DotA: Playing DotA at SK, part five: SK.Hailo

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NEWS

By Martin 'Altariel' Schultze

Sep 28, 2008 13:08

After a long break, the time is right to continue our interview run with the professional DotA addicts from SK Gaming. This time we caught up with Mikael 'hailo' Grinsvall.

After the interviews with Jonathan 'Loda' Berg, Tommy 'toMpa' Andersson, Joakim 'Akke' Akterhall and Erik 'Bogdan' Olsson, it's now time to put the spotlight on Mikael 'hailo' Grinsvall. He is probably the most unknown of all the afore mentioned players, so maybe also the most interesting?

Mikael answers some questions which shall reveal the person behind the everlasting supporter. He talks about the beginning of his career in SK.DotA, how he found a way to deal with the weight he had to carry as a newcomer and of his development as a decent member of the team. In addition there’ll be a few general questions about DotA concerning current affairs.

"Of course I was really happy about it, although a few misunderstandings happened."

SK-Gaming: Let's start from scratch, you are now more than half a year member in the SK.DotA squad but tell us how everything began. At the time your addition to the roster was announced you were still nameless to most of the people.

How did you manage to draw the attention of the SK guys to you and finally convince them of the fact that your addition would be an enrichment for the whole team?

Hailo:

If I remember correctly, it was around the time I was playing a lot of NIHL (Nordic Inhous League) to which some friends introduced me. This is a place for Nordic people to gather and play a bit more competitive-like games compared to some pickup channels.

After a game with tompa, I was asked to play with them and a few scrims later it worked out so they decided to add me to the roster. Of course I was really happy about it, although a few misunderstandings happened. Mainly because I didn't recognize their voices on Ventrilo, apart from that everything was alright and that's most likely the reason for me doing this interview now.

"Learn more about the game and evolve as a player was anyway the whole plan from the beginning."

SK-Gaming: Your addition to the team came along with the joining of the ex-member ARS-ART who was compared to you already one of the most popular and skilled players in the DotA scene around the world, especially due to his history in the legendary Russian DotA team Virtus.pro.

Describe your feelings, thoughts, maybe even fears and also expectations of yourself which you had in the beginning. It's hard to imagine but it had to be a huge burden for someone who was rather unexperienced compared to the rest. Was there an urge to prove yourself to the team members, SK Gaming and to the rest of the world, to confirm that the decision to add you and no one else was totally right?

Hailo:

I don't think that adding ARS-ART at the same time affected me at all. Sure I felt like I had to prove myself, not to the community but to my own team. But this is only natural and it was not amplified by the fact that a much more experienced player than myself was added simultaneously. Perhaps because it turned out that our characters were diffrent and also the roles we chose to play.

Maybe I was even simply too focused on doing my best, like everyone else so I had not much time to let my mind wander. Learn more about the game and evolve as a player was the whole plan from the beginning anyway. Unlike smile, I wasn't added certainly known to be a great player with a lot of game experience but rather in consideration of the fact to be someone with great potential.

"The support role is very versatile and it's only limited by your own teammates."

SK-Gaming: Nowadays, you always play support heroes and do mainly the chicken/crow/warding stuff for the team. At the time you joined SK, did you already know that this will be your major task in the future or did it simply develop from the training little by little?

Isn't it a bit tiresome to always play the same heroes and do the same tasks while your team mates mostly swap the heroes among each other? Your role seems to be a bit more limited or would you call this a false impression?

Hailo:

Back then we didn't set any specific roles, everybody chose what he prefered to play and it's pretty much the same these days. If you don't play the heroes you want to play the most then you cannot really perform at your top level. One of the reasons why I fit well into SK was and is because I prefer the role no one else likes. For me it's not tiresome, I will do what needs to be done to win.

Besides, the support role is very versatile and it's only limited by your own teammates. Because everything you do, you do for them - for example you are warding the map that they won't get ganged, have better farming, can grab the runes, make kills etc. or blocking the opponent heroes to save your allies and die yourself in the progress, leaving the creeps for them and everything else that comes up with the task.

"If you want to get a whiff of an impression just look at the picture."

SK-Gaming: I guess everybody agrees if I say that you have become a stable and decent member of SK.DotA, considering your development from the day of your addition until today. Describe what it means to you to be a member of one of the world’s greatest DotA teams and tell us what you feel is the secret of SK.DotA which makes you so successful.

Is it the special kind of atmosphere you have among the members, something like great "team spirit", or would you give most of the credit to your extraordinary, talented and experienced team captain SK.Loda? Or would you say it’s something totally different?

Hailo:

This is probably the hardest question so far, because I havn't been in another team before. I don't know if our “team spirit” as you chose to put it, is anything special. I think it's something that exists in all top teams, else it wouldn't work out. What really makes us successful is something different while still similar but I cannot really find words to describe it.

If you want to get a whiff of an impression, just look at the picture. No kidding! There are a lot of things which come together, surely individual skill is a major must-have and without, no teamplay in the world would make us win. However, on the other side there is so much more around it and everything needs to fit together.

"We do what we enjoy and that's for sure not farming for 60 mins before starting to play"

SK-Gaming: Now back to the game - with the latest map change from 6.48b to 6.52e, we saw nearly every top team experimenting to find the best strategies and combos which promise to deliver the biggest chances to be successful. Everything looks like the game’s main focus is actually directed towards the carry heroes and their farming. It seems most teams develop their strategies based upon a few favorite late game heroes and adapt their whole lineup around it.

SK also did so in the recent past but still we can point out, SK.DotA is one of the teams who is a lot of keener to experiment and sometimes it even appears you have to suffer a bit to be that brave. Share your thoughts with us and say what you think about the development of DotA at the moment and what you think to which point it ultimately leads us in the near future?

Hailo:

Let me say it this way, 6.52e simply sucks. In the early stages it looked nice - people were still trying out stuff and there was a lot of action all over the map. Now it has settled down a bit and as you already mentioned it's a version that promotes farming above ganking which makes the games dull and far too long for both the players and the viewers.

We're doing our best to stay away from that kind of play and try out new stuff. I don't think we ever had to suffer from this, sure we might have lost a few games while doing so but nevertheless we mostly still feel like the winners due to the fact that we had a lot of fun messing around and that's probably why you see us experiment more than others.

We do what we enjoy and that's for sure not farming for 60 mins before starting to play. Of course, I don't want to blame someone. In my opinion this version simply needs some changes which are necessary, for example to balance the farming compared to the gangs because you lose far too much leaving your lane only to risk not even getting a kill.

"The element of suprise is very strong in DotA and the Asians have been able to use that to a great extent lately."

SK-Gaming: In the past the professional DotA scene was divided into two parts. On the one hand the European and American scene which established constantly contact due to the big on-/offline tournaments in which the teams participated. On the other hand the Asian scene which was always strong but a little underestimated and isolated.

However, there is a recognizable change since the ESWC 2008 in San Jose where they proved to be equal if not better. Especially the Asian teams seem to be difficult opponents because their combos and strategies differ sometimes a lot from the standard tactics in Europe and America. They often use heroes which are relatively unknown in the competitive scene in the Western world.

Do you think this is a valuable advantage and that the other professional teams have to consider to adapt strategies if they don't want to lag behind?

Hailo:

When it comes down to it, I don't think ESWC was a good measure to judge the skill of the individual teams. The format doesn't really suit the game with best of one single elimination. Especially since picks are so important. Aside from that the Asians indeed impress and I absolutely love to play against them on LAN tournaments. But it's a diffrent matter online, finding a rather good host is nearly impossible and playing on a host which is somehow bearable for most of all still comes close to a nightmare for anyone who's used to good hosting.

I like their way of playing and picking probably because it's different from what I'm used to because it diversifies the games and makes it even more interesting. Though one thing I wonder about is the way people comment on them if they get outpicked. They are very quick to judge it as “Asians pick so bad” but if American or European teams end up with the weaker combo they would just say “outpicked”. Exactly because their play differs also the picks do but that doesn't mean you cannot be outpicked!

The element of suprise is very strong in DotA and the Asians have been able to use that to a great extent lately. A good example is former XcN's Meepo pick in the early days of PDL, but also SK vs MYM before my time when SK tricked MYM to make them think they would go for a late game strategy with Terrorblade although they actually planned to push them early. Adapting to different picks and being able to read your opponents mind is very useful both during the picks and ingame.