Following the massive roster shuffle induced by the conclusion of The International 5, the possibly most interesting roster from the west that was spawned from the shuffle was one populated by two of the more familiar faces involved in western Dota: Johan "BigDaddyn0tail" Sundstein and Tal "Fly" Aizik. With them, they have assembled a team consisting of many newer faces the Dota community at large may not be aware of.
One of the members in this new Dota quintet is Andreas "Cr1t-" Franck Nielsen, who for the first time is getting the chance to play in a team populated by some of Dota's stronger names.
Bildkälla: joinDOTA
One of the members in this new Dota quintet is Andreas "Cr1t-" Franck Nielsen, who for the first time is getting the chance to play in a team populated by some of Dota's stronger names.
In contrast to the mostly star-studded roster you are playing with, many people are probably unaware of who you are. Could you provide us with a brief introduction of your career so far?
I’m 19 year old Dota 2 player from Denmark. I’ve played in a variety of teams that were not that famous, mostly consisting of Danish players. The most notable of which was MYM, but we never achieved great success. The last 3 years I've been studying and tried to do both school and Dota competitively, which didn’t really work out, so I realized that I had to wait until I had finished school. Luckily i was approached after TI by N0tail to make this team and now we’re here.
For the people following the various in-house leagues, your name has been a mainstay for the past year. Many players have vouched for IHL’s being the best way as a player to get recognized, would you say that this is the case for you?
Yeah, but you have to be recognized in some way to play in the in-house leagues. I think getting on the MMR leaderboards is probably the best way to get recognized at the moment, but this TI was unique in a way that the outcome was a change in the general opinion towards roster changes; previously it was normal to take in recognized names that would leave or get kicked from other teams, but this year most teams have taken in new players like Miracle, w33ha, Biryu, YawaR, Ritsu etc.
The teams you have been part of have mostly been danish. In CS:GO, the danish scene is quite notorious due to its teams switching players frequently, and the same tendencies have been present in Dota 2 as well. Do you feel this hampered your career in any way up to this point, as it seems there’s little stability in the Danish scene?
In some way I suppose. The thing that the Danish scene in Dota 2 lacks is leadership— most of the players that I’ve played with the recent years I still consider very skilled and are still good friends, but we never found a player that had leadership potential. We tried a lot of different captains, myself included, but it just didn’t work out so I have given up on an all-Danish team; there are some really good players though.
As far as your career has gone, (monkey) Business is by far the most prestigious team you have been a part of. Whilst you haven’t played a lot of games, how does it feel to play with people who have so much experience?
I don’t think that the other guys have much more experience than me. I have been in the scene since 2012, always playing in a tier 2 team pretty much, and I’ve lost more than I’ve won. There are some serious benefits from losing all the time: you adapt to mental pressure in-game, and you learn a lot more from losing. That being said, you also miss out on a lot by only losing to tier 1 teams and never being on one yourself.
BigDaddyn0tail is the most notable face playing in the team and has also decided to transition into the midlane. How is he himself dealing with the transition, and how do you feel his aggressive style (as a support) lends itself to mid, or does he play a more meta-oriented style?
He has definitely not changed his aggressive style; obviously it’ll be a process for him and the team for him to play another role, but considering the small amount of practice we have had so far, I’m very impressed by his improvement on the role already.
On a similar note, most eyes seem to be glued to your team’s carry player Miracle- after only a few short games. Seeing as he’s the player on your team with the least competitive experience, how does he operate within games? Does he provide a lot of input during his games, or does he simply play “on his own” throughout the match?
Well he is our carry, he does his own thing, sometimes we ask him if he’s comfortable with the situation etc. and he will occasionally make calls but mostly we let him focus on his play.
As a unit, how does the team feel for you in comparison to your previous ones?
This team has, by far, the most comfortable environment to play in that I’ve experienced, we work well together ingame and we’re mostly on the same wavelength outside of the game too.
Final words.
Shoutout to my fans and the fans of the team, hopefully I’ll start streaming soon, you can stay updated by following my twitter @Cr1tdota
I’m 19 year old Dota 2 player from Denmark. I’ve played in a variety of teams that were not that famous, mostly consisting of Danish players. The most notable of which was MYM, but we never achieved great success. The last 3 years I've been studying and tried to do both school and Dota competitively, which didn’t really work out, so I realized that I had to wait until I had finished school. Luckily i was approached after TI by N0tail to make this team and now we’re here.
For the people following the various in-house leagues, your name has been a mainstay for the past year. Many players have vouched for IHL’s being the best way as a player to get recognized, would you say that this is the case for you?
Yeah, but you have to be recognized in some way to play in the in-house leagues. I think getting on the MMR leaderboards is probably the best way to get recognized at the moment, but this TI was unique in a way that the outcome was a change in the general opinion towards roster changes; previously it was normal to take in recognized names that would leave or get kicked from other teams, but this year most teams have taken in new players like Miracle, w33ha, Biryu, YawaR, Ritsu etc.
The teams you have been part of have mostly been danish. In CS:GO, the danish scene is quite notorious due to its teams switching players frequently, and the same tendencies have been present in Dota 2 as well. Do you feel this hampered your career in any way up to this point, as it seems there’s little stability in the Danish scene?
In some way I suppose. The thing that the Danish scene in Dota 2 lacks is leadership— most of the players that I’ve played with the recent years I still consider very skilled and are still good friends, but we never found a player that had leadership potential. We tried a lot of different captains, myself included, but it just didn’t work out so I have given up on an all-Danish team; there are some really good players though.
As far as your career has gone, (monkey) Business is by far the most prestigious team you have been a part of. Whilst you haven’t played a lot of games, how does it feel to play with people who have so much experience?
I don’t think that the other guys have much more experience than me. I have been in the scene since 2012, always playing in a tier 2 team pretty much, and I’ve lost more than I’ve won. There are some serious benefits from losing all the time: you adapt to mental pressure in-game, and you learn a lot more from losing. That being said, you also miss out on a lot by only losing to tier 1 teams and never being on one yourself.
BigDaddyn0tail is the most notable face playing in the team and has also decided to transition into the midlane. How is he himself dealing with the transition, and how do you feel his aggressive style (as a support) lends itself to mid, or does he play a more meta-oriented style?
He has definitely not changed his aggressive style; obviously it’ll be a process for him and the team for him to play another role, but considering the small amount of practice we have had so far, I’m very impressed by his improvement on the role already.
On a similar note, most eyes seem to be glued to your team’s carry player Miracle- after only a few short games. Seeing as he’s the player on your team with the least competitive experience, how does he operate within games? Does he provide a lot of input during his games, or does he simply play “on his own” throughout the match?
Well he is our carry, he does his own thing, sometimes we ask him if he’s comfortable with the situation etc. and he will occasionally make calls but mostly we let him focus on his play.
As a unit, how does the team feel for you in comparison to your previous ones?
This team has, by far, the most comfortable environment to play in that I’ve experienced, we work well together ingame and we’re mostly on the same wavelength outside of the game too.
Final words.
Shoutout to my fans and the fans of the team, hopefully I’ll start streaming soon, you can stay updated by following my twitter @Cr1tdota
Bildkälla: joinDOTA
