Yatoro: "It's simply impossible to explain to parents what esports is"

Recently, Team Spirit player Ilya 'Yatoro' Mulyarchuk hosted a joint broadcast with Alexei 'itpedia' Shevtsov and Igor Link. There he talked about the problems he went through on the way to success in the world of eSports. Conflicts with parents, the next patch, idols and other interesting things were said during the last broadcast.

According to Ilya Mulyarchuk, the cultural gap between the older and new generations is too high, and adults' understanding of the world of e-sports is a rare phenomenon. Because of this, Yatoro's parents could not treat Ilya's profession with understanding:

Firstly, it is simply impossible to explain to parents what esports is. It is unrealistic to explain to actual boomers how it all works, where the money comes from and who will pay you. I've tried. I remember how, after the ninth grade, I told my mother: “If I have bad grades and someone says something bad to you, don’t think that I’m talking nonsense. I'm not stupid, but I know what I'm doing, and I'm going to my goal. We constantly had conflicts on this basis. She constantly made me study.

He failed to achieve understanding even after he managed to get into the team, but after receiving the first salary, everything changed:

When I entered the university, I was already taken to the team, and I told her about it. She answered me: “Who will pay you money? It's not work. What will you be paid for? For playing on the computer? When I received my first salary, then she realized that everything was serious. Then she became loyal. Now we have a good relationship.

Nevertheless, Mulyarchuk understands the attitude of parents towards eSports. According to him, if he was in a similar situation, he would have done the same, and giving up everything for a career in eSports is often not the best idea:

If a child told me that he would play Mobile Legends and get money, I would also send him to study and to a normal job. We need to work and raise the country from its knees.<...> My story looks romantic, but this is a survivor's mistake. Don't repeat this. You don't have to go into esports.

When asked about Vitaly 'Arthas' Tsala, also known as Papić, Yatoro answered rather neutrally. He has no admiration for this streamer:

Papich is an ordinary Internet personality. He is a tale of forgotten years. In Dota itself, it exists as a meme. Now I don't follow him. He stopped playing Dota 2 around 2016. He was in the top 3 in the rankings. These are all his achievements.

When it came to the regions and strength in them, Yatoro predictably called South America the main outsider, referring to their results in the past The International, and Europe was the favorite:

I think the weakest region is South America. These are not my prejudices, but based on their performance at TI10. One team from their region finished in the top 18, while the other team finished in the top 16. There are good players in every region, but some parts of the world are weaker. That's all. In my understanding, the strongest Dota in Europe, because we have one server, then China, Southeast Asia, North and South America.

Mulyarchuk said that Team Spirit organized the training process according to strict rules. Without fines - nowhere:

There are penalties for missing a workout or being five minutes late. The biggest penalties for hanging up are if you go to bed too late. The punishment varies depending on how often you break discipline.

When talking about idols, Yatoro named Ame as his main role model. He is very proud of the fact that he managed to play against him personally in the final of The International:

I admire Ame. This is the guy from PSG.LGD that I beat in the TI10 grand final. I will give you an insight. Me, TORONTOTOKYO and Collapse were sitting in the canteen after we made it to the top 3 or top 4. Ame was my idol for a year. He was just finishing the game, and I went to protracker and watched how he plays, his chips and so on. Until I learned its gameplay. So. We are sitting in the dining room, and I understand that I can play with him.

Ilya Mulyarchuk wanted Ame to win throughout The International, even in the later stages of the championship:

I tell the guys: “Guys, I don’t want to take first place. I want Ame to win, and I would have a goal for the next INT to be better than him. It didn't work, but I wasn't too upset. Directly from idols only he. And so I follow all the strong players from different regions.