“Coach had a big impact on our results” - yowaai of Passion UA gave an interview to CyberScore

CyberScore.live managed to talk with the carry of Passion UA, Oleh yowaai Mykhailov. In an exclusive interview for our portal, the player shared his introduction to the world of DotA, his idols on the pro scene, and revealed the inner workings of Team Hryvnia and Passion UA, as well as how their recent success is connected to impest.

Hello, Oleh. Thank you for agreeing to talk with us. How long have you been playing Dota? How many hours have you logged so far?

I started a long time ago, even played the first Dota when I was little. However, I only played against bots in the first one, and I started playing the second one in 2014-2015, when it became invite-free. Regarding the hours, I can't say for sure, but if we sum it up, it's a lot — 20-25 thousand, I think for sure.

Your nickname is yowaai. How did you come up with it, and is there any meaning behind it?

Hmm, I came up with the nickname from a Japanese word, liked the sound, and just made it a bit different. There wasn’t any particular idea when I set it.

Tell us about your idols on the pro scene. Who did you follow before? Who do you follow now? Did anyone inspire you to start a career as a professional player?

I used to follow and cheer for Arteezy for a long time, inspired by his play in 2015-2017, really liked how he played, it’s a pity he has fallen off now... And I cheered for Evil Geniuses for a long time until they disbanded. Now I don’t really follow anyone in particular, sometimes I watch replays of different carry players like Ame, but no one has hooked me as much. Probably, EG and Arteezy inspired me to start all this. Now I have no idols, and no position 1 players particularly attract me, everyone plays somewhat ordinarily, and Dota has changed.

Let’s try to reconstruct the timeline for our users: at the end of 2023, your team Ligvo begins its journey with the open qualifiers for ESL One Birmingham 2024. In this lineup, you play with niche and impest (now the coach). Unfortunately, you didn’t pass this qualifier. Was it at this time that you noticed or became acquainted with impest for the role of future coach?

Yes, I remember that I met him during the quals, but I never really communicated with him. Our midlaner invited him, and we decided to just give it a try, and impest himself was interested, so now everything works very well, and impest is doing great. The idea of a coach came up when we realized we needed an outside perspective since we had a lot of fights and conflicts in-game at the start, and we thought a coach could solve these issues and problems, but in fact, he gave us much more than just that.

Then Team Hryvnia appeared, but there were constant player changes until March 22, and the results were not very good. Then there was a 2-month break, no matches were played, and on May 22 the current stable lineup appeared, which did not change, and good results followed. Is that correct?

Yes, and at that moment we and impest seemed to start taking things seriously.

So, the improvement in results and stability of the lineup at that moment was related to the arrival of the coach?

The improvement in results, I think yes, and the stability of the lineup was connected to the fact that all five of us decided that we wanted to play and develop together.

Tell us and our audience what happened during those 2 months when Team Hryvnia did not play any matches?

Some were resting, some played for other teams/organizations, some were just grinding pubs, and then I had the idea to gather everyone again.

How was your current lineup formed? Were you familiar with anyone before its formation?

We essentially put together the roster with the manager; everyone was familiar with each other before this, but I wouldn’t say we were all friends. Some communicate more with some, others less, that’s how we were assembled.

After your first lineup, Flawless, you replaced one player. bboddy came in instead of norma. What didn’t work out? Tell us more about how you decided to take bboddy and where you found him?

If I remember correctly, norma left because the lineup didn’t have funding. Our manager found bboddy and invited him for a tryout, everyone liked him, and now we play together.

Hryvnia is also an organization? Did you have salaries?

No, it’s not an organization, there were no salaries, and we played purely for the idea.

Interesting about the roles in your team. Who handles drafts? Who primarily makes the calls during the game?

Our five-position mainly handles drafts, the coach and others contribute ideas along the way, and as for the calls, our whole team communicates and suggests things. I might be quieter at the start of the game, in the late game I talk more than others. So you can say that everyone suggests something.

You were invited to your first closed qualification for Elite League Season 2. At that time, you had big problems with electricity, how did you cope with it? What was the atmosphere in the team when you left the qualifiers for this reason?

Mostly everyone played from computer clubs, the atmosphere was terrible, it made everyone very angry considering we lost a lot of qualifiers because of it.

From the most recent, on August 20, there was a game against V1dar in CCT Dota 2 Series 3. On the first map, you had a lead of more than 16k net worth. By the 30th minute, bboddy disconnected and you lost the game within 10 minutes after that. Did this affect the team's mood a lot?

Not as much now, since the situation has become much better than before, and today, you could say, was an act of God. Well, it's certainly disappointing to lose such games, but it doesn’t affect us as much as it used to.

Did you or the organization do anything now to prevent such problems in the future? Inverters, generators, bootcamp?

I’m not aware of anything regarding this yet. I hope it’s in the plans, if not, we’ll solve these problems ourselves.

How did the Passion UA organization get in touch with you? Did you expect to be signed?

The contacts were already established a long time ago through our manager, we understood that if we showed good results, organizations would be interested, so you could say we expected it, yes.

About the game with Natus Vincere. Many have asked and talked about this already, but still. You beat them twice, despite being underdogs according to the bookmakers. What do you think was the key during the games that allowed you to secure victories in those matches?

We were simply better, both in terms of skill and movement and drafts. It was very easy to play against them.

Our tournament CyberScore.live Cup. Congratulations on third place! This is a good result considering the 12 participating teams. You received the second largest prize for the team at the time of this interview. Did you like the organization of the tournament? What prevented you from taking second place or winning the tournament?

It was an ordinary tournament, I wish the prize pool was bigger, but there were no problems. Honestly, I don’t remember what happened back then, it seems there were still power outages, and we played the end of the tournament poorly.

The quals for PGL Wallachia Season 2. You lost twice to L1GA Team, one loss was crucial in the final for the tournament spot. What can you say about these games? According to cyberscore.live stats, you couldn’t beat them in a series, but managed to win a single map. What difficulties did you encounter while preparing for matches with this team?

Yes, the loss in the final was tough. They understood the meta very well in these quals, moved well, and played around mid, held their lanes well. I think we figured out how to beat them in the third game, but since we tried to surprise them in the first two, there were no chances left for mistakes.

How do you like the new patch? Has it had a positive impact on your game?

Well, the patch didn’t change anything drastically. Just a few heroes were added/remembered for different positions, some of our heroes became weaker, but overall it had a positive impact, yes.

And finally: if you could play only one hero for your entire life, both in pubs and on the pro scene, who would you choose?

Anti-Mage/Terrorblade.

Currently, yowaai plays for Passion UA. Recently, his team took 3rd place in the European Pro League Season 19, earning $3,000.

As Cyberscore.live previously reported, NS was surprised by Valve's attitude towards The International 2024.