Tale: We proved that Brazil has good players

vTi.Dynasty was one of the many pleasant surprises at the DreamHon Winter 2012 tournament. The Brazilians proved to be a strong teams with notable performances against the international top teams like QsQ and Tt eSports. In the end they could not advance to the playoffs, but still gained tons of respect in the community.

Unfortunately, a lot has changed ever since this interview was recorded. In this day of editing and adjusting certain things with the material, Tale has left the team. The other four Dynasty players are still together and are currently looking for a new fifth member, Tale is scooping for a new team on his own.

Hello Tale, thank u for taking the time right after DreamHack Winter. Let's start with that experience, how do you feel about your first DreamHack?

Heitor 'Tale' Lima; I feel great, for the first time people don't call me a BR. Now they know that Brazil has some good players and now they know that ping does matter.

So you are satisfied with your general performance at the event?

Not really. The first thing is I was playing tired. I am not saying that tdM did not deserve those victories, they really did, but I think I could`ve done a lot more. We traveled 20 hours, after that we went out to drink with QsQ, we sleep about two hours on the first day and four hours on the second before the game against tdM. That made me feel very tired and I played really bad in those games - as did Bubbles and Silhouette.

I think even without scriming against the teams that were at DreamHack Winter, we scrimed 3x x VOTE/2x coL/1x QsQ, we could`ve done a lot better and the worst part that I really regret is are the last 2 games that we trolled because we had no chance to advance. That is how I feel about my and my team's performance, we could have done more for our country!

Your pride for the country shined through after the first huge upset in the tournament, when your team tied Tt eSports, what went through your mind at that particular moment?

My mind was blown, I had the feeling of winning before we actually did it, because we played very well against them on the first map, but a win is and will always be a win. And that versus a team that got the second place twice at DH and 3rd place this time and, like I said, a team that got one of my favorite players (sLiCKz). I can't remember exactly how I felt at that moment, I just know that I was happy and proud of being Brazilian. My mind just went to one thing: we showed to the world, that we can go head-to-head with famous teams. GO BRAZIL!

In that match against TteS you made one of the biggest plays of the tournament happening when you barely survived with your Moon Queen to then turn the tide of the entire team fight. Walk us through what exactly was happening there, what was happening in your team communication? What went through your mind?

Well, I initially wanted to solo Kongor but in the meantime my team, more precisely Parasite and Deadwood, were able to kill sLiCKz on Forsaken Archer to give us a numbers advantage. So I rather wanted to push instead of getting the Token. Unfortunately, I was a little bit quicker to the Hellbourne base than my teammates so as soon as they realized that Forsaken bought back, they wanted me to get back and wait for them. Tt eSports used my overextending to cast basically every spell on me to get me down really quick.

I am pretty sure the smartest play as a team would have been to just sacrifice me and live to fight another day, but Brazilians are men you know, they manned up and jumped in like crazy to protect and save me. MrKitt jumped right into the middle of the engagement to confuse everyone, Bubbles did the biggest move and got to Plague Rider before he could nuke me, and once PR was in the game again, I already had my Shrunken Head on to survive.

After basically two seconds of chaos and making mistakes, we got ahead in the fight, my team came to my aid and that was GG. Still, after we won that fight, we stayed calm, we tried our best and we were still aware, that we were playing the mighty Tt eSports. So we didn't scream or started to act crazy, we treated the game like it was still up for grabs, we pushed all barracks and decided to just go back into our base and regroup. Basically don't overextend in any way, play it calm, collected and focus at all times – don't make a stupid mistake in that situation. We played TteS and they can make big plays out of nothing.

After the first day the race for the playoffs in Group B was still wide open, did you play around with the idea of advancing before notable teams like QsQ and TteS?

No, not the first day. When I jumped into the game versus TteS, I just wanted to show my skills (and of my team as well) and do a great show to everybody, without getting stomped.

But when we went 1-1 against them, we really got the feeling to advance, and we could start to dream. We went into the clash with QsQ with a strong mind.
The first game, we dominated them, I got 14/0 as Silhouette and on the second game, we misplayed the draft phase, we left Silhouette and decide to pick another hero, don't remember really good, but whatever it was a good game anyway, and we got our META, that was showing the people that we have good players. If we went to semi finals, that would have been a plus, but whatever.
First day we had no idea to go to semi-finals, on the second we had that on mind, definitely.

You are always talking about the perception of the community towards Brazilians, do you think you have done enough to get rid of that stereotype, that gives the bad stigma to Brazilian players?

Not really, we showed them that Brazil has good players, but I agree with them that most of the Brazilians are ragers (like me) but worse than that, they can't say "I did bad", they want to give excuses all day. One thing is true though, being racist doesn't help at all, they should try to be calm/patient and try to talk, instead of being racist.

Also people are confused a lot, they confuse Brazil with the rest of LA, the people that speak Spanish. The last thing about this stigma that I think is: Americans are bad too, every country has bad players. The thing is, America has bad and racist people, Brazil has bad players that are ragers.

I think, people should work with their differences and try to just play the game, it's a game you know, fun?? Don't rage, don't be racist, don't do things like that, and I say this because I was such a MM rager, and I am not proud of being that way.



Did the other competitors at DreamHack had anything against Brazil or Brazilians, or did they welcome you into the group of competitive players with open arms?

Kind of hard to say. When I got there, I did not want to talk with anyone, because I didn't know the guys. They knew Pride and YoYo, but not me. I was an unknown player, so I decided to stay quiet and just talk with who I used to talk, like KheZu and Swindle. I think the one really receptive team was QsQ, those guys are just amazing, seriously on the first day that we got there, they went out with us, that was just amazing, the 4 times champion, drinking with us? Nova?

I can say that QsQ was a really receptive team, and that is why I gave a hug to NoVa after winning the second map against TteS. He said to me that we could beat them before the tournament starts, 2 days before, he is amazing, and so is his team.

The others I got to know, and who are also pretty cool were Style, Skyzoe, Chessie and Limmp, all very respectful and friendly.

Just 2 guys there, that were not that cool, but whatever, I won't say there names.

Okay, lets switch gears for now and talk about your home region - Latin America. How would you describe the competitive scene in that newly founded region?

It is shit, just a few teams, 90% are bad, only three nice teams at max – and nice is relative. Also Trilanes are still happening in scrims, not really good.
S2 wants to lock us into that region, to get the level of the competitive scene up here, but I think they will all stay bad anyways, but whatever, let's see what happens.

Any big tournaments announced or what do you do in that region other than scrimming?

Every tournament here only has Axeso Cash, which are Gold Coins. There are no big tournaments, you only scrim and when there are tournaments, you can only win Gold Coins.



How devastating of a blow was it then when you got "disqualified" from participating in HonTour?

We did not really care about it, we were there just to practice, we cant play international tournaments with our machines and connection. They all suck and so we wanted to use the HonTour Qualifier just to be able to practice at a high level.

We wanted to face DHW teams, because most of them did not want to scrim us prior to the event because we were underdogs. Some of them did not even answer. They didn't want us to see their pick style so after we got kicked out of HonTour we just downloaded replays and got our research through.

So the Brazilian scene is literally not that flourishing and your team can not really scrim international teams, what is your plan to still improve your skills?

My plan is: wait and see. They didn't lock us out just yet but if they do we can just wait and get a free trip to Sweden every time and lose there. Whatever, it is free so. (laugh)

Not that bright of a prospect, unfortunately. Another unfortunate happening was with your sponsor vTi, can you explain what exactly transpired with them?

I really don't want to talk about that situation, we are out there, the deal is over. That is it.

Got any other sponsors in sight?

No. I don't even know if the team is going to keep going. We will wait and see.

Okay last question that spread around the scene after your team video appeared on stream, what is the story behind your eye?

When I was 5 years old, a piece of metal got inside my eye. I was playing and fell down. Shit happens. From there on I was blind on my left eye. It is okay though, I am so pro I need to give myself a handicap. If I could see the minimap while playing it would be too easy. (laugh)

Thank you very much for your time, want to give any final shoutouts?

Shoutout to Insight eSports(Brazil), Team Royalty, ADE(Brazil), to my team, to Xuca(The support player, that could not go to DHW, and got replaced by Tipi), to you and to everybody that hates Brazilians!!