The interview was conducted by Sovann 'Skim' Kim on 26th March 2013.
Name: Adrian Trinks
Alias: Fata
Date of birth: February 24, 1993
Hometown: Berlin, Germany
Role: Midlane/Ganker
Previous Teams: WhA, Kaipi
Achievements: 1st - Samsung European Encounter (2012)
2nd - GosuLeague Season 4 (2012
2nd - Bigpoint Battle: February (2013)
2nd - DotaHut Invitational (2013) Signature Heroes:
INTERVIEW: Adrian 'Fata' Trinks

Hey Fata, it’s been quite some time since I last interviewed you, how are you? “Hey man, I'm doing quite fine at the moment.” A lot has happened since then, let s start from the beginning. Dreamhack Winter was the start of the new mousesports, but you got eliminated right in the beginning. How did your team handle the situation?

“To be honest, each team member reacted differently to the situation. Some took it rather lightly whereas others were severely disappointed by the bad results. I myself felt pretty down because of having played so bad in the tournament.”

Did your team do anything paticular to lift the team spirit or did you just have to forget about it and moved on?

“We mainly just acknowledged that this was our first LAN together and that poor results like the one at DHW12 can happen. The main thing afterwards was to not get too demotivated, move on and learn from our mistakes.”

And it seemed to work out. Some time around New Year’s, your team managed to sustain a winning streak of over 10 consecutive matches, what happened?

“To be honest, that was actually a period of minimal practice due to some real life issues of one of our members. What mainly led to the strong winning streak we had was in my opinion the combination of a good and (rather) innovative game strategy (Gyro middle with a lot of focus of the two supports on mid lane, trying to gank/countergank), a positive attitude and a good mood as well as good team communication and coordination.”

It definitely showed, seeing as mouz was able to compete with the best. However, KuroKy left the team. How much did it affect you and your team? “

Again, it affected each team member in a different way. Some of us felt that staying at the top of the EU scene is impossible without the captaining of Kuroky, whereas others and mostly me saw his departure as a chance for each one of us to prove that we are good players and not just Kuro+4, which led to a huge boost in motivation for me personally.”


Alex and Fata at Shanghai Airport for the WCG finals Play enough Dota to maintain a high level of competitive play while managing to still achieve decent study results. But to be honest, one of those sides will usually fall short.

Yes, Alex said something similar in a threadpost on Dotasource.de. In the same post, he mentioned the lack of good German teams or players in the scene. What is your take on the German scene?

”Well first of all, the German scene is obviously doomed with the good ol' "Teams-disband-in-1-month" stereotype. To my mind, this came across due to the fact that the German scene was always full of the same players shifting into different teams throughout the years.

I do not think the German scene as a whole would fit into that stereotype but rather some of the players that were "always" present in the scene. And the only chance to play competitive with a German team was to either know one of these players or to build your own team from scratch. Another factor that probably leads to the relative instability of German teams is the social aspect of gaming in Germany (and other Western countries). Most people will always set education aswell as other activities above gaming which leads to decreased time spent in playing the game and also a less professional attitude.”

That is indeed an issue. How does your team cope with that? I take it, most of you are occupied with school/university/jobs on the side?

”I guess you have to find a good balance between the two. Play enough Dota to maintain a high level of competitive play while managing to still achieve decent study results. But, to be honest, one of those sides will usually fall short.”

If you could, would you go full pro and live off your gaming salary? ”

Only if the money I made would be enough to secure the rest of my life. So rather not *laughs*. If in ten years nobody is interested in me as a gamer anymore (or in the game as a whole), I’m stuck with no degree or anything.”

Makes a lot of sense. Let's talk a bit about your new teammate: qojqva. First of all, a lot of people want to know: how do you pronounce his name?

”Haha, that's what everyone seems to ask me first *laughs*. It is pronounced like 'kvoikva' if that makes any sense to you.”


Fata in Kunshan, China It's actually one of our biggest wishes to qualify for G-1 League and to travel to China again.

Yes it does. So, what was important when you were looking for a replacement for Kuroky? It seems like the role didn't matter seeing as you put paS on the support role.

”Pas actually asked me to be put on the support role, so we ended up having to look for an off-laner instead. Because we wanted to stay all-German and Germany has a pretty limited number of off-laners that have played competitively, qojqva came to our minds quite quickly. We wanted to test out several more players but since the scrims and officials just went so smoothly with qojqva, we just ended up taking him into the team rather quickly.”

It seems to be working out. G-1 League announced that they will be hosting qualifiers for EU/NA teams. Will you be looking to qualify or is travelling to China something your team can't do?

”I think it's actually one of our biggest wishes to qualify for G-1 League and to travel to China again.”

Have you been following the recent G-1 league qualifiers? What impresses you about the Asian Dota scene?

“I've only watched a few matches of the qualifiers due to limited time but I'll hope to catch up in the next few days. What impresses me most about the Asian Dota scene is the amount of dedication they have and the work they put into the game to achieve a very structured and consistent play.”

Gyrocopter, one of your favorite heroes, is not that popular in the Asian scene and has been picked up only a few times. What do you think is the reasoning behind that?

“He is very easily ganked and taken out in fights before his BKB. On lane he is limited to 350 or so range and does not have access to a high hp pool.”

Is there a reason then that he - much like Wisp, who is also barely picked up in Asia - works out in the Western scene?

“I think the lack of Wisp in the Asian scene is due to the fact that they like to force towers as five quite early and in those situations a Wisp does not bring a lot. For Gyro, I think it's that there are simply better options (e.g. Luna) as well as his pre-BKB squishiness leading to him being taken out quite easily.”

Sounds about right. When talking about Asia, a lot of people mention bootcamping there to improve. Na`Vi intends to do it, others have thought about it as well. Financial aspects aside, would you go there to bootcamp?

“Before a big tournament like The International it would definitely be worth it in my opinion, because currently the top Asian teams just seem so much ahead over the Western ones.”

Definitely, yes. Coming back to you personally: How would you rate your own progress as a player over the past year?

“I have definitely learned a lot over the past year. From when I pretty much first entered the scene with WhA to now there's been a lot in between. I'd say I have not only improved skillwise but I've also learned how important a good morale is for a team and how a top team has to be built up etc. The few LANs that we were on also were a great experience.”


mouz at DHW'12 with Kuroky The most interesting matchup for me is probably against s4.

We mentioned it before, Gyrocopter is one of your favorite heroes. We've talked about his weaknesses, but what do you think makes him strong as a midlaner and why does he suit your playstyle?

“What made him a strong midlaner was his really nice animation together with good dmg with a Wraith Band, his ability to push out the lane for runes with Flak Cannon and barrage as well as his huge killing potential using Rocket and Barrage.

He could practically zone somebody out of the lane completely by just using the rocket causing a massive xp loss. The reason I said "made" instead of "makes" is that teams have learned to adapt to the Gyrocopter middle.

After initial success with him, teams started putting severe pressure on him by either midpulling a lot as Radiant or just smoke ganking him a lot. Since Gyro is low ranged, if the two supports go missing, you can either stay back, not getting a single last hit - only to find out they were just stacking - or you can try to farm and hope that they are indeed stacking and not ganking *laughs*.

What I loved most about Gyro was the possibility to create a very aggressive playstyle early on which can stay until the very late game. You get many killing possibilites throughout the game due to the massive burst damage he possesses.”

Definitely. Rotations from supports aside, could you recall the hardest match-up you had in the midlane, meaning which player gave you the hardest time in a competitive game?

? “Probably Dendi. His control of the midlane is simply so good. Other than that, I don't really fear anyone else in mid *laughs*. The most interesting matchup for me is probably against s4 though.”

Why is that? “Because it often ends up in one of us totally winning/losing the lane. Last time he was 30 cs ahead of me. The next time I solo killed him twice and the game after that, he firstbloods me *laughs*.”

Do "rivalries" like this motivate you ingame?

“Definitely, they just make the matchup much more interesting.”

Thank you for the interview, it has been a pleasure. Do you have any shoutouts?

“Sure, shoutout to mousesports and our sponsors BenQ, Razer, GeiL and Thortech aswell as dotasource.de for the awesome support and anyone that supports the mouz Dota2 team and thanks to you for the interview of course.”