TeaGuvnor on coaching Esports England’s Dota 2 team & the state of the scene: ‘UK Dota is finally in a position of having multiple competitive players rise up to the higher levels’

TeaGuvnor
UK Dota 2 commentator and analyst, Robson ‘TeaGuvnor’ Merritt, coached the Esports England Dota 2 team and helped them win a silver medal at the Commonwealth Esports Championships in Birmingham last month.
Qualifiers for this tournament took place at the new Confetti X esports facilities at Nottingham Trent University‘s Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies. We ask TeaGuvnor about the qualifiers, coaching rather than playing at the Commonwealth and his thoughts on UK Dota 2.

Good to interview you again TeaGuvnor. How are things with you?

Things are going well, thank you!

You achieved a silver medal in the Dota 2 Open with Esports England, as did the women’s team. What was the experience like, what did you take away from it?

It was nice to see a focus on the national scenes for both the open and women’s scenes. In previous years our access to national tournaments had slightly faded away in Dota, so to be able to collect the best players of our country and compete against other nations was refreshing.

It helps give experience to up and coming talent, allowing them to understand the idea of competition even if it isn’t at the highest quality Dota can offer. I hope in the future, other nations are able to bring their best players to increase the quality of such competitions, providing an opportunity for players who aren’t just in the DPC, to shine.

Related article: Fnatic reach The International 2022 by one single DPC point, as Valve explains points discrepancy

You were supposed to be playing for the team, but ended up coaching. Tell us about that and what it was like coaching.

Initially I was to be the captain and position 5 player. But due to work obligations (analyst/casting) I moved myself to coach so that I could still assist the team and fulfil my work duties. In the future, I will make sure I don’t double book my work so I am able to compete for England and hopefully continue improving our national team.

Throughout my professional Dota career as coach or caster, I have fluctuated around top 500 on the European leaderboards, so the hunger to play has always been present. I’ve just never pushed myself to explore that opportunity. So
for me these national tournaments are a great opportunity to dabble in the ‘what ifs and could have beens’.

What was it like with your team playing live in Birmingham? Do you think we’ll see more like this in the future?

Birmingham has been the hub for Dota LANs in previous years, with ESL running their ESL One Birmingham tournaments in 2018 and 2019. Unfortunately due to Covid, the 2020 edition was canceled. So for me, Birmingham is the home of UK Dota as the fans have shown they are ready to turn up in their masses. I truly hope we get to see more competitions run there at all levels.

“I think that our scene has matured slightly in regards to its player base. Unfortunately, in the previous five or so years, we didn’t have this approachability with the best UK players and had to do it on our own. So now the top has shifted from the previous toxic group to the new just nicer Dota focused players.”

TeaGuvnor

What were the qualifiers like at the Confetti facilities?

The qualifiers gave me old school LAN vibes, having a couple of practice rooms mixed with other teams we were not competing against, then moving to a competition room to play official games. Bumping into other people that play the game you love was just good vibes.

I do have to say they have too many stairs going around and around in circles, I got some insanely good cardio in those couple of days! Jokes aside, it was a nice wave of nostalgia with decent quality PCs/monitors that were good for competition.

Overall, good facilities for what this competition was trying to encapsulate.

What are your thoughts about UK-headquartered orgs Fnatic and Tundra Esports qualifying for The International this year? What are their chances?

It’s always cool to see teams that originated from the UK do well in Dota, even if their teams are EU or SEA based. Maybe in the future if Dota evolves like CSGO did with their academy team formats, potentially these HQs could be hubs for scouting new talent, so a big plus for UK Dota? 😀

Confetti X Stage
Earlier this month, NUEL partnered with Confetti ahead of the £5m esports complex opening, and Nottingham Trent University will also open a London campus in 2023 featuring courses in esports and content creation

What are your current views on UK Dota as a whole?

UK Dota is finally in a position of having multiple competitive players rise up to the higher levels, the DPC. In previous years we didn’t have that depth at the very top. Now we have four or five players that are decently ranked and understanding of the bigger picture of Dota.

I also think that our scene has matured slightly in regards to its player base. When I was at the Commonwealth talking to other players from the UK, you could see their excitement and passion they had starting out their pursuit at chasing the Dota dream. So as long as us players at the top continue being open on sharing our thoughts/being approachable, I feel our scene will start being able to slowly develop.

Unfortunately, in the previous five or so years, we didn’t have this approachability with the best UK players and had to do it on our own. So now the top has shifted from the previous toxic group to the new just nicer Dota focused players.

I really hope that if players in the UK want to improve they will be able to talk and grow without being shut down or belittled. It will also help having a UK tournament to constantly test our local scene, but unfortunately that has also disappeared with ESL UK not supporting Dota anymore.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

UK Dota has always been more focused on bringing some of the best fans to fill out venues rather than the most competitive of players.

So I’d hope in the future if we do have more national/UK-focused competitions, we get to see that crowd that rose the roof off of Birmingham in 2018/2019 also turn up.

Follow TeaGuvnor on Twitter here and Confetti on Twitter here

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