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Stormstormer on Gabbi: "He's been such a great addition to Entity"
Entity became the first team from the Western Europe regional qualifiers to secure a spot at The International 12 (TI12). Entity took down Luna Galaxy in the upper bracket finals, going 2-0 to win the series.
After a grueling final match, Daniel "Stormstormer" Schoetzau, Entity's mid-laner, had a quick post-game interview to talk about the qualifiers, playing with Kim "Gabbi" Santos, and who he is rooting for on the final day of the regional qualifiers.
Stormstormer on Gabbi: "He's a super-talented player"
Western Europe has had six games last for over an hour, with two of them taking over 8o minutes to conclude. It's been a wonderful event to watch, although the players are feeling the stress of those long series.
" These games are wild, like game one against Luna Galaxy, it's such high-skill dota, it's crazy all over the place. And of course, if the stakes are high, people tend to play even crazier. The games are really enjoyable to watch but when you're playing those games, you're like "Holy shit, what's happening?," said Stormstormer.
It hasn't been the best year for Entity, they started off with a fourth-place finish in the first DPC Tour, enough to warrant a spot in the Lima Major. At Lima, Entity placed top six, a respectable placement for the team.
The good results did not last for Entity. They were almost relegated in the second and third DPC Tour, while placing last in both Dreamleage tournaments. Not exactly ideal.
Entity decided to make a change to the team and parted ways with offlaner Tobias "Tobi" Buchner, and brought in Gabbi, one of the most decorated players in Southeast Asia.
The team's first foray with Gabbi was at Riyadh Masters, where they couldn't make it past the group stage. But in their second tournament together, the team was a powerhouse and secured a spot in TI12.
When asked what it's like to play with Gabbi, Stormstormer had a lot of praise for his new offlaner, " We're happy to have him, he's been such a great addition to this team. He's a very vocal person and just enjoys talking a lot. He's a super talented player, very vocal, makes a lot of calls in the game, and leads the game even in many aspects."
Gabbi is an incredibly talented offlaner, but he remains light-hearted in his approach to the game, something everyone mentioned when discussing him. "Before he joined the team, we asked a lot of people "What do you think about Gabbi?" And everybody said he is nice, but there was one word that always came out and it was clowny. Everybody said he is clowny. But besides that he's been a really great addition."
Stormstormer: "We viewed ourselves as underdogs"
In a region with Team Secret, OG Esports, and Quest, Entity wasn't among the favorites to win the regional qualifiers. Stormstormer noted that his team viewed themselves as dark horses, due to their performance in Riyadh Masters.
" I guess we viewed ourselves as underdogs because the last tournament we played was Riyadh Masters and that tournament beat us down quite a bit. We had some tough talks and tough times. Of course, our year was not that good but at Riyadh, we had a chance to redeem ourselves and that did not work out."
There is one day left for the Western Europe regional qualifier and it starts with a lower bracket match between Team Secret and Quest Esports, with the winner facing Luna Galaxy for the final spot at TI12.
Stormstormer believes the three remaining teams are on roughly the same level, but he wants his former teammate Tobi to make it to TI.
" I think all these teams are on a similar level, I think that Luna Galaxy showed us some really good dota, like the way they just played. I think they were leading both games. They play so cleanly on this team. For me it's tough to tell, I'm rooting a little bit for Quest, so our boy Tobi can still make it there. But let's see, I think it's pretty evenly matched."
Dota 2 fans can find the full interview on Youtube.
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Image source provided by: Entity Esports
