Under The Spotlight With SlightOfHand – AKA Smke

Name: Justin Probyn

Age: 19

Occupation: Student

Twilight user level: Slight of hand 43 / smke 11

How long have you been playing DotA

I have been playing casually for about 7 years, but only competitively for 3

How did it all start?

Haha, well I used to play Yu-gi-ho up at stadium on main (a mall in Cape Town) and right next to the playing area was an internet cafe. We used to spam play Tides of Blood, Darkness falls and CS 1.6 until my friend brought DotA on a flash drive for us to try out. Been playing ever since.

On average how long do you spend playing DotA a day?

Depends if I go out.. if I do not go out then about 6 hours a day.

Tell us about your clan, the players and their roles?

The infamous scant is our leader/dictator, he drafts and assigns hero’s if we are being too indecisive, he normally plays semi-carry/gank/support.
Radox aka n3komata is the carry player of the team, makes fighting and pushing decisions.
Bonkers is our new recruit he normally players carry/semi-carry/support/collar.
Nakor aka the gp god aka doctor dota is our support/gank player and on the odd occasion plays semi-carry.
Then me, I play gank/support/semi-carry…Or anything that’s missing really.

Who do you believe is the best clan in S.A and why?

At the risk of sounding arrogant/pretentious I would say us… I heard on the grapevine that mint recently had a fallout of sum sorts and there’s animosity between some of their players. This will obviously weaken their team… But its all speculation (SO DON’T RAGE AT ME IF I AM WRONG.)

JJ is a strong team , but many of their players BARELY play DotA, you need to play a lot to stay on top.

dedA is very competitive and a well anchored team but like everyone else they have faults.. and I think their faults (even though they can be easily corrected) have a big impact on the outcome of the game.

We have problems between our players, and I think many people know we do, but as soon as we play a serious game, they sort of fall away.

Do you see any clan breaking into the 4 top clans, being DedA, JJ, TankH and Mint?

I can honestly say I don’t know. Many teams refuse to play top level teams. I actually don’t know what teams are out there that are good and have potential…
P.S If u play stronger teams, you will definitely learn more, even if u get utterly thrashed. Just all get on ts, watch the replay and discuss what went wrong where, when and how.

What are your views on the latest map?

I love the new hero’s, not are they only EXTREMELY fun to play, but they are also rather imbalanced. Playing against them makes any game, be it a pub or not, a good challenge.

The changes to TP scrolls and the addition of the urn is definitely going to encourage more roaming of the map. Which means more ganging, more fighting, better use of player skill, finding better warding spots and of course less turtling.

If u sit back and look at it (which I encourage u do) most of the spell changes work extremely well in gangs/big fights and pretty useless when it comes to farming. I hope we can use this version, with the new hero’s, in the competitive scene soon.