Quinn: “I’ve always been on teams where you show up, you get last, and you go home. So it’s all sort of new for me”

Quinn Callahan is the outspoken, talented, best-in-the-world-contender mid laner for Gaimin Gladiators, and at the Berlin Major he’s been showing just how skilled he is. Gaimin Gladiators finished top of their group, and are undefeated in Playoffs. And Quinn has been a vital part of that with his consistently incredible performances.

We sat down with Quinn ahead of the Upper Bracket Finals of the Berlin Major to ask him some questions about the event. He talked with us about whether the pressure affects him, his thoughts on the patch and DPC schedule, and of course, the beef with Roman "RAMZES666" Kushnarev.

Quinn, thank you so much for talking to us. I wanted to talk about your kind of status in the world of Dota. There’s people saying you’re the best mid in the world, maybe the best player in the world. Does that come with any pressure? Is it hard to be king?

Quinn: “I guess. I just sort of don't really feel it that much. I don't really feel the pressure or it's all sort of a new experience for me. And I've really been in a winning position or on a team that wins things or can win things. I've always been on teams where you show up, you get last, and you go home. So it's all sort of new for me. 

And I don't really feel the pressure. I don't really consider myself the best player at all, or even close. I'm just a guy who's just trying to play well. So I don't really feel that some of what people are saying.”

One comparison I’ve seen is like, you’re Fear [Clinton Loomis] for the 2020s. You’re an NA player, who’s clearly the best player from the region, who plays on international teams. Do you think that’s a good comparison?

Quinn: “I mean, fear always sort of stuck to NA. So probably not accurate in that regard. But, you know, Fear kind of a legend. So I appreciate the comparison in terms of Dota.”

Everyone’s talking about how hard it is to adapt to a new patch quickly, but as a midlaner, with your comfort heroes, and having played a million games in the role, was it actually that difficult?

Quinn: “No, I think for me, it was probably the easiest to adapt to this patch. I think my gameplay and the feel for my heroes changed very little. Very, very little. Which is nice. I like the old patch. So you know, I appreciate the little change.”

You’ve already been asked this a bunch of times, but do you like the patch? It feels like the middle lane is very enabled to have a large effect on the game?

Quinn: “Yeah, I mean, I think that’s sort of Mid's tagline: “With great power comes great responsibility.” So, you know, I sort of signed up for that. And I think it's nice whenever my heroes can have a lot of agency and a lot of impact. And the patch overall was pretty nice.”

“I think in terms of the actual impact, different things are happening. It's not as large as maybe some people think, but I think there are a lot of small bits and bobs that are like fun and add some variety and spice I think especially for people that play the game casually. I think it's nice to have changes like this, that just sort of shake things up and remove some of the monotony, really.”

It feels there’s some heroes that are gonna get nerfed almost immediately after this event. Do you want to play DPC on this patch?

Quinn: “No, definitely not. No one thinks the Snake [Medusa] is fair. Needs to be nerfed as soon as possible, it’s completely unreal. Yeah, there's several other heroes that are also not quite at Snake-level, but very, very strong. I think. I'm just always a big fan of nerf to things that are broken and you buff the things that aren’t very good and you slowly try to bring things to the middle. Even though there will always be outliers, but you try to slowly bring things to the middle.”

On DPC, one thing I’ve felt as an observer is that there’s really no chance to catch your breath. You have your first game seven days after the Major. As soon as the last DPC season finished there was ESL Pro Tour/DreamLeague. You’re going to have another dreamleague after DPC this season, then it's Bali, then Riyadh, then TI. Is it too much Dota?

Quinn: “I think this schedule is a bit cramped. If there was slightly bigger break times between majors and DPC, especially between majors and DPC [that would be better]. That's the biggest one. Tournaments like this is the part where you'd want the break the most and not having anything more than a  week is like, I don't know, it's not really enough, you know?” 

“I have my family in the States where I can't go back and see them because I'm flying there one day and I’m there, what, one day? And I fly back and need to like practice right before DPC. And so you’re sort of resigned to not really take a break especially if you live internationally. I think it's a bit suboptimal. If things were like spaced out a little more I think it'd be beneficial for the scene and players. That’d help.”

With that would come a late TI. Would you mind a TI event that pushes itself past October into November?

Quinn: “I don't know, really. It's sort of hard for me to say. You can always propose changes and say like: “oh, this would be better that way.” At the end of the day, I haven't really thought super hard about this stuff. So my opinion should be taken with several large grains of salt.”

One last question, is the Ramzes beef real? Are you playing it up? Are the awkward elevator rides real, or are you just both not even sure?

Quinn: “The beef is real. I don’t know… I have ridden in elevators with him before, but I don’t think I was looking at the floor intentionally, I’m just sort of in the elevator. I can look him dead in the eyes next time, I’ll do that, I’ll look right at him.” 

Quinn and the rest of Gaimin Gladiators will be in action later today at the Berlin Major. Stay tuned to esports.gg for more Dota 2 news and interviews!