KheZu : “It’s a 50/50 process; you end up getting ghosted by orgs a lot.”

Since their last foray into the NA competitive scene, Quincy Crew have clearly been putting in some work. In the inaugural NA DPC regional finals, QC put the hurt onto 4 Zoomers. In a match that many thought they knew the result of before it started, the team certainly showed up.

Throughout the NA DPC the team have slowly been growing and really gelling together as a new squad. As pointed out by Shannon "SUNSfan" Scotten, the new squad plays scrappier than their last iteration. Sometimes the team can get carried away and give up a few kills even with a big lead. But with new captain Maurice "KheZu" Gutmann at the helm, the team has been eager to try out new ideas. As exhibited in their series against the Zoomers, in many instances they have been focusing on laning domination, and then snowballing into the mid-game.

Though a 2-0 stomp, the games were not without their fun moments. Perhaps the best was when KheZu, playing as Venomancer, slowly died to an invisible Nyx Assassin with an Ion Shell attached to him. Played by Zakari William Lee "Zfreek" Freedman, Nyx used Vendetta and slowly crept around, all the while, slowly chipping away at the health of Venomancer. It looked as if KheZu had no idea what was happening until the very end, making for a hilarious clip!

Speaking of KheZu, the captain sat down with the NA Dota talent to talk about all the things going for the team. He first described what was happening with the bootcamp situation. He explained that he was staying in Canada with Remus "ponlo" Goh Zhi Xian, while the rest of the team. The split up was partially because of the lack of the team having an org to help with these kinds of travel expenses. He noted that he also really wanted to "play on low ping" as well as take some time to spend with ponlo, who was previously all by himself.

In fact, Quincy Crew is playing the NA Regional Finals from four different locations, not allowing the distance or the lack of cutlery from deterring them.

He also confirmed that the org-less roster were still on the lookout for new sponsors as well meeting with orgs. KheZu noted that the difficult part was not so much getting to speak with them, but rather continuing the conversation saying: "it's harder to keep them interested." KheZu remarked that they had been "ghosted" by some orgs when they were in the middle of negotiations. Remaining hopefully, he said "its a process that they were trying" ad that they're going to keep at it.

When asked about the upcoming LAN tournament in Dubai, he didn't know why they weren't invited. According to him, the team was not asked but was unsure of the reason, directing an official comment to the team's manager, Jack "KBBQ" Chen.

Finally, Mira "Ephey" Riad asked KheZu for his thoughts on the recent Fata kick from Tundra. He remarked that it "didn't really matter" what he thought but he said that he "was not a fan of the kick." Though he didn;t know the internal team dynamic, he posited that Dota players often don't take the time to work out problems. Instead, he said, they often "take the fast way out. Again he noted that it "wasn't really his place to say."

That completes the first round of the NA regional finals. Where this leaves Quincy in the future, only time will tell. To keep up with all things NA Dota, stick with us here at esports.gg!