"Fishman accidentally hit Stormstormer's PC with his knee, and his ping went to 1,000". Entity.Watson about destroying EG, anime, and delays at Lima Major Exclusive
Entity's carry Alimzhan "watson" Islambekov spoke to Polina Mashina for Escorenews after his team defeated Evil Geniuses in the upper bracket of Lima Major 2023. He spoke about playing conditions, explained a long technical pause, and shared his favorite anime titles.
— This is your first time on stage. How do you feel? What could you hear from the booths?
— We could hear everything. Before the first game, it was really hot. Fishman went to another booth because there were two conditioners working, and we had only one. Then they turned on the second one, and it became better.
— Did you realize that the crowd whistled when you used Smokes?
— I didn't notice. Every time they killed any of us, there was a roar. But I didn't care, I was chill.
— Chill? For the first time on stage?
— Yeah, I thought I'd feel something unusual, but I felt normal. There was this 20-minute pause.
— What happened there?
— We went mid and died. We were discussing activating glyph on tier 2 tower and defending it when Fishman accidentally hit Stormstormer's PC with his knee. And his ping went to 1,000 after that. Dota crashed, and they couldn't fix it for a good 20 minutes. He had ping 200 every time he tried to reconnect. They were changing something every time, but nothing worked. Then they fixed it.
— On the first map, you gave away Broodmother and picked Lina. How do these kinds of things work right now?
— It's a secret.
— Why do you play this position 3 Silencer? Is this Tobi forcing this pick?
— Of course, it's Tobi. He uses him in pubs and then comes back to us and says, "give me Silencer." But they ban him. In the first game, they banned Dark Seer and Visage, and Silencer was left available. Well, and two more heroes.
— You looked very confident. Did you feel this way too, or were there shaky moments?
— Well, no. We were in control of both games. The first and the second games had similar scenarios: we make progress, while they make mistakes and die. They didn't play their usual Dota. Didn't force the fights, and we didn't die. They had something like six kills for the whole first game. And it was due to our mistake when we went mid.
— Why do you think EG played that poorly?
— I think we didn't give them their comfort heroes: their Batrider, Timbersaw, countered Wisper. In the second phase we banned Snapfire, which they use in mid lane or as positions 3-5. As a result, they didn't play their comfort Dota.
— Your next opponents are Gaimin Gladiators. Are they comfortable for you?
— Yes. We faced them in DPC, and the games were close. At BetBoom Universe we were close to winning. I think we're equal.
— You have one off day now. What will you do?
— I'd prefer to play without breaks. I'm tired of breaks, sitting in my hotel room, not knowing what to do. I play some pubs, go to eat, some more pubs, then I get bored. Tomorrow I will visit an anime store, and then go back to playing pubs.
— What do you want to purchase?
— Anime stuff. All of it.
— Which series do you like to buy stuff from?
— Naruto, Blade of Demon Destruction, Attack on Titan. Now I started watching Jujutsu Kaisen when I flew here. That's it.
