Artour 'Arteezy' Babaev, the young Dota 2 prodigy, who has been in the lime-light ever since his win at MLG Columbus under Speed Gaming.int was recently interviewed by Virtus.Pro.
Translated by 2P.com, Artour sheds light on his gaming career, his plans on joining a team alongside taking a year-off from studies. He also speaks on the Chinese dominance prevailing in the competitive scene as well as how to counter the much annoying Earth Spirit.
Below is an excerpt from the interview:
Many professional players, like Dendi, EternaLEnVy and others, consider you as one of the best mid players in the world. Why are you not a part of any team? You used to play for Kaipi before they become Speed Gaming. You even won MLG playing for them.
They must be joking! (laughs) I really hated the fact that I could not play Dota since I am a full-time student. However, lately I have been playing 4-5 days a week at times when European teams normally practise. It is most likely that I will be joining a team in a month or so.
Do you follow the competitive scene at all? What are your favourite teams from each region? Do you think that Chinese Dota is the strongest?
I barely watch any pro games. I used to watch them when I was playing for Kaipi/SPG. I simply do not have time to watch others play. I would rather play myself. To be honest, I do not have a favourite team either. I just respect good play.
Chinese are stronger now because they started to use some heroes (Pugna, DK, Venomancer, Bristleback) earlier than the rest of the world. But the west is very close. Skill gap is not as big as it was during The International 2. Western Dota has done an amazing job catching up.
You can read the interview in English here, meanwhile the Russian interview can be found here.
