NatTea on hosting TI12 “It's still hard to grasp that this is my reality, that this is my career”

The International 2023 marks Natalie "NatTea" Mahoney’s second appearance at the most important Dota 2 event. This year, however, she gets to co-host the event through all stages and we’ve been lucky to catch up with her during the days off in Seattle.

Since TI was moved to October, the biggest celebration in the Dota 2 scene coincides with her birthday. For the second year in a row, she is celebrating away from home, but among new friends who are becoming a family to her

We had the opportunity to talk to NatTea during the days off in Seattle and learn how her life changed since she embraced a career in esports, how and when she discovered Dota 2 and how she switched from an office engineering job to hosting esports events.

Hi Natalie and Happy Birthday! How awesome is it to celebrate your birthday at TI, did you even dream a few years ago that this is going to be your life?

Thank you! It's pretty awesome. Last year I already had a pretty surreal moment where my birthday was in Singapore, also during the playoffs. I had just landed in Singapore the day before my birthday so we went out to a bar and it was a bunch of people who had become very new friends of mine over the year, a lot of people that I've been watching play for a while, so that already felt surreal. It's massive that four TIs ago I was watching TI7, which was my first TI, and now here I am working one.

This is your second TI. Does it feel different than your debut last year, does it carry a special meaning that TI is back in Seattle?

Yes, both things. One being that I worked the group stage last year and we were remote, so it just had a very different weight to it. But only doing groups last year, as much as I loved it, it's a whole another step now to be doing playoffs and main stage. Getting to work a whole TI and in Seattle it's a lot. There are so many emotions that are hard to process because this place has so much history, and so much heritage. It's insane, it's absolutely insane.

How did you discover Dota 2?

It was in November 2016 when I played my first game of Dota 2. A friend who knew that I liked League of Legends said "ok, let me introduce you to something that you will enjoy so much more than League." I played it and I absolutely hated it. I had no idea of what was going on, there were so many heroes and nothing really made sense to me, but I stuck to it, grinded on one hero, got better with that and in 2017 I kind of wanted to play Crystal Maiden and Treant and the rest is history.

When did you consider making a career in hosting esports events?

It's still kind of difficult to think about making a career in this area. I know that that's what I have, but for me, I was working in an engineering job and I got a shot at Beyond the Summit. This was back when the DPC was six weeks and it was when half of it was put in the last bit of 2021, and the second half of it was put in early 2022. I did the three weeks in 2022, so I thought I might as well take this as the chance to go full-time, if it doesn't work out then it will be just one year off of my engineering job and I could always go back.

That was almost two years ago now, so that would be the time when I really dedicated myself to making a career out of it, but even now it's still hard to grasp that this is my reality, that this is my career.

"even now it's still hard to grasp that this is my reality, that this is my career"

What other games besides Dota 2 are you interested in from a job perspective?

This is so controversial, but from a job perspective, definitely League of Legends. I also played and did some work in that previously too. I enjoy FIFA a lot and I got to work a FIFA event and it was a lot of fun. Console gamers are just a lot different than PC gamers. Apex is like my reset game. When I feel like I get too heated in Dota, I go to Apex to unwind and that's a game that I didn't get to work in and I would love to do it.

What’s the best game besides Dota 2 that you played this year?

That's so tough because I play so many different games. I love Apex, but I also like things like Dreamlight Valley and Let's Build a Zoo, which is very therapeutic and a lot of fun as well. Oh gosh, there are so many categories of games. Maybe I want to say Dreamlight Valley is the other completely different game that I enjoyed this year.

How is your experience with the Dota 2 community overall, and has that ever played a role in the decisions that you made so far?

The community response was very positive. All the encounters I had with the Dota 2 community, online or in person at events, have been really, really positive, but as playing a role in the work that I do, I don't think it's been too much. But the positivity definitely pushes me to want to pursue working more events and getting involved more heavily in Dota 2 than other game titles.

What’s your take on the DPC being scrapped from a talent perspective?

Purely from a talent perspective, it's really difficult because the DPC offered a lot of stability for talent. More often than not the tournament organizers could come to you and offer you 2-3 Tours of work. In the past, that was like up to six months of work, whereas in more recent times was like 3 to 4 months of guaranteed work.

"the DPC offered a lot of stability for talent"

It's really tough to see that gone now. After two years of DPC offering you a pretty stable life, it now falls to the wayside of you had to make your mark in those two years and it's really up to what TOs, and how many tournaments will be, so for us, we don't get the same stability as the players might.

We hope to see you keep doing Dota 2 events and get to talk to you more in the next season. Thank you for your time NatTea and Happy Birthday one more time!

Thank you.