Na’Vi Team Captain Clement “puppey” Ivanov was recently brought on Onemoregame.tv’s show, Live On 3. In the webisode the team-captain spoke about the Chinese teams and what he thinks of their practice regimes.

The largest Dota 2 tournament, The International 2012, is just around the corner. With a first place prize of $1,000,000 dollars, Slasher interviewed Clement “puppey” Ivanov and, and asked about the practice regiment of Na’Vi in recent months. Puppey says in the past 2 months, his team has practiced a total of about 10 days. In comparison to the rumored Chinese practice time, this was a stunning comment. Currently the top three teams after the preliminaries are all Chinese, boasting a combined record of 30-4. Not a single foreign team is close in score.

Clement “puppey” Ivanov said

The Chinese teams are in one word, disciplined ... It’s really hard to beat them. All you have to do is do the same thing they do, but the mentality of the Western people and the Chinese is a bit different, it’s too hard to do what the Chinese do.

Slasher also asked

then why don’t you practice for another million dollars?

Puppey responds

It’s not that easy… it’s the mindset. You don’t come to the tournament and practice and win the tourney. You can practice all you want and not win the tournament ... Practicing is not the key in winning.

A bit of contradiction can obviously be seen here. Practice vs. talent, work ethic vs. pure determination of will. The answer to winning may be different for every team and their respective captains, but can one definitively say that practicing is not the key to winning?

Will Na’Vi repeat last years’ feat and take home another million dollars? Will it be a newcomer, or a dark horse? Or will the extreme dedication and long hours of the Chinese prevail? The main event begins 8/31 with live coverage beginning at 9:30AM PDT, so don't miss out on what is shaping up to be the most anticipated event in DOTA 2 history.


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