Interview with EternaLEnVy at ESL One Mumbai

We got a chance to talk to Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao on the second day of ESL One Mumbai. We discussed about his time in India, Dota 2, Team Team and more.

Pawn: Hello Envy. Is this your first time in India?

Envy: Yes.

Pawn: How are you liking it here?

Envy: Well I’ve only been to the venue and the hotel. The fans at the venue are nice, and the hotel is also really nice!

Pawn: What about the food?

Envy: Well we haven’t gone anywhere outside to eat, but the food at the hotel has been pretty good so far.

Pawn: So, you guys had no time to go sightseeing at all?

Envy: No, not at all. Well now maybe.

Envy was implying that they had time then, because they were eliminated from the tourney.

Pawn: So, do you have any plans then?

Envy: No, I’m playing pubs ha-ha.

Pawn: I see, truely devoted to the game.

Pawn: Did you have any memorable fan interactions?

Envy: Yeah, they were all chanting my name during the signing session. That was really cool. That doesn’t happen very often.

Pawn: Okay, let’s talk Dota now. 7.21d has been around for a very long time now, (32 days) and there’s a few heroes that are spammed over and over in pubs like Mars, Abaddon and Necrophos. Are you bored of this patch yet?

Envy: As pro players, we just have to deal with it. There’s no time to be bored or annoyed.

Pawn: Its been almost an entire year since you’ve played the support role professionally. The last time you played support was for Complexity. Do you prefer playing Carry or do you just play what the team requires you to play?

Envy: I would say I like playing Mid or Carry the most. But I guess everyone likes playing Mid or Carry the most? But it doesn’t really matter to me when I’m playing competitive Dota.

Pawn: Let’s say you have 4 virtual perfect team-mates and you have to play a role that you have never played before, would you go for it?

Envy: I can. Or atleast I think I can. I don’t think it’s the right thing to do for every player though.

Pawn: That’s really interesting.

Pawn: I know you’ve played pubs in every region. Give me a comparison of the pubs in all different regions.

Envy: SEA pubs are the second-least toxic pubs in my opinion. NA is the most toxic. NA>EU>SEA>China in terms of toxicity. China is the least cancerous.

Skill-wise I think EU is the best. After EU its China>SEA>NA. I think the SEA players just pick and play stupidly sometimes.

Pawn: You’ve played for quite a few teams in the past year. Do you think you’ve hit the mark with Team Team? Do you think you can go to TI with them and dominate?

Envy: I think the probability of us making TI is very low. I just have to keep moving onward. This was a pretty good breakthrough for me. I just have to use the opportunity in the best way I can.

We already saw Envy making some changes, when Gunnar and Newsham were kicked from Team Team.

We were kicked.

— Gunnar (@Gunnardota) April 20, 2019

I write about Dota 2, Esports and Gaming in general. I’d love it if you followed me on Twitter and Facebook . Thanks for reading.