A quick catch-up with Lucas “hyko” Morais, player for upcoming Brazilian team, FURIA Esports. FURIA will be one of the eight attending teams at the WePlay! Bukovel Minor scheduled, to run from January 9 to January 12, 2020. Lucas talks about being the underdogs at the event, how they came to be, hurdles South American teams face and more.
Hey Lucas. How are you doing?
I am doing great, thanks for asking.
Please tell us a little about yourself.
I am 19 years old, living in a small town called Pedro Leopoldo. I ended up dropping out of school as to completely focus on Dota 2 years ago. It was quite difficult in the beginning, but it was a decision I needed to take if I were to follow this path.
I needed to fully commit my hours into it and, thankfully, my family respected and supported this decision of mine. Honestly, it couldn’t have been possible without them.
How did you get into video games and when did you decide to go professional in Dota 2?
I started playing when I was around 9, thanks to my elder brother’s influence. I always tagged along to LAN cafes so that we could play Counter-Strike or Warcraft 3. I was really into video games and initially I always did good in school and never thought about getting serious until I came across Valve’s Free To Play documentary.
It got me more involved and it was amazing to see how those guys were working hard for a simple chance of making a career out of the game they loved. From thereon I knew that I wanted to go professional.
You’re a newcomer to the scene, having first played for Midas Gaming in 2018 – your first venture into professional Dota 2. How did you get recruited to the club? What was the experience like?
Midas used to have its own platform, with the intention of getting better quality matches to the SA scene with small tournaments during the weekends. I too happened to play one such tournament and ended up winning a small sum in prize money, and also got the chance to play against Midas Club, who were one of the biggest teams in the region by then.
My team obviously lost the showmatch, but we didn’t want the prize pool either, so instead of the prize money I asked Filipe Astini (our current coach and CEO of Midas) to schedule some games with us so that we could improve.
That was my first contact with them. My mix (sic) ended up disbanding at some point later and I decided to start streaming. Midas Club were rebuilding their roster after some changes and they wanted to recruit me to the team. I couldn’t ask for a better organization to introduce me to the scene.
Now you’re playing for FURIA esports, one of the top Brazilian organizations in the South American scene. How did this team come to be?
Basically Furia went to Filipe Astini and told him that they wanted to build a long term team with a lot of potential, and that they could help in providing us with the right infrastructure and amenities. It just so happened that Murdoc, Duster, RdO and me were already playing together and Astini started being our coach. It was like all the puzzle pieces falling into one place.
Your entire team is rather new to the competitive scene with the exception of Duster. How do the dynamics within the team work?
Duster has far more experience and he keeps on passing his knowledge and expertise to us. instead of having him overworked, we divide the tasks within us so that he can play his own game without any major problems.
First you will wake up with Astini smashing your door and then we will have a nice breakfast talking about Dota
Picture: FURIAGG / Twitter
Tell us more about the everyday routine of the team.
It is hard since we are playing remotely, but we try to have healthy routines as individuals and when it comes to Dota, we always catch up two hours earlier to scrims so that we can talk about Dota, theorycraft, etc.
When we are at a bootcamp, our routine is way better. First you will wake up with Astini smashing your door and then we will have a nice breakfast talking about Dota. Since we all are in one place, it is much easier to work with them with no external problems to distract us and thus helping us to improve.
Being in South America, you must be facing quite a few problems in terms of scrimming and practice. Does your practise only include scrimming with South American teams or does it include foreign teams as well?
Indeed, in SA you have a lot of problems scheduling scrims. Most of the times our scrims with SA teams don’t pan out due to some external issues or someone not respecting your time properly. We try to schedule a lot with NA teams who are usually more professional. Scrimming with EU teams isn’t possible due to ping differences although I don't mind the ping at all. I just want to play a good game.
Related: WePlay! Bukovel Minor schedule
Talk to us about the current South American Dota scene. Has it improved, or has it stagnated or regressed in terms of development and infrastructure? What are the things lacking in your scene and how can it be improved?
It has stagnated, period. Brazil, for example, has two big organisations. Peru seems to be the same with the exception of Beastcoast that is growing up and I think it is lacking the same thing that plagues Dota worldwide; support to the tier 2/3 scene. Since there is no new wave of players, the scene doesn’t grow and so investments also stop pouring in.
This is the first time you’ll be attending a DPC event – WePlay! Bukovel Minor. How are you prepping yourself for the tournament considering you might be the underdogs at the event?
If you are the underdog, you have nothing to lose. Yet it also shows that we have a lot to improve on. However, due to ONE Dota 2 Singapore, we have some new material to watch about the patch, teams, etc.
Is there a lot of pressure to perform that too on your first ever international LAN event? How is Duster helping you in this regard?
Duster helps us a lot since he has a lot more experience than us. As a friend he gives us good advice as to what we can expect and how to handle things. Obviously it would be nice to do well in the minor, but as FURIA taught us, we should like the process instead of the results. If we keep taking the right decisions, we will at some point get rewarded.
Speaking of which, what role does Duster play in the team? Is he like a leader, advisor, spiritual lead, etc?
Duster is our in-game leader. If the game at some point starts getting confusing, he will intervene and get us back in order that will make the team act as one unit.
Heading to the Minor, you’re in what is possibly called a group of death that includes Nigma, Gambit and Fighting Pandas. How do you rate your chances at the tournament?
Just as they can take games of us, I am sure we can take games from anybody there. The bootcamp will give us a better idea about how will we perform, but I would say that we are happy with the group we ended up in.
It is about making my team having play their best game possible
You play the support role within the team. What are the most important things that a support player should keep in mind at all times?
I think a support player needs to have a deep understanding about every role in the game because basically you're there to give them a better game. So in the end you just think as if I were the core, what would I expect the support to do for me in the game? You need to see what your hero does in the game, what your job is going to be? By the end of the draft, you need to be able to realize that this way is much easier to play the game.
What is the importance of a support role?
My vision about the soft support is that I am a core without items, often having a great responsibility to protect my core or being the initiator, but in the end, it is about making my team having play their best game possible.
How do you see the support role shaping up with the recent patch changes?
It already changed a lot between 7.23 to 7.23e. Removing the XP talent and one of the tomes of knowledge makes it a little awkward but on the other hand supports now have a lot more of gold, so for me it is easier since I am very greedy.
Name a few changes that you like in the current patch.
The outpost is now an extra objective that ends up creating more teamfights. I like how they removed the non-Roshan shrines, it will make a great difference in how the game is played and the Clumsy Net + Mango Tree are the best things to ever happen IMO.
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