There's no better time to interview this amazing team that has risen to the top of the DotA2 scene recently in a rather convincing manner. Winning the ProDota2 Cup with a prize of $10,000 then making it to the final six of The Defense showed how much of a power to be reckoned with PotM Bottom is, and just a few hours ago they were able to take on the first match of our AbsoluteArena King of the Hill series against Absolute Legends with a convincing 3-0 score.

Ioannis 'Fogged' Loucas and Drew 'Tidesoftime' Biessener were nice enough to lend us some of their time to answer a few questions and let us know more about them and their team.

Make sure you check our AbsoluteArena KotH Coverage!

Hello guys, first and foremost I would like to thank you all for accepting this interview. Would you mind introducing yourselves as well as giving us a hint about your backgrounds?

• • Fogged : My name is Ioannis Loucas, I’m Greek, Peruvian, Cuban, and Italian, I have two older brothers and I just adopted an adorable puppy. I’m 22 years old. 
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• • TidesofTime : I’m TidesofTime, I started playing Dota in version 6.48b and loved the game right off the bat. I’ve been trying to be a pro level player pretty much right when I started as I am a competitive person in nature. With the opportunities that Dota 2 provided I decided it’s time to kick it up a notch and I tried my best to learn Dota at a Chinese level :)

Lately, you guys have met a lot of success where you've managed to win the Prodota2 world league bagging a fancy $10,000 prize, how does it feel?

• • Fogged : Not as good as it should have.
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• • TidesofTime : It felt AWESOME, I was incredibly proud of my teamates, but it’s by no means our goal. Obviously, like every other Dota 2 team, we want to win the International, as the prize pool is so big it gives motivation for every top team to reach their peak with regards to mechanics, teamwork, and strategy. Since we didn’t make it in this upcoming international we will work hard to try to make it into TI 3.

You guys have had a great run in The Defense, defeating the champions from Ukraine, Na’Vi, in a sweeping 2-0. How did you guys prepare for the match, and what do you think made you be able  to bag that win?

• • Fogged : We didn’t practice as much as we should have but we overall had a good feeling about how they were going to set up their lanes and the heroes they played the most and felt confident in our games.
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• • TidesofTime : We felt they were weak after watching their performance against Quantic and had heard from ppy himself that they had not been practicing, so we figured if we just played our normal game we would win.

Sadly, Mouz defeated you in the next round of the lowerbracket with a very close series ending 2-1 in their favor. Obviously you must have been disappointed, but how do you feel now, looking back at the tournament? Are you honored, making it that far with such great teams?

• • Fogged :We didn’t play like ourselves and something was just “off” with our overall communication and gameplay together.
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• • TidesofTime : Looking back, it is certainly a sign of progress for our team, but we felt like we played terribly against mouz and could have made it further. They played very well and punished us for our mistakes. In terms of being honored, I was personally incredibly honored to be able to play against my favorite player puppey as well as his incredible team. Unfortunately they were not anywhere near their peak level of play (I heard they are practicing now so I hope I get to see them at their best once again!).

During your match against Mouz, in game one you went for a smoke gank on the naked rax, rather than trying to find a hero, who made the call to go for the rax, instead of a gank, and how efficient do you think it was?

• • Fogged : It was overall a team decision, we saw the opportunity for a quick easy rax and there was no chance that they could retaliate before it was taken, and they would have been in an awful position to challenge.
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• • TidesofTime : I can’t quite remember what exactly happened but I think everyone had it in the back of their minds and the entire team basically made the call. It was obviously efficient as we ended up getting a rax out of it.

With TI2 just around the corner, are you guys playing often against TI2 invited teams, given that they can practice secrets strategies in scrims with you? Have you had any offers like Mouz who were invited to practice with Na`Vi in Kiev?

• • Fogged : We hope to practice a lot more in the near future.
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• • TidesofTime : For the most part, we practice against the Chinese teams whenever we actually have time to practice (shoutout to the Chinese teams for being incredibly nice, incredibly skilled, and incredibly dedicated).

Will any of you be going to TI2?

• • Fogged : A few of us as far as i know.
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• • TidesofTime : If we make it to the final round of the eswc qualifier all of us except Sneyking  are going(unfortunately he’s too young to participate in eswc).

If you had to make a Top 3 and a Bottom 3 list of how TI2 will go, which teams would be on which list and why?

• • Fogged : top 3 : iG, Zenith, Na’vi, bottom3 : N/A
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• • TidesofTime : I believe IG, LGD and Zenith have the highest chances of being in the top 3 based off what I’ve seen followed by navi, col, mtw, eg, tongfu, ehome, CLG, and dk in no particular order. No comment on the bottom 3.

With your recent results, surely sponsors must have started to notice you, have you received any offers yet? And if so, are you close to reaching an agreement with anyone?

• • TidesofTime : Yes to both, we’ve been contacted by a ton of sponsors and should be sponsored by one of them soon! :)

If you get a sponsor, are there any countries or events in particular that you would love to attend?

• • Fogged : Any at all, I love traveling.
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• • TidesofTime : We would love to attend as many events as possible. As for countries, I’ve personally always wanted to visit china or japan.

Let's assume you don't get a sponsor, what are the chances for potm bottom to play at a LAN even outside of NA?

• • Fogged : Slim.
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• • TidesofTime : If the travel is paid for or the prize pool is incredibly big we would go. 

Moving on to the AbsoluteArena KotH which you are a part of. First of all; how do you feel about this format, where you from 5 matches potentially can win 1.5k$, in comparison to longer tournaments like The Defense,  or the JoinDOTA masters, which do you think is better and why?

• • TidesofTime : I think the koth concept is fun and much better for smaller prize pools, but I believe a format like the defense is better for bigger prize pools.

Your team is currently one of a few, who actually uses Dragon Knight in competitive dota, in which situations do you believe he is best, and why?

• • TidesofTime : I don’t like to give away information to people outside of our team regarding strategies and picks sorry!

Currently, you are participating in the ESWC NA Qualifiers, where EG has been disqualified, how do you see your own chances for winning a trip to ESWC, and how huge would it be for you as a team, to go to an international LAN?

• • Fogged : We’re very confident but not underestimating anything, and we’re very excited to play together at a LAN for the first time. 
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• • TidesofTime : I believe our chances are very high, and it would be AWESOME to go to an international lan, it would be much better if sneyking could go as well, but even without him it’s still an experience we could very much use. :)

Which heroes do you want ported from WC3 Dota to Dota2, in order for potm bottom to show their true potentional? 

• • Fogged : Meepo,  Techies
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• • TidesofTime : We could use a lot of the heroes, but I’m personally looking forward to meepo and tauren chieften.

Do you have any idols, be it inside or outside the Dota scene?

• • Fogged : No.
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• • TidesofTime : My brother is my idol outside of dota and puppey is my idol in regards to dota.

What drives you, when playing dota2? Is it the fun, fame, money or maybe a fourth thing?

• • Fogged : Good old competition and enjoyment.
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• • TidesofTime : All three of those as well as the competition. I love competition :D. 

 I would love to thank you for your time, it has been a pleasure interviewing you! Do you have any final shoutouts or things you want to say?

• • Fogged : Shoutout to Daniela the love of my life J.  I can’t wait for more opportunities to excel in the future.
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• • TidesofTime : Shoutout to Princess!! All of the players on IG special mention to Chuan <3, Tobi for being the best caster and incredibly dedicated to dota, AL|Snoopy for being an awesome person + helpful, EG|Bulba for being nice and helpful to me, and Pajkatt for being one of the chilliest dota players I’ve met. And of course shoutout to all of my teammates for being amazing at this game, really, they’re all already ownage and are still managing to get better and better every month. And shoutout to our manager, PB|Monolith for being the best manager out there, no joke. Also, Shoutout to AL for hosting KotH!

This interview was conducted by our own Mathias "DemoniC" Huus.