Mousesports officially picks up Team Dog; Interview with Mouz management
With Team Dog already having shown themselves to be a strong presence on the European scene, as well as marking themselves out as the definitive front runners for the European Qualifiers, rumors have abounded over the past weeks about which organization would be able to bag the most exciting unsigned team on the scene.
In the end it turns out that the former home of Adrian 'FATA' Trinks and Pascal 'paS' Lohmeier, German organization mousesports, were the ones to make the winning bid. This includes an announcement of a 10-day-long bootcamp in Berlin, Germany, which will carry the team through the International Qualifiers as well.
"After quite a lot of sponsor meetings with various organisations, we finally found the one that suits us the best," said new mousesports starter Rasmus 'MiSeRy' Filipsen. "The team and I are excited to announce that we are signing with mousesports and its sponsors BenQ, EpicGear and XMG. We will kickstart the relationship with a bootcamp in Berlin for TI4 qualifiers. The dogs have become mice."
"We have been in talks with Dota teams for a long time now, as we really like the game and the scene in general. Therefore we always had an eye on the Dota scene, especially the European one," mousesports Manager René Lannte told onGamers about the new team signing. "We always wanted to be back in Dota, so at the moment we’re just extremely happy that everything turned out well with Team Dog, as they have been the team we’ve been aiming for for a long time. The current state of Dota only underlines that it was the perfect move to come back."
Lannte says that Team Dog was the go-to choice for the organization's return to Dota.
"They’ve shown some big performances in the past weeks, as most fans would agree," Lannte said. "In addition, the team consists of very experienced and professional players. Luckily we’ve had the chance to work with FATA and paS in the past, and players like MiSeRy, Pajkatt or MSS don’t need to be introduced, as they’re well-known. Overall the team’s vision perfectly fits with ours, and we feel that we can all work in the same direction to achieve our goals."
FATA and paS competed with mouz at last year's International, but the team broke up with players going to Team Liquid, Pajkat and MiSeRy's LGD.Int and finally FATA and paS ending up in Sigma.Int. Mouz attempted to rebuild for a time with a Danish roster, but things did not work out, with mouz parting ways with this roster back in January.
"For Mouz it was obvious that we wanted to work with Dog primarily. Dog is one of the hottest European Dota 2 squads in the competition and they perfectly embody the values which mousesports stands for: talent, professionalism and skill."
Mousesports is committed to supporting Team Dog beyond the 2014 International event, and whether they qualify for the $4,000,000 and growing prize pot main event.
"Since the team will play the TI4 qualifiers in Berlin, I’ll make sure to drop by and support them and I really hope they can qualify, as they would totally deserve it," said Lannte. "The final result of the TI4 qualifiers will have no impact on our decision to work with the players however. The one thing you’re looking for in a roster is stability, and to overcome some bumps and hickups as the time goes on. Stability is key to constant good performances in team games, so there’s no room for a ‘qualify or get out’ mentality in Dota 2."
This pick-up makes sense for mousesports, who've recently seen sizable restructuring, parting ways with some of their StarCraft 2 talent, as well as letting go of their League of Legends team just two days ago. This may have been a part of freeing up resources to sign a top quality Dota 2 squad such as Team Dog; an investment which should serve them well as the German fans are famously supportive of their home teams.
The new roster of mousesports is:
- Per Ander 'mouz Pajkatt' Olsson Lille (Team Captain)
- Adrian 'mouz FATA' Trinks
- Pascal 'mouz paS' Lohmeier
- Rasmus 'mouz MiSeRy' Filipsen
- Arif 'mouz MSS' Anwar
- Ahmad 'mouz HyDra' Al-Saqarat (Team Coordinator)
Statements from the players:
Rasmus 'mouz MiSeRy' Filipsen: "After quite a lot of sponsor meetings with various organisations, we finally found the one that suits us the best. The team and I are excited to announce that we are signing with mousesports and its sponsors BenQ, EpicGear and XMG. We will kickstart the relationship with a bootcamp in Berlin for TI4 qualifiers. The dogs has become mice. #MeowMeow"
Adrian 'mouz FATA' Trinks: "I am proud to announce that Team Dog is now officially joining mousesports. After a period of looking for the most appropriate sponsor we seem to have found our perfect fit. Personally, I am glad to be back and I am looking forward to respresenting mouz on the international stage again, hopefully with a lot of victories after our bootcamp in Berlin. Special thanks to BenQ, EpicGear and XMG for the great support!"
