Interview with Omega Squadron's leader YaDig

Over the years Canberra has hosted many competitions from the ESWC qualifiers to the WCG qualifiers.  Many teams interstate have travelled across to Canberra, to secure what they feel, would be an easy qualifying spot.  But at the end of the day, many of those interstate teams have returned empty handed, thanks to the strength of the local Canberran teams.

With 17 teams registered for the Canberra DOTA2 Tournament, we found one team who were willing to travel from Sydney just to compete in the nation's capital.  We got the chance to ask Rameka aka YaDig some thoughts on the upcoming tournament.

Player profile

Name:  YaDig

Age:  22

Current Team:  Omega Squadron

Headset:  Steel series Siberia V2

Keyboard: Steel series Apex

Mouse:  Steel series Sensei

Essential tournament food:  A store around the corner from our internet café makes the best buttered chicken/cheese naan’s.

How did you know about our competition?

We found the tournament on the CyberGamer forums, which I keep an eye on regularly.

Are you aware that you will be entering a comp which features 15 local teams and with you being the sole interstate team?

Should be fun, we are looking forward to spending the weekend away from home.

Canberra has a strong reputation for having the ability to send interstate teams home, (just ask Albert Santoso aka fidze), how do you feel coming into this tournament?
Hahaha Albert told me that they struggled last time they were in Canberra hopefully this time it will be different. Plus it isn’t Counter Strike anymore this is Dota J. On a side note Albert and some of our mates from Kogarah Internet Cafe will be coming down to support us so it should be a good weekend.

Now that you’re in a stable DOTA2 team with Omega Squadron, what do you think about the team?  What are your plans for the future?
Basically we are just a bunch of mates who have played at our local Internet café in Kogarah since we were young. Two months ago my teammate Qlimax decided to form a team out of all the DotA players at our café and Omega Squadron was the result. Our short-term plans are to enter into as many tournaments as possible and test ourselves against Australia’s best.

Tell us more about your team and their roles?
My team consists of ExOHH (1), Jandals (2), myself (YaDig) (3), frostyflavours (4) and Qlimax (5). We also have fidze as our stand in when needed.

Are there any players or teams that you are familiar with?  If so is there any that you respect the most?

I know a few of the players attending the Canberra LAN but we are relatively new to the scene so we are looking forward to meeting new people and playing some competitive games.

So how do you feel about your personal skills in game? Such as laning, farming and ganking etc.

Most of our team use to play HoN where I would usually play the 5 role however transitioning to the 3 role in DotA2 has been something new for me and definitely a learning experience. My personal skill is pretty average to be honest. My strengths would be drafting and leadership but even that’s a work in progress.

Okay let's return to the upcoming Canberra DOTA2 Tournament, so what is the motivation behind it, for you to participate in such a competition? Do you have something to prove, or do you simply want to face all these opponents or are there any other reasons? 　

A few motivations for this tournament: Winning competitions is the best feelings especially if it is a LAN tournament, travelling with good friends away from home is awesome and it will be a learning experience if we win or lose. We have nothing to prove.

Which hero do you hate the most?
After our severe losing streaks this weekend it would definitely be Ember Spirit.

Is there anything further that you’d like to add?

Shout out to Kogarah Internet Café, Barracks Internet Café and SKY Internet Café for making this tournament happen. Looking forward to it and see you all then!