In collaboration with AFK Gaming, Esports Heaven is proud to bring you an interview with none other than Michael "i
xmike" Ghannam, captain of Team Team (now known as Beastcoast) where he talks about his experience at ESL One Mumbai, TI9, coaches and more.
Disclaimer: This interview was conducted with ixmike during ESL One Mumbai 2019.
Hi Ixmike, welcome to Mumbai. You had an excellent group stage before being eliminated by Mineski and TnC. According to you, what went wrong?
We kind of choked in the Mineski series. We didn’t play the Dota that we were comfortable with and got scared of some heroes that showed up and ended up not handling it well.
I’m not sure about the TnC series. It may be LAN nerves like it was the first game for us on the main stage. I thought the drafts were solid both games and didn’t necessarily think they had better strategy but in the end they outplayed us.
I mean it’s not everyday you can account for a four man black hole right?
Yeah, twice! Hahaha!
What is your impression about India considering this is your first time here?
It’s good. Better than I thought it’d be to be honest. My only real complaint is about the weather since it is really hot and humid out here.
Have you tried any hot food?
I don’t like to eat spicy food but other than that I liked the food overall.
How do you feel playing on the big stage once again? What have you been through during all these years?
It’s good. I guess I’ve been quiet but on the side I’ve been working really hard but being back on the stage at a major tournament feels great.
You’re one of the original North American stalwarts having established IXDL. Why hasn’t that worked in any other region besides NA and China?
Europe has had their share of in-house leagues, you know but they aren’t that popular. I don’t know really. I don’t have the answer as in-house leagues are tough.
The issue is that the player pool is really small and everyone wants it to be super elite, super high skilled and then you run into issues like the player base activity.
Not only that but also the players have grudges with other. It is a small community and when they see somebody in a pool they don’t want to play with them. That being said, it is difficult to make it work especially with matchmaking which is super convenient and chill.
Who are you looking forward to playing against the most at the MDL Paris Major?
Virtus Pro and Secret. They are the best teams at the moment. Liquid is good too but they have their ups and downs as well. We’ll probably get destroyed by Secret honestly but I hope to learn something from them.
We’ve noticed that you don’t have a coach while the other teams in attendance have one. What are the pros and cons of not having a coach?
I think the advantages are obvious. You’ve an extra player to help you as this game is so time consuming that you can’t even do things that you want to on any particular day.
If you’ve help from coaches, managers or any support system, it’ll be beneficial usually. Personally speaking, I don’t like coaches that much. Maybe I haven’t got a good experience but I like to think alone, work alone and that’s just me I guess.
What are your thoughts about TI9 heading over to China? Do you think this expansion of holding TI’s outside of USA is good?
It is good. You should have tournaments in every region as well as develop your fan base in every region. China is obviously huge for Dota 2. The only real sad part is issues regarding TnC/Kuku that can be a little dissuading. The other sad part is North America has zero lans. Overall, it’s good that TI is held in different regions.
Thank you for the interview ixmike. Any shout outs?
Shout outs to fans, to India .. it has been a pleasure and shout out to my viewers on Twitch and that’s it.
If you would like to know more about my work, you can follow me at KarY.
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Headline image: ESL
KarY
2019-06-11 06:20:21