As one of the absolute frontrunners in DotA 6.48, it was widely expected that MYM.DotA could transfer to the .52-version without problems. The team got off to a rocky start though, as a third and fourth place, at DH Summer and ESWC Masters respectively, looked far from impressive.

At the ESWC Grand Finals in San Jose, the team placed 3rd, ending up as the best Western team in the tournament, and has been rated as the world best DotA-team on the Dust-Off World Ranking.

But being the best in a game isn't always enough to win. Atleast not if you ask Maelk. The Dane is held in high esteem in the DotA-community for his no-bullshit attitude, and his straight forward comments on the various topics in the game.

"I feel that we could have won the ESWC Grand Finals if it had been played in a BO3-format" he says about the tournament where zENith took the title. "The BO1-format cater to surprising strategies and doesn't necessarily make the best team win" he said, before praising both zENith and KingSurf, "both the winning team and the runner up played a fantastic tournament, so no one could tell what would actually have happened had it been BO3".

- We have found our way

While the team is yet to win a tournament in 6.52, Maelk clearly feels that it is due to the team not being able to adapt to the version "We struggled a lot to adapt to the new version, whereas SK didn't and were soon to come off as the number one team to beat in this version". Maelk thinks that the players have found the winning formula though "We finally feel we have found a way to play this version, not necessarily OUR way, but for now it works and if it wins, it wins".

From the outside, it would be easy to pick out the removal of LevenT for Pusherstreet, as the deciding factor for finding that winning formula, but Maelk has another view on that. "Even though the gameplay has changed slightly over the past few months, I still feel a mapcontrol technician is much more important this version than in 6.48b".

"That Levent was our support player is a rumour started for unknown reasons, we didn't have such roles in 6.48b nor did he ever play that role in 6.52 simply due to the fact that we didn't use a such player. We were a gank-team with everyone chipping in. Letting Levent go did not actually have anything to do with that either, It was a mutual agreement between rest of the team", he declared but acknowledged that "it was a change for the better".

Can MYM walk the walk?

Going into the PDL playoffs, Maelk is as usual confident on his own team's behalf. He knows that his confident attitude will enrage some, but denies being cocky or arrogant, "Cocky, whiny, arrogant? I think the answer is 'confident'. After all, I am our captain and what would a team be without the confidence and trust of their captain".

And confident he is. As the team is currently 8-0 against Serious Gaming in maps, he is dead sure that they will win tonight's game in PDL and is already focusing on the WB Final and the possible Grand Final against SK Gaming.

"I expect us to go all the way", he states. "It will be the first time we meet SK-Gaming for something actually important since the ESWC Masters, and since then a lot have changed, so unless an upset happens, I trust us to take home the title".

Post ESWC, MYM is the only team that has managed to go deep in both PDL, ENADC S2 and F4F, giving Maelk some weight behind his confidence. In the end that doesn't matter though.

While Maelk can certainly talk the talk, the team will need to take down one of those mentioned leagues to prove that they can walk the walk.

Can MYM walk the walk in 6.52?

Chinese version on sgamer.com