Interview with BOYSBOYS Captain, Rylan

First to warm things up and get you into the mood of the local ACT team, listen to this classic hit.  Let it sink in and then wonder what the hell just happened.  

This would be the general reaction of teams who faced BoysBoys, the local Canberra team who rose through the brackets and finished a respectable fourth.  Taking down Sydney teams along the way, these boys proved that they weren't a one hit wonder like Sabrina.  Read more below about this group of Boys

Player profile

Name: Rylan Savage

Age: 22

Current Team: Boysboys

Headset: Plantronics Gamecom 780

Keyboard: Logitech G18

Mouse: Razor death adder

Essential tournament food: Canberra milk


Hey Rylan, thank you for returning to this tournament and gracing us with your presence. Mind introducing yourself one more time for them youngbloods?          
Hi, I've been playing Dota casually for about 6 years now with my friends, and we've competed on and off in Australia. We played Dota 1 on Garena for the first few years then transferred over to Dota 2 early in the beta. Dota LANs have always been a lifeblood for our friend group, if as a group you can weather Dota conflicts then you know you're pretty tight, at times the game seriously brings out the worst in people.

While we've got you on the introduction phase, why not for your team as well?
My team this time will be X4, JJH, elks, Ming and myself, the only roster change being Ming. X4 (or Xavier) is the theory crafter and niche supported, known across Australia for his calculated and deadly support wisp. JJH (or Jon) is like the cement that holds the team together, keeping our minds on objective gaming, calling out bad dives and in general being a wet blanket, but still an integral element of our strength. He has a calmness and dexterity that hes brought from his days as a professional DonkeyKong smash player, which he uses to keep our eyes on the prize. Elks is the team's pubstar and chemist, getting you whatever you might need to relax yourself after a stressful day at work. Watching his roaming Mirana you'd think arrow was a targeted ability he's so good, but sometimes he misclicks and selects a creep instead, but then he explains to us he really just wanted the last hit to buy his second bottle so he can steal even more runes from me in mid. Ming's our last, a strong player who we've known out of dota for years and who will most likely carry us hard.

BoysBoys and more Boys!

There's been some changes with the team and you've sought out talent from the east, why the change?
Ming will mix things up for us, with his Burning like collectedness, farming prowess and steadfast incremental game-play that reminds me of a TI3 LGD. His syllabear root hax will prove very useful.

How did you rate your performance at the last tournament especially having sent two Sydney teams packing home?
It's always disappointing when you don't perform better than you did, regardless of how good other teams are, but it was OK to lose to the team we did, cause we're friends with all of them and consider them really strong players. Considering we were a casual team (and are again) its just great to progress to the late stages of the tournament and get some great games in.  

Canberra DOTA 2 Scene is not really stable at this moment since we've had quite a lot of teams die out, you guys have kept it going and what's the secret behind this?
We didn't meet through DOTA, but rather dota is a shared hobby we all have and something we do together. Conflict (and egos) in dota can be really destructive and a lot of things about pub dota foster this in people. Making the jump from being a potentially very strong ranked player (even 5.5k, whatever) to being in a functional team is really hard, I think a 4k team with strong teamwork can wipe the floor with a 5k team full of pubstars. I think we're all pretty chill in dota, but still get involved and competitive in our games.

We'll have another interstate team come around once again and possibly more, any kind words from Canberra that you'd like to offer?
Eat at Grill'd in the city, that place is out of control.

Grill'd for off the hook burgers!

Last time we talked about the Australia DOTA 2 scene and how it's very lacking.  Since then we have Can't Say Wips win a SEA tournament and things are improving in Australia.  Would you agree?
Maybe, CSW doing well in SEA is great, but with the exception of Godot (who I think is the best Australian player) its mainly Singapore and Malaysian players too, kind of a chains stack with an AUS flag. While things are improving, (more LAN tourneys, wider playerbase) players or teams who want to be internationally competitive will inevitably still have to move to SEA, china or the US. Even a single Australian player moving to a foreign inhouse dota team would be really exciting, and that team would probably be followed by the entirely of Aus.

Anything you're looking forward to at this tournament? 
I know a lot of strong players on screen that are coming, so its exciting to put a face to some names. LAN atmospheres are always great for our whole team, we get more spirited to play tournament style at a proper event

Rylan, thank you for your time, is there anything further that you’d like to add or any shoutouts?
Shout-out to Canberra dota teams and Enigma players everywhere. Shout-out to Jim over at Reload and the Barracks and to you, Fred for jointly making these events possible. And shout-out to Canberra Milk, it's a really good product

Mark Webber approves of this local Milk!