Sergey "G" Bragin secured second place at the Cyber Best Awards, surpassing experienced competitors such as Boolk, Nofear, and Hally. Experts unanimously hailed him as one of the primary architects of Virtus.pro's local success at The International 2023. But what kind of coach is Sergey Bragin? Does he need an analyst on the team - and what kind? How would he counter the Falcons?
Before the start of the Elite League, I had a phone call with the coach of Virtus.pro and spent a whole hour listening to an honest and self-critical individual who knows his strengths and weaknesses well.
– Congratulations on qualifying for PGL Wallachia! You had to play through the lower bracket after losing to YeS. Are you satisfied with the current form of the team?
– Well, not really. Our form is far from that of tier-1 teams right now. We hope that the Elite League will give us valuable experience. In the qualifiers, the level of play is different from the tournaments we qualified for.
– Different teams from Eastern Europe are claiming slots in the recent qualifiers - 1win, NAVI, you, 9Pandas, and sometimes even Spirit doesn't make it. Are the leaders struggling, or is the region just that strong?
– I don't think the CIS qualifiers can be called the strongest - Europe is stronger. But we have a lot more evenly-matched teams. 9Pandas, if I'm not mistaken, made it through qualifiers where almost everyone was directly invited - us, Spirit, and the BetBoom Team (they usually skip all qualifiers).
I think this is not a good sign for the top teams in the region, but a good sign for those who have not yet entered the season. They have every chance to qualify while the tier-1 teams of the region are not in top form.
Regarding Team Spirit. They are allowed not to perform at their maximum if the prize pool is less than 5 million. At the same time, they have this story - being in a shaky state until the end of the season. In the DPC, they played 2-1 against everyone, that's their thing.
– There are indeed MANY tournaments and qualifiers right now. Aren't you afraid the team will burn out from such a schedule?
– I think you can burn out with any schedule if you don't approach it wisely. You can burn out from playing too many scrims. Having many official games is great if the load is reasonable. We had the opportunity to participate in the Dota2 World Invitationals, but we had to decline - the schedule would have been overloaded. There would have been two different tournaments in one day, plus we needed small breaks from official games to focus on theory, play matchmaking, and rest. We've been on boot camp for over two weeks, so we need to balance it.
I don't think this is bad. I remember seasons with a lot of tournaments, and it was a blessing, not something bad.
– VP played 14 series in two weeks, three of which were bo5. Is it possible to prepare for an opponent in such conditions, or do you have to play solely based on yourselves and your prepared strategies?
– There is time, it's just... Let's be honest. There are not many teams in Dota that bring something unique. There are generally accepted patterns of how certain heroes play the map. If we take our teams from the qualifiers, they have habits like warding patterns or game ideas, but from game to game, the situation changes, and it's hard to predict, like "If they have such a hero pool, they will do certain things". Unstable teams deliver unstable performance. So I don't think it's necessary to focus too much on the opponent's game, it's better to think more about how we want to play.
But in general, one series a day is not difficult. It's difficult when there are two series, and the opponent in the second series is unknown.
– You once mentioned that you received advice at the start of your coaching career from Boolk and Silent. Can you remember one piece of advice from each of them that was helpful to you?
– I didn't specifically ask Boolk for anything, but I've known him for most of my career. We're constantly in touch, I'm more than familiar with his work and how he views the game. Even as a player, I drew something from him. And Ilyas, at one point... It's not that I asked for advice, rather I asked something like, "What do you do as a coach? How would you describe your role in the team?" Ilyas gave a wise answer - he tried to participate in everything and contribute some value. His main idea: sometimes you need some kind of impulse to attract more attention to you, and so on.
This doesn't mean that Ilyas knows a little bit about everything. He may know much more about something than particular players do. I took it as you can't let anything flow freely in the coaching position.
– Fng in the "Our Game" podcast cited control and teaching Skvadix as one of the reasons for your invitation to VP. How does your role as Skvadix's teacher manifest itself?
– I think it was formulated at the moment in that interview. I'm not sure it was directly in the contract (laughs), but it was mentioned. "A guy is playing mid, but not particularly communicative - it would be cool to establish contact with him." Last year, I tried to spend more time with him: we talked a lot about Dota, and I tried to explain to others what his teammates sometimes didn't understand.
– He's generally moving in the right direction. Like all professionals, he has his weaknesses, and I try to help both him and all the guys. But last season - yes, I worked with him more than with others.
– What weaknesses of Ilya were you referring to?
– These may not be weaknesses, but even peculiarities. Some find it difficult to convey their thoughts, some find it hard to integrate the information they receive into their game, and some struggle with new heroes.
Specifically about Ilya. He's not the most communicative guy, but he's actively working on it and has put in... well, not a titanic, but enormous effort. He's a different person compared to how I knew him initially.
– You trained mid-matchups with Ilya and played 1v1s at the Dacha. How much do you play Dota yourself now?
– Training matchups - that's an exaggeration... I play Dota quite rarely. I didn't play for half a year before the Dacha, played 1-2 games at night before the Dacha, and now during boot camp as well. I play at night when I've done all my tasks and I'm not as effective.
– Do you play because you enjoy it or because you need to as a coach?
– Undoubtedly, it's not forced. It's always interesting to play after a long break. I see it more as a way of self-improvement, trying to find new approaches in my work.
– Do you agree that 1v1s are not the same anymore due to the new mechanics - Bracer, tower aura, and creep-banner?
– When were 1v1s ever the same?
– During the DAC times, for example?
– Which Paparazi won or when Mushi and Dendi played in the finals?
– With Paparazi.
– I remember there were games on SF. And there, coils were very gentle, they only dealt damage, and there were no stacks. It all came down to your last-hitting mechanical skills. DAC with Mushi and Dendi stands out to me as the tournament where people hid from each other for 40 minutes on OD. There wasn't a "15-minute" rule back then, and creep stacks weren't counted.
1v1s have always been a strange format and never were "the same." Personally, I've always liked tournaments on SF, but there are nuances too. It's two different games when coils or souls are picked at level one. 1v1 is far from real Dota, there are too many nuances. At the Dacha, we bought and broke Sentries, well... It's cool that they came up with it, but the rules still need improvement to avoid controversial situations like Boxi and Save. We need to address such issues if we really want to see more serious 1v1 tournaments that are taken more seriously than show matches.
– Do you currently have an analyst? And do you need one at all?
– Not currently, but we need one. The question is, it's hard to find the right person. I think the roles of an analyst and a coach are completely different. An analyst is not a mini-coach in my understanding. I haven't worked with a huge number of people, but what sikle does in Spirit is unique and worthy of being called an analyst. No coach can come and do his job.
And to take someone who will do the same job as you... Duties need to be distributed. It's hard to find someone who will do something different.
– What should an analyst do for you to say, "Yes, this person is what we need, let's hire them"?
– I don't deal with software, I don't dig into numbers, and I don't build formulas. I don't extract information from publicly available databases or maintain closed databases. I interact with replays. I don't need someone who will gather information on where the opponent places wards, I can see that myself. Working with matchmaking, for example, new builds or interesting observations from pubs - that's where second hands are always needed. If we have intersections, but he provides unique information, that's also more than interesting! People with good resumes or good ideas don't come to us, something unique is sometimes wanted to see and say, "Wow, I want this, I want to work with this."
– Everyone is afraid of the Falcons right now. If you had a match against them tomorrow, how would you beat them?
– Considering their current game, I think they play very well individually, they have very strong heroes on which they are more than experts. They have worthy outcomes in lanes: even if not everything goes according to plan, there's always an idea of how to play the map. It seems not the strongest to me that I've seen in recent years, but considering how good they are individually, their games somehow lead to moments where they find their advantage. They're good.
To beat them tomorrow... I don't want to answer "you need to play very well," but as dumb as it may sound, you need to prepare based on the heroes. Since they dictate the meta, Falcons' heroes are in every lineup now. Obviously, with the first pick, you'll take one of their heroes. They have good laning, more than decent vision. From a macro perspective, they are not an ideal team, but definitely the strongest at the moment. The world has not seen such an offlaner yet.
– Everyone notes that Falcons play from a small number of flexible signature heroes. Haven't you thought about coming to your team and saying, "Let's also find 2-3 heroes and hone them so that we can pick them in any game?"
– I don't think it's a completely new idea. The value of flex increased in 2019, OG won TI with flex MK and Ember. I'll repeat, Falcons' heroes are already in teams' pools, but you're catching up. You can't catch up with those crazy people who have played 1000 games on Razor, you don't have that much time. You'll lag behind by playing their heroes. Maybe there are stronger heroes in the patch, but the builds haven't been invented yet.
I can't say that Falcons ###### [crazy] as they got into the meta, and with the new patch, it will be much harder for them, but it will definitely be easier for others. Timber has been a first-stage pick for several months already, even before Ammar and Malrin. Razor is indeed effective in the hands of these guys, which other teams don't have. Ammar on Mars is incredibly good, and the hero itself is very strong right now. It so happened that they are in excellent individual form and have good meta-heroes in their pool.
Everyone needs to step up their game to navigate the basics in the mid-game against them. First of all, everyone needs to work on themselves rather than think about what to do with the Falcons. Because Valve will eventually figure them out. If not, then Falcons and other heroes will take tournament after tournament.
- In mid-April, a huge patch is coming our way. Do you have any specific expectations or desires for it?
The gameplay will change, which is always interesting. The current features have become stale; I'm eager for something new. Quality of life improvements, which I'd like, won't be there: after all, the coach slot is abnormal. I expect the return of events - cool ones that will liven up Dota's online scene. Something that would make people think, "Oh, there's Dota, there's some event going on, let's jump in." And who says it's a dead game? Something that I'd like to play with my team in our free time. Maybe PvE content for teams like Godsent!
- You've experienced all kinds of metas in Dota. Do you have a favorite time or patch in the game when you thought, "At this moment, the game is closest to being balanced"?
- I don't think there has ever been a perfect balance. There's always something that's annoying, always some ridiculously strong heroes. Dota is generally evolving in the right direction. The game changes: there were fountains, tower changes, glyphs, forests... A lot is being added, while some things are made mechanically easier. Indicators for stuns, for example, so they can be extended. Before, you just eyeballed it ("One, two") and cast the stun.
- I'm shocked now that when I started playing Dota, there was no display of camp areas. Pulls, stacking, ward blocks - all done by sight.
- I can't even remember that anymore. Well, I wasn't interested in the plebeians' problems; I played mid. And when I was farming creeps, I didn't care at all - it was whatever!
On the topic: there were some unpleasant patches sometimes. Like when you could lead by 30k, and kill a hero, they'd kill one in return and buy an artefact. The comeback mechanic was broken.
- The "Ho-ho, ha-ha" patch.
- Yeah, that one. It was unpleasant to play competitively, but in pubs, it was all the same. In pubs, it was important that Bara didn't stun much and that Nyx from offlane didn't kill you - those are two of my well-known enemies in Dota.
- Players have very simple and clear criteria by which they can determine their progress - from matchmaking rank to the number of won lanes. How can a coach determine if they are developing?
- First and foremost, I think about individual performance, about my own knowledge. How quickly do I identify good or bad segments in games? How quickly and accurately can I find the most effective lineup in a game? What needs to be done to make this game easier?
I evaluate my endurance. Right now, I can process more information and not get tired. And the social aspect, where I evaluate communication skills. It's one thing to know and understand something, and another to integrate it into the team. There's a certain case you focus on, invest time, and in one way or another, make sure the guys understand it and try it out in the game. You feel progress if you understand that it works.
At the beginning of my coaching journey, I had no idea how to assess my work. There were a lot of things that weren't quite conscious, based on intuition. I thought, "If I were a player, how would I want to see my coach?"
- What would you like to improve about yourself as a coach?
- Everything. I have a certain vision of my ideal self, which I still need to grow into. I don't think I've hit a ceiling in any particular skill, whether it's Dota knowledge, endurance, mental aspects, or interacting with teammates.
- When answering the question about a bad habit, you said, "To be perfect." Would you consider yourself a perfectionist?
- I don't think so. As a player, I was fixated on certain things, but there were also moments when I didn't care, honestly.
- Do you ever get mad at players after a bad game or failure to execute a plan in a match? Can you yell at them?
- Yes. It all depends on the time and place. If it's a training day and they've earned it, I can yell. If it's within a series, then extra emotions are not what's needed. Five "human sapiens" just lost a map like monkeys, yelling won't help. I can scold them, that's true. I was impulsive as a player, and I've remained that way as a coach. But I must say, it's perceived more easily from the outside than if I were in the lobby seeing the nonsense I see from the outside.
- How important is it to you what is said about your team in the media? What do analysts say in the studio, what is written in the media, and so on?
- I don't think you can avoid that. I interact with the media for my awareness. As a player, I realized that reading comments is too destructive. It's one thing to receive criticism from a colleague at a LAN tournament. Another thing is a comment on the internet when you don't know if the person even devotes time to the game if they're competent.
Back in the early days of Dota, I was actively on ProDota, but when I started playing, I realized I had to stop. It was difficult to focus on the present day after the comments. Now I take it more humorously. Sometimes certain things can get to me, but I have no desire to spend more time on it than I have.
I read to understand what's going on, and whether pressure can break a player. Take the Satanic story, for example. It's important to realize now: in my understanding, Yellow Submarine has shown strong progress in six months. Alan went through that situation in Streamers Battle, where there was a lot of criticism, but he did well. To understand that he overcame this story, you need to read both the media and the comments. We don't have any block on social media and media at boot camps, my players read it too, maybe even more than necessary.
Marcel Proust Questionnaire*
*Adapted and supplemented with Dota realities
- Favorite musical artist or band?
- I don't have favorites right now. If I catch a vibe, I'll listen to it endlessly. Recently - Quok. I was at Dora's concert at the Dacha, and listened to her for a week - I really like her creativity too. I can listen to a lot of things, but there's no absolute favorite. There's so much beautiful music in the world, I don't want to limit myself; I want musical freedom!
- Dora is interestingly combined with one of your recent tweets with the Slava KPSS and Zamay's "Night Trauma" music video.
- It was all relevant there! I posted the track when I was actually in the emergency room with a broken rib!
- What character trait do you hate the most in other people?
- I don't dislike people so much that I don't even think about what I hate about them. I haven't thought about it! But, thanks to this question, I might think about it and later formulate it for myself! Good question, by the way!
- In which country would you like to live?
- Overall, I'm satisfied with everything. I have an apartment in Russia, and I think every place has its serious pros and cons for living. The service sector in Russia is very well-developed, and for me, that's an important part of life. But if I were to fantasize about not being born in Russia, it would be Japan. I liked it there, primarily because of the food, but living there also has its nuances. Despite all the possible downsides and with good prosperity in Russia, it's comfortable - I'm talking about big cities, of course. Europe is a bit tough due to the service sector. There's simply no nightlife in many countries; everything closes at 10 in the evening.
Man, I don't know if I could live like that for so long, but I would try being a native with a bare ass somewhere on the islands by the ocean. If I had to choose one country, it would probably be Japan.
- What does your happy day look like?
- I wake up, wash up, give an interview, and head to the square. Today will be a happy day, just like the last one. I'll think every day that it will be happy; that's my cult. I think happiness indicators change from day to day. Sometimes I can do nothing and be happy, and sometimes it drives me crazy.