For the Dota 2 world, the summer is the busiest part of the year. Some are getting ready for the last Major of the year, some are playing for a ticket to the biggest third party tournament, which boasts a 15 million dollars prize pool, and some are just fighting for survival through Dota Pro Circuit Division 2 games with little to no money, chasing that TI dream.
Giorgos "SsaSpartan" Giannakopoulos has seen it all in nearly a decade of professional play. His name is stitched to the Dota 2 fans’ hearts with some of the craziest and most breathtaking games. Ad Finem’s Boston Major run is probably the biggest Cinderella story outside those that happened on The International stage. His teams have almost exclusively been representing the Greek spirit in the Dota 2 world.
Always full of energy, always with a big smile, SsaSpartan lights up any room he walks in, the same as he fires up any team he’s played on and every game he’s in. There is no half measure with him and no matter how hard or how long the grind is, the Greek captain always finds the energy to power through it.
For the past couple of years, his team has been fighting through DPC Western European league where the competition has become beyond stacked. He bounced between divisions 1 and 2 a few times already and has been extremely close to a major more than a few times. Yet, the roster starts the Summer Tour without an organisation to back it up and it’s once again a battle for promotion back to Division 1.
Just before Division 2 was about to kick off, SsaSpartan and his ex-Monaspa line-up competed at Pinnacle Cup: Malta Vibes #2 Malta Vibes, one of the few third party tournaments, and we had the chance to talk to him and learn how a team survives the brutal Dota 2 ecosystem.
Hi Spartan, long time no see, how has it been, feeling ready to take that DPC Division 2 by storm once again?
Hello! We feel ready thanks to a few third-party tournaments we’ve got the chance to play. For a Division 2 team, those tournaments are a great opportunity to keep yourself in the zone!
You’ve just competed in the Pinnacle Cup: Malta Vibes Season 2 as ex-Monaspa, why ex? Should we expect a sponsor announcement soon?
Yup. Sadly, we had to leave Monaspa for some inside reasons that I can’t share right now. I liked my outfit so much, but it is what it is I guess. We hope that we can get a new organization as fast as possible. I really hope we get to be signed by some big name so we can see how a real organisation can actually support its players.
Ever since I saw the name of the team, at the beginning of this DPC year, I needed to know the story behind it. So please do tell me, is Monaspa a real Spa/wellness center or what is it?
Hahaha, not really. Monaspa was a Georgian organisation, whose name was inspired by some unique elite unit dating back to the 11th to 12th century! (strong name indeed!)
You are someone who fought a lot of battles in Division 2 and third-party tournaments. How hard is it for a team to survive without Majors or Division 1 games?
It is tough to survive indeed, you need an organisation behind you to make sure that your focus is on the game, on the practice.
When the current DPC format was introduced, we all hoped and thought that Division 2 will be a great help for the tier two scene. How do you see it now, after three years on this format, is it helpful?
To be honest, I've seen everything. I've been in Division 1 and back to Division 2 a few times now and I'm sure that 8 slots for the WEU league are not enough. This has to change. We ended up more than once in a weird situation where 1 game, a BO1 of a tiebreaker could have sent us to the Major or to Division 2. We went to division 2. Seriously, it’s sad and something needs to change. It’s unfair. Maybe divide de EU region once again, dunno…
Besides the monetary boost that a third-party tournament offers, how else is an event like Malta Vibes helpful for your team, for example?
Us, as a team, we love to prepare ourselves through third-party tournaments. We warm up in these smaller tournaments and we use this time to make sure that we are indeed ready to go through Division 2. Thanks to these tournaments we feel that we are ready so, it’s kind of our favourite time before the storm!
You had some EEU Division 1 teams at Malta Vibes, and some also qualified for the Bali Major. Do you see an event like this one as an opportunity to play against them, or is it pretty common that Div 1 teams would scrim with Div 2?
As a team from the WEU league, we usually play EEU scrims but it’s very cool that we have to play tournament games versus EEU or even NA. The problem with scrims for Division 2 is that they rarely happen, if ever.
Teams like Nouns from NA were at Malta Vibes, BetBoom, Virtus.pro, of course, we took this as a huge opportunity to play some serious matches, in a tournament format.
There’s going to be a pretty busy summer for you guys with Division 2 starting, followed by TI qualifiers, but do you have any vacation plans on your mind for this year?
Honestly, for me, vacation starts when I feel that we are doing something in Dota. When the Dota part is going well, I feel like everything that is in the world outside the game is a vacation where I am at full energy all the time. But right now, I’m on the grind. I am giving my 500% to make sure that everybody on the team feels good and ready to make it back to the top!
Alright, thanks for taking the time to talk to us and I hope we hear some great news from you and your team this summer!
Thank you for taking the time to ask me these few questions!! I hope the next interview will be at a LAN event with a microphone and a smile. Cya on TOP!
