BetBoom gpk on BLAST Slam 2: “If you’re a good team, you can play stable even on this format”

BLAST Slam 2 is getting underway in the morning with one of the most unforgiving tournament formats in all of Dota. Just before the start of the tournament, I got the chance to sit down for a quick chat with Danil “gpk” Skutin about downtime, Dota and when Valve will just drop the damn patch.

BetBoom took home the W at BLAST Slam 1 so it’s no secret that they thrive in this format. But will they be able to do it again with both FISSURE Playground winners Tundra Esports and ESL One Bangkok champions PARIVISION in the mix? Only one way to find out.

Sophie: You’ve had a little bit of time off for the winter break recently.

What did you do with that time?

gpk: I mean, nothing really. I was just sitting at my home, just sitting on the computer doing random stuff, just chilling.

Sophie: Nice. Playing Dota?

gpk: Yeah, a little bit, maybe.

Sophie: What other games do you like to play?

gpk: I mean, I don’t really play anything now besides Dota.

Did you get to see the BLAST Studios in Copenhagen yet?

gpk: I mean, on first Blast, I was there, but not now.

Sophie: Yeah, okay. What do you think of it? Do you like that as an environment?

gpk: Yeah, I mean, BLAST Studios was always like, even from CS, it’s a good, like, vibe of this tournament.

Sophie: Yeah, absolutely. And I guess maybe you’re not used to playing without a crowd on LAN these days.

How do you feel about playing without a crowd?

gpk: I actually played before without the crowd on LAN in the COVID times. We played a few Majors without the crowd, so. Yeah, I kind of know how it feels. It’s just more chill, like I guess some less pressure. Just play like you’re on some bootcamp at home. It’s for sure, like less pressure. But yeah, I would prefer to play with the viewers, honestly, if I had to choose.

Sophie: Why do you prefer with viewers?

gpk: I mean, it’s always better to play in front of the crowd. Like, it’s like more emotions. It’s actually why we play competitive, to like feel those emotions. It’s like five times, maybe better when you play with the crowds, it feels like more nice.

Sophie: Okay, that’s really interesting because I guess Blast Slam 2 has a really unforgiving format, right? You’ve got best of ones. You’ve got single elimination playoffs.

How do you feel about this format where you can make no mistakes?

gpk: Yeah, I mean single elimination Dota is for sure not played often. I mean I guess never, I honestly didn’t play best of one before last BLAST so it’s kind of a new experience. But we won the last BLAST so I guess maybe not that bad format for us. So yeah, I mean best of ones kind of always some random games but at least you’re not getting eliminated after the group stage. You’re just in the lower set, you need to like win a lot of rounds in the playoffs and you have to play anyway the best of three in the playoffs. So I guess we have a chance to show ourselves.

And yeah, format is kinda hard but I guess if you’re a good team you can like play stable even on this format.

Sophie: That’s true. Because I guess as well with this format, we’re playing on a really familiar patch. Like this is an old ass patch right now.

So how are you keeping it fresh? How are you still coming up with new strategies on such a long patch?

gpk: I mean I guess people in competitive scene, they just got bored by this patch and that is still changing even though, like, it’s the same patch. Like I don’t know how many months already. Even the last FISSURE Playground grand finals we see some Bounty Hunters and some Riki on support.

I guess people just got bored and they started to maybe cooking some new heroes just so it would be like more fun to play and yeah, I mean I guess even if it’s the patch lasting very long, I guess you can still find some new heroes if you want. It depends on if your team wants to invest into it because it might like to invest into some new heroes that you’re not familiar with playing.

Yeah, but I know it’s all about your practice, like how much you play. I don’t know. I mean this patch is yeah like everyone is tired of it but I guess you can always find something new even like in the old patch.

Sophie: Yeah, that’s true. I have heard some people saying that they think there’s going to be a new patch at the end of Crownfall which is on the 6th of February. So what do you think about that?

Would you like them to drop a new patch in the middle of a tournament?

gpk: I guess I don’t care, honestly. I’ve already been playing at tournaments and they were dropping a patch. Like while we were playing the tournament it was on the ESL Kuala Lumpur I guess and maybe some other tournaments. So yeah, I guess that’s fine for Valve to drop a patch even when we’re on the tournament. So yeah, that for sure would be great.

Like yeah, everyone is done with this patch so I’m fine with playing like on the new patch even if it’s in the half of the tournaments.

What would you like to see changed in the game if they did bring in a new patch?

gpk: I mean besides of course some, like, changes of the heroes, I would like to have map changes like because this map is already…for two years we have this still map. So yeah, I would like to some map changes. Maybe some gold XP formulas like that you get from the kills. I think it also can be changed. So it for sure will be very refreshed game if they do this out loud like this.

Sophie: Yeah, absolutely. I mean hopefully they’ve got something big and it’ll be a number patch instead of a letter patch.

I know you said you haven’t played a ton of Dota lately, but have you been playing any of like Crownfall and the minigames?

gpk: Yeah, I guess I played almost every game of this mini games.

Sophie: Did you get up to Nest of Thorns? What was your high score on it?

gpk: I’m not sure about my score but I got all the levels. It wasn’t easy though for me at first.

Sophie: For sure, I’ve never played Vampire Survivor before so I was like what the f*ck is going on?

gpk: Yeah, I mean on the last Blast, me and Pure, we were playing this mini game and we said like if we’re gonna make it, if we’re gonna go through the level seven. Or how many levels is there? Seven or eight. I don’t remember. Maybe seven. So we’re joking that if we’re gonna go through it, we’re gonna win the Blast.

And then Pure won it and the next day I also won it. And then we eventually won the BLAST.

Sophie: That’s one way of getting the good luck!

BetBoom will face Yakult’s Brothers as their first opponent in Group A at BLAST Slam 2 on February 4th at 11am CET.