“I don’t care about the money anymore; it’s the atmosphere that matters”, — Puppey on coaching at PARIVISION

PARIVISION coach Clement Puppey Ivanov spoke about how he decided to try his hand at coaching, the distinctive features of his approach to the role, and the suspension of Team Secret. The legendary player shared his thoughts in an interview with esports journalist Maria Marple Ermolina.

Coaching at PARIVISION

Puppey explained that Volodymyr No[o]ne- Minenko had offered him the role of coach at PARIVISION just as Clement felt his micro-control, reaction times, and motor skills were starting to decline.

He simply asked maybe I wanna try. And I thought: maybe. I really liked the conditions at the boot camp, so I decided to stay.

I don’t really care about the money anymore; the main thing is that people want to work with me and I with them, and that there’s a desire to create a good atmosphere.

According to Puppey, open dialogue and discussing strategies play a major role in their work:

No[o]ne, for example, if I tell him something, he understands it and then acts like a high-skill player. Or if he doesn’t understand, he says so, and I explain. A low-skill player, on the other hand, will say he understands, but won’t actually do it in the game.

Also, I might be wrong sometimes, but the dialogue still flows easily, and there’s far less negativity because they’re high-skilled players.

Clement cited the shift in focus from micro-moments to macro-gameplay as the main difference between the role of a player and that of a coach:

Now, I don’t look at individual skill moments at all. I make a draft and see how it works. The fact that they handled a team fight incorrectly somewhere — I really don’t care about that at all right now. I’ve always thought that way, but as a player, failed moments used to trigger emotions in me; now they don’t. The players themselves pay attention to active actions; that’s their job. I look at how they spread out across the map, their positioning — things like that.

Coach PARIVISION also explained how he manages to get through to the players and get his ideas across:

I try to give advice; I simply suggest heroes or strategies. For the players to accept this, you need to explain why it’s strong, why it works. I’m even prepared to explain it several times or in greater detail. Nobody’s going to just accept instructions if they don’t understand the reasoning behind them.

In addition, Clement has introduced a practice into the team’s workflow that’s often used in CS — code words for specific in-game situations:

I think other teams use this too. It often happens randomly. When I joined the team, they already had something called the ‘Astini ward’. But they didn’t think it was a good idea to label every action with a specific word, but I’d say it’s very useful. It saves time on discussion: a player says one word, and all five understand what’s going on. For example, we have ‘McDonald’s’, ‘Africa’ and ‘Toilet Smoke’. I won’t go into detail about what that means — they refer to specific locations or actions in the game.

Noticed joining the team

With the arrival of Yevgeny Noticed Ignatenko, according to Puppey, the team has become more positive:

He usually calms the team down, cheers them up, and never says anything negative after a match. Now, after games, the atmosphere is better; it’s not the case that everyone is silent and doesn’t want to discuss things. It’s become much easier to discuss ideas.

Clement believes that Noticed is the missing piece needed for the team to fully gel.

Team Secret

Puppey explained that Team Secret, of which he is a co-founder, has suspended operations due to financial difficulties:

There’s currently a ‘financial bubble’ in Dota 2 caused by major organisations and investors such as the Esports Foundation, which bought ESL, bought Faceit, bought everyone and formed their own ecosystem. Player salaries are now higher. I wasn’t in a position to pay such salaries.

Clement noted that other independent teams, such as Nigma or OG, are also facing difficulties: top players demand high salaries, and without victories at major tournaments, it becomes virtually impossible to attract major sponsors.

But Puppey admitted that putting Team Secret on hold came as a relief to him:

It was a good decision because this activity was already getting in the way of my Dota commitments. My priority is to work in Dota, and if something prevents me from doing that, it needs to stop. And it really has become easier for me. Secret really was distracting me; that’s simply the truth.

Being in this team (PARIVISION) is much easier than being in my own: I don’t have to think about anything; I just turn up to do my job.

At present, Clement remains the owner of Team Secret, but is not involved in day-to-day operations.

Puppey joined PARIVISION as a coach in December 2025. With him, the team finished in the top 3 at DreamLeague Season 27 and in the top 4 at ESL One Birmingham 2026, won the Esports World Cup 2026 and DreamLeague Season 29, and finished as runners-up at The International 2026.

As CyberScore previously reported, No[o]ne spoke about Satanic’s adaptation and development within the team.