Satanic: "At first, I played versus bots for a year. My brother made me" Interview

Team Spirit Dota 2 newcomers, Alan "Satanic" Gallyamov and Aleksandr "Rue" Filin, gave an interview for the organization's YouTube. They revealed how they started playing the game, and what were the obstacles they had to overcome. There players share a lot in common, since both have gamer brothers and started in Dota by practicing against bots for a long period.

How did they get into Dota 2

Satanic: My brother showed me the game. I played World of Tanks before that and then switched to Dota. We had one PC. We were three brothers, and we took turns playing Dota. [When and how did you became the best at it?] It's just talent. I had more of it, nothing you can do about it.

Rue: I have an older brother, too. When I was a kid, I used to sit and watch him play Warcraft. I played with bots for a long time. He calibrated me to 4000 MMR...

Satanic: So, you're a boosted guy.

Rue: That was quite high rank at the time. I didn't play with real people, to not ruin their games. So I played with bots.

Satanic: By the way, I also played versus bots for a year. My brother made me.

Larl: "Satanic and Yatoro have a similar gameplay, so he doesn't need to change anything"

On conflicts with parents

Satanic: Initially, they didn't support me of course. [They were turning off] the internet. I was disturbing their sleep! There were arguments, too. Well, that's a default for everyone. Now, they're supporting me.

My brother helped. They didn't allow us to play during work days, but when I had 9k MMR, my brother talked to parents: "Let him play on weekdays, maybe it will lead to something."

Rue: I had the same, no wires or internet. I think it's a typical reaction of a parent, when their kid starts to ignore studies, and plays video games instead. They also don't understand anything, so it was hard at the beginning.

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On streaming

Satanic: Again, I talked to my brother, he said: "Try streaming." He bought me a mic. Well, I tried it. At first the streams didn't have many viewers, then something happened, and the popularity started growing every day.

Rue and Satanic joined Team Spirit after The International 2024. So far, the results have been great for the renewed roster. Although they didn't win anything, they secured top finishes at two events in a row. Their next LAN is BLAST Slam #1, which starts on November 26.