One of our voluntary admins, Sacco, sat down for a chat with a bunch of the team leaders from some of the teams who already signed up for the Prime Defending tournament. Below you can see what came out of that.

Pandemic|Fachh:

1. Hello there. My name is Larry "Fachh" Li, stands for fat chinese. About two years ago I took over a clan called ADA once my friend and chieftan Lokus quit DOTA for CS. Since then I have met many skilled, dedicated, and friendly players. The clan has had a few ups and downs as we often goof off too much and received silly losses. However, with the introduction of CAL we started to get more serious and even earned ourselves a sponsorship from Team Pandemic. We are very excited to become more active in the European Dota scene and look forward to all our matches
   
   
2. I did not really pick DOTA as my game; I would say DOTA picked me. There is no other game out there that gets you as emotionally involved as dota as you have to trust and rely on your teammates 100%. I find the victories in DOTA are the most gratifying compared to any other game out there.
   
   
3. In my opinion DOTA will see a vertical climb in popularity soon once people truely understand the game. DOTA is an extremely unique game that really offers a strong sense of belonging and teamwork.
   
   
4. I am very satisfied with the map at this point, especially in comparison to the league map used before. Although there are still imbalances, I feel that the scourge and sentinel are very equal now.
   
   
5. Unfortunately, I won't be making the tournament as I am off to a business conference in Rome. Perhaps I could sneak into a few European LAN center while I am there. I am expecting my team to perform well in the upcoming mYm tourney and I am confident my players will shine even without me.
   
   
6. Thank you Sacco for this interview. I would like to thank aim2game and subway for there continued support of Team Pandemic and of course a shout out to DJ, Wedge, Orie, JJ, Mike, and Majin.

verGe.King:

1. Our team represents Verge Gaming, a great American multi-gaming organization. Our DotA team was previously known as Want a Cookie? The leader of our team is verGe.King. What sets us apart from most other American teams is that we have do not have a locked starting 5/6 player roster. Instead, we have 7-8 players who we feel are capable of playing at a very competitive level, and we alternate players for each game in order to maximize every position. People keep asking us who our starting 5 is, and we keep saying we don’t have a starting 5.

2. There exist a couple of main reasons why I chose DotA as my game. For one, it is obviously something that me and my team excel at and possess the capacity to remain at a top level of play. Secondly, it seems to me like the next big up and coming game that might just hit it off big one day and really reach that next level. While its just a speculation at this point, it seems to come closer and closer to reality each day. Last but not least, its extremely exciting to play. The game is in a genre of its own, providing fast paced team oriented play that combines the elements of FPS, RTS and RPG's (My three favorite game genres) beautifully in one package.

3. As I mentioned earlier, I think that DotA certainly does have a major chance of hitting off big in the future. While I was skeptical earlier towards those types of speculations, it really does seem to be coming closer to reality, with the emergence of multiple major leagues like CAL-Main, ESL, DotA-league, etc. as well as sponsored prize tournaments like the ones hosted by MYM. Although DotA will probably not come anywhere close to Counter-strike's success, it certainly will rank among a top echelon of e-sports.

4. There are certain balance issues that could be tweaked a little here and there, but overall, Icefrog and co. have done a great job of keeping up on the updates and constantly providing us with the best experience they are capable of giving. Although on a personal level, I have not played DotA for that long, but I know my DotA history and how far we've come since the days of Euls/Guinsoo etc.

5. The tournament sounds like a great idea. Finally, we will have something that resembles a premier invite level league to match cal-invite of counterstrike and WC3L for melee Warcraft games. I am looking forward to the rigorous top level of play that is surely to be expected, seeing the caliber of the teams involved.

6. Thank you for having us. We’d like to give a warm shout-out to Matt Marcou and the other guys of Verge Gaming, and of course Verge’s great sponsors, Nationvoice and Steel Series. Good luck to the Counter-strike: Source team with the beginning CAL season.

MrFisk[tG]:

1. 1. My name is Alex Runge, 27yo, single, student.I am the leader of team Glenn [tG]. We are a nordic clan that came split 3:rd in mym's first tour. We will also play in ESL invitational league and div1 in dotaleague next season.
   
   

2. I played Dota since before TFT as a fun public game in between the more serious wc3 games..1½ year ago it started to get more serious with clanwars. I play Dota because its a drug that I cant get rid off ^^
   
   

3. Dota is just starting to get really serious with things like a national cup and money coming into the picture.
   
   

4. What makes Dota such a great game is the large amount of heroes while still beeing 'mostly balanced'.Makes for a game that always is fun and exciting with new moves and combinations in most games.The newest version 6.33 seams like Icefrog is taking it in the right direction, boosting the really weak heroes is a good way to make Dota better. One thing, that he in my opinion needs to think more about is the balance of sentinel vs scourge as a team since cw's are played in pick or lm. And plz Icefrog, again remove techies from the game. Every game with that hero its ruined, hard to push against him, and hard to push with him.
   
   

5. Well, tG will prolly get far into tour but we will not win it as we aren't super strong atm. But we are a good clan and if we focus stuff can happen ^^
   
   

6. Just one, team Glenn accualy want a little Q bot in our irc channel so all readers get your ass into #glenn  plz? =)

bere.bunelu:

1. Hello, my name is Condriuc Alin, I‘m 22 years old and i am the orga of the Romanian DOTA National Championship. First season me and a group of friends created a team specificially for the Romanian DOTA National Championship called bere ( that`s beer in romanian :D ) and we managed to do a very good job, placing 2nd in the 1st season after team GT and in front of team Sv who took 3rd place. After the success we had in the national championship, we started playing in leagues like CAL , dota-league and of course PGL (our national championship "http://dota.pgl.ro ") and we always give our best to be in the top of the charts.

2. I picked DOTA because I enjoy playing it and because I`ve got a great team who I can play with .

3. I guess DOTA will be integrated in major competitions like ECG , ESWC , WCG in year 2007. The community is growing and growing and this cannot be ignored. I think that the boom of DOTA will be the year of 2007 , until than more and more  well known teams especially from counter-strike scene are getting a dota team in their rooster. This is a great boost for DOTA to be recognized and be admitted as a top game.

4. DOTA will always nerf and buff heroes/items. From my point of view this will go on and on until no one has to say anything like nerf this item, nerf that hero etc and I don`t see this time coming too soon :). But yes, I`m very satisfied about the improvements from version to version of the dota maps and features.

5. I expect all 256 slots will be filled ^^ . I`m just hoping that GG-client bugs won`t destroy some good replays to watch .

6. Nice job mym staff for this tourney, keep it up guys. As for the teams, may the best team win without host advantage ^^

Dior:

1. Hello sacco, we are actually not an official clan, but more friends who gathered for trying out in this very mYm tournament coming up. Andez was the one to gather the team, and now we practice a lot to the tourney, well were not a "clan" but we will still do our best. So far we dont have a leader, but we all help with the organizing stuff, and we have a fun time playing.

2. Personally it was because of a short introduction by a friend, and I kind of got the hang of it. Then i find my way to pickups and recently i started to play a lot of mix10 games. After that you could clearly feel the skill lvl going up, and the team play became better. For that i can thank mr.sinclairs mix10 games :) and ofc the players in them teaching me a lot of new stuff about dota. Dota is for me just the best game I‘ve tried out, cause I am allways praccing, new strats, new way of hero builds, and getting better in the hero builds, and when i play i really enjoy the feeling of game never really had it like that about other game I must say :)

3. I think it will be major, but ofc all dota players say that :P . I guess that the way it looks right now, it will become even bigger, for now dota clans have sponsors like "net cafes", but i think there will come bigger sponsors, especcially now that many dota clans will join multiclans like coL for an example. And I know many dota clans allready have.

4. Yes indeed, I think its nicely made, and its fun to play in, always getting new hidding spots and its good for 5vs5 matches etc.

5. Mostly to see a lot of good dota, and have fun with my teammates, cause that is what its all about for us so far. I hope we get to play with good clans so can learn alot and maybe in the future, people will hope to learn from us instead ;) Only time will show.

6. Hmm, only one for the teams joining the tournament, GL and HF in this tourney, i hope to see a lot of good replays :)

GT-Snake:

1. Hi, well I started this clan in september 2005, and of the founding members I am the only one left, but we started playing a bit more seriously when GT-AndreiPavel joined, and we won the first large dota competition in Romania shortly after that. From that point on things went pretty smooth, we got sponsored by a local LAN Center, we became very good friends, not only clan mates. I think this is one of our strong points - something that keeps us up there among the top clans.

2. Haha, I saw a guy playing on the computer next to mine in the LAN Center, and I said "why not give it a try?", being a gamer all my life I started to play a lot because I wanted to pawn the guys on the LAN :D that’s about the story of all our current players, they all come with heavy backgrounds in gaming, being 'leet' at starcraft, wacraft 3, counter strike, and many more.

3. When we started playing no one thought DotA would become pro-gaming - and look how far it got now. DotA exploded during the past 6 - 9 months, and it’s growing exponentially. If it got this far, I am hoping for more, any dota player dreams about dota becoming "the new counter-strike".

4. As the number of players have grow, the game is improved too, the guys at dota-allstars are doing a great job and put a lot of time into it. We thank them for this!

5. Get drunk at the end :)) jk. A tournament this big with the best teams in the world atm is smth I always wanted. Every one can be no 1 here! and there is no underdogs, all games will be open for any result, and the most powerful team will win it in the end. Of course, like all the other top teams, I am hoping that team will be ours.

6. Thx for ur time. Word to our sponsor - the Ground Zero LAN Center and to our best friends in the dota community (in no particular order): Sv)Massi, elhefeQ, PenguinQ, bere.bunel, The_Hungry_Man, JollyJoker[P], switch, feared.Slayer, coL.warr1ck and to all the other maniacs: GL&HF!

The_Hungry_Man:

1. Hello, my name is Valentin, I am 17 years old and I live in Sofia, Bulgaria. Clan DP has existed for more than one year now, and we have participated in numerous tournaments with teams from all over the world. Back in Bulgaria we don’t have a serious opponent for the top spot, and we’re also competing at a high level in international events. One of DP’s achievements is the 3/4th place on the first DotA Tourney organized by mYm.

2. I still remember my first dota game, nearly two years ago. Then, I was a bit bored from regular Warcraft III, and a friend introduced me to “this fun custom map.” I liked it a lot, and haven’t stopped playing until now. What I like in DotA is the combination between diversity and balance.

3. If Icefrog and the dota staff continue updating dota frequently and more events of competitive dota are held, then our favourite map might as well become the new Counter Strike and be played on major tournaments such as ESWC and WCG

4. DotA has never been better. However, there always is something to improve :)

5. I expect this tournament to be one of the biggest worldwide dota events so far.

6. You are welcome.

1. My name is Sorin Popescu, 26 from Bucharest/Romania. TeG clan was started in 2001. I played Starcraft:BW, Warcraft III solo and Dota. I also do the management.

2. I always played DotA since RoC with my teammates for fun. After TFT was out we started playing occasionally in some leagues. The game is very fun and it takes less time to train than wc3 solo. This is one of the main reasons we switched to Dota as all of us have to work and/or school.

3. Dota is already one of the most popular games/mods in the world. In a short while we will see DotA lans with money prizes.

4. There are up and downs... overall I am satisfied. Perhaps the game developers should stay in touch more with top players/clans in order to quickly solve bugs/abuses.

5. I am very excited since we will play very good teams that will do different new strategies. I expect very nice games and I hope this is will be another precious tournament for the DotA comunity.

6. Thank you and keep up the good work at MYM.