zvezd: "The inner child said: 'No, bro, don't turn away from here.' For him, I returned to Dota"

We talked with the carry of 4Pirates — zvezd, he told us about his two alter-egos, a street fight, the voice in his head, the secret of victories, and life priorities.

– Let's start with your nickname. Many know you as zvezd, but you are signed as iseedeadpeople, in the game too. Tell those who don't know why this is so, what's the difference?

– These are my two nicknames. iseedeadpeople is my streamer nickname. My streamer alter-ego. zvezd is my professional nickname, under which I perform on the pro scene. They have very different meanings for me.

– And you mentioned, I think, that the nickname zvezd somehow came to you in a dream or there was some story with its appearance?

– When I was little, you know, that moment when you go to kindergarten in those rustling pants, and the voice in my head said that you can reach the stars, I remembered it and took it to heart.

– What a beautiful story! And how did you come to Dota? As far as I know, your older brother introduced you to this game. How quickly did you realize you had potential? What MMR did you calibrate at first, maybe your brother noticed that you had abilities, or at first, you didn't understand this game, what to press, where to click?

– Well, I understood a lot right away because I played other games before that when I was little. And I realized that there is potential when I just saw how SumaiL won The International and that's it. Well, and then, about a year and a half later, I already reached six or seven thousand. At that time, it was a lot, in the year fifteen.

– How old were you when SumaiL won The International and when you saw it?

– He won at the fifth International, I think. In the year fifteen, it turns out. I was about 11 years old then.

– About your brother then, does he and your family follow the games, your career, do they support you?

– Well, I communicate with my family, of course. And my brother follows, yes. 

– And how is he doing? Does he just play at an amateur level?

– He is at a good level in real life, let's say.

– That's respectable, that's cool. Not everyone has games in the first place, but you, by the way, said that you chose Dota, not studies or another job, because it seemed to you that it could bring more profit and pleasure at the moment, is that so?

– Not more profit, but you know, pleasure, yes, exactly. It's like just closing your childhood gestalt. When I was little, I always wanted to play. Very, very much, Dota charged me a lot. You know, at first, you like it, like it, like it, and as you get older, it stops being enjoyable, especially when you learned to play at an early age. You just aren't surprised by anything anymore, you don't like anything, you can do everything, you succeed in everything, you have no problems, and time goes by, something starts to distract you from Dota, you lose interest a little, and even in the end, you lose it completely, but the inner child says: "No, no, bro, don't turn away from here," and for him, I, in principle, returned to Dota to play at a professional level, to close this gestalt. And so, in real life, the profit is obviously more than from Dota. I think if you have your brains in place, you won't get as much even with tier-1 as in real life if you work or connect with people. It's just our common hobby. That is, it's very good that people follow this, watch this. It's also cool that players who play on the computer can exist, in principle, and be in good standing, receive salaries just because people watch them, they are interested in them, it's good. People who watch various tournaments fulfill the dream of these people who play it. So, guys, I'm grateful to everyone, very grateful.

– Yes, a big thank you to our community. Listen, you mentioned the gestalt, and do you have a desire now to close the gestalt by winning some tournaments, achieving something, do you have any specific goals in esports?

– I don't have such a point where I will say that I will stop playing on the computer. But I am developing slowly, I understand that I can't do a lot, I have a lot that doesn't work out, I know my strengths, which I try to use and come to something, but mostly it's all perceived as a path. That is, if I have some victory, I don't think about it, it doesn't give me anything, well, a victory is a victory, the same as a defeat. Conclusions are drawn from everything, and I try to move on and not fill my head with it. Just develop. And it's the same when I'm criticized for some builds. I'm just trying. I seem to be one of the few players in this spectrum who at least tries something, and I'm not afraid of it. Therefore, progress is more visible in me than in others.

– Do you consider yourself capable of reaching the highest level, becoming the best player in the world, or maybe you slightly underestimate yourself or approach this rationally? And should a person have such an opinion about themselves that they are the best?

– I don't give myself grades, I don't understand this. I don't have any superpowers to see the future or something like that, I will just do everything I can and as I see fit, or as I am advised, to achieve something. And so I can't advise anyone to give themselves any grades, just do as you want and that's it. Well, and as required, more or less, depending on the situation.

– Okay. Listen, well, you didn't play well in the playoffs. In general, throughout the tournament, how was the situation for you, what didn't work out? And is it difficult to play many tournaments at once?

– Yes, it's not difficult at all, for me, the more official matches in a day, the better. I would play, actually, 6-8 official matches every day, rather than matchmaking. But it just depends on the team's mood. If you have a team that needs time to discuss, to refresh, to come to something, yes, then a large number of tournament matches will negatively affect the team. The team will get tired, tilt. It's another matter when you have already built yourself as a team, set up interaction with each other. The most important thing is not even the level of play, but the level of communication, because at this level, I think, people win not by skill. Everyone plays relatively mediocrely, as it is generally possible to play, and the one who intercepted communication at the moment and started talking better with each other wins. That's why we see that some teams that are playing the tournament now, for example, L1ga Team, have overleveled, but they can lose some games to someone. This is all because the teams playing against them at that moment just communicate better.

– Well, it turns out you had some difficulties with communication?

– Yes, just communication suffered at some moments, at some moments it was, on the contrary, better than other teams because we set up responsibility. Now everything is getting better, it should get better.

– And what is the main problem of communication? For example, when two people are calling, and no one can agree on who will do it in the end? What is the main point you highlighted that hinders playing?

– Not about our team, but mainly when people can't come to a common idea. When there are two ideas in a team, it's already bad. It should be one, even if it's wrong, and it should be executed to the end by all five players. Then something can come out of it.

– Who is your favorite hero right now, the one you play most often and enjoy performing on this character?

– There is no specific hero. Well, they attributed Dragon Knight to me because of some events, basically, that's all.

– You somehow didn't come to the official match because of some brawl, fight. Can you say a few words about it?

– Yes, there was a street conversation with a person, disagreements occurred. By my appearance, it could be decided that I am a person who can't give a rebuff, except in words. But he wasn't aware that I played hockey for 10 years. In principle, it's not the first time I've encountered such a situation where I have to enter into such contact.

– Well, yes, you look interesting, you have a cool image, your style is noticeable. Are you used to attracting attention?

– I don't think about it. On a subconscious level, I always think about building an image to attract attention because it's still my type of activity now, but in everyday life, almost always I just don't think about it, I sit doing my own things and just show how I do it, as openly as I can, let them watch, copy, there, I don't know, maybe someone is delighted, and all in this spirit, I don't really think about how I look.

– I mean, do you react to any trolling, negativity?

– Absolutely don't care. If a person writes negativity, first of all, he insults himself. I, for example, if I don't experience any problems myself, then I don't want to insult others. So every time a person writes some nastiness, I just understand that he does it in the mirror, and I feel very sad and sorry for him.

– By the way, do you still play hockey or not anymore?

– No, I quit a long time ago because of an injury.

– Listen, I wanted to touch on another topic. You recently had a post about dreams on Telegram. I understand you missed an official match because of one such situation with dreams. Tell me, how did you come to the point where you understand dreams, what exactly do you practice, because usually, people just sleep, and that's it.

– Sleep is used as rest, yes, and I just realized that at some point, sleep can be used not only as rest but also as a place where you can think instead of your life. Not to waste, in short, this energy in real life on some nonsense, maybe opinions, well, a lot of people think that just existing, they think. This doesn't need to be done. When you exist, you are busy with something, you can't think, you just do everything you know, and you need to think somewhere else. I came up with, like, in a dream everything. Because there, and time, like, you can somehow stretch and, I don't know, affect all sorts of nastiness that you come up with, or, on the contrary, not overdo it too much, be inspired by something.

– Listen, who from the teams was it harder for you to play against in the tournament? Is there such a team here or maybe one that didn't make it to our grand final?

– Well, these two teams, they are, in principle, the strongest, but against Most Wanted personally, it wasn't difficult for me to play. Not a single game, it just so happened that we lost all the meetings to them in the end, well, more precisely, the series, not specific maps. But against L1ga Team, well, it's quite difficult to play, it's a good level team, actually. It seems to me, it's slightly higher tier than everyone else performing here at the moment.

– By the way, do you like to chat there, answer people in the chat?

– Of course, I answer everyone who writes to me in private, absolutely always.

– Do you like to play something besides Dota, what are your favorite games?

– Not really, I rarely, in general, engage in such. I only play Dota, well, as in professional activity.

– About all sorts of adventurous builds, if you test them in official matches, I'm not afraid to imagine what you do in pubs.

– Well, that's how it is. Well, how else to play? You shouldn't be afraid of any of this. In the end, it will lead me to... To something for sure. If faith in me is preserved, in my skill, of course.

– By the way, who do you communicate with more from the players who are playing the final CIS Battle 3?

– Yes, I treat everyone neutrally. From my side, there are never any contacts with anyone. Well, with bb3px, there is such a small contact. I treat and believe in the player on Dazzle (Editor's note. rein) very well. I want this person to achieve a lot. But to the rest, well, I observe them too. I don't take my eyes off, I try to take into account everything.

– And to highlight some promising player to follow, not only on this map, but in general, maybe some player we underestimate.
Is there such a thing?

– But there is such a thing, but I won't voice it because he will laugh too much. But I would just note from this game that he always plays well, this player developed very quickly.

– Tell us about the last small victory in your life, in real life, not in Dota.

– I usually only have some big victories. I don't stick to something small in life, usually something grandiose. Most likely, a small victory is just setting the right priorities. This is a small victory that can be achieved in life. Well, I came to the cast instead of doing nothing, doing something, it's already a small victory.

– And now all the tournaments are the same because, you know, it's already a bit boring. How do you feel about it? Too much Dota, now tournaments. How do you look at this situation in Dota? Is it better when there are fewer tournaments and they are more significant, or when it's like this, constant tournaments?

– The scene shouldn't be such that... it has a flaw. It should always be. In general, in essence, there shouldn't be a free moment on the pro scene. Teams just need to set their priorities on which tournaments they want to play and which they don't. Or, let's say, you need to play there to farm some EPT, or something we have now, or not. In short, it all depended on them. And so, let's say, the zeal of the teams was encouraged, as well as the players, because if there are many tournaments, obviously, they will play many tournaments, earn many points. And their effort was encouraged, again, because of this, they have more chances to get to some big tournaments. Something like that. Well, there are teams that, let's say, want to rest, and therefore need to play more effectively. That is, they come in, win some tournaments, skip some tournaments because they are resting, and so on. I have a somewhat averaged position on this matter.

– How do you feel about experimental picks? Puck four, Void Spirit four, and so on.

– Drafts — no, I don't like to experiment with them. Drafts are what I would like to see much more reliably, and drafts, most likely, need to be tested not in official matches. That is, very rarely, with the exception of some one hero, closing, you can pick for the sake of experiment even in an official match. With heroes, it's better not to experiment with them. This usually always leads to defeat. Well, again, it all depends on the team's mentality. If they, in principle, are not against going for it and always, you can say, positively relate to it and realize the maximum of what they see and can, then it, in principle, has a place to be. But personally, I wouldn't experiment with certain heroes. If, let's say, the same pos 4 Puck, it's just a person sitting in matchmaking, playing pos 4 Puck, he has a good win rate, he sits and calls it on KV, you win, he has a good win rate, and you don't get your eyes blurred with him, and you really consider him a good hero, and it works for you, then why not.