Heldarion of MYM recently interviewed British DotA player, KS.Gunz
Here is the interview results
Nicely done in fact!
Name: Max Williams
Age: 21
Birthdate: 20.02.1987
Location: London, England
Origin: Canada
Sex: male
Height: 5'11'' (180,34 cm)
Weight: 75 kg
Favourites:
Food&drink: Pasta and Hennessey
Band: Vybz Kartel
Song: "So special" by Mavado
Movie: Scarface
Book: Lord of the Rings (gotta go for some classics!)
Car: Audi R8
Person: Jessica Alba
Model: Megan Fox
Sport: Football
Game: Dota?
Player: Samurai[P]
Hero: Rikimaru
Map side: Scourge
DotA e-journalist: myMYM|Heldarion
Could you make some sort of short introduction?
Well, I'm a 21 years old student, currently taking an Economics course and am in my final year. I like to party and play DotA along with some sports I play just for fun! I've been playing DotA since the 3.xx versions on RoC and moved onto DotA Allstars with the 5.84 map.
So could you tell how does a usual day of Max Williams look like?
Well, my economics course has a pretty light workload (about 10 hours a week) so I will usually go to my classes during the day and spend some time with friends, depending on how long I have between classes. I will sometimes play DotA in the day with just inhouse games or an IHCS or Dotainvite. In the evenings I will usually either go out and party or play scrims and fun maps with friends.
So by the looks of it, you don't really have any kind of agenda, or do you? (and don't say you're executing a plan for global domination, even freemasons and illuminati are saying that nowadays)
Well, my agenda at the momment is to complete my degree and to go from there. I'm taking it at a good university and I'm pretty smart guy so I'm able to do well at it without overstudying. I enjoy partying and playing DotA so those 2 things take up most of my free time. After I finish my degree, I will probably have to look for a real job though.
So you really try to take as much fun in your life as you can and postpone the serious bussines of life until you can?
Pretty much, yea. I'm not going to be young forever so I'm making the most of interest-free loans while they still exist and trying to enjoy student life and having a lot of free time as much as possible!
And how do the girls interfere with your existence? Are you in relationship or freeriding for now?
Well, I had a relationship for quite a long time but that ended in May for reasons that some of my online friends know. Since then I've had more of a 'part-time girlfriend' who I spent time with over the summer but I'm pretty much single now!
So you could say that being single is a good time in the life?
Yea, it's really great to be single now. I'm able to party and get really drunk without having to worry about consequences of what might happen!
What computer games did you start with?
I started off with a game called 'hardball' that my dad bought when I was really young. It was a piece of shit and was before I even had Windows on the computer! The first game that I really liked was Diablo even though it was really gorey and my mother didn't want me to play it. Since then I've played Warcraft 2, Diablo 2 and a few other games not as seriously.
How did you then end up playing DotA?
It was actually my little brother that bought the game Warcraft 3. I never really played it that much except to help him out with the campaigns. One day I found him playing a custom map online in the RoC version and it looked pretty cool. I played RoC dota for quite a long time even though I had the TFT disc and DotA Allstars was already alive and kicking. I thought that DotA was exclusive to RoC. I eventually moved onto DotA Allstars and started playing pubs there!
And what were your favourites among heroes? Did they stay more or less the same, or did they change over time and versions?
Oh, my favourite heroes have changed completly over the different versions. When I first started playing in 5v5 games, this was around the 6.12 versions, I was playing Treant and Crystal Maiden quite a lot. I still remmember getting owned by Mania's solo Sand King with my Treant in a scrim! From there I played quite a bit of Sniper, Tidehunter, Death Prophet, Lich and all of those heroes that were so popular when it was Sentinel vs Scourge up until the .32 versions. After that I started really liking Panda, Rhasta and heroes that worked reallly well as a killing lane together. Now my favourites are Zeus/Rikimaru/Warlock/Tide/Shaker/Jugger/Lion/Enigma I think.
So you ended up playing competitive DotA sooner or later, right? Can you tell us where did you play, any achievements you had and which team did you like the most?
Yes, my first competitive team was 'eF' which I made with a few friends that I had met through playing on the DCE channel on Europe Battlenet. We played on Dota-League and I was pleased with the succes that we had even if we did get beaten by teams such as OnD, Boomtown and QxP. From there I joined the team 'Nethouse2000' which is a netcafe in Denmark and that was the first very strong team that I was a part of. I was playing with SoyCD (who was probably the best player in the world at that point in time), Puppey (who I play with now), iMbaQ and Quish (who was a member of my team eF). After that team disbanded, I was relatively inactive for a while and only played in inhouse games and IHCS.
I was part of TEAM PENIS which was relatively successful during one of the Pride tournaments but it was only a fun team for that tourney. From there, Myself and some others went on to form XsK which was probably my favourite team up to this date. Unfortunately we couldn't get support to attend LAN events from a major sponsor so the team broke up. After playing with XsK, I joined RuSh3D which was a great team and really fun to play in. The reason that I didn't stay with RuSh3D is that I was the 6th player in the lineup (after the 5 Russian players who live in the same city). From there, I have just recently joined Ks.int.
And how did your nick come to be?
My original nick was TheGunShow which was used only in publics. When I formed the clan 'eF' everybody picked new names. I wanted something similar to 'TheGunShow' and also something that sounded good. I was listening to a lot of hip-hop at the time and I got the name 'GunzComeOut' from a 50cent song.
The DotA game itself has changed much from .48b to .52e and there's been a lot of talk about it. Even though the current stable map is quite spectator-unfriendly and not much more fun to play either, could you name (in your opinion) 1 thing that was good and 1 thing that was bad in both last stable versions?
For the most of 43b and 48b I really liked the lineups that were being picked as they were fun to play and agressive play was rewarded. It became tedious when dagger started to get overused though. For 52e, I really like that you can make a very strong hero with mid-level items and be able to rape the map (Treads/Vlads/Yasha etc).
What I don't like about 52 is that baseturtling seems to be the dominant and most effective strategy at the momment with 2 lategamer heroes. I'm really looking forward to playing 55+ competitively as I'm having a lot more fun playing and really like the changes! You can run around ramboing and agressive play is rewarded once again!
You mentioned baseturtling, which also doesn't seem to take too much skill to play. How much of a game do you think is decided by the players' skill right now and how much by the strategy? Also, how would you rate those aspects in .48b?
I think that 52e games are probably the least reliant on skill so far in competitive DotA. It's too farm-oriented and really boring to play and watch. The fact that you can pick 1 hero (Pit Lord) which almost completly stops the other team from pushing while you get a fat hero that can 1v5 their team is ridiculous in my view.
I think that 48b relied much more on skill as lane domination was more important and small skirmishes often decided the outcome of the game rather than aoe ulti heroes just pressing 1 button in a big fight. Of course strategy is essentieal for both of the versions but I think that it was more valuable for 48b.
Since you're British, you seem to be some kind of an endangered species - we don't really see many British players or teams running around the DotA scene. So why is that? Is the British era of DotA yet to come or will the things stay as they are?
I don't really forsee British DotA taking off in the near future. I've played a few simple tournaments at my university but I have encountered nothing but noobs in those! To my knowledge, there are only 5 or 6 British players that I would even be able to name and only 2 or 3 have any level of skill. It's unfortunate, but I think that for some reason the player base doesn't seem to be there as it is in other countries - Eastern Europe and Asia seem to have the highest player bases.
How did you end up joining Ks^int in first place?
Well, Ks.int was in the market for some new players because of the reform to DTS and I have known the players on the team for a very long time. I had been playing a lot of funwars together with puppet, azen and jolie before the Ukrainians were even picked up. I came back from holidays and found that they had both joined and left very quickly and was offered a spot on Ks.int.
And how is Jolie doing right now? I'd say he must be quite pissed off at least, after so many roster changes his team has had in last few months.
I would say 'frustrated' would be the right word for that one. And who wouldn't be after having so many roster changes over such a short period of time!! It's been a bad luck after bad luck for Puppet and Jolie since the original break up of VP. Myself and the rest of Ks.int are very optimistic about the future though, now that we have a stable lineup again, we can start to own everybody once again!
So are your plans with Ks^int more like long-term, or more in the way of "what happens, happens"?
We are planning on achieving long-term success with this team. We have a very skilled lineup and good chemistry and we won't let the past problems with the team effect the future of our new roster!
Alright. Let's do some brainstorming! I'll give you a word or a phrase and you say whatever comes to your mind first. Ready?
Go.
Puppey: gay
Beer: party
IHCS: fun
Tony Blair: big ears
Sniper rifle or a shotgun: GUNZ MOFO!
Study: school
IRC: complicated
Ks^int: PRO
Traitor: bad
Admiral Proudmoore: Strong!
So, our interview is at end. I admit it's been a lot of fun chatting with you and thanks a lot! Any final shoutouts you'd like to give?
Yea, it's been a good interview and some interesting questions. I'd like to give a shoutout to Miky being bad at ladder. Also, a shoutout to mocles who is safe and mamay for being so good!
Thank for the sharing
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