Esports in times of war: a frank conversation with the founder of Team Hryvnia

How are Ukrainian esports projects born? We at EGW decided to find out firsthand and interviewed the founder of Team Hryvnia, Oleksandr "tony" Vygovsky. We talked about the team's path, challenges, vision of Ukrainian esports, and plans for the future.

EGW: Oleksandr, I understand that you work for Passion UA and also have a hobby to help young Ukrainian players develop professionally. Is that correct?

Oleksandr: That's right. Well, Hryvnia is... it's just a charity project, let's just say it's my hobby, and when I have the desire and inspiration, I do it.

EGW: What exactly are your responsibilities at Passion UA?

Alexander: I manage the Dota 2 team from A to Z.

EGW: Well, we're here to talk about Tim Hryvnia , I personally met the team at some qualifiers, well, at the Dreamliga, and I saw Team Hryvnia on faceit, what a cool name, back then your logo was Taras Shevchenko, Kobzar?

Oleksandr: 100 hryvnias (meaning that was the club's emblem)

EGW: Yeah, that's right. Tell us, how did you come up with the name and how did this project come about?

Oleksandr: Well, let's just say that it's not directly my merit, it all happened at a completely random moment. Once upon a time, there was a little-known organisation called Hot Headed Gaming, maybe someone has heard of it, maybe not, it was a Tier 3, Tier 4 young organisation and we were working there to develop Ukrainian esports, Ukrainian teams, and at some point it happened, and it often happens that the organisation has no strength, no plans to continue.

And the remaining roster decided that it could and would continue to play. The former Passion UA coach Danya iMp (Danylo Voznyuk), Kolya Niche (Mykola Zemlyansky), Vitaliy QBFY, Kostya Rakuzan... And we just had a discussion, everyone offered some idea, and as a result we agreed that it would be Team Hryvnia, it was somehow collectively accepted, just an interesting name, fun, cool. And then we picked up the logo and started playing, something worked out, something didn't work out, and in a few months this roster completely went to shit, Vitalik left (meaning QBFY), the guys went on holiday and there was a pause. And after that, I had the opportunity to enter the EPL with a certain roster and somehow it started with a roster with yowaai and others, when they entered the EPL and we saw what we could do.

EGW: So you had a very cool period, and I remember the name of the meme, I remember Ghostik often joking there "The hryvnia is stronger than ever", "hryvnia for 8", "hryvnia for 5" and so on.

Oleksandr: Yes, yes. It was like that.

EGW: And tell us how the search for players goes in general? For example, there's a young guy out there, he considers himself a good Dota player, what does he need to do to get into the conditional Tim Hryvnia?

Alexander: Well, there are different ways. The most standard and basic one is for a manager like me to contact him and offer to play in the team. For example, I'm putting together a roster, I'll find him myself, he doesn't have to look for me. Or it's also not uncommon for players to write off each other, agree and want to play with each other. But in reality, this rarely happens, because Dota 2 players are a bit lazy and they are not used to agreeing on something, getting together and organising themselves.

EGW: Does Tim Hryvnia have any tricks or rituals before matches?

Oleksandr: Like Kopolovets, have you ever watched a Carpathian football match?

EGW: Do they go to church before every game?

Oleksandr: They go to church before every game.

EGW: Well, we all do, Navi Junior Riddys also get baptised, there's that popular gif.

Alexander: Yeah, yeah.

EGW: Well, how do you prepare for the match there, do you analyse your opponent?

Oleksandr: Well, this roster actually got together literally the day before the start. There were no Q&As, no training sessions, and it was a mistake, we shouldn't have done that, but we have what we have. We gathered literally in a day and squeezed out the maximum opportunities to prepare as best we could, because, whatever one may say, there is only one person in the team with normal competitive experience and it is clear that when you enter a tournament where all the teams have competitive experience, there are problems, and we are well aware that everyone will "put us out". And in order to have fewer problems, they will need to be solved in an express mode. Accordingly, when we gathered, we worked out the pool and structure, then the next day we played a qualifier before the official game, did a lot of analytical work and analysis. We tried to play according to the structure. Well, in one match we finally succeeded, when we played against Kalmykians, but unfortunately, this is not enough yet (referring to the match against kalmychata, where Team Hryvnia won the first card, but still lost 2-1).

EGW: And what is the biggest victory of Tim Hryvnia? Is it when you defeated Naviin the closed qualifier at PGL Wallachia Season 2? However, at that time, Tim Hryvnia was already signed by Passion UA.

Alexander: It was a transitional period. One match was won under the Hryvnia tag, and the second match was won under the Passion tag. In general, yes, it was probably our best result.

Remembering the blackouts

Alexander: Remembering the past... Honestly, it's very nice to remember that period, it's so nice, I mean, it's never happened anywhere else and it never will. It's not even about the results, it's about the conditions in which these results were achieved, because there were no conditions. When there were complete blackouts, we blew 2 or 3 open qualifiers, and there was no way to solve all these issues. And it was an absolute stack, I have Bodian(Bogdan BBODDY Batiuk), he has one laptop, he borrows two laptops from his friends in order to somehow, theoretically, play for one hour on one laptop during the blackout period. The person was just running around Sumy region, around Okhtyrka and borrowing laptops.

I had Fernans running around all over Bila Tserkva to computer clubs, and at that moment we were in the middle of the open qualifier final against Nemiga, we won the first card there, and his power went out, and there are only 2 computer clubs in Bila Tserkva, he arrives at one club, and there is no power there either, I'm stalling for time, he just goes to the other end of town by taxi, hoping that the club will work. And we are about to start the second map. And in such conditions, we seem to have won one of the open qualifiers. I will remember this for a very long time, because such stories are one in a million. As a person who has been in this field since 2019, I have seen many different situations and I can say one thing - there will be no more such stories.

EGW: Well, that's cool. You're the one running back and forth, and you still have to tune in to the game...

Alexander: Yes, yes. For example, there were different situations. We had a period when we played 2 tournaments at the same time, the Peruvian Elite League and another tournament in parallel, and the Peruvians were super weird, just a shock... We had a scheduled time for the games, and the games, as it turned out, were there to follow by. We had one game at one time and we were adjusting to this time, and somehow at one point the Peruvians changed their minds, one of the admins wrote to me - we decided differently, let's start now, be ready in a minute. And my yowaai is sitting on Nyvky, and it doesn't have any light there. He flies straight to the computer club, leaves, we realise that we're not on time, I bargain with the admin, ask for at least a little time, try to explain something to him in English and realise that he's "zero for mass, two for track", he doesn't understand what we're talking about.

Just as yowaai arrived at the club, literally minute by minute, just a little bit late, and we were already soldered in. I thought, okay, we still have +- 2 hours to spare, but yowaai obviously didn't want to sit in the club for 2 hours, so he went back. And while he was in the taxi, the admin wrote to me - I was told to start your next match right now! That's how we lost the Elite League, for example. For me, this Elite League and the organiser ESB are some of the worst people in the history of Dota that I've ever met at this level, it's complete trash.

On salaries and the future of Ukrainian Dota

EGW: What are the salaries of Tim Hryvnia?

Alexander: What, there are no salaries here.

EGW: Well, what about Passion UA, some mid-level bands, what's the approximate level?

Alexander: Well, I can't tell you the salaries of Passion, it's not correct on my part. But if we talk in general about the level of TIR-3, TIR-4 Dota, then on average it is $500. It all depends on what kind of organisation you have, how media-driven it is, what kind of funding, sponsors, and players you have, but on average it's +-$500. If you have a rank of 300, and you have experience in some EPL, CCT, you can qualify for this money.

EGW: How do you assess the current state of the Ukrainian esports scene in the midst of the war?

Alexander: Right now, there is no Ukrainian Dota as such.

EGW: If, roughly speaking, the war ends tomorrow, what should we do to increase the number of combat-ready Dota teams?

Oleksandr: The thing is that if the war ends, there will be a lot of funding and resources, organisations like WePlay will return and build some tournaments and plan some future. StarLadder will return here even more, as they are now slowly recovering, but not at the pace we would like. Speaking specifically about Ukrainian Dota and Ukrainian teams, this is a rather specific process, because building a Ukrainian team depends on the cycle and period.

What I mean is that in Dota, a lot of things are tied to the ladder, to the ranks. Now, for example, there is a period when the choice of players is not very large, there is no one to look closely at and work with. For example, this roster, where the guys are now, there is Vanya Pavchik(Ivan "paw" Yashny), who has experience, he is in good shape now, and all the others are guys in the top 600, top 700 who do not have this experience, and this is a problem. I mean, I have nothing against the guys, they're great and so on, but in order to play in tournaments, to qualify for some places, you need to have a strong individual form. As the saying goes , "MMR is not just a number", one hundred per cent.

EGW: But for example, Tim Hryvnia was first bought out by Passion UA, then Team Lynx, and now maybe this team will prove itself somehow and someone will buy them out as well. Do you have any desire to develop Tim Hryvnia as a team, as a brand, or will it be like a donor team?

Alexander: Well... there are two reasons why this roster, this team, was created: the first reason is to give the guys a chance to see what competitive is, and the second reason is more for me, to look closely, to see who is who. I didn't know the guys before, but this way I will have information for the future, with whom I can work, who has what prospects and so on. I have a feeling that maybe some variation of this roster will continue to play after the EPL, there is a certain vibe inside, plus some synergy and people are interested in working and developing somehow.

Do I think about developing the team somehow? In fact, it depends not only on me, it depends primarily on the guys, if they are ready and have a desire to play with each other, work and so on, then why not? For example, I see for myself that if this roster works for a month or two, then it is really possible to qualify for the EPL at least to leave the group. But it will take a few months, we need the will and desire of the team itself.

Dedicated to the fans of Team Hryvnia

EGW: In conclusion, do you have anything to say to the fans of Team Hryvnia, any message to make?

Alexander: Well, if there are such fans... (laughs)

EGW: Well, you have more than 900 people in your telegram group!

Oleksandr: They are unsubscribing rapidly. At the start, there were about 2100, and now more and more people are following, I understand, it's hard, it's not very interesting to watch a team that is mostly losing. What do I want to say? Cheer, if you are interested in watching some new faces, then support them, even if they lose. They are trying their best, believe me - it is not very pleasant for the guys either, and they do not like losing all the matches. And in the conditions they have, with the knowledge they have, the guys are doing their best to take a step forward.

EGW sincerely wishes Team Hryvnia success in the upcoming competitions! You can watch all the team's matches here;)