Lyrical and Trent on Roshing Level 1 and Who Will Win ESL One Bangkok

ESL One Bangkok is well underway with the playoffs kicking off this morning. I got the chance to speak to Gabriel Thomas “Lyrical” Cruz and Trent “Trent” MacKenzie about food in Bangkok, Roshing at level 1 and which team can go all the way in this tournament.

How are you both finding ESL One Bangkok?

Trent: I’m finding it fantastic because we’re staying in Thailand, the weather is amazing. It’s cold at my house right now. And the food. I mean, the food.

Lyrical: Yeah, it’s delicious. That’s how I’m finding all of this. It’s delicious. Really good food.

Sophie: I’ve seen a lot of people are asking about the food.

What’s the best restaurant that you guys have found?

Trent: Well, that’s easy for us because we just go to the hotel and then we play Dota. Then we hit the pool and we eat, we play Dota. What else do we do Lyrical?

Lyrical: We play Nest of Thorns, which is also Dota. So that’s pretty much it. That’s just been like our little vacation house of Dota.
And the answer is, all the foods here is good. It’s okay. It doesn’t matter where you go.

Sophie: Yeah, that’s exactly it. I saw that you hit 30,000 hours on Dota recently.

How was it to hit such a milestone?

Lyrical: It was disgusting. I mean, you sort of have this, like, existential dread of what’s going on in my life and all the rest of it. But then you’re here and it’s like, okay, this is fine and great. And we played a game. I was Tidehunter. That was our 30,000th game, and we won, so.

Trent: That’s true.

Lyrical: Yeah, it was great.

Got to this milestone today winning on Tide WOOOOOOO not bad for starting in 2014 pic.twitter.com/d3iSXi943o

— Lyrical (@LyricalDota) December 11, 2024

Trent: I carried.

Sophie: Were you playing that game too?

Trent: Yeah, yeah, I my Ench carried, I believe. Oh, was that the E.T. game?

Lyrical: No, I carried.

Trent: No, it was my E.T. No, I carried! Remember I killed that sniper? I carried.

Lyrical: Yeah, I carried.

Sophie: So I guess back to ESL One, this patch is pretty old by this point.

How are you finding that’s affecting the games?

Lyrical: I mean, I think the one thing that I’m sort of, I wouldn’t say disappointed by, but the thing that I want to see if somebody comes up with a solution to is that, like, it feels as if defensive gameplay is the best way to play right now.

You sort of, you don’t take risks. You wait till you get to your late game dynamic, and then you eventually just close it out. And I want to see a situation where, like, teams feel more pressure to end the game.

Trent: All right, so I can translate this for you fans. What he’s really saying is he’s obsessed with level one Rosh.

Lyrical: Yes.

Trent: And he wants more of that direction of the game.

Lyrical: Yeah. That sound about right.

Which hero could Rosh at level one right now?

Trent: Well, I mean, this guy’s the expert. Trust me.

Lyrical: Let me tell you: Ursa, Abba, you can get a lone Druid in there. Undying is the key though, because he takes Tombstone level one and then the zombies tank all the Rosh attacks. But the most important is Ursa. You always need Ursa.

Sophie: I was going to say Abba is the most surprising for me on that list.

Trent: He’s done a lot of work on this.

Lyrical: ABBA increases the attack speed so that way you can get faster hits from Ursa. So it’s all about attack speed. And Ursa, he’s a genius.

Sophie: Ah, I see, of course.

What is your favorite team to cast at ESL One Bangkok or really any event?

Trent: Ooh, favorite team to cast. I mean, generally it’s like the underdogs is always kind of exciting, right? We’re about to be casting some Nigma Galaxy here. And so of course we’re hoping that Miracle is going to make it onto the stage. That’s the main hope right now.

Lyrical: That’s right. I asked GH last night, is Miracle playing tomorrow? And he said, I hope so. And then this morning I asked Kuro, are you playing today? And he said, I hope not. So I think everybody in the world wants Miracle to play right now.

Sophie: Okay, great. Just one last question.

Who’s gonna win?

Trent: Oh, who’s gonna win? Okay, I’m gonna go with Avulus. They’re so confident. I was interviewing SoNNeikO. He just, he really wants to win some of the, not really the trophy, I was showing him stuff like on the stage and he’s very interested in random things that I promised him if they win. So I’m going with Avulus.

Lyrical: So you’re saying that when you win, you just get to loot? Okay. I think PARIVISON is my guess. It’s a little bit weird one, but that’s the team.
I’m thinking.

Sophie: Anybody but Falcons, right?

Trent: That’s right.

Lyrical: That’d be fine too, you know.