Interview with Alfi "Khezcute" Nelphyana

BOOM Esports captain Alfie “Khezcute” Nelfiana flew with the team to the third Minor with a clear goal: to get into the playoffs and not take the last place. The minimum goal has been met. Few expected the top 4 from them, but the Asian team managed to surprise everyone, including themselves. Roman Zhura caught Alfie after successfully leaving the group and asked him several questions.

You just got the victory over Business Associates. They are very experienced, Fear playing in this team. Describe your emotions. You were screaming after the victory, I heard it! 

Of course, we are very happy! When we started playing Dota, Fear was something like our idol. We watched his replays and now we won against him! If we talk about the games though, we’re not that happy. Although we won 2:1, there were mistakes on the second map.

What was the main mistake?

Laning phase, I think. We didn’t expect TA losing mid against Void Spirit. TA has a better matchup against Void Spirit. We might have made mistakes on blocking the creeps or something like that… and the lane is ruined.

Does such little mistake ruin the game?

Yes. TA can’t get good last hits if it doesn’t have good creep block. So Void got solo kill. After that, he can go anywhere and snowball. Also, we made a big mistake when were going to the high ground on a bottom lane. We got Aegis on Troll and suddenly got surprised when he died twice. We should’ve just continued farming, but we were overconfident.

Did the emotions hit you? How calm are you in such moments? You seem to lack experience of big stages. Is this the first big LAN for you?

Last year we qualified three times for minor, but for Hyde that was the first time. We’ve been here in Kyiv, but back then we were last. Now we are not, so we’re happy with that. 

Let’s talk about Void Spirit. This hero seems to be pretty imbalanced. Everyone seems to pick it. What’s so special about it?

Topson showed everyone how to play it. Void spirit can cut the waves. Also, the meta is “4 protect 1”, and Void Spirit can do the job without the items. He has good scaling, and he can roam anywhere after he got the first item.

Isn’t it imbalanced?

I’m not sure. There are much more imbalanced heroes like Timbersaw. Timber is broken right now. You have to control the lanes against him and then work hard against him in team fights.

Where did you prepare for the Minor?

We always go to bootcamp. We live in Jakarta, Indonesia. However, after we qualified we had little practice against SEA teams. It is hard for us to get visas because the schedule is so tight. It sometimes happens when we practice against some teams like Geek Fam or Fnatic, some players can’t join the lobby because they need to apply for visas. So practices are not always good. It is possible for us to practice against Chinese teams, but we need a VPN and ping is still around 100.

New DPC system. Your thoughts?

It’s good that tier-2 and tier-3 players will receive support. But I am not sure about the schedule. I don’t know if there would be enough time to get all the visas. Overall, for the quality of Dota, these changes are for good.

Less prize money for the major. Are you OK with that?

It’s a problem for big teams, but it is good for smaller teams. 

Dota 2 had a decline in the player base. Why is it happening?

In Indonesia, Dota has fallen off as well. Here we have CS as number one, and in all SEA mobile games are on the rise. Also, in Indonesia, there are no other teams besides BOOM Esports.

Why is mobile gaming so popular?

Everyone is playing on the train, at school, at work. They can play basically everywhere — that's why it is so popular.

What do you think of your future opponents — ForZe?

When we come to Europe, we usually scrim a lot against CIS teams. We came to Kyiv on Tuesday, so we didn’t have much time. ForZe is a team that has a lot of cheese strats, they are unpredictable, they play Visage when no one plays it.

Do you want to have a bootcamp in Europe?

That would be great, but I don’t know if we will have it. The practice experience in Europe is so much better than in SEA.