Mag answered fans' questions

Mag — about The International 2019 qualifications and main competitors.

During today's broadcast on twitch,  Andrii «Mag» Chipenko answered the questions of the viewers from the chat. We collected the most interesting of them in one material.

— What can you say about the Templar Assassin nerf?

Andrii “Mag” Chipenko

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— Obviously, she became weaker on the lane. But otherwise, everything is the same as before — a strong hero. Just some matchups need to be played differently.

— How do you like FlyToMoon?

— I watched a couple of games, I can not say anything concrete. Another mix: it seems, the guys played the last qualifications of the Major tournament with this composition. Skilled players. They passed the open qualifications of The International 2019 but I don’t think that they can showcase something in closed ones.

— How long have The Pango players been training together?

— I honestly don't know. But usually, when such an announcement is made, the team has already managed to play together: it means they have something, and the organization announces the lineup.

— Have you played "scrims" with them?

— No, we haven't played with them. In fact, we are not playing any scrims with anyone from the CIS. Obviously, because of the qualifications.

— How do you like the  Dendi's game?

— Watched  The Pango a bit. As for me, he is playing well, keeping up the bar.

— How much solo rating do you have?

— 7100 approximately.

— Would you like to take the place of  Blizzy?

— No, I would not. I am the coach of the team, and the work that I do, currently no one can do except me.

— How are things with SoNNeikO?

Great. All is well. Zayac got slightly sick, but he is already better. Just something with a throat.

— What is your attitude towards Meepo?

— Very strong hero. It's just that a few players on the professional scene can play him. And the team should be able to play around him. In some tournament, the last pick Meepo is simply an “easy money”.

— Do you still have a day to rest before qualifying?

— No, we wont have it anymore. Today and tomorrow we are playing scrims, and 7th the qualifications starts. Plus there are still moments on which we need to work with the team before the start of qualifier matches.

— Have you played scrims with  Virtus.pro?

— No, they were on EPICENTER. And it is obvious that they are right now resting, and they will start practicing hard just before The International 2019.

— Have you found the key to Gambit Esports?

— If we are going to play with them, then we will prepare for them of course. We watched their games on EPICENTER. The bigger question is that no one knows what and how we play right now, so there is a certain moment of surprise. And they had very little time to prepare new strategies after the tournament.

— Have you played against teams that participated at the EPICENTER?

— Yes, we played before the tournament. With European teams, with  Virtus.pro, by the way. against Team Liquid played a lot with w33. To be honest, after the games with them I did not think that they would take second place at EPICENTER.

— Who are you "scrimming" with right now?

— With European teams. We play a lot against Chaos Esports Club .

— Who is the main competitor in qualifiers?

— Objectively, the main competitors are  GambitEsports, Winstrike Team. And afterwards we'll see who'll show up. There are teams weaker or stronger, but we will not underestimate anyone. It is sad that the “Gambits” didn't qualify to The International 2019. The point is not that we are afraid of them or something like that. It would just be cool if there were three teams from the CIS in the tournament. It hasn't happened for a long time now.

— Who is drafting right now — you or SoNNeikO?

— Last time Akbar was drafting, and I was more of an adviser. And at the qualifiers it's likely to stay the same. During the scrims, we took turns drafting, but Akbar is good at it, so it will stay, as I said earlier.

— Have you added new heroes to your pool?

— Guys, the qualification will start and you will see everything. It will be interesting.