An Interview with aL.bLeek

Absolute Legends player Scott "bLeek" Jensen has been demonstrating breathtaking individual skill and taking the competitive scene by storm. In an interview by GosuGamers Jaywalker and Shostakovich, bLeek talks about aL, his love for Silencer and Leshrac as well as recent results.

Hi bLeek, thanks for accepting this interview. Could you give us an introduction of yourself?

Hello, I am Scott “bLeek” Jensen a 19 year old Canadian university student. Currently just spending my time between studying and playing a game I am passionate about.



How did you first got into the world of Dota?



I only first got into Dota when Dota 2 was announced, I had played WC3 custom games but I could never get into Dota due to the harsh community. However a few longtime friends did convince me to get into HoN, in which I found a lot of enjoy playing, until I got frustrated with the direction that the game proceeded in and switched after receiving my Dota 2 key from a friend.







Before joining Absolute Legends, were you in any other competitive teams?



This is my first serious competitive team; however I did receive an offer from friends in It's Gosu to play with them a long time ago. I was just having fun messing around in inhouse leagues such as NADL in which I have made a lot of friends.



How did you get to join Absolute Legends?



I met aL.Snoopy through other friends such as PIG who has been a longtime friend of his and we just started to play NADL together with our little group. Some months later Snoopy brought up the topic of r1sk leaving aL due to personal time constraints when we were talking on vent and he wanted to know if I could replace him shortly before The Defense matches. I always enjoy playing with Snoopy so I accepted and they started practicing with me and it seemed like a good fit.



Having no prior competitive play experience, you debuted to the public during a match against Dignitas in The Defense. What do you feel are the areas you have improved since your debut?



I think mainly my mentality in the game has improved, I've also worked and trying to play more safely in matches rather than just messing around. I never felt I was an amazing player and I think that helps you improve a lot more since you can be really objective. That's why I usually don't like to watch VoDs of my games, I just see how badly I play.



Humility and focus helps a player improve

Thoughts On Heroes

"Silencer can work well with aggressive play as it steals hero attributes and has a crippling global disable"

bLeek's Silencer in action

"Pudge truly relies on momentum and being in the right state of mind before the game begins"

Leshrac is a very flexibile hero. He has huge teamfight capabilities, a great pusher as well as a great turtler

Playstyles

A player has to enjoy his heroes to successfully utilize its maximum potential

"Playing within your comfort zone gives you a positive mentality and familiarity with what your goals are in the match"



bLeek staring into your soul

Recent Results

Once I joined the transition seemed fairly easy, we never had to force people to play on heroes they did not want to. I think having flexible players gives you quite an advantage drafting wise so it is definitely a bonus.The silencer pick was not actually our idea, we had been scrimming Next.kz a fair bit and they tried running it with their own style and it was quite effective. So we adopted that pick from them but applied our own style of play towards it. I like playing Silencer because I can steal other heroes attributes which also works nicely with aggressive play. With the Leshrac build I felt we needed to be aggressive and lightning is more for defending towers, so I skilled stats instead and just ran into their team. I don’t necessarily believe that I was the one to bring those heroes into the game but they were fun to play.As a team we decided that my role was the carry even if it was not the one I enjoy the most. The heroes I always enjoy the most were secondary supports such as ES/SK much like Mania from Quantic plays.In my opinion playing Pudge truly relies on momentum and being in the right state of mind before the game begins. If the game starts going away from your favor in the early game a hero like Pudge is almost ruined. It was also more of just a fun inhouse hero and EG slaying hero to play for me.I think a lot of teams are still figuring out those heroes place in Dota 2 in general along with the current metagame. I know a lot of players say it is vastly different from Dota so there are still some things to figure out. There is no doubt that they will find a place into the game though, however it may take a little longer.Lycan would put a lot of pressure on Silencer as he is quite weak at pushing and defending pushes, so it would be hard to pick him up against a Lycan. On the other hand Leshrac is still quite potent in both the support and semi-carry roles as he can defend in a teamfight against Lycan and is a great pusher/anti pusher. Even in a support role he can catch up on farm quite quickly later in the game, much like Na'Vi did with the carry ES against It's Gosu.I think every hero is viable in certain lineups but at the current moment heroes like SB, BS, etc. are difficult to lane and taper off in effectiveness. I am a firm believer in playing heroes you are comfortable with so hopefully a team can come around that has a player who enjoys those heroes and they can incorporate them into some lineups.It somewhat makes you plays predictable but you could say that about any safe lineups for the current metagame, it isn’t hard to determine what will happen most of the time. Playing within your comfort zone gives you a positive mentality and familiarity with what your goals are in the match, which are huge in this type of game.Of course! Having practice against all sorts of play styles and lineups really strengthens your teams’ cohesiveness when faced with peculiar situations in a match. It is much easier to deal with something you have seen before and know the faults of your losses against or what you could have done better.We had discussed the picks and bans that would be the most effective against Na'Vi, and ones that we were comfortable with. We cannot really practice before matches as it isn't practical for Aussies, so we try to get as much rest as possible. The first game was quite hard on our moral and we were indecisive in our lanes, leaving me with the wrong items for a mid matchup. Also I know my team comes from dota where they understood what SD is capable of, but I had never played against it seriously, making it quite a rude awakening facing an SD played by Dendi.We were a lot more comfortable and awake in the second game, which allowed us to have a stronger early game. I was sure that i would atleast be able to match XBOCT's farm as he is a phenomenal carry player, but we had quite strong teamfight so equal farm i thought gave us an advantage. Especially once i picked up BKB I knew we were in a solid position, now that i was not vulnerable to them create images of me.I think that the Chinese teams do have to be taken seriously, even if they do not have enough practice in the game. JD Masters in general was quite hard on us as it began to get quite delayed and i had not slept, leaving us all very tired by the finals. The finals MUFC played really well and I know that in my tired state cost my team the series.I think in preparation for our match against CLG we will watch some matches they have played recently, and determine from there our gameplan. We will simply try to rest up and give it our all, and i hope CLG will as well with their new roster. No matter the outcome i just hope to have an entertaining series with a great team.Shoutouts to Piggy, buns, bdiz laugh, finesse, Bulba, dog, Absolute Legends, and all our fans.



Be sure to watch the epic finals for It's Gosu Monthly Madness between Absolute Legends and Counter Logic Gaming. The Bo5 finals will be casted by Ayesee and Draskyl on the 29th of March at 1800 CET.

