Seleri: “We looked at a few players, but Watson was the best option for us.” – DLTV Exclusive Interview

*This interview was conducted before the beginning of BetBoom Dacha Belgrade 2024*

DLTV.org had the chance to sit down with Seleri to conduct an exclusive interview, where he talked about the Esports World Cup, prize pools, and the roster change. 

Q: How are you liking Belgrade?

"Yes, it’s great here. We flew in a few days ago. This is my third or fourth time here. This time feels special, last time we had boot camps here, and this time, we came to a cool tournament with spectators!"

Q: Which one is more important, TI, or EWC (Esports World Cup)?

"To be honest, for me there is no big difference. When I was younger, TI was more important to me. I always dreamed of becoming a world champion in some sport, so it would be cool to get a TI trophy. But now my goal is to play very well in every tournament. Right now my dream is to become the BetBoom Dacha champion."

Q: Would you say that the prize pool is not important to you?

"No, it does matter to me, but..."

Q: If the prize pool is over $1 million, it does matter, doesn’t it?

*Laughs* "If I could choose which tourney I would win I would prefer the one with the bigger prize money, but I can't choose which tourney we play our best at, so I just do my best at every tournament."

Q: What were your emotions after winning the EWC?

"It was very cool, we couldn't win any tournament during the season, and we lost twice in the finals. It was great to feel like we were back. It was literally a miracle at the end of the season. We didn't expect it at all. We didn't have the game going, we didn't feel our strength at all in the bootcamp. I'm just very happy and proud that we were able to be champions."

Q: Your previous roster was performing very well, but you still decided to make a player change, can you tell us why that happened?

"I can tell you why that happened. Of course people think we were doing well at the end of the season, we won the Riyadh Masters and finished second at TI, but it was a very tough year. We needed to make a change – we felt it. It wasn't easy, but we need to move on. We looked at a few players, but Watson was the best option for us. People may disagree with that, but we evaluated everything sensibly, analyzed everything and realized that Watson was the right fit for us."

Q: Have you ever thought about changing positions?

"I thought about it in the past, back when we were playing for Team Tickles. I trained on position four because I felt that there weren't enough good players on the role at the time, but then tOfu and Ace came to the team and wanted to be on the same lane. tOfu also played on position five, but he wanted to play on the same lane with Ace. Ace was playing offlane, so I decided to stay on position five."

Q: Was there an option for Ace to come back on carry?

"No, we know he is a very cool offlane player, we would hardly be able to find an offlane player better than Ace. There are few good position three’s in general right now, so it would take a lot more effort and time. But if Ace moved to carry - he and tOfu would go together in the safe lane."

Unfortunately, the Gaimin Gladiators were eliminated from BetBoom Dacha Belgrade 2024 in the earlier portions of the playoffs.