being able to resolve them quickly is a good thing.
Blizzy. At the very beginning, when the team was just formed,
he was getting a lot of attention from the fans and haters about him not being good enough.
Although, looking at his recent performance, he's been playing godlike, really.
Even the fans have hopped on the Blizzy train.
What's the reason, anyway? Was it individual improvement or team practice that made the difference?
Or maybe the meta fits him really well? What do you think?
I guess it was some kind of prejudice towards him from his Vega days:
like their team wasn't working out, showing no results, including Blizzy himself,
they kept losing and losing, so maybe it was this that made the fans think that way at first,
however, when we started to get some results, it was time for him to shine: show his skill and what he's capable of.
Vlad, I have a question.
Is this like a pick-up spot? Or where do guys usually meet girls in Rivne?
When will you have a girlfriend? When will you bring her home and say, "Mom, this is Tamara, she's going to live with us"?
I don't know, really.
Okay, another question.
Is having a girlfriend good or bad if you're a pro Dota player?
Can this distract you from playing?
I think it's different for everyone.
For example, for Dendi it's not a distraction at all.
Though Ramzes says it is bad.
- Does he? - Yes, I guess it's different from person to person.
Now let's talk about Magical.
When he joined the team six months ago, he was more of a pub player, even Mag admitted that,
now it feels that he is a professional.
Tell me, has he really become a pro?
He's tried really hard, probably even harder than anyone else.
I believe it was more difficult for him as everybody else had already had some experience before, whereas Magical basically had none.
It must've been a huge pressure for him.
Yeah. Besides, he replaced Dendi, so he was kind of under the microscope.
He's put in a tremendous amount of effort and also, significantly expanded his hero pool.
So yeah, he's a full-fledged pro player now.
I take it he's really a hard worker as he's done a great job working on his hero pool.
Many were also saying about his limited pool of 3 heroes,
but then he proved everyone wrong in the recent qualifiers, playing Razor, Monkey King, Lone Druid and other heroes.
How did you like your experience with Lone Druid?
Has been better?
It's not really about Lone Druid.
We watched Liquid play him and tried to adopt it, but it didn't quite work out.
Even though we were winning, it was kind of sloppy, not the way Liquid did,
so eventually we shied away from picking him.
He's not among our comfortable heroes now.
What are the most comfortable ones then?
- For Magical? - Yes.
Razor's topping the list, then Huskar, OD.
- You are not picking TA now, are you? - That's correct.
He played TA after the patch was released, said it didn't work and we should forget about her and try to use other heroes.
Okay, moving on to Chu.
It looks like you've probably bonded the most with Chu.
Tell me about his input and what's he like in and out of the game?
What kind of person is he?
A walking meme, I'd say.
He's always getting into funny situations and producing the most lulz.
Sometimes he lightens up the mood with his stories.
Is he the same when playing?
I've noticed he has this manner of communication, even when he's making calls, the way he does it is sometimes hilarious.
He says the right thing, but the expressions and words he uses make it sound quite funny.
He's never joking around in scrims and especially in official matches. He's not particularly talkative in-game.
Is he a reliable position 4 support? When laning with Chu, do you have a feeling that you're going to dominate the lane?
I feel confident we can destroy when laning with him.
I'm not sure about others though.
I don't know if Blizzy has the same kind of confidence,
but whenever Chu and I laned together we would destroy it,
however, with Akbar, sometimes it might go sideways.
Great. The last one is Mag.
He was the MVP of the latest bootcamp.
And overall, these are my observations, he does contribute a lot.
He always forces to play 1v1's and try our different match-ups.
How do you enjoy working with him and what do you like about his approach?
What I like the most is that he and Akbar are working on the drafts,
because I didn't always like the way we drafted.
I was bringing it up, but we never really sorted it out.
- You mean when SoNNeikO was drafting? - I'm talking about the previous roster.
We never focused on the drafting aspect, although I was insisting on it from the very beginning.
Now they're discussing a lot of stuff, drafting against each other,
this is what I probably like the most.
With Mag being in charge of the drafting, do you plan to stick to this system? Have you discussed that?
Yes, we talked about that and decided that Mag would continue doing that as long as he has the confidence in his drafts.
Do you suggest him what to pick and ban or does he do all the drafting by himself?
A month ago he already tried his hand at drafting...
- You were doing it together? - Yes.
So, his drafting wasn't really working out,
because everyone was suggesting something and he couldn't draft what he wanted.
He stepped up big time during the last qualifiers because he was afraid we'd get knocked out;
well, he misunderstood the tournament's format and though we were going to go out in the groups.
He took it very seriously and said he was confident in his drafts and asked us to trust him.
He started to draft with confidence, sometimes asking our preferences.
For example, in the final game against Gambit, he asked me about the last pick: Lifestealer or Juggernaut.
He followed my advice.
- You ended up playing Lifestealer, right? - Yes, I did.
- Are you glad with Lifestealer making it back into the drafts? - Of course I am.
Guys, this month is quite packed for the team: they are playing the WePlay online tournament
then the qualifiers for Mumbai, and after that, there will be a bootcamp before the Major.
Follow us on social media and stay tuned for more videos.
Thanks for watching, this is Vlad Crystallize Krystanek and I'm Yana b2ru Khymchenko.
Sending kisses.
- You do it too. - Nope.