Loda: 'Huge skill gap compared to last International'
With the International just around the corner, Razer continues the "Road To International" series by interviewing Zenith's own, Jonathan "Loda" Berg, who asserted that the standout moment of his career was when he was playing alongside "Bogdan" and "Akke" at SK.Gaming.
Furthermore, Loda exclaimed that: ""We won a lot of tournaments, a couple of Dreamhacks, and we won the ESWC Paris, and it's not about one match in particular, it's more about that era because we came from kind of nowhere and became nearly the best team."
When asked on how long he has been living in Singapore, how is he adjusting to the country, and how he left CLG to join Team Zenith, Loda answered:
- "I have been here since late May, and well I am still adjusting to some things, the heat is one thing that is annoying, and maybe it took like one and a half months to get used to the people, the food, the different kinds of cultures. Singapore is a bit like of Sweden, if you mix Sweden with a Asian kind of country, you have Singapore. But, it's going to be a while until Singapore really feels like home."
- "Well, yes and no actually, because at one point in CLG, I moved from being the captain to a more passive role under my own decision because I wanted to let Pajkatt fully be able to work as captain, and sometimes it's really hard when you two strong personalities trying to pull the team to different directions. Then I started to think about leaving CLG, and I really wanted to be with my girlfriend who knew HyHy. After I left CLG, I spoke with HyHy and luckily they had just lost one player. So, everything was perfect in that moment and the chances of that happening were very slim."
Furthermore, Loda gives us some insight about how Zenith drafts, and explains why Zenith likes to switch their pickers:
- "Officially, HyHy is going to be the one picking, that's 100% sure, it's up to him if he has a plan of himself, we will always give him ideas of what is going to be pick-up or a good ban. We will always analyze the opponent in different ways, if I have been watching the opponents replays, I will tell HyHy that the opponents like these heroes, and you should remove them, but it's still always up to HyHy. The reason we switch the picker is because actually in our official games that is the point where we get the best way of practicing, like normally we have a hard time to keep the focus on when we scream at other teams."
More significantly Loda gives us his thoughts on the International, and how this year's International is different from last year’s:
- "Well, International is a very scary tournament, the skill level compared from the last International to this year has a huge skill gap. This year's International has so many good teams that had been practicing for half a year for just this one tournament. They have been preparing individually, as a team, and they have been analyzing one another."
- "I mean the last International, some teams had one week to prepare, some teams had two weeks to one month, the difference was just huge, while this year everyone was just prepared. It's always scary with a big tournaments like this, even if I think that we have a good chance with Zenith, and that we are a strong team, not only skill wise but how we play, and how versatile we are, there is still a possibility that a team will win games just because they have a pocket strap, they have a strategy that they bring to the tournament. Maybe the strategy will be used once, but it can still win a game, and one game can decide a lot in a tournament like this. So, it's going to be scary, but I'm confident on the tournament, and overall it feels like the World Cup pretty much."
Finally, Loda shares if he gains more motivation with The International closing in, or does he find The International as just another DotA 2 Tournament:
- "Of course it makes me practice a lot more. In some situations, you practice less and less, it really depends on the team, and how much you feel the tournaments matter. If you have a couple of online tournaments that has a decent prize and so on, maybe you won't put in as much hours especially as a team because practicing as team can be very hard sometimes, and you have to be dedicated, all of you to make it work."
- "So yeah, TI2 gives me a lot of extra energy or focus to become a better player because for me it's quite easy to slack off sometimes, when you have been in the scene for a very long time, you sometimes feel you don't have to practice as much as other people, but that's not the case, you still have to practice a lot to stay on top. Now, the competition on Dota 2 is very high, and everyone is very serious, so you have to practice as much as you can to be good enough, that's how it is.”
Loda gave a short and sweet shout-out to his fans, he requests that the fans keep supporting him, and he gave a special shout-out to his Chinese fans for their love and support they showed the Swedish powerhouse. He wanted Bradwarden the Centaur Warchief as his next hero in Dota 2.
All interviews of Razer Road to International:
Road To International #1: Benedict "HyHy" Lim Han Yong Interview
Road To International #2: Jonathan "Loda" Berg Interview
Road to International #3: TBA
Furthermore, Loda exclaimed that: ""We won a lot of tournaments, a couple of Dreamhacks, and we won the ESWC Paris, and it's not about one match in particular, it's more about that era because we came from kind of nowhere and became nearly the best team."
When asked on how long he has been living in Singapore, how is he adjusting to the country, and how he left CLG to join Team Zenith, Loda answered:
- "I have been here since late May, and well I am still adjusting to some things, the heat is one thing that is annoying, and maybe it took like one and a half months to get used to the people, the food, the different kinds of cultures. Singapore is a bit like of Sweden, if you mix Sweden with a Asian kind of country, you have Singapore. But, it's going to be a while until Singapore really feels like home."
- "Well, yes and no actually, because at one point in CLG, I moved from being the captain to a more passive role under my own decision because I wanted to let Pajkatt fully be able to work as captain, and sometimes it's really hard when you two strong personalities trying to pull the team to different directions. Then I started to think about leaving CLG, and I really wanted to be with my girlfriend who knew HyHy. After I left CLG, I spoke with HyHy and luckily they had just lost one player. So, everything was perfect in that moment and the chances of that happening were very slim."
Furthermore, Loda gives us some insight about how Zenith drafts, and explains why Zenith likes to switch their pickers:
- "Officially, HyHy is going to be the one picking, that's 100% sure, it's up to him if he has a plan of himself, we will always give him ideas of what is going to be pick-up or a good ban. We will always analyze the opponent in different ways, if I have been watching the opponents replays, I will tell HyHy that the opponents like these heroes, and you should remove them, but it's still always up to HyHy. The reason we switch the picker is because actually in our official games that is the point where we get the best way of practicing, like normally we have a hard time to keep the focus on when we scream at other teams."
More significantly Loda gives us his thoughts on the International, and how this year's International is different from last year’s:
- "Well, International is a very scary tournament, the skill level compared from the last International to this year has a huge skill gap. This year's International has so many good teams that had been practicing for half a year for just this one tournament. They have been preparing individually, as a team, and they have been analyzing one another."
- "I mean the last International, some teams had one week to prepare, some teams had two weeks to one month, the difference was just huge, while this year everyone was just prepared. It's always scary with a big tournaments like this, even if I think that we have a good chance with Zenith, and that we are a strong team, not only skill wise but how we play, and how versatile we are, there is still a possibility that a team will win games just because they have a pocket strap, they have a strategy that they bring to the tournament. Maybe the strategy will be used once, but it can still win a game, and one game can decide a lot in a tournament like this. So, it's going to be scary, but I'm confident on the tournament, and overall it feels like the World Cup pretty much."
Finally, Loda shares if he gains more motivation with The International closing in, or does he find The International as just another DotA 2 Tournament:
- "Of course it makes me practice a lot more. In some situations, you practice less and less, it really depends on the team, and how much you feel the tournaments matter. If you have a couple of online tournaments that has a decent prize and so on, maybe you won't put in as much hours especially as a team because practicing as team can be very hard sometimes, and you have to be dedicated, all of you to make it work."
- "So yeah, TI2 gives me a lot of extra energy or focus to become a better player because for me it's quite easy to slack off sometimes, when you have been in the scene for a very long time, you sometimes feel you don't have to practice as much as other people, but that's not the case, you still have to practice a lot to stay on top. Now, the competition on Dota 2 is very high, and everyone is very serious, so you have to practice as much as you can to be good enough, that's how it is.”
Loda gave a short and sweet shout-out to his fans, he requests that the fans keep supporting him, and he gave a special shout-out to his Chinese fans for their love and support they showed the Swedish powerhouse. He wanted Bradwarden the Centaur Warchief as his next hero in Dota 2.
All interviews of Razer Road to International:
Road To International #1: Benedict "HyHy" Lim Han Yong Interview
Road To International #2: Jonathan "Loda" Berg Interview
Road to International #3: TBA
