TL SabeRLight on his time with Liquid: “I feel like this team is much more player-oriented than Shopify”

BLAST Slam 2 is now well underway, with the first set of group stage games being played today in what is one of the most punishing yet exciting formats in professional Dota 2. I got a chance to sit down with Team Liquid offlaner Jonáš “SabeRLight-” Volek just a day before the games began, where I spoke to him about getting to the grand finals of ESL One Bangkok, adjusting to life in Liquid, and just what the story is behind his new name “El Saberlighto”.

SabeRLight- and the rest of Team Liquid participated in BLAST Slam 1, so it’s clear that he’s already quite familiar with the format of this tournament in particular. They only managed a top 6 finish there, though — can they turn that into a better result this time around?

Patrick: So you’ve had a bit of a break since going to the grand finals at ESL One Bangkok.

What have you been up to since then?

SabeRLight-: So after Bangkok, I flew directly to Austria, and I went skiing with my family and my girlfriend. Then for Christmas, I was at home with my family, and for New Year’s I went to London with my girlfriend as well. In between all that, I played a lot of Factorio, which I enjoyed a lot.

Patrick: What was the food like at the places you went to for the holiday break?

SabeRLight-: Pretty good! You know, classic Austrian food—some frittatensuppe, which is my favorite one, some germknödel. In Prague, meanwhile, the food is always amazing.

Patrick: And what do you normally do when you spend time with your family?

SabeRLight-: Nothing too special. I think the only tradition we kind of have is we take our neighbors, like all our neighbors come together and we go to the cemetery together. It’s like a little neighborhood walk. Then we have a Christmas lunch, my cousins come over, we sing some carols and then we give gifts to each other.

Patrick: Sounds like a great time all around. Hope you were able to get plenty of rest over the holidays.

Have you fully settled into the Team Liquid way of life?

SabeRLight-: I would say so. I’ll settle in even more over the coming months or years, but I think the way they operate and lead this team is the same way I [personally] would like to be led — so it feels very effortless to be a part of Team Liquid.

Patrick: And what would you say is the biggest difference between playing for Liquid and playing for your previous team Shopify Rebellion?

SabeRLight-: I think the biggest change is that I feel in some ways there’s more burden on me, but at the same time there’s less burden on me. So what I mean by that, is I feel like this team is much more player-oriented than Shopify, where BuLba had a lot of ideas about how we should play. A lot of them were good, but basically we would kind of try to play according to his vision — whereas on this team Boxi makes a lot of calls and everybody on the team is very smart.

Coach Blitz is a really smart person, but he is focused on the draft. He’s not really focused on our gameplay. So it’s up to us the players to figure out how we want to play, which is what I mean when I say there’s more burden on me. But at the same time, everyone on this squad is really smart, so I don’t have to do anything particularly special when playing, which eases the burden on me. I can just focus on my role, just do that, and it just works.

Patrick: Would you say that this Liquid style, where they just kind of let you do your own thing, works better for you versus what you had in Shopify?

Gotta take it step by step, but I won't stop until I lift the Aegis, no matter how long it takes.

— SabeRLighT- (@jonas_volek) October 12, 2021

SabeRLight-: I would say so. It’s nice being led by Shopify, especially if you’re a newer player and you need some direction, but I think once you get some ideas of your own about what you want to do and how you want to play, I think it’s much more freeing to be responsible for yourself and maybe your teammates, instead of trying to do something that doesn’t feel natural for you.

BLAST Slam 2 is starting tomorrow. How have you guys been preparing for this tournament?

SabeRLight-: Unfortunately our schedules have been super busy lately, so the only preparation we’ve had for BLAST Slam 2 was the previous tournament, which was ESL One Bangkok. So yeah, we went straight here. We did play four scrims in between the two tournaments, which we’re hoping will be enough to help us turn our previous top 6 result into a top 1 finish.

Patrick: Who are you most looking forward to playing in the tournament or who would you like to meet in the grand finals?

SabeRLight-: I think I would want to play against Team Falcons, because they did beat us at FISSURE Playground Belgrade. I feel like we just got cheesed by Huskar a few times, and that’s hella lame. So, I want my revenge.

Patrick: No disagreements from me in that regard as a Huskar hater.

SabeRLight-: Hell yeah.

What’s your opinion on the BLAST studios?

SabeRLight-: We were here for BLAST Slam 1, and it’s like a nice arena where we’re kind of facing each other with the other team. Like we’re in one big room together. So yeah, I think it’s pretty cool and unique.

And speaking of unique, let’s talk about the format.

SabeRLight-: There are good things and bad things about it. I think the bad thing is that I feel like it’s kind of random; playing four separate best-of-one matches to decide which teams get into the top 3 seems a little crazy to me. It also enables the worst teams in the tournament to perform better, but on the other hand, it feels like every single game matters a lot. Not only in the group stage, but also in the playoffs. Hopefully it makes for an enjoyable viewing experience, because you don’t have to watch some boring group stage game that doesn’t really matter to anyone.

Patrick: True. When I watched BLAST Slam 1 it was really unpredictable, and you never knew when teams might pull out cheese strats because the format is so volatile.

But anyway, what’s the deal with your name change? Where did “El Saberlighto” even come from?

SabeRLight-: So last year after I left Shopify, I was just chilling, and then they invited me for one more tournament with them — which was ELITE League Season 2 in Lima. And I was like okay, I will probably not play at Riyadh Masters or TI13 anyways, so might as well add some Spanish or some South American flair to my name. So I changed it to “El Saberlighto” for that tournament. But then after that competitive season ended and the new one came around, I realized that I couldn’t change my name back, due to the limit Valve placed on how often you can change your official pro player name. So I’m stuck with it to this day. Apparently you can get Steam support to change it manually for you through a ticket, but I couldn’t be arsed to do it. But I’ll definitely have it back to normal for the big tournaments this year like Riyadh and TI.

Patrick: Yeah, that’s probably way more of a hassle than it’d be worth right now considering your busy schedule.

So how do you feel having to play on such an old patch?

Patrick: I think it’s currently on pace to beat the last oldest patch, which was 7.28.

SabeRLight-: A little tiring. I am hoping that we get a new patch very soon. Hopefully when Crownfall ends, so in a few days. That would be amazing if we got it, especially in the middle of a major tournament. I think that’s kind of hype. But yeah, I mean luckily the meta kind of develops during the patch, but yeah, it’s crazy, because now that I’m thinking about it, I feel like the last BLAST Slam was also played on this patch. So, we’re playing the same tournament months later, and it’s still the same patch, which is kind of unreal.

Patrick: Yup, it’s true. BLAST Slam 1 was also played on 7.37e, which is just insane. I don’t know how it’s even gotten this bad. But you did mention that you’re okay with playing an entirely new patch in the middle of a tournament.

What is it like when you just, you know, wake up in the morning and suddenly the game is entirely different?

SabeRLight-: It happened to me at ESL One Kuala Lumpur when I stood in for Liquid, and it was super chaotic. You wake up and there’s messages in your Discord like, “Guys, new patch!” So you wake up, you start reading the changelog, and there’s 5,000 words of changes. And I remember I was reading it during breakfast at Kuala Lumpur, and I was eating with one hand and reading with the other while theorycrafting, “Okay, is this broken?” And then yeah, you talk about it with your team, and it feels demanding. As in you really need to focus on it and it pulls you into the present, which is nice. It feels like the effort that you’re putting in that moment really pays off, because obviously you need to know the patch before going up on stage again.

What’s at the top of your list of requested changes for 7.38?

SabeRLight-: I think some map changes would be nice, because there have not been many map changes since the update where they added Tormentors.