Black: 'We don't try to make games entertaining, it just happens'

Black^, along with mousesports you were able to attend the International 2, even though you were only planned as a backup team. How did you feel when you beat World Elite and were able to participate after all?

Black^: Yeah, we felt really, really great after beating WE, though after we beat them 3:0, we got a false sense of confidence...we actually thought we are much better than we were in the end haha. After they told us we were gonna have a chance to play in The International, we were super hyped and instantly got a laptop to study team WE :D.

How was the atmosphere during the whole tournament, even though you dropped out pretty early?

We were not really disappointed when we lost our matches, as we knew we had come unprepared and were the underdogs in every game. The team atmosphere itself was pretty good and we had lots of fun together.

What do your friends and your family think about your career as a professional gamer and your participation in a million dollar tournament?

They all were super supportive and cheering for me, my parents in general always supported me with my plans, so that's a really big help. I didn't really tell people in my school....but they found out eventually due to the Interwnet ^_^; it just feels weird if your friends and even teachers ask you about it haha.

Did any of your friends or family accompany you to Seattle?

Not from my school, but from other federal states of Germany and from other countries as well yeah. As for my family, nobody went to Seattle with me.

You have been to several large LAN tournaments, such as StarLadder, Dreamhack Summer and The International 2. Aside from the International, which LAN tournament was the best for you personally?

Dreamhack; I met a lot of my old friends, some of which I thought I would never meet again haha. Made a lot of new friends as well! The organisation was pretty good as well, so all in all a close to perfect LAN for me.

For the past weeks you have also been playing with No Tidehunter and qualified for the ESWC in Paris. How did your team get together?

s4 and envy just asked me whether I wanted to play some games as a standin for them, it worked out well and we went from there.

GosuLeague has started and Bamboe has once again shown great performances. What do you think of him as a player, a teammate and a person?

Great and fun person, great and fun teammate, pretty random player. He either rocks everything or he massively feeds :D


mousesports results at GosuLeague Season 3:
2-0 vs. Darer
1-1 vs. NEXT.kz
2-0 vs. GamersLeague

Speaking of GosuLeague: mouz has performed admirably so far and dropped only one game against Next.kz. How do you consider your chances in the current season?

DotA 2 in Europe is pretty unstable right now, every team can beat every team, it all comes down to the draft and the day. But since we got a pretty good standing right now, I think you can definitely expect us in Top3.

You used to be one of the few German Dota 2 pro players, but now there are plenty. What do you think about the development of the German Dota 2 scene? Are there some players from “the old days” that you’d like to see again in the pro scene?

I don't think highly of the German DotA 2 scene in general, I haven't seen a German team that didn't disband after a month or two lately. I definitely miss Moods and Equinox ): they are two really good players and friends of mine.

You said it yourself: Europe is pretty unstable right now. Lots of teams have had roster changes. Aside from Na'Vi, who do you think is currently the team to beat in Europe?

Team Empire has been performing magnificently lately, so I would say they are.

Coming back to you again: You are famous for your carry abilities, especially on your Anti-Mage. However, you impressed with a Pudge in your RaidCall league match against We Haz Asian. Will we see more hooks from you?

Haha:D. Sadly I dont really influence our draft and Pudge just fit the lineup really well, so it's all up to KuroKy. If he picks it for me, you can be sure to see some more hooks yea! (:

mousesports is one of the teams with the highest entertainment value. Is that your mentality? Go out there and have fun?

We don't try to make games entertaining, it just happens cause either we throw away a really big lead, or we come back from a really big disadvantage :D. The games are usually really fun, I can't really tell why though, since we always try to win all games.

How is the communication in your team? Are you all just following KuroKy's orders or is it equally distributed?

KuroKy makes the calls, we follow them.

Let's come back to you for a last time: Do you plan on streaming? I know you tried it once, but are currently not active.

I will definitely stream again soon! I'm just having a couple of RL issues that I need to take care of first (:.

For how long can you see yourself as a professional gamer?

I dont plan on quitting, until I achieved something memorable (something along the lines of a TI victory), and even after that I don't know whether I'll quit or not. Gaming is really fun and I really like interacting with my team and fans...at this point it's very, very uncertain.

That sounds very promising. Good luck and thank you for the interview. Any shoutouts?

Shoutouts to team Black (!^^), NBM, my fans, singsing, bamboe, 1437, kuroky, alex, synderen, dutch_freak and all of our supporters! thanks for the interview.

Interview by Sovann 'Skim' Kim.