Former Quincy Crew player Quinn spoke to The Esports Hour about his feelings post-TI, tips to climbing MMR and his motivations to stay in esports.
A dominant midlaner and a strong competitor, the name Quinn "Quinn" Callahan or CCnC is not foreign to the Dota 2 community. He is well-known for his presence on the Dota 2 MMR leaderboard in the North American region and he was a part of the NA team, Quincy Crew.
In a short interview with The Esports Hour hosted by Adam 'FunkyStyles' Smith back on October 24th, Quinn shared several things including his post-TI thoughts, tips to climb MMR, and his motivations to stay in esports.
Quinn expresses his post-TI feelings
The International 10, the biggest Dota 2 tournament as of date, concluded just over a week ago. Quincy Crew was one of the 18 participants that made it to the TI stage. The team went home placing 9th-12th and secured an $800, 400 USD prize-winning. Quinn talked about his feelings after the grand tournament ended.
TI is always a roller coaster of emotions. Winning is very nice, losing is very awful. I would say TI is generally front-loaded with nice emotions and in the end, it’s either awesome, or for most people, it’s pretty bad. But that’s just competition right?
The midlaner touched on the struggles behind the scenes after TI ended.
“I think post-TI is less relaxing than you think. For most players on really high-performing teams, you have to figure out what you want to do with your roster.” Quinn said.
For roster changes, players have to get in touch with others. If other players are from different regions, there will also be a lot of waiting involved, he mentioned.
“13K MMR in NA is literally impossible”
Quinn is regarded as one of the best midlaners in the world. Earlier this year, he became the third person in the world to reach 12K MMR, right behind Nuengnara "23savage" Teeramahanon and Souliya "JaCkky" Khoomphetsavong from the SEA region. In the interview, Quinn shared what his current MMR is and his struggles in maintaining it.
“I think my main is at 11.7K MMR right now. Actually, I don’t think there are any 12Ks, if there are it’s probably vtFaded in SEA. NothingToSay and gpk aren’t 12k either.” he said.
It’s really hard to maintain. I don’t know if it’s possible right now to hit 13K, I think it’s just too hard. Maybe the patch has to change or certain heroes have to be better or something like that. I think it’s really hard. 13K in NA is literally impossible because the queue times are too long. I can’t play my main account in NA, I have to play on a smurf, that’s like 10.5K MMR. For my main, it takes me like 50 minutes to find a game.
Quinn suggests coaching and educational videos to increase MMR
Even amongst the pro players, racking up MMR is a very difficult task but Quinn is one of the experts in pubs. He gave a little advice to help the struggling lower MMR players in ranked matchmaking.
“There are easier ways - coaching or watching educational videos is pretty good for low MMR players. Just one or two concepts or one small thing. You can make really small improvements in-game lots more often. It’s easier to pick up ideas when you’re just told the ideas than trying to come up with it yourself.”
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What are the members of Quincy Crew doing post-TI?
Quincy Crew was one of the only prominent teams from NA apart from Evil Geniuses, however, it was the only team that came into TI without a sponsor. After its run fell short in the Lower Bracket and TI concluded, we received several huge news from the organization.
Jack "KBBQ" Chen, the manager of Quincy Crew posted a tweet indicating that there will be significant changes to the team. He also mentioned that no player is “getting kicked” but instead, they will explore other opportunities.
Rodrigo "Lelis" Santos, former position 3 of Quincy Crew also posted his parting message with the organization
. Arif "MSS" Anwar, position 4 of QC had posted on Twitter that he is looking for a team preferably in Europe.
Quinn shared what the post-TI activities are for the team members.
People are just doing their own thing, hanging out with their family and stuff because we were at boot camp at TI for a long time. People are just figuring out what they want to do for future teams, or if they want to keep playing.
What keeps Quinn in the professional Dota 2 scene?
Quinn has joined many notable teams including OpTic Gaming, paiN X, and most recently Quincy Crew. After the disbandment of QC, Quin made it clear that he will continue to stay in esports. He talked about his motivations to keep going in this industry.
It’s a pretty nice gig you know. It’s something I’m good at. And when you’re good at things and it pays the bills, you just naturally gravitate towards them. I like competition, I like the game, I like improving at it and figuring out new things.
The addictive highs and lows?
The interviewer asked if the addictive highs and lows and the roller coaster of emotions is a factor that holds people to the game.
“There’s definitely an element to that for sure," said Quinn. "For some people, more than others as well. There are other elements that keep people in the scene for long periods of time as well. You’re in the space, it’s comfortable, you can make money here, and some people just stay for a long time because it’s not that easy to just quit and go back to school or whatever.”
We have seen pros retiring or pursuing other paths in esports, but one thing is for sure, we’ll be witnessing more of Quinn from the pro Dota 2 scene. It is still unknown what teams Quinn and the former players of Quincy Crew will join. The next DPC season is fast approaching and we will soon find out!
Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest Dota 2 news and updates.
