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Mistakes on motivation: “I don’t think that a player who loses the motivation to play the game should be in the Overwatch League.”

Volamel 2018-09-18 03:53:34
  Stanislav "Mistakes" Danilov has a lot of things going for him leading into Overwatch League Season 2. With the invaluable experience with his former team, the Boston Uprising, Mistakes and with teams like 123 and TORNADO ROX, Mistakes is a serious talent coming out of the CIS and European region. After competing with the Russian national team at the Incheon Overwatch World Cup qualifiers, Mistakes had some time to speak with Esports Heaven about his time within the Overwatch League and what is what like under the Boston Uprising. _____ Most recently, you participated in the Overwatch World Cup Incheon qualifiers with Team Russia. Think back to the match between Russia and Finland, talk to me about what the atmosphere was like shortly after King’s Row? The atmosphere was kind of stressful but promising at the same time. We felt like [we’re] better, but we lost, and we had a great chance to taking this series. Also, we were thinking that [a] draw doesn’t matter because if we win Volskaya, we will win the series. NotE mentioned previously that Boston is a team that quite literally need to grind out new metagames. Do you think the short turnaround during the stage breaks was enough time to adjust for the new patches? I would say it depends on how many changes were released. Sometimes there’s a lot of changes even if there is only one hero, for example, Brigitte. In this case, I don’t think one week is enough to fully explore and adapt to the new meta. If [the] meta changes slightly, I can surely say it’s fine. One large topic that the community latched onto was player burnout and motivation loss. Would you say the Overwatch League workload affected you mentally? How did you overcome that? Overwatch League is a really stressful place to be. I can see why many players are getting exhausted, but I can’t really say the same about the motivation loss. I don’t think that a player who loses the motivation to play the game should be in the Overwatch League. Don’t get me wrong, everyone can be tired of the game, but being tired shouldn’t affect your willingness to win games. Personally, for me, it was mostly the lack of time to learn all the heroes I had to play for my team. This is, pretty much, the only pressure I had. You’ve pinned your style as “passive” stating that you are a player that doesn’t need a lot of resources. Do you think more players should consider this style in the future? Should players become or at least try to be more passive? My play style was passive because, in my eyes, you can’t really give a lot of resources to both DPS players and I didn’t feel comfortable and confident due to that I just started playing all the heroes. I don’t think players should try to be passive but think about how you can help your team. In my opinion, I’m underrated by a lot of people, but I had to play a more passive role and it might have presented me in a bad light. At that moment, I felt like this [was] the best solution for the team and I can say I don’t regret it. Looking back, I’m really proud of what my team and I we were able to achieve. Since viewers can’t see behind the scenes, they can’t understand why players do different things. Something that newer players are going to have to face during Overwatch League Season 2 is losing with hundreds of hours put into preparation. How do you personally take losses? Is there any advice you could give to some of the Overwatch League freshmen? Personally, I always feel bad when I know that we are stronger but lose a match because we just played badly. I don’t necessarily think there’s any advice because everyone is different. All I can say is that you shouldn’t focus on a loss for too long. If you lose a match, you can go and cry it out in your bed after but make sure you wake up next day ready to work. We know you to be an incredibly strong Tracer player. And we know that flex DPS was a role that you had to pick up during the middle of the season. Is flex DPS something that you're pursuing and practicing more of these days? I’m not sure. I’m not on a team right now and as soon as I will find one I can play anything. I’m not a selfish player and I’m always ready to do whatever the team needs. You’ve obviously worked quite close to the Boston Uprising’s staff as a former player and I think people might not be getting the full picture when it comes to them. What was it like working under Boston’s coaching staff? I would say it’s been a lot of work and fun. I don’t want to get into details, but what I can say is that there’s a team coaching (ultimate management, strategy for example) and personal coaching (how to better use primal rage or deadeye). Uprising’s coaching staff have always been really kind and helpful in and out of the game and I really want to thank them for that! The inaugural season of the Overwatch League was something special. What would you say was the biggest thing to change from the beginning of the season to the end of the season for you personally? Obviously, you grew as a player and a person, but what were some of the biggest improvements that you noticed? The biggest improvement for me is that I found a way to improve myself. Sometimes players just stack and don’t know how to do better. I basically tried to understand what I’m doing wrong and how to fix it. For example, if I died a lot I would think: “Hmm, maybe it’s because of my positioning? Maybe [I’m] overextending? Maybe I used my abilities badly? Or maybe it’s a miscommunication?” There are a lot of maybes and by thinking this way you usually can find an answer to pretty much anything. As a free agent, how much pressure are you under right now to make your way back into the league for Season 2? Could you describe what that’s like for those who don’t know? It is really stressful. In my eyes, I’m an underrated player and I will be really surprised if I don’t get picked up. There’s a lot of great players right now and it’s hard to judge yourself in comparison to them. It’s hard to understand how you look from aside, so we will see! _____ Joseph “Volamel” Franco has followed esports since the MLGs of 2006. He started out primarily following Starcraft 2, Halo 3, and Super Smash Bros. Melee. He has transitioned from viewer to journalist and writes freelance primarily about Overwatch and League of Legends. If you would like to know more or follow his thoughts on esports you can follow him at @Volamel. Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment
 

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