“Solo ate a pepper so hot that he yelled: “Drakarys!”. Roman Dvoryakin on VP's daily life

Virtus.pro's general managed on how much each player has earned, what guys were saying after facing Team Liquid and who got called a “whitey” in Seattle's dangerous neighborhood.

Before his departure to TI7, ArtStyle called European teams clear favorites of the series. Solo also agreed on Western domination. Did you underestimate Chinese teams?

China was sold short by everyone - their pre-TI7 performance was quite unconvincing due to the lack of organization. But by pulling themselves together and practicing, they managed to show their true potential. Although, despite finishing 2-4th, Chinese teams didn't demonstrate any astronomic levels of skill – they simply played very rationally.

Perhaps you should have skrimmed more with Chinese teams during the bootcamp?

It's an old story: European teams play with European teams, Chinese with Chinese etc. As a result, these regions form different playstyles. E-sports are the biggest victim of that phenomenon – for example, football has changed quite a lot due to player transfers, leaving traditional British style a purely lower league thing. While in e-sports, very few practice with Chinese – there's no “player melting pot”. We discussed bootcamping in China, but had to abandon that thought due to various risks. After all, China is a unique country. However, our decision isn't set in stone – perhaps we will bootcamp in China before one of the future majors.

What went wrong in a match against LFY?

Both maps were entirely winnable with our picks. But our guys failed to give their best, while Chinese team played quite cleanly. Our next match against Team Liquid was different in a sense, since we knew what they're capable of. Liquids were our only sparring partners before TI7. It was the only match where our boys were nervous, and the fact that it was a lower bracket elimination game amplified that. TI7 match with Team Liquid broke the illusion that VP quits without struggling.

That is simply not true. If even the slightest chance of victory is present, our guys keep playing, waiting for their opponent's slip up. Although, sometimes, retreating to save your emotional and mental strength is a better option. After all, most of the times our fans don't understand the game as much as our players do. During the long map against TL, there were several moments where our guys could just “gg” and walk away. But they saw the possible openings, and refused to surrender.

How did the team maintain their morale after the loss in a 100-minute match?

I was worried that guys would tilt after such a long emotional rollercoaster. They were tired, but calm. The reason of our loss became our first topic. But preparation for the next map was way more important than that, so ArtStyle and Solo stopped any possible name-calling and blame-shifting in their tracks. Lesha said: “Guys, that game is over. We will discuss it later in a hotel, okay?”. These guiding words allowed our guys to quickly re-weigh their priorities to prepare strategies and picks for the second game. The fact that despite such a crushing defeat our guys were able to bounce back and claim victory in game two says a lot. By the way, they stayed true to Lesha's words about discussing the game in the hotel: boys stayed up late just to discuss their first game.

Lil was very emotional after VP's elimination from TI7. How did you support him?

Ilya is traditionally the most emotional: our defeat in Kiev major's finals comes to mind. Entire team supported him, but Alexey's words were the most important to Ilya. Lesha said that it's not Lil's or anyone's fault. We just happened to meet a stronger opponent, and he outplayed us.

Did you have a lot of support from viewers?

Fans welcomed us warmly. One of the main reasons of that were cool stories created by guys from Valve. One of them was a quest, another – interview on the Red Square. Many neutral fans started supporting us after them, since they showed us in such a... relatable light, I guess. Of course, the Chinese teams received the warmest welcome – china-towns from the entire West Coast arrived to cheer for their teams in Seattle. I think they had more support than Americans.

Also, there was a whole bunch of neutral viewers who cheered for the teams depending on the line-up – one game they cheer for VP, next game for someone else. Pretty flattering that we were one of the most popular picks for these fans. Seattle had plenty of Russian-speaking fans as well: people from Los-Angeles were piling up to meet our guys near the Red carpet. After our match against Team Liquid, when the team was about to leave, we missed one of the buses because Lesha and Pasha were meeting with the fans and giving out autographs for so long.

Despite finishing only 5-6th place, team has won a pretty solid amount of money – 1 110 956$. Any plans to buy a Ferrari on Avito?

It may sound cliché, but the money wasn't even in a picture for the boys. Our current team environment allows our guys to focus more on their tournament performance, since financially they are very well provided. So during TI7 the results were our number one priority, and only the message from the bank saying that everyone actually won a couple millions of rubles will remind our guys about the money.

In Seattle team were feasting on crabs and other sea delicacies. Were there any problems related to that?

I would have loved if guys went out to eat seafood every day. Compared to Kiev and Moskow Majors' abundancy of various tasty foods, Seattle was lacking in that regard. But VP does not live by the seafood alone. One time Ramzes and I went out to Subway to grab a snack.

Our guys wrote us a “to buy” list, and Lesha asked for a Veggie Sandwich. One small detail though: American Veggie sub includes an extra-hot chili, while Russian doesn't. We didn't know about that, so we asked for all vegetables – including the hellish pepper. When Lesha took a bite, he was so surprised by the scorching flavor that he suddenly jumped and started quoting Daeneris: “Dracarys!”. It was like he's actually breathing flames. He even had to retreat to the bathroom in order to extinguish that fire

When guys just arrived to Seattle, Lil posted a video with a burning Lamborghini. Did the car make it?

It didn't. The thing is that our team's hotel was close to “Ki-Arena” - about 5km walk. But after a few hundreds of meters it was met by Seattle's poor neighborhood. I'm not new to America, but when I went for a walk around that district, I got really uncomfortable. One of many black dudes hanging out there greeted me with the words: “Hey, whitey, what do you think you're doing here?”. I'm not really that skittish, but it made my heart skip a beat. And about the burned car – our guys lived in a very good hotel, so sport cars weren't a rare sight. The burning one was, though. As memorable as the hobos living there, who looked like they were straight from a sitcom.

Summing the series up, you wrote that 5-6 place is a deserved result. Any additional thoughts on that?

While our guys realize that they could've done better, from sports' point of view the result is respectable. On one hand, we didn't bite more than we can chew, on the other – we lost to a truly skilled team. Perhaps, had we not fallen to the lower bracket, we probably would have faced Team Liquid in the finals. Of course, guys were upset, but they're still planning on returning here next year and trying again. Also, such massive amount of experience did not go in vain for our team: for example, we figured out our ideal term for a bootcamp. And Vanya's desire to play increased dramatically. Our strength is in our unity and cooperation. We don't have to play for someone alone, be it Ramzes or Vova. Everyone has different views, but we understand what Dota we can and what Dota we should play.

Текст: Глеб Чернявский