The ESWC Masters of Paris is starting in some minutes from now. Everybody is eagerly waiting for the first matches to start and the results to come in. There are 10 DotA teams invited to the whole tournament and it seems that the competition will be really tough and it's really hard to predict who the winners and runner-ups could be. Let's hear the thoughts of two well know players ( GunzComeOut &  SirNeo) and the manager of a well known clan ( Serend from mouz).

ESWC is considered to be one of the biggest e-sports event nowadays. What are your feelings about ESWC picking up DotA as one of its games?
RuSh3D|GunZ: "Its great that ESWC has picked up dota. Major organisations organising tournaments its good for any e-sport. I mean, whoever wins in Sajn-Jose has got bragging rights... for a LONG TIME. :)"

Yeah and quite much money to spend... maybe in Paris. Have you been to Paris before by the way?
RuSh3D|GunZ: "Yea, i went there last summer for my cousins wedding. Went along the Seine (sp) in a boat with about 150 drunk people tons of fun )"

You planned to come to ESWC Paris too, what happened in the end?
RuSh3D|GunZ: "That's the one thing i was a little disappointed in about the ESWC. There weren't too many countries that did individual qualifiers. It would have been appropriate to have, a Swedish qualifier for example, but this Paris tourney will at least make for some interesting games. :) And no, I wont be in Paris this weekend It would be nice to go but, i just can't take going to a LAN and not playing."

If I'm correct, there were around 5 countries holding ESWC qualifiers in whole Europe... that's not really a big number :S
RuSh3D|GunZ: "Yea, there were not very many. The Russian one was necessary because of the amount of teams in it. But I'm very surprised to have not seen a German/swedish qualifier, especially if they could have incorporated one with DH."

I agree, the Russian one was also necessary because of two big names like VP and RuSh3D.
RuSh3D|GunZ: "Yea, if there was no Russian qualifier, no1 else would qualify from Paris. :D"

Though SK and TeG are doing really great in the new version now.
RuSh3D|GunZ: "SK more so than TeG, from my experience. But yea, teg has had some good results"

MYM seems to have lost a lot of force now.
RuSh3D|GunZ: "Yea, I dont think they have got around picks in the new version yet."

Do you think that SK and TeG have the highest chances at taking the first two places?
RuSh3D|GunZ: "I'm pretty sure that SK will take 1st place 2nd place will be between TeG and MYM unless EG manage to surprise like they did in DH. I dont think any other team has much of a chance."

Yeah, MYM had to play a lot of 6.48b because of the American qualifier, while all the other teams were already playing 6.52, and first it was said they won't be allowed to use th players in Paris they already used in the US qualifiers, but now I saw Maelk in the roster, he is a key player and strategist for MYM.
RuSh3D|GunZ: "Well, not being able to use the Americans is a pretty good thing for them imo. Their best lineup is definitely the 5 Europeans. They will miss Slahser in Paris though."

But Pusher-Street is coming, he is a damn good player as well.
RuSh3D|GunZ: "Yea, he plays well. And is very used to playing with them. He does scrim with them quite often, he's been playing with them on/off since the team was created. He would probably be on the team if he wanted to invest the time into it, but he doesn't play enough."

What do you think will be the most successful strategies during this LAN tournament? Are those teams going to put in everything and use all of their best strategies or rather keep them for the Grand Tournament?
RuSh3D|GunZ: "I dont think any of the teams can afford to 'save' a strategy in this tournament, it's too much risk. And the fact that the main tourney is so far away, new strats will be used by then anyway. You may see SK or MYM save a strategy for a later game though. I can see Tidehunter playing a big role."

What is the reason for that?
RuSh3D|GunZ: "The change to impale has made his ultimate very strong in the middle of team fights. People will stop buying blink on him and use it as a tank/midfight damager."

No more impale while Sonic Wave or Requiem of Souls. :)
RuSh3D|GunZ: "exactly. :) It means u can use the ulti for more than just initiating, now."

I remember that in one of our games back in the times a Tide ultified us, then their Void used his ult too while we were in the air and their Queen of Pain used Scream as well. :D
RuSh3D|GunZ: "hahaha, yea I remember those games, it has happened to everybody I think. :) I used to play tide back in like 6.12 or something for a scourge line-up. U lose a fight 'cuz of that and you can lose the whole game. :)"

Now that you are in RuSh3D, are you going to fly to the Grand Tournament with the others?
RuSh3D|GunZ: "Well, i don't THINK I'm going, but some roster things going on at the moment, so maybe if something messes up, I will go. I think I will be going to the next asus tourney though regardless of the members there."

Even if you are "just" an observer?
RuSh3D|GunZ: Well, I would go to play, but probably as a 6th player, similar to what you saw from Fear at DreamHack.

Any shoutouts?
RuSh3D|GunZ: "shoutout to the stealer qwerty and miky who is bad at ladder! And good luck to the Iranian team @ ESWC!"

About ESWC [author's note: I cut down all the talk about good wines, Cider, Tokaji Aszú & Hönig Met], I heard there were some internal problems in mouz and the team couldn't get enough players to send to the LAN and CAT came only after you withdrew from participating at ESWC Paris, who are the current active players on your team?
mouz|Serend-: "Our current 'main' lineup consists of KuroKy, Miracle-, Drayich, CAT and Fragalot. bluTgeiL plays less currently, and XeqtR doesn't play at all at the moment."

Are you planning to get more players to your roster in the near future?
mouz|Serend-: "We might, I don't know. That's Drayich's decision and even getting CAT was pretty.. well.. I'm not saying rushed, but it was a pretty fast decision though, which was needed because of Twisted going inactive, and I think CAT is completely right in our team, anyway."

Did you scrim a lot with him before the decision was made or mainly IHCS games?
mouz|Serend-: "Drayich knew CAT from the time he started playing DotA, and CAT basically came back from a long DotA break. So Drayich knew CAT from Dota Invite and such as well as knowing him really well, and I guess that's why he picked CAT."

What do you think the chances would have been for mouz for taking either the first or second place if you had traveled to Paris?
mouz|Serend-: "Well, we have had some great successes against clans like SK and Avid in the past. Even with our current lineup "problems" having so many replacements and such, I think we would have had big chances at winning the tournament."

And if the roster would still be the same like a month or two ago?
mouz|Serend-: "Even a month or two ago, we added KuroKy, so basically we've had some rough times in the past with constant lineup changes. The lineup even changed a lot already when I wasn't in the clan, so yeah, the team has been living with those changes all the time, so I guess we would have had great chances back then, too."

which teams do you find the strongest out of the 10 participants?
mouz|Serend-: "I'd say SK is clearly the strongest team, a few months ago I might have said it's MYM, but their playing really wasn't that great in the past months."

I guess they are too sticked to 48b strategies
mouz|Serend-: "Their picking is really bad in .52"

I think they are suffering a lot from the new ways of strategies and having not really practised on the new map because of the American qualifiers
mouz|Serend-: "Aye, if they don't start trying and practicing new lineups I don't think they'll have as much success as they had in the past year."

True, they will be even more behind. And I'm pretty sure that the Asian teams will also become the powerhouses of this new version.
mouz|Serend-: "Aye, Asian teams have always been known for their weird lineups. I kind of like them though, cause I personally LOVE playing and seeing crazy lineups."

They started using Chen first and then Sven. They also started the whole blink mania.
mouz|Serend-: "Oh that reminds me of the good old times when people would always use flasks over tangos and someday everyone started using tangos.. from one day to the other lol. Only junglers get flasks nowadays, sometimes people who go mid. Basically, roles where you have to get to full hp fast."

Which teams do you think have the highest chances at winning the tournament?
IGG-SirNeo: "MYM, SGC, TeG, Sk. This is right the order"

So MYM is the number one team out of those 10 participants?
IGG-SirNeo: "Yes."

They haven't really done well lately in the new version. Do you think they managed to come back from their recent bad series?
IGG-SirNeo: "At these kind of events big teams come back."

Why don't you participate in this event?
IGG-SirNeo: "Because they didn't invite us, even if we signed up and waited the big moment. Don't know the reason for not inviting us, because i'm sure IGG > srs, +46, PMS, woL and >>> Reborn."

Yeah, it sounds a bit weird, especially after your success in ENADC. What do you think were the reasons the other teams were invited instead of you then?
IGG-SirNeo: "Really i don't know. Maybe they thought we don't have any sponsors and we can't go to France."

And would you have been able to afford it? or did you have any contacts to big sponsors?
IGG-SirNeo: "We could handle our own money for an event like ESWC because sponsors don't go to Romanian teams."

Actually if you had won, then you'd have earned more than the bus or plane ticket, so it would have been worthy for you even with second place.
IGG-SirNeo: "Well, first of all we wanted to be there because we wanted to meet MYM, SK,EG, SGC @ LAN. Of course the money prize is important but this wasn't our main reason to be at ESWC Masters of Paris"

Are you planning to go to ASUS to meet them there then?
IGG-SirNeo: "We are planing to go to the next lan in Greece, and maybe to Lancraft."

What other teams are going to attend those LANs?
IGG-SirNeo: "I don't know exactly what teams are at LAN from Greece but I know that it's not so far, not so expensive and the prize pool is absolutely okay. At Lancraft I know that SGC and nEph will be there, and I heard that in the next edition IR and PGS could be there too."

Then there will be some competition for sure :)
IGG-SirNeo: "well yes, it's nice and funny, because @ lancraft u play just for fun because the prizes are not so big. :)"

At least you can hang out with other teams' players and drink some beer or pálinka after the games :P IGG-SirNeo: "we drink palinca here cuz' it's our national drink, but there beer ftw."