Interview with 1437 Post-MLG Full Sail Victory

A veteran of the Dota scene, Theeban '1437' Siva, was one of the bigger names to join our Dota2 squad after the post-International shuffle. 1437 is one of an elite few Dota players to have played in all three of Valve's International Dota2 championships and is one of the best support players in the world.

After the teams recent victory at the MLG Full Sail LAN championships, 1437 gave us the low down on how the team was able to cope with a defecit in the tournament finals and how the team is feeling going into MLG Columbus.

Get to know 1437
From: Toronto, Canada
Favorite hero to play: Dark Seer
Has been playing for: about 6-7 years
Biggest achievement: the one I feel most satisfied with is probably G-league 2nd place.



How has the team chemistry been and how does it relate to past teams you’ve played for?

1437: It's a fairly new team and a bit hard to adjust for everyone but we are working on it slowly but surely. We really need to work on our communication skills and continue to get to know each other a bit better ingame and outside the game to further improve our synergy.

 

What was the atmosphere like in the booth after the team lost its first game?

1437: It wasn't so bad because we knew what went wrong right away and we understood that as long as we dont make the same mistake again we will be fine.

 

What do you think made Team Dignitas so resilient throughout the tournament?

1437: I think our experience and our knowledge that supports all our players is what basically ended up winning us the games we did.

 

Do you feel that despite the tournament being small, that you guys made significant chemistry, confidence, and team play progress?

1437: I think there was some but not as much as I would have liked. Currently we are missing the amount of time we should be investing due to real life issues, but as time goes on and we improve on this everything should be better.

 

What was the biggest challenge that you faced at Full Sail?

1437: The biggest challenge was probably PBS (Typical Mistakes), we didn't really expect them to put up such a great fight. They came in to the tournament with some cool pre-made lineups that they wanted to use that took us a bit of time to understand and properly counter. In game one of the grand finals we had an issue with one of our players not being familiar with a hero and a slight draft issue which caused us to lose.

 

Were you pleased with your wins at Full Sail or do you think as a team you could’ve taken the tournament more cleanly?

1437: We definitely could've taken that tournament more cleanly. I was quite disappointed with our performance for the most part. We couldn't really practice as much as we should have before this tournament even though we were the favourites which caused us to have a sloppy performance.

How excited are you guys looking to play at MLG Columbus? Do you think despite how young you are as a team you’ll be able to compete at Columbus with established teams?

1437: Looks like all the best teams in the world will be attending, so its going to be the biggest uphill battle apart from The International that all the teams are going to face. Looks good to me :). It's going to be a rough patch but there are some chances for an upset considering there has been a new patch and everyone is trying to familiarize with it. To be honest I'm looking forward to playing all the teams that will participate since it will be much different compared to TI with new rosters and new patch.

What’s been the biggest personal challenge for you since joining Team Dignitas?

1437: It would probably have to be trying to get a good understanding of all the players and what they like/enjoy to play in order to get the perfect balance. 

Even though you’ve only been with the team for a very short time do you get a feeling that everyone is dedicated to working hard and achieving a desired result?

1437: I think there is a lot to improve in this department for a lot of the players on the team right now, perhaps with time and once they see the level of commitment that is going to be required, it could change.

 

Can we expect to see you do more casting?

1437: Perhaps some co-casting, but I think its fun to "casually" watch a game on my stream while my viewers join me doing it :). 

 

Any shoutouts?

1437: Shoutouts to all my fans and friends that continue to support me, Charlie for all the hard work he's putting in everyday, Team Dignitas and all our sponsors: Alienware, Scan, be quiet!, Mad Catz, Intel, Kingston HyperX, QPad, Twitch.tv, Multiplay, Creative Sound Blaster, WD, and iiyama. :) !