Rue is a player who has been quietly growing, whether in front of our eyes or just out of sight.
Coming into this interview, I wanted to explore a few things:
- How do you play under added pressure when the world seems to expect you to become the next Team Spirit player one day?
- What is it like becoming a pro in the post-COVID era, which reshaped esports?
- How do players who emerged before and after the pandemic perceive an esports career and tournaments differently?
I also asked for his perspective on esports itself — does it gift you a dream youth, or does it take it away?
To find out the answers, enjoy the interview.
Anime, Shadow Fiend Pos 4, and the Early Grind
Q:I see that you have several anime characters across your different socials. Little Naruto, and at one point you had Bachira as your Steam profile pic. Why those two?
Naruto is one of the best anime out there, so that’s why he’s there. Plus, it’s a cool picture — just a sad little Naruto standing there.
I had Bachira on Steam because I watched Blue Lock, liked the character, and put him up for a while. I was playing with that avatar for some time.
Q:Are there any other characters who’ve somehow left a mark on you?
I probably can’t think of any. I haven’t watched anime in a long time — for the past two or three years I’ve barely watched it at all, very rarely. So yeah, I probably can’t recall anyone else.
Q:Why is that?
I guess it just stopped being that interesting, and I’ve been busy — a mix of everything. And it also feels like nothing really super significant has come out lately. The only things I’ve watched recently were Attack on Titan and Demon Slayer — that’s about it.
Q:What do you like to do when you need a break from Dota?
I still just sit at my computer, play other games — CS, Apex. If some new games come out, I might hop in with a party of friends and run around for a bit. A little bit of everything, basically.
Q:On your Telegram – are you joking about Shadow Fiend 4, or do you actually play that?
So basically, we were asked which heroes we recommend, and I wrote SD. I guess they thought it was somehow related to SF, I don’t know. When I saw that, I thought, “Alright then, I guess I’ll play along.”
Q:Did you ever think about trying SF in the 4 position after that?
I wouldn’t really want to grief games for now. But as soon as I get the chance — I’ll do it right away.
From Yellow Submarine to Team Spirit
"[Korb3n] calls me...and says 'Sorry, you didn't make it, we decided to go with someone else."
Q:When you were invited to Yellow Submarine, did you understand that it might be preparation for Spirit?
Not really. For the first six months at least, maybe even longer, I definitely wasn’t thinking about that. I just got invited to a good team, an interesting roster with Satanic and all that. Back then he was still unknown. I just went to try it out. Plus, Korb3n — Dima — was the manager, so everything felt reliable there. It was simply the best offer at the time. There were no thoughts about Team Spirit from the start. And honestly, right up until the very last moment, there wasn’t a real belief that they would actually take me.
Q:How did you feel?
I was playing the trial games — I think I did pretty well. And then there was this moment: they were choosing between three players, I think. Dima calls me in the evening, in this kind of sad voice, and says, “Sorry, you didn’t make it, we decided to go with someone else.” So we sat there talking for about 10 minutes, and I’m already a bit tilted and sad.
Then suddenly Dima goes, “Alright, you’re flying to Serbia in two days, start packing. I was joking.” He gave me a proper emotional roller coaster.
Q:How do you think the team is handling this period without a permanent coach?
At FISSURE it was fine, but at BLAST it was kind of rough. Overall, it’s okay. We’re also playing with a stand-in right now — we haven’t been playing with Nikitos (Panto) for that long either. I mean, it’s already been quite a while, sure, but it’s not comparable to how long they played with Yarik (Miposhka).
Getting to know Rue
Q:Does a career in esports give you the dream youth, or does it take it away?
I think you 100% sacrifice it. If we’re talking about going full tryhard, then it definitely takes it away. You’re sitting at your computer all the time. You’re basically doing almost nothing else, with very rare days off when you can go somewhere or do something different.
Q:Do you miss anything from ordinary life that isn’t really accessible with your career?
Yeah, probably some kind of active sport. I used to play football, and I really loved it. I often imagine that I want to go play football — just picture myself playing. Even imagining it brings some mental satisfaction, like I could be playing right now. But instead, I’m just sitting here playing Dota. And overall, I don’t really have anyone to play with either.
Q:When did you realize this was exactly what you wanted to do?
Sometime in my early teens. I was playing, I was doing well, and I enjoyed it. I realized that I could really make it, and that this is what I wanted to pursue. I was about 14 or 15.
Q:What was esports like back then, and how did people around you see it?
It was probably around the time of TI4–TI5. Esports was already developing, but not nearly as much as it is now. Maybe now, because I’ve already made it, my parents don’t say things like, “What kind of nonsense are you wasting your time on?”
But back then, at the beginning, it was definitely unclear to everyone. All the adults would say, “How are you going to live? What kind of job are you going to have?”
Q:How did you not break under that pressure?
I don’t know, I just kept fighting. Maybe the pressure on me wasn’t as strong as it is for some others. They’d take away the cables, turn off the internet — like happens to everyone. But I live only with my mom, so maybe that played a role — she couldn’t fight me on her own. And I kept pushing to the end.
When I got into my first team and started earning some money, maybe she began to feel that it might not turn out so bad after all.
"I played against bots for a really long time. I was scared to queue against real players because I didn't want to grief"
Q:You mentioned that things started working out for you almost right away. Do you mean your MMR started going up quickly, or something else?
Yeah, MMR. At first, though, I played against bots for a really long time. I was scared to queue against real players because I didn’t want to grief.
But when I finally did queue up, it went pretty well. Back then, before all this crazy inflation, gaining around 1000 MMR per year was considered good. I was gaining about 1000 MMR a year, putting in the effort, and at some point I just got this feeling that it was going to work out.
Q:Do you remember your first calibration — what MMR you got?
I kind of cheated my calibration — I asked my brother to do it for me. He calibrated me at 4000. I was the coolest kid in school. But that’s one of the reasons I didn’t play much ranked — I didn’t want to lose the MMR.
Q:What’s your earliest and happiest memory in Dota?
I need to think about that. Probably when I first reached Divine. When I ranked up, I felt amazing — I even posted a screenshot somewhere.
Q:How did your classmates treat you? You said you were the coolest in school…
Yeah, the coolest… even though I didn’t actually play ranked. Honestly, very few people understood Dota — maybe about 10 people in the entire school. They treated me normally, like anyone else. I wasn’t some kind of superstar or total outcast — just an average guy. Maybe slightly above average.
Q:Did anyone message you after you made it?
When I made it, literally everyone I’d ever met in my life messaged me. From my city, from other cities — everyone. Every single person wrote to me. On all social media, everywhere.
Q:Were those congratulations or something else?
Yeah, mostly congratulations. Or things like, “You’re from my city, I know you!”
Q:As a player, do you rely more on intuition and feel, or are you more methodical?
I can’t say for sure. Sometimes it’s methodical, sometimes it’s based on feel — but probably a bit more on feel.
Q:Is there a player or a team that inspires you?
OG had a great story at The International when they won for the first time. I really liked JerAx, and their whole storyline was just really cool.
"I wasn’t shaking badly or anything, but in the moments when I made mistakes, I could really feel the pressure because of my lack of experience."
on playing in front of a crowd for the first time.
Q:You broke into tier-1 Dota during the era of online tournaments. I often hear that players who’ve been in the scene for many years really miss the time when they played in front of live audiences more often. How is it for you to play in front of a crowd?
Right now, I think I feel pretty comfortable. There’s no shaking or nerves anymore. But overall, LAN is definitely better than online. When you fly to another country, stay in a different hotel — it just adds more variety.
When you’re playing online from a bootcamp, it’s the same games every day, the same place, and so on. You get a bit tired of it.
Q:Would you like to have more LAN tournaments? How much does playing in front of a crowd inspire you?
I wouldn’t say it really inspires me. It’s just more interesting and more challenging. I don’t know how many LANs there are right now, but I’d definitely like there to be more of them than online tournaments.
Q:Do you remember the first time you played in front of an audience? How nervous were you, and how did you handle it?
I didn’t really handle it. It was hard to overcome. I wasn’t shaking badly or anything, but in the moments when I made mistakes, I could really feel the pressure because of my lack of experience. I didn’t deal with it in any special way — it just weighed on me a bit.
