Team Dog’s Arif ‘MSS’ Anwar interviewed; “Our sponsor should be announced some time next week”

I think a good time to focus on you is the time following when you were released from EG and then joined Team Dog. You seemed to return to the free-agent market, in which you started your Dota 2 pro career by filling in for team eHug regularly. Judging by their current location, it seemed like a pretty perfect match on paper since they're based close to you, so how come nothing came out of that arrangement?

Well, most people did think I would just move on to eHug after getting released by EG and for some time so did I. But I realized that while I was playing with eHug I really didn't play the game because I wanted to. I felt obligated to play on a team since I sacrificed so much to play Dota 2 this year and I didn't want to feel like I was wasting my days on nothing. So eventually I stopped having fun and it felt more like a chore during my stand-in days for eHug and I decided that I didn't want to play with them. This changed later when I got asked to stand in for Team Dog in their early days and when I was playing with them, my passion for the game got reinvigorated.

When jigglebilly eventually claimed the place as eHug's starting position, you bounced around a little bit more in the competitive scene, including a spot with Team Liquid at the SXSW Monster Invitational, and later you filled in for DeMoN, who was Team Dog's midlaner at the time. For being so young, the amount of different roles you have played competitively (Support, Carry, Mid, Offlaner) is extremely impressive. Do you think you've covered the entire spectrum of roles if hadn't actually stood in as frequently as you have?

I probably wouldn't have. If I was ever asked to join a team I would ask to be on a core position since I'm more experienced at it and I'm not as confident in my support compared to my other roles.

Do you feel that this has affected your overall stance in the Western Dota 2 community?

I don't think it has. I mean, being able to play multiple roles is a plus, but I feel the most important aspects in a team member is his communication skills, his attitude towards the game and how well he meshes with the other players on the team.

Since you mention that you're not comfortable on support, could you elaborate on how you came to become known almost exclusively for your Rubick in your early days competitively.

It's not like I'm not comfortable on the popular support heroes of the current meta, but it's more that I'm not confident enough in my movement as a support, where as I know how and when to move as an offlane or mid player. When I was standing in as a support for all the good NA teams back in the days, I mostly just listened to the other support player and followed their orders. I just happened to do a stolen 4 man RP one day and got famous for my Rubick.

From looking at Team Dog from an outside perspective, the team didn't seem to be all too serious initially. Was the team a casual endeavor when you became part of it, or was the goal by Pajkatt/Misery to form a fully functioning team from the start?

Well when I started playing with them it was a bit casual, but I had a feeling it was going to become a bit more serious with all these big tournaments coming up. I think the biggest key to success that DOG has is our confidence and leadership. Those were the two main points that were missing on old EG and eHug. We also started to scrim every day for a couple of hours, which made us get better very quickly.

Could you detail why Fogged and Smulgullig were removed from the team in favor of Fata and pas? Seeing as you had played with Fogged previously, I would have thought you two were synchronized in the team already?

Realizing that we were probably going to play in the TI qualifiers, Fogged, Pajkatt, Misery and I were looking for someone to replace Smulgullig, since we didn't think he was performing as well as the other players on the team. Since SIGMA were having their issues we looked at Fata as a replacement, but pas had to come with him since they were like a package deal. We tried them out and we liked them and that's why Fogged got the boot.

Do you think that the North American community/teams have many issues in terms of attitude to when it comes to forming and maintaining a roster? It seems as if most NA teams, unless they experience success early on, often end up booting players on a whim.

I think what the NA Dota scene is lacking the most is the amount of dedicated and experienced players that the other scenes have. That's why you see most of the NA players on teams that are mostly European or have 1-2 Europeans on their "NA" team. There is also barely any good up and coming players that are willing to go all out for Dota since they don't have the time or passion for the game. It's really hard to play competitive Dota 2 in America since you have to give up a lot if you're serious about the game. This as opposed to Europe, where you can still have a job or go to school and play at normal times, and China where you're treated like a god if you play games professionally.

So what is it that's kept you going on as a pro Dota 2 player in that case? What do you separates you from some of the other young talents in NA?

Well, I was just extremely passionate about the game and I really just wanted to learn more about the game and get better. I also took a year off after graduating high school, to focus on dota only which not many other people would do.

How far do you feel like you can push Team Dog now overall after your period of success? Is the roster stable enough for you to feel like it's an actual team now?

Yeah, this roster is stable enough to be called an actual team. I feel like we're definitely capable of being one of the best teams in the world.

I guess a good way to wrap it up then would be asking about the qualifier. The invites for this year's TI seemed to be awfully hard to finalize, but you now find yourself in the qualifiers. Did you first of all feel that you were deserving of an invite?

I honestly think that if we had finalized this line up a couple months earlier we would have received a direct invite, but a qualifier invite is good enough since we had all these roster changes. I see us winning the EU qualifier without a problem. The toughest competition would probably be teams like Rox.Kis, Power Rangers and maybe even Monomaniacs if they practice hard.

Pajkatt's been alluding that a new team is in the works. When the announcement drops, will it have been worth the struggle?

Our sponsor should be announced sometime next week and it will definitely have been worth the struggle.

Photo Credit: ESWC, Team Liquid