SoNNeikO on BetBoom and the Scene at the Stockholm Major

BetBoom were a surprise team coming out of the turbulent region, but quickly became a very popular team with the charismatic yet unorthodox Daxak on carry the experienced and intelligent captain SoNNeikO as their captain, leading three youngsters into the major. They achieved a respectable 7th-8th place, and were eliminated by BeastCoast. BLIX.gg got a chance to chat with him quickly about his experiences at Stockholm.

So, who are you cheering for?

I’m cheering for TSM because Saberlight is playing for them. He’s my teammate, we were playing together when we joined NiP and playing for Chicken Fighters if you remember those days.

Was he a good teammate back then?

Yes! This was my young players stack, we had Saberlight, Charlie, Supreme and Era. Those were good days! 2 of them from Sweden and 2 of them from I don’t know where actually.

Do you feel like in EU, some of the top teams have been slow to give these new players a chance?

I think they had a structure problem in the team, it was not so cool, it didn’t work to play with old men, let’s say. With all old men players.

On playing with BetBoom

Your team BetBoom play a lot of different heroes, mostly due to Daxak’s hero pool. Does that make your job as a drafter easier?

No it makes it easy to pick any other hero because we know that enemy should ban two of them. If they don’t they have strategies that we’ve practiced a lot. If they ban two of them we just pick other heroes that we’ve practiced in scrims.

Does Daxak then create a lot of attention on himself in the game?

He definitely should have a lot of attention on him, his performance and how he plays, but I’m pretty sure our other players are also showing a good performance. If they don’t play so good then Daxak will not be. All of us are giving a lot of thought on how to make our games easier, and how to makes Daxak’s game better.

Are there any heroes you think are being undervalued in this tournament?

Techies I guess. I practiced and I liked this hero. Also I would say Chen because of Vladmirs level two, the Wraith Pact. And also Winter Wyvern from the support suggestion. It’s so strong, it’s a new hero in this meta, so teams are not ready to play against it and also he got buffed in the last patch and you can feel that, 10 second duration from the first spell is a lot, you just so strong, win the lane, and in the game it’s comfortable to play.

What’s the team dynamic been like after this loss?

For the start I can say we have three young players who played first time in their career on the big stage so for them it’s a huge result, it’s a great result I would say, and they’re also happy and they understand that for first time it’s okay for them, and also they got a lot of support from us, and for us what is important is to have a good atmosphere in the game.

And then have the same plan as everyone, one vision what we do next and if everyone agrees then yeah yeah we do this this and this then we’re fine and there’s an understanding to what we’re going then we’re fine, we’re doing everything okay. Only positive only constructive.

Can you say if you will be competing as the same 5 players next DPC?

Yes, of course.

Thoughts on the Major

Do you feel like you think BeastCoast overplayed or you guys underplayed?

No, they played like they could but we play so badly, for example we start the game, it’s a super easy game which we couldn’t lose, but we throw so hard many many time, and then we choked many times. They played normal but we were stronger but we lost because of some fuck ups, we failed it many times and then we lost. it’s very sadge.

Have you watched the replay of that series back yet, and do you plan on doing so?

It’s a new experience, we threw so hard, and that’s a good experience so we don’t do this next time. We didn’t watch the games back yet but we will do it later, where we’ll watch and take mistakes that we analyse then keep moving. Until then we can’t say that we’re done with this series.

Have you been watching the games?

No, I wanted to walk around Stockholm but I’ll probably watch the grand finals, and see who, you ask? So I like Tundra actually because of their playstyle, their draft difference, they play their drafts are not normal, they have 33 who is not standard offlane role player and also I like TSM, as I said before, Saberlight my ex-teammate then I’ll cheer for both teams.

Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to me!

Thank you thank you!

Feature Image via ESL Dota2