Interview with Cy, Gaimin Gladiators' coach

Surprisingly, there is barely any information about the coach who won all the majors of the season. So interviewing Cy, the coach of the Gaimin Gladiators, was the #1 goal for me at BetBoom Dacha. We weren't able to find an hour of free time until 2 a.m., after the series with TSM, but it was worth it. We talked about his comeback to esports, team responsibilities, preparing for major tournaments and – a little bit – about teammates.

– You haven’t played competitively since 2015. How did you decide to start the coaching career after 7 years without competition? – That's the good question actually. So (I will just clarify), even then when I played competitively in 2015 I wasn’t like top-pro or anything like this. I played in tier-2 teams and different stacks and so on.

Now I’m 27. Back then I was around 17-19 and I really tried hard. And the thing is at some point you got to something else in your life. I was studying and I left home – it's a more simple life, but you have to get a job. Other priorities – I started a business and I went all-in on it. But I always kinda played pubs, I had friends in Dota: I knew Ace, for example. In the last few years we played pubs together and since he started to play with Tofu as well I also played with Tofu a lot. And always talking in Discord with them in my free time. So I still stayed in touch with Dota, it's not like I lost all information and everything I remember about this game.

At some point they needed a new coach, after the previous season. And I was talking. They actually really talk a bit and I shamelessly asked Ace that I think they should consider me, because I think I can bring some good things to the team. And he agrees, but also said that we are friends so maybe his view is not completely objective. He said: «I can speak with some of the team» and he set up the meeting. I talked with Seleri and Tofu there because Quinn was also new to the team of course he doesn’t say that much. And Anton… he did not care, typical Anton.

I had an interview with them that lasted 5 hours in the middle of the night. I had to go to work the next day. I was kinda tired, but it was worth it because they offered it to me somehow. I was very happy about it.

– What did you discuss during that 5 hours?

– We discussed a lot in that long time. First of all, we discussed a lot about mindset. Basically just to see how I fit into the team, ‘cause in the team it's a very democratic way how we feel and like what we think is good. Everybody can have an opinion about anything. It's not like if you are playing offlane you cannot say anything about mid or something like this. Or like I have to know everything and nobody can say «no» to me because I'm a coach. It's not like this structure in our team.

They kinda wanted someone with a similar mindset, someone who thinks very logically about the game. So if you make a good argument - you should believe this argument because it makes sense. And not just because someone is «the boss» or some shit like that. That was one thing.

Then they talked about some specific scenarios: «What do I think I would do in that scenario?» and so on. And then we just spoke a lot (3 or 4 hours) about Dota stuff, just Dota things. In-game things like builds, starting builds. I remember this point: «That's what your start going like? Gauntlets on strength heroes…» We talked about this for a long time.

And we just talked about a lot of gameplay stuff. Honestly, It felt very natural - to be a part of that team.

– If it's not a secret, what did you do for a living before Gaimin Gladiators?

– I had something like a team in a company. That is mostly managing people and leading people. In that aspect I think I learned a lot from my real life experience to bring to the team. So I'm not only having experience playing games and being just good at the game. I think I'm good with people, especially when it comes to work.

People can be very different. I have one approach for example, when I talk with Seleri and another when I talk with Anton, because these two people are very different. But I still need the same from them: I need them to be happy, I need them to feel good about the fact that we are playing and confident of course. And it's like a different approach to both, and some people need more than others, like to talk and help maybe, stuff like that.

– By the way, where and when did you meet Ace? – I’m not sure, I think maybe 2018 or 2019. Ace and I are both danish, and there's not that many danish players like there are, for example, russian players. Especially not if you are in an Immortal bracket or high-Immortal bracket. We are playing like this in 5-stacks and Ace is always playing on smurfs. Not anymore, but he used to do it. Ace was playing on some smurf and I played against him many times back in the days, but i didn’t really know him. He didn't really say much in Discord on the stack, he was playing mid and he was owning a lot. And I think: «This guy is pretty good. I don’t know who he is, but he is pretty good». I naturally started to play more with him and added him. He was also not called «Ace» in Discord, I don't remember what he was called - something else. So i didnt think about it. And then one day someone said something «Ace» when we were talking and I realized. I was like «Are you Ace?» and he's like «Yeah».

So we just clicked very well, we had very similar views on the game, how we like the game and how to play the game. And being creative about stuff: we came up with a lot of stuff back then, playing KotL mid, for example. It was very new back then, so we started doing it, because it was insanely OP.

We like to invent and theorycraft a lot - we did that a lot. We talked like all the time about Dota. So it's been going up for some years.

– Before you and Quinn joined Gaimin Gladiators it was strong, but I would say tier-2 team. What problems and maybe some weak points did you notice when you joined the team?

– I don’t know how it was before which also changes the dynamic a bit. I know they have a different structure with the previous coach. I don't think that suits them very well.

Also I think Quinn is just one of the best mid-players mechanically and, especially we are talking about the midlaners, - it needs to be that way. Because mid is so hard and it's such little things that make the difference that changes if you are able to play the game really or not. If you are losing your lane you kinda can't play the game. You can't go anywhere to gank, you don't get any runes - the game is just very hard. 

I noticed it wasnt really like that for Quinn when we screamed. We started the first DPC tour when we felt OK and we played so many screams in this period. I feel like we improved a lot, because at the beginning it wasn't like we were that insanely good team like we have been in the year. It definitely came a bit after that, like the first DPC tour I would say.

We are really kinda developed. What exactly is it? It's hard to say. We had to find out how it makes sense for us to play together, because Ace, for example, was a carry player and he likes to farm. It's obvious, everybody knows it. It's also good the way he does it, it's not like he is just supergreedy and goes to the carry safe-farm and starts farming this. He wants to always be farming, but also combining our heroes and making things happening on the map. This is how we figure it out for us. And I think we are pretty good at it.

New patches, changes to the map have been made since then. And it changes how you can play. Of course we have to find out all the time, again and again, how to do it. But this is the main thing I think that really came together, because everybody is very skilled - that's not a problem in our team.

– What type of coach are you? Are you a leader? An analyst? A voice from the side? What is your main feature? – I think I am mostly involved in a draft. I think one of my strengths is understanding heroes: what is good? When? And why is it good? Sometimes I feel like I can just see it. It’s also because I know my players very well, I know how they like to play. So for me it's very natural. I get a lot of information, for example, Ace will tell me what heroes he likes, why they are good, when they are good and so on. And I like asking people about what they think is good sometimes. I just ask like: «Hey, Dyrachyo, what do you think about Gyrocopter?» Obviously, it's very good, but i'll just ask like this, just to understand: is this hero good for him or not? Like: «What do you think about it?»

And if he says: «I think it's trash!» I want to ask him: «Why do you think it's trash?», «What exactly makes you believe it's trash?» And that makes me understand it. So when we are drafting I can better suggest the hero and understand what kind of draft we want. So, I think I am mostly involved in this.

Mostly the players looking for their own lanes. Tofu and Ace look at their lane together and if they are laning badly they figure it out - that’s on them. I cannot lecture Quinn how to lane mid - he’s way better midlaner than me. So he figured it out pretty fast. People can figure out their own lanes, that’s their expertise, they are very good players. So I'm confident about that.

– Speaking for drafts and maybe hero pools. Can you just go to Dyrachyo, for example, and say: «Hey, Anton, I notice that the new Ursa with Octarine and Eul’s is just OP, so you should play 15-20 pubs and then we start to pick Ursa in our screams and the official games»?

– Oh, the new build, yeah. Yeah, for sure, sometimes it happens like this. It's not only me - we all do it to each other. For example, sometimes I can say to Ace: «I notice that Centaur is always owning my pubs. I look at some pubs - it's always owning. I think this hero might be good again». And then: «You should try it in some pubs''. And Ace is like: «OK, I’ll try».

Or if he's not sure, if he doesn't believe me he will maybe ask: «Why it’s owning? Why is this good? What have you noticed?» It’s like this, how it works in our team. 

– Correct me if I'm wrong: you have right now something around 8K MMR?

– Yeah, something like this.

– How many pubs per week do you usually play?

– I actually play quite a lot: maybe 30-40 pubs in a week. I like to play pubs, I actually enjoy pubs.

– What do you think, should Dota-coach play a lot of matchmaking or watch other players and teams playing is enough?

– Every team is different. Maybe it depends on what kind of coach you are. My rank is not as high as my teammates, for example, so I don't play the most skilled pubs in that sense. But it still gives me an idea how heroes feel - it's still the same heroes. Sure, some heroes are better in pubs, but it gives me a good idea to help me understand if some heroes are good or not. Or like if there are some matchups that are changed and weird - I’m staying in touch with the game, that's how I feel. I think it's important that you play some games and I think it's important that you watch games, watch a lot of competitive Dota. Sometimes I watch just pub games, how different pro-players play pubs, spectate or watch the Youtube uploads of it. Yeah, I think you should do all of it.

I also think that it is important to think about how you are speaking with your players daily: what kind of words you use. It's a small thing and maybe you don't think it matters, but it does.

– Since Gaimin Gladiators won almost all of the tournaments, was it easier or maybe harder to prepare for each tournament knowing that you are the best team in the world?

– It's definitely got weirder and weirder I think. We won Lima and were just like: «Oh, that’s nice». Nobody expected it: «Oh, wow, we did it!» We were very happy, very proud. And then we play Dreamleague and I remember we are really owning this Dreamleague Season 1. Valve dropped the big patch right before the finals. And we’re again working under pressure. Which probably helped us to understand that we are not like that strong anymore. Yeah, OK, maybe people said we are favorites, but it was such a big patch for us and changed our mindset a bit. Then we won again!

We felt we figured it out pretty well and we were very confident in the Berlin Major. After we played the group stage I was like: «I feel we’re gonna win this tournament». I would never have said that to my team in the tournament, but I felt it. I don't know, I just had it in my mind. I feel like: «I don't think anybody can beat us right now». I mean some teams do very well, for sure, but I think we were very strong there. 

Then we definitely got a reality check I think. The hard thing is the people get kinda a bit tired from playing a lot. When you are going all the way in the tournament you play every day. If you go out in groups - you just get a vacation, right? Or you go home and you can just chill. We don't get that, we get home, get a few days break and then Dreamleague or DPC starts.

So it's very intense and the people are a bit tired, so you play less pubs, maybe you think less about Dota, you are talking less about Dota, you’re chilling less in Discord with the team and talking about it.

And you want to go drink and chill a bit - it's fine I understand it. And naturally you will get worse, because other teams, of course, are working hard to beat you. And the more you win, the more they look at your games, so they understand even better how you play. And your heroes also get nerfed, because you are winning tournaments. That’s how it works: your heroes - the best heroes you won with - will get nerfed. And that happened to us.

Bali was a surprise for me. I think: «If we win this - nice». And 2nd Dreamleague too, we played the finals against BetBoom and we had the Lower Bracket run. It was short, but we lost the first game and all the series. We just had to play better next time. But then we won, somehow we won those series and then we played the BetBoom finals 5 games as well. I think it was superfun to watch: entertaining games and a bit chaotic. That felt a bit weird: we maybe shouldn’t have won? We are definitely not as dominant as the rest of the year but I was still proud of them. And then for Bali I was like: «We need to get back to Berlin, how strong we were in Berlin, like Lima». And I don’t really think we got there in Bali, but somehow we still admitted all the way. Don’t get me wrong: we were still playing very well, but I don't think we made it all the way back.

But Anton did say it at some point in the evening before we went to bed (I always share a room with Anton when we are traveling): «We’re gonna win this tournament. I can feel it». I was like: «Bro, don’t count your chickens». But we won it.

And then in Riyadh finally we lost, right? It showed that we didn't put in all the work we could, ‘cause of burnout and someone has to do a visa for TI the whole break time here and stay in Indonesia. We just didn't have time and also people were pretty exhausted. In the end the result just is like that. This is how it goes. – What did you feel when you just got eliminated from Riyadh Masters? 

– Of course we weren't happy when we lost. Also it was the loss of the most money - of course that matters a bit as well. But I wasn't super sad or crying or anything like that - it's just a loss. The best team wins - it's very simple.

I wasn't fine with it cause i feel like we are a good enough team, we could win that tournament, I honestly believed that. If we figured out some things we were behind earlier - I think we could win the tournament. But it is what it is, you just go for the next tournament.

I think we can get 1st place every time if we really put in the work and we end up figuring things out that we need to figure out. I don't feel any pressure from it personally.

– What team is the hardest for you in terms of preparing the draft?

– It's a hard one actually… I don’t like… Tundra for some reason. Not sure… You kinda know what’s coming sometimes, but when they do their really good stuff, they figure things out very fast - I think they are very clever. You can also feel it when you are drafting with them, they have an idea, they know what they’re doing. They don't just pick some random heroes or bad heroes, bad matchups.

And even if you know 33, for example. He has his heroes and he rotates a bit between them depending on the patch. You know what he likes to play, but still… He will play and we can own him pretty hard, but he still has a game. Tundra can be pretty annoying.

I feel pretty chill preparing for everybody. Drafting is just about how easy you make the game for yourself. You can probably win with every draft in theory, but it’s just about how easy to get. It's not the end of the world if you get one thing wrong or something like last pick Meepo.

– Why does Liquid look so unbeatable until they meet you?

– I don’t know, I think our playstyle… It’s like with Spirit: I think we always have a good matchup with Spirit too. Whenever we meet Spirit I feel very confident. Liquid play very aggressive, high-tempo, they play with a lot of magic damage.

I like to draft against Liquid actually, I feel very good. I feel like we know them very well. Not just me, but also all my players: they know them very well. They can still beat us - they're a very-very good team. They have this annoying Monkey King that anybody can see, Ace doesn’t like to play against. Micke is a very good Monkey King.

And they can also play some random stuff: Micke can play any carry if he really feels it’s good. They played Io-Leshrac safelane in Bali Major in the finals. I actually didn’t expect that and that worked pretty well for them at this game.

– Do you know that at every tournament Gaimin Gladiators is the best team in terms of creep stacking?

– Yeah, we are a very efficient team I think.

Best teams in terms of stacks throughout Valve tournaments in 2023. Source: Spectral.gg

– How did you come up with that idea of huge stacking? Was it on purpose?

– No, it’s not like we all sat down and said: «We should stack some camps, guys!» It’s not like this. It’s more like we don’t like when Dota feels very unnatural to play. The feeling like… Let’s say, you're playing mid and everybody is telling you «TP-TP, gank my lane!» But you kinda don’t want to - it doesn’t feel very good, it feels bad for your hero in the game. We don’t like that.

So stacking, when we play good and we figure out all stuff, occurs naturally with the timings of how you move around the map. It's not something specific that we really focus on, of course we think a bit about it. I think every team does that. That’s it. And then like if you find opportunities for stack - it's good.

– Do you have some coaches (maybe not from Dota just from other sports) that are your role models? 

– I don't think I have anyone like that. I met a lot of coaches in different Dota teams and they are super nice! I like to talk with them sometimes. Also because we have a bit of a unique position: not all of us are as good as the players we have. But now I wouldn't really say there's any very inspirational coaches and something like this… No, I wouldn’t say that.

– The last question. Can you describe every player in your team in one sentence?

• Quinn is hilarious, Quinn is really-really funny, he is more funny than he is angry.
• Dyrachyo, Anton. Anton is like a little brother - I have never had one, but he has a little brother kind of vibe. You have to give him some shit sometimes, but he is very good and he knows it.
• Seleri is super smart and he will beat me in chess every single day of the week and he is also a super nice guy.

– Do you play a lot of chess?

– I don’t play a lot anymore, i used to play a lot when i was kid. But Seleri is really-really good at chess and he’s just very smart. But I like to play chess, it’s fun.

• Ace is very stoic, but he’s also very logical and he’s very smart and good to talk to.
• And then we have my boy Tofu. Tofu is very cheeky, he’s funny and he is very good at the game. Very-very good at Dota, he’s super smart and very-very creative.