GeneRaL - "Our results are our merit"

— Hi! At the moment, the whole team is inactive, one could say that you have a kind of vacation. How do you spend your time?

— Hi! Now I mostly play in Dota 2 and do sports.

— Judging by your profile on dotabuff.com, you are playing more than usual now. Did you decide to use the time to prepare for the new season?

— Now there are no clan wars and tournaments, so I have enough time to actively play matchmaking. During the regular season, the team training takes an average of 5-6 hours daily.

— Do you feel comfortable playing the second position, because when you joined NAVI, you played mid only a few times as an experiment?

— I feel confident and enjoy playing the second position.

— Tell me, has the gameplay changed significantly since then?

— It has, but not too much. So far, I am lagging behind regarding my rotations, but the laning is mostly good.

— Do you think the positions reshuffle could be an effective solution for NAVI during the spring reshuffle, which happened outside of the transfer window?

— No, it would not bring tangible results.

— Why did you decide that the team needs to take drastic measures and replace the player? This, in fact, was a rather risky initiative.

— Even before the EPICENTER XL,  did not want to play along with Nikola "LeBron" Popovich. We raised this issue and decided that we will keep the roster if we earn DPC points in the tournament. Nevertheless, the stars did not align as needed - or just an unlucky day for us - and we lost to Newbee and paiN Gaming. Finally, we got eliminated from the tournament. This became a critical point. Personally, I was not happy with the game  of LeBron, but did not see a better option in the CIS region, so my position was neutral.

— The young player Fedor "velheor" Rusikhin joined the team. It can be said that he followed the footsteps of Vladislav "Crystallize" Krystanek. In your opinion, did he manage to adapt to his new role as quickly as possible?

— He arrived in dire times, and the team wasn't in top shape. One could say he became a hostage of the situation. But he has something to work on.

— In general, was Fedor ready to join the NAVI-level team and immediately debut at SuperMajor?

— To join - yes, to show himself from a good side - not particularly.

— SuperMajor became an alarm bell for fans. Did the failure in China strongly influence the mood in the team?

— Definitely, it did. Before the SuperMajor, in training matches, we beat most of the teams, and in different situations. I saw how bad people were at the last major of the season, but when we could not do anything even then, faith in our team was dwindling.

— Obviously, even the updated team could not cope with a number of internal problems in a short time. What went wrong in the open qualifiers?

— Various factors played their part. Anyway, the result is entirely our "merit".

— On Twitter, you said that the players are the ones to blame. In your opinion, the selection of players, the contribution of the coach and the work of managers do not play a determining role?

— The ratio of managers/trainer/analyst guilt and that of players is approximately 1:100

— Winstrike has appeared out of thin air and for now, is confidently striding towards its goal. From your point of view, what are its strengths?

— I can not answer this question unambiguously. I do not know myself. Probably, the way they treat the game is different - it is unlike anything that happened in NAVI: here, it is a completely different burden of responsibility.

— Speaking about the teams from the CIS-division, I can not help but ask, what are their prospects for The International 2018?

— Everything will depend on many factors. In my opinion, Virtus.pro can either take first or second place, but just as likely to not even reach the top 6.  Winstrike, I guess, will be in the top 8 or top-12.

— And who do you personally consider the main contender for victory in this championship?

— In my opinion, PSG.LGD has the most chances.

— Professional players often turn out to be guests of The International, they drop by analytics studio to please the fans. Do you have anything like this in your plans?

— No. As long as I'm a player, I do not mess with analytics. Once an analyst, always an analyst.

— Now you play for Akatsuki Clan and participate in tier 2 events. Is this how you train the new roster?

— The professional stage is quite boring now, that's why we play such tournaments for the sake of pleasure, so to speak. The team brought together people with whom I am pleased to play, and the rest is not important. I can win games myself.

— From the most recent NAVI roster, only Crystallize is playing with you. Who coined the idea to continue to play together?

— The student called the teacher to play together at the tournament - it happens.

— You played one of the matches with Akbar "SoNNeikO" Butaev. Did he come to lead?

— In this team, Akbar is more of a performer, not an in-game leader.

— When  SoNNeikO left NAVI, he did not hide that one of the reasons was the lack of mutual understanding between the teammates. Were there unresolved conflicts between him and you?

— At that time,  SoNNeikO did not want to play with me and Danil "Dendi" Ishutin; maybe it's just me or Danya. I do not know for sure. As such, we did not have open conflicts.

— Have you got any message for the fans?

— Thank you for your support and for your criticism! Special thanks to those fans who believe in me. Soon, everything will be better! (Smiles)