Team Liquid player Samuel Boxi Svahn talked with Players during the ESL One Birmingham 2024 Dota 2 tournament. We talked about the tournament, loss to Falcons, emotions, new patch and the development of Dota.
In a post match interview after Heroic, you said that the game against Falcons is always 50/50 for you. Unfortunately you lost and they made a comeback. From your point of view, what went wrong? I mean, what were mistakes? Maybe wrong picks?
No, I don't think our picks against the Falcons were that bad. I think maybe in game two I said that I wasn't so sure about how the Templar Assassin would go. Because when some teams like to play Viper and these hard counters, it can be a bit tricky for Templar. But I think the series was pretty close. I think we did pretty well considering we were very exhausted from playing early in the day and then having to stay a very long time in the arena. For example, when the Chinese play their 80 minute game and then it's 01:00 a.m. And you've been playing even there for like 14 hours and you try your best.
You were exhausted?
Yeah, there were some weaker plays from our side. The longer the day goes I'm sure, if I would watch the games back, I would be like, what the shit was going on?
That’s a very good point. Let’s compare Dota and other games. For example, Counter-Strike. There’re also long games in CS but 5 hours in Dota… ESL mentioned that last day was the longest day in the history of ESL One events. How were you coping?
It’s just part of the game and you have to, as a player, be able to deal with it and push through it. We tried and obviously it's not an excuse that everyone was tired and everyone will have long days, but it's just like the nature of that specific day, it was very long and we played a bit worse than we obviously would have wanted. I think the best for me personally is maybe go back to the hotel in between series and relax, maybe take a shower. Maybe even lay in bed for a bit and mentally reset.
But it wasn’t possible, because it was quite a bit of a car ride from the venue. I was told that it wasn't really possible because the games might end and obviously they were really long.
It can be pretty tough. For me, it's much nicer to have a complete time alone or a break in peace and quiet, in a dark room. Maybe take a shower, maybe listen to some music. But at the arena, it's kind of hectic, always.
Do you have a psychologist in the team?
Not right now, but we had in the past. We have some good tips on how to try and maybe not meditate, but find some relaxation for the brain, because really, that's the thing you use the most while playing. I read about chess players. They burn a lot of calories while they're thinking. A lot. And I feel like the same probably goes for Dota players. You get very exhausted in your head from playing. Obviously, your body is just sitting still. You're not really expending a lot of energy. I'm not saying we lose because we're tired, but I think it's one of the factors.
I wouldn't say the reason we lose is because we had bad drafts. It's just our play wasn't up to standard. I made some very bad mistakes. I don't even know how it happened.
Can you elaborate more? You are playing support. How would you rate your performance in this specific match and overall in the tournament?
I think the tournament has been a bit tough for me. Overall. Some days I had a pretty high fever, some kind of cold.
I think my immune system is bad. And then, you have long days where you have to play tiebreakers and you're not feeling great, but you pump yourself up with some paracetamol.
I think in Falcon series, game one was good for me and game two was okay. I think in game three, I pushed myself a bit too far earlier. I remember I died during the first blood and heroes just appeared on my monitor out of nowhere. I wasn't keeping up the focus.
Okay. You mentioned the emotions. I want to ask you who is the most emotional player in the team? How the team and you personally cope with emotions because they can help or they can't help during the games.
I think being nervous or excited, maybe it's a bit of the same thing. It depends on how much you know and if you're too excited or if you're not excited at all.
Usually there are some sweet spots in between. I think this tournament's been pretty good for us. We’re old and we've had our fresh air tournaments now. I wouldn't say that we get nervous. Maybe as a few years ago we would have troubles. When we get to foreign tournaments it becomes a lot of pressure.
I think it's okay now. For me personally, pressure is pretty good. It makes me focus more. I think it's nice to have it, not only because of the crowd and atmosphere, but also when it's an important game. I feel like I play better. It’s easier for me to focus and to apply myself. Really hard. For us as a team it can be a bit up and down. Sometimes there can be too much pressure. But usually it's nicer to have some than none at all.
You mentioned that you're okay with playing with the pressure. Crowd cheered a lot for you during that match. What can you say about the crowd in Birmingham?
Playing with a crowd is fun. I think most of the time they're in our favor. They seem to like us. I remember there have been some tournaments, maybe in Peru where the crowd was whistling a lot every time some team smoked.. Obviously it can be a bit detrimental. But I think they were still a very fun crowd, very passionate.
I think here at Birmingham it's been great. I think it's fun to play in front of a crowd. It's a much more engaging atmosphere where you feel like it's more alive. The games, if you're sitting at home or playing at the bootcamp, playing the same tournament versus being in place at the line.
Some online tournaments don't feel as fun or important, even though maybe you don't meet people and see the people sharing emotions. It’s like a feedback loop, when something nice happens, the crowd goes wild. It’s fun and we try to be entertaining for everyone watching.
What is your prediction? Who will win the tournament?
I think the Falcons are probably the strongest team here based on their previous results. At the same time I feel the Falcons have shown some weakness. You know, they lost to Tundra as well.
I think new heroes coming up and the meta not really being figured out that much. A lot of teams play really different stuff. Chinese are playing Clinkz every game and Tundra are playing their set of heroes. Falcons are playing their sort of heroes.
It’s usually about how you match up against each other and with hero matchups. My prediction, I guess, would be that Tundra or Falcons will win.
What are your thoughts about the last Dota 2 patch? How are you feeling in terms of the game, in terms of the evolution, is it going the right way?
Yes, it was good. Some heroes got slightly nerfed. I think there should probably be a bit more balanced patches for heroes that are clearly Tier 1 contested heroes.
Usually with time, things will balance themselves. New heroes come up, which makes other heroes weaker, et cetera, et cetera. But it's been a bit annoying that Chen is banned for three months straight. At this point, nobody even wants to play it because it's just been banned for so long. It's just this unknown factor.
I feel like, for example, like a Pangolier as well. They've changed and nerfed the hero so many times, and they accidentally buffed it instead. I just wish this hero could just get some slight decrease to numbers, just very slight, and then take it from there. But for two months to ban and first pick the same hero, it gets a bit tedious, I think.
Overall, if you look at the evolution development of Dota, do you think it's going in the right direction or not? What should be added to the game?
It's not the same Dota now, obviously, as five or 10 years ago. I started playing Dora when I was seven years old. There was no backpack, there were no half the heroes we have today.
I think it keeps the game fun and fresh when they add new things. I think the bigger map was really cool. I think a lot of things were done in the right direction. So it's an improvement, yeah. I would say it's cool when they take some risks and they fix problems, they open new opportunities for being creative and for playing the game in different ways. I think it's bad for the game when the game gets a bit stale. I think probably now there are some things that I would like to see changed.
For example?
Well, I feel like the glyphs and the towers maybe have been a bit too strong. I think it becomes very hard to pressure towers, so it becomes very easy to just run around and smoke, for example. But at the same time, the direction as a whole, I think it's very good. I think it's nice that they're careful about making drastic changes and just making sure that they don't overdo something. Maybe it could happen slightly faster sometimes.
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