Aggressive Mode captain Giorgos “SsaSpartan” Giannakopoulos sat down with Taras Bortnik during his day off at WePlay! Tug of War: Mad Moon and was happy to talk pretty much everything about his career since the old Ad Finem days to present.

From the absolutely stunning run at the Boston Major in 2016, to how he got scammed in Southeast Asia by Clutch Gamers, to the Ad Finem reunion for the Dota Summit Minor and what is the purpose of Aggressive Mode, you can find it all in the interview below with SsaSpartan.





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Let’s start our conversation from this tournament, you guys got a last minute invite. Did you actually have time to make some proper preparation for WePlay! Tug of War: Mad Moon?

The only problem is that we didn’t have the time to practice more heroes. The strategy is actually clear for me, but we needed more time so we can find more heroes to fit our strategy.





Looking at the roster, Aggressive Mode looks sort of a group of rejects. Is it a wrong impression?

It’s exactly what it is. We need to prove ourselves and that’s what we plan to do. Our goal is to prove that we actually can play good Dota and that we can match well against all teams. Right now it’s more important for us to find our confidence, to grind our reputation, to re-establish ourselves as good Dota 2 players.





How are you operating right now, do you have something like a gentlemen’s agreement between all team members, what will happen if one of you will get an offer from a tier one team?

Yes, we have something like that between us, but we said from the very beginning, if someone gets a big opportunity while playing on this roster, there is no way any of us would expect that person to turn it down. We are at the very beginning with this team, we barely know each other, but everyone is free to go if they have a good offer. As I said, we are here to grind our reputation back and to prove ourselves.





How did you even come together in this formula, who put everything in motion?

I actually gathered all of them. I started with my brother Skylark and then I talked to Lil, he wanted to play. I spoke with Skiter and then we had someone on our mind for the mid lane, but he couldn’t play so I went to BoraNija and that was it.





Aggressive Mode signing session at WePlay! Tug of War: Mad Moon

The team name, Aggressive Mode is a bit provocative, sounds like a taunt. Is what you intended or it’s more about your playstyle, about the team mindset?

I came up with this name and I’m not sure if actually asked anyone about how they feel about it. It’s a name that fits our play style, we just want to go on them, we want to play a fast-paced Dota, to play aggressive. There is no hidden meaning behind the team name. Sometimes we fail terribly, and you can laugh about it.





Speaking about that, what was with that Techies last pick against Nigma, why did you feel like you needed that hero?

That was an experiment. For us, it didn’t matter if we lost or won that game, it was just a warm-up match-up because regardless of the result the seed was the same. Win or lose we were still going to start the playoffs in the upper bracket. So, we just wanted to have some fun. Yeah, it was a stomp from Nigma, but we tried, and we had our fun. Otherwise, yes, it was a bad draft from us.





You just told me about how you guys want to play aggressive, play fast, but is the current meta fit for that?

Oh yes. OG are proving it with every single game of theirs. They are the best team for a reason. There is no other word to describe OG’s playstyle than aggressive, they are playing extremely fast. And this is how I enjoy playing the game as well. I have played in this style since the early days of Ad Finem.





There’s been a bit of a gap in your career between the old Ad Finem/mousesports times and the Ad Finem reunion for the Summit Minor, what did you do all that time?

After the Boston Major we kind of failed in the Kiev Major, we moved on, then we had like an eight-month break, we weren’t playing competitively at all when I got an offer from a SEA team and I went there.

It turned out to be a really shady organization, not good people at all. Clutch Gamers should never be allowed to enter any esports game. If they are to enter this scene again, I will stand up and speak about how bad they are. They are not professionals, they are just a group of people trying to scam everyone. The story was on Reddit, you can still find the threads I believe. So many players got scammed by these dudes. They also scammed me. I went with them to a tournament in the Emirates [Gamers Premier Nation Season 3]. We won that event, but I never got my prize money. So, I really don’t want more people to get scammed by Clutch Gamers.

What were we talking about? Oh yeah, about what I did in between old Ad Finem and now. So yeah, I came back from Southeast Asia and we tried to rebuild our old Greek team. We had some new players that actually didn’t fit that well, we were 4 out of 5 when Madara messaged me saying that he is ready to join us. We went on qualifying for the first Minor of this season, we went to Summit, but then OG.Seed took Madara from me.

I don’t judge him and I’m not angry or mad at him at all. If anything, I’m happy for him, he is my brother and he was right to answer the OG.Seed call. But, after he left, we couldn’t play the same, and it was a bit hard to find another carry to speak Greek, so everyone left the team. From there, I reunited with Skylark and built this team.





photo credits: WePlay! Esports

What did you miss the most during your rather long time away from the competitive scene?

Man, that’s a tough question. I missed everything. Look, I just arrived here, at WePlay! and I feel like I’m alive again. This is all that I want in my life, to compete, to be on the stage, to talk to the fans, to be surrounded by all the amazing people in the scene. I really want to live this life, the one I’m having these days here. I can sacrifice actually everything to have this life, to have the chance to fight to be at the top.





How was it to reunite Ad Finem at the start of this season, did you guys instantly click together, did you have the same good times being again in the same room, playing the game and all?

In many ways, it was the same. The communication was good, we enjoyed playing together again, I would say, we even respect each other more now, but I don’t know exactly what was missing. In fact, I’m not even sure if there was anything missing because the reunion was short-lived.

We got back together, we qualified for the Summit Minor, we went to LA, lost 2 series in a row and we were eliminated on the first day. Then we didn’t return as five from there, because Madara got offered by OG. Seed. So, we didn’t do the whole long practice process, you know and I can’t tell if in the long run that team would have failed or succeeded.





Let’s talk a bit about the recent Major and Minor qualifiers. Aggressive Mode was a series away from qualifying to the Major. You lost to OG , then you lost to NiP for the second ticket and then you dropped to the Minor qualifiers where you lost to Nigma. Did that get into your mind, had a negative impact or is it just an incentive to push harder next time?

To be honest, the fact that we had to play OG first was kind of bad for us. We got demolished by them, we couldn’t do anything, we couldn’t play Dota 2 in that series. We knew that they will play aggressive, that they will run at us, but man we couldn’t do anything and we were just standing like headless chickens wondering what the f** is happening. We felt like we couldn’t play the game at all, and after the games, we couldn’t even talk about what just happened. It hit us hard in the psychology department. We lost the way we did and after that, I felt like nobody could listen to whatever the others were saying. We even forgot the things that we practiced. After the first two losses in the Major qualifiers playoffs, everything was like a blank for us, we forgot everything.





After playing versus Nigma and NiP a few times already, in the qualifiers and now here, at WePlay!, what are your thoughts about these two teams? They both have some of the greatest Dota 2 players, TI7 winners, TI5 winners, but they both kind of struggle. Nigma didn’t qualify for either the Major or the Minor, you eliminated NiP from this tournament so, why do you think they are so inconsistent right now?

Nigma are not in their best shape and, to be honest, with us it goes like this: when we have a good day we can beat anyone, on a bad day, we can lose to anyone. Right now I feel like on a good day, we can definitely take Nigma down. We also had good results against NiP, we did well in our practice games as well.

NiP are playing a bit too defensive. They just farm and wait for the enemy to make a mistake. This style is not good for the current meta. About Nigma, I don’t know, it became a bit weird when Miracle went to the safe lane. I mean he is doing good as a carry, I don’t mean to flame him or anything, but this is not the Miracle- we all know. He is not showing his character at all right now, the role doesn’t allow him to show his true colours. I mean this guy is one of the best if not the best mid laners in the world. I don’t know what to say, maybe his team sees different than us how the game should be played, but if you can’t empower your players, help them to be their best version, you won’t win. The game is not only about the strategy, it’s much more than that, and maybe Nigma are overthinking right now.





Thanks a lot for taking the time to talk to us, we wish you best of luck further in the WePlay Tug of War: Mad Moon and hope to see you on the big stages again

Thank you!





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