Pavel «9pasha» Khvastunov: «OG did nothing but splitpushing and farming in the grand final»

-Judging by your posts in social networks, for you, this defeat was a tragedy. But still, you understand that you are now in the top 2 best teams in the world, which in the CIS has long been absent?

– We understand, of course, but it’s still very hard. Not the defeat itself, but the fact that we were very close to victory. I already had this with Fantastic Five, when we were very strong on the TI6 qualification, but a bit was not enough for a successful result.

From the very beginning of the tournament, we knew what we could do. Understood that we have good, working strategies. But at some point decided to move away from the usual strategies, began to adjust. For example, we considered Magnus the strongest hero of this patch, but at one point began to doubt if it was possible to take it.

 - What did the teammates say after the 5men-vacuum in the game against Vici Gaming?

– Ha, there was really nothing special, we usually do not congratulate each other on such occasions. In that situation, this should have happened.

- That is, such techniques – in the order of things?

– We played a lot of official games with this hero, even more – clanwars, and have become accustomed to such moments.

- Tell me, did you really hang by a thread in that series, or it just seemed from aside?

– Actually, that series really at some point began to go out of control. Probably, we can not say that completely out of control, we still felt self-confidence, but it was impossible with 100% probability to say whether we win or lose. But in the end, everything turned out as it should, we finished the game to the end and won, albeit with a squeak.

- Did you even before the playoffs decided that this megastrategy with Void, Phoenix and Venomanser hit exactly in the semifinals?

– No, there were no such concrete plans. The thing is that this strategy works only with Magnus on off-ane, and we rarely gave it to him, this hero was almost always in the bans. And just in the semifinals, we were able to get Magnus, the draft was going well, and we decided to implement this strategy.

- Tell me, how did OG manage to counter Magnus?

– I can tell you about the first map, this is the most obvious. We took our pick, were 100% confident in it, we knew that we defeat the enemy on these heroes. But, apparently, something began to affect us – whether fatigue or something else. We lost for a very stupid reason: we simply could not get together and finish this game together. We almost destroyed OG in that game, they lost their towers very early, we could win at the 30th-minute mark. All they started to do – bought the GEM for Batrider, broke our vision and started sending Terrorblade illusions, not letting us finish.

What we needed to do was calmly, without hurrying ... On the other hand, we had to hurry, just do everything in a complete, cold-blooded manner without emotions-release the lines, press them, if someone comes out – catch him. It did not turn out so well. We could not normally release, as a result the game dragged on. It was already hard to win, errors began, and it turned out what happened.

 - Were you flattered, that OG banned Dark Seer all bo5?

– I will not say that I was pleased, I still wanted to play on it. If you consider this as respect, then yes, a little nice. But I still can not only play on this hero. It seems to me so, at least.

When we were going to play the Grand Final, we were sure that if we were given certain heroes – Dark Seer, Magnus, a couple more – then we will win these games. It is a pity that it did not turn out to bring those games to victory.

- Can you explain the reason of the Legion Commander pick?

– I can. Legion – also enters the top of the strongest characters in the patch, in our opinion. All the games that we used to play with the Legion were formed as: I dominated solo, or with Lil or Solo, who came to me, arranged a domination on the line with constant aggression. And here we did not manage to do it, because the last games on the Legion there were lineups, which she does not win at all – solo naix in the game with VG.J, solo Timber in the game with OG. As a result, the hero, whose basis is the initial pressure, did not materialize. As a result, in midgame she becomes an ordinary hero – not useless, but there is also better.

The essence of Legion Commander is that it creates a lot of space for the games, opponents start to play with an eye on a possible duel. And in this situation, it was impossible to do anything. Well, I hope it was impossible that any other offlaner in my place would face the same problems. A full-fledged realization of the hero did not happen.

- Did it make you nervous that you could not organize a winning duel?

– In fact, when you play LC on such important matches, it does not have that much importance. It’s important for you to happen ...

It’s important to get the enemy hero out of action or at least to exchange normally. In such moments you do not look, whether you won a duel or not, the main thing is that you succeeded in implementing the idea, for which you started a fight. There will be +10 damage, there will be +10 damage – you do not think about it.

- Ghost Scepter – a forced decision to remove the Troll?

– Yes, I decided that you need to do this. The game was developing well, we dominated the map, and I at some point stopped farming. I realized that we have OD, Ench, there is an Alchemist – these heroes run around and do whatever they want. And it was obvious that only the Troll could stop our heroes, they invested the entire economy in the Troll. They regularly disappeared from the map, and their initiation is dangerous – so a lot depended on my counterintelligence.

At some point everything went not according to plan. I understood that I can not afford any cool artifacts. It was impossible to kill the Troll in a duel because there were heroes who saved him. Blademail would not bring many benefits, because I would be dueled in two seconds, and I did not want to give him bonus damage.

I did not come up with another option. The plan was to tie the Troll in a fight, while the OD at this time would fill the intellect on it. But, unfortunately, we did not manage to organize fights in the right way.

- The process itself is interesting: do you discuss builds, or does the decision remain for each player?

– It always happens differently. More often everything is built on trust: each player knows his character well and buys suitable artifacts. Of course, it happens that the situation is difficult if you doubt – you can ask, they say, guys, I want to buy something. If you are told «yes», it raises the mood, you once again make sure that in this game you know something.

- You mentioned the economy – you were surprised that the Troll has taken so much to the decisive fights?

– No, I was not surprised they played like that. OG did nothing but splitpushing and farming in the grand final, they used every opportunity. Every second that we gave them, they spent on farm, trying not to let us finish. It was natural that they would have artifacts.

- In your opinion, if the major was on a patch or two before, when the towers did not have bonus armor when pushing, would it be easier to play with OG?

–No, I do not think so at all. It was played by the fact that we took 3-4 heroes in the finals almost without exchange or with exchange for 1-2, but could not finish.

We decided that we would not have time to demolish that they would stifle us. That’s it, all our fights turned out to be not so useless – some benefit from the 4 to 0 exchange is, of course – but we could not get anything out of them.

- Remember, why did you decide not to ban the treant on the fifth map?

– Because we knew that everything that these people do in the Grand Finals – is split up and not allow to go to high ground. We decided that it would be convenient for us to play against Treant in this situation. At the same time, Terrorblade with this style of play is very dangerous, and we decided to remove it. I believe that this was the right decision. We just could not realize our idea, something was not enough. 

- What did Artstyle tell you after the game? 

– Ivan was upset, in fact. He always told us that our strategies are very strong, we won with them, and after three maps in the finals we for some reason started to improvise. And he was upset that we did not listen to him. Although it can not be said that this pick was not ours. Just in some heroes and strategies we are 100% sure, and in some – at 60-70.

- It’s bad that the coaches are not allowed in the booths?

– Well, you can not always understand what your teammates are trying to say to you. Hardlaner screams that enemy supporters have left him, mider yells that he needs to abuse the chicken, carry yells that he needs help – all at the same time. I do not think it’s worth adding a sixth person, no matter how useful it is.

- Which of the five of you is the most difficult to take this defeat?

– Lil took it most difficult, in my opinion, because ... He really wanted to win. It is clear that we all wanted, but for Ilya it was something more.

 - Let’s finish with talking about the game in Kiev. Tell me, what qualities should a hardlaner have?

– We need to be very, very careful, be aware of the map, understand what is happening at all points, the macro is very important for the hardlaner. You need to understand when you can be impudent, and when you can not. When you can die, and when you can not. You need to constantly figure out what the enemy support is doing. Even in a difficult situation, make the most out of yourself.

- Have you decided what you will spend the prize money on?

–I have not decided anything yet. I am saving up for an apartment. I was very upset that we lost, because the prize for the first place is an apartment. 

 - Did the organization congratulate you somehow?

–The organization supported us all this time, gave us everything that was needed to go so far.

- I’ve heard that you were pressured by the goal set by the organization – the top 4. Is this so or not?

– No, nothing was pressing us. Perhaps only in the first game of the playoffs ... When we realized that we would play with iG.V, as in Boston, we were worried. We were again afraid that something unforeseen would happen, and we would be kicked out, as in Boston, where we, too, were confident of our abilities. And when we reached the semifinal, we hit the top 4, then the tension subsided, we understood, we are doing everything right, that we are already well done. It untied our hands, and with IG we already played more confidently.

- In your opinion, what do other CIS teams now have a lack of?

– Well, you should always understand what you need to do to win, what your plan is. This understanding is not enough. And at the beginning of the game, and in the middle, you need to clearly understand what you need to do to finish it.

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