OG BZM: “Sooner or later we are bound to get better”

Ahead of DreamLeague Season 22, due to begin on February 25th, we got the chance to chat with OG BZM about Timado, new tournaments and being the last man standing from OG 2.0.

Sophie McCarthy: You guys have had a couple of roster changes after bringing in Wisper and Ari in November last year. Now you’re starting to win qualifiers and we’re seeing more of the old OG.

How have you guys learned to play together and synergize?

OG BZM: I mean, it all came very naturally from the start. Like when you have very high skilled players that know what they’re doing, know what they want, and they say to the team and we say to them what we’ve learned and basically combine these two things. It just comes down to execution and practice and first qualifier, we didn’t succeed that much, even though we had really big success in practice. But we were just not good enough. And then we doubled down on that afterwards and it paid off.

Do you have more of a collaborative style and do you all contribute ideas?

OG BZM: It depends because when we play the games, something is bound to, like we lose a game or something goes wrong and we talk about it and when this thing happens 20 or 50 times, every time we learn something new. So as people say, practice makes perfect. Sooner or later we are bound to get better. Like synergize better, stuff like that. It’s all about how much work we put in it and the time we spent discussing the things we need to learn about.

Sophie McCarthy: So as well, you’re really the last player standing now of the OG 2.0 roster that came in and you’ve had to adapt to a lot of new people, a lot of new playstyles.

How easy is that for you?

OG BZM: Well, if it was all at once, probably would be hard. But when it’s one player at a time,  we change one role and you have to adapt. Like the four other people are the same. It’s no biggie. Then another one comes like three people from the old days and it’s like, yeah, sure, we can work around it. Every time a new one comes and old one goes kind of gets, not harder, but you need to put a little bit more work in it. You understand each other better, how you think, how you play, how you view the game.

Probably biggest one is right now, as you said. Yeah, I’m last man standing as there is someone saying. But obviously there’s Ceb that’s been here for ages. So he helps everybody understand each other better. I probably started being more vocal and talking more after Wisper and Ari joined. Because before that I was close to not talking, like closer to being silent than vocal. So now I’ve learned to take more responsibility, as you might put it.

Sophie McCarthy: Yeah, it shows that you’re growing as a player as well. Obviously, you’re still, I think, one of the youngest players in pro Dota right now. So you’ve really made a lot of progress in the last couple of years.

OG BZM: Definitely, yes.

Sophie McCarthy: Okay, so I wanted to ask a little bit about Dream League, which is upcoming. You guys have been put into Group A.

Who are you most looking forward to playing against?

OG BZM: Probably Falcons and Gaimin. We didn’t get to play Gaimin in BetBoom tournament because they were in the other group and Falcons also, so still haven’t got official against them. And either way it goes, it will be like, I don’t know if pleasure is the right word, but a learning experience for sure.

Sophie McCarthy: You like to throw yourself at the deep end, right? I think you’re the only person who said Gaimin today.

OG BZM: The other ones we already played against, maybe IG. Maybe IG because they weren’t in the last tournament, so they’ve probably got something to say.

Sophie McCarthy: I just wanted to ask quickly as well about the changes that we’ve seen to the pro Dota structure in the last year. Obviously we’ve got rid of the DPC.

Do you prefer this structure going to tournament to tournament or do you prefer to have a DPC league?

OG BZM: When I came first as professional player, it was the DPC time. So I had to play with the DPC for two years and it felt like you stay at home or you boot camp and play with only teams in your region and basically compete for the best team in the region kind of thing.

And every three or four months you go to a major and that’s the only time where you get to meet other teams from other regions. But now I like it more now because you play your qualifiers and you either go to compete with the best from every region or you just stay at home and practice to get there if you haven’t.

Sophie McCarthy: So you prefer playing with more teams from international regions?

OG BZM: Yeah, I mean, the tournaments are bigger. There are new, sponsors, companies like organizers. So they make big tournaments and all regions are going in these tournaments and they’re basically like every one of them is important. Everyone is high skilled.

Sophie McCarthy: Just a couple of last questions! The first one is about the new Dota hero which is supposed to be dropping in the next patch with the Crownfall event.

Do you have any predictions about the kind of role Ringmaster is going to fill?

OG BZM: Probably support. From the trailer I saw, I don’t know about the Crownfall patch, but we’ll see.

Sophie McCarthy: We did get told earlier today that Timado is going to be stepping into position one.

How much time have you guys had to play with him and prepare?

OG BZM: I don’t know if it’s been more than a week, but around a week. So as soon as we got back from BetBoom tournament, we started scrimming again with him. Right now, it’s good progression. Like from the first one or two days now it’s definitely a lot better. Get to understand each other better, learn from each other and stuff like that.