But one of the bright prospects and a constant in NA has beennouns mid laner, Nico Gunnar Lopez.

How are you doing, are nouns bootcamping for the upcoming Bali Major?

Congratulations on making it to the Bali Major!

This will be your first DPC Major tournament.

How do you feel?

The first time was the whole TEAM TEAM incident with Jacky EternalEnvy Mao, which I find hilarious now.

Im excited to play in the Bali Major.

That should be a great first LAN experience!

Over the last five months, all the nouns players have played only EU pubs and everyone has improved.

We also had communication issues within the team, which is something weve gotten better at.

Some of our best games were probably on display in the last tour [2023 DPC Summer Tour].

The patch did have an impact.

Timbersaw was quite broken, so I had fun!

Was that something the nouns players ever thought of?

All the players briefly thought about it at some point.

Playing on LAN against the best teams in the world is bound to make us better.

What do you think the region is lacking that makes you play EU pubs and scrim against EU teams?

And what would it take to make it one of the strongest Dota 2 regions out there?

Rodrigo Lelis Santos has dual citizenship of Brazil and the United States.

After the good players move away, there are fewer high MMR players to play against.

I also feel players should be incentivized to win games and there should be harsher punishment for ruining games.

Quinn left NA for EU and found instant success.

Youve already played in EU with Ninjas-in-Pajamas in 2020.

Has the thought ever crossed your mind to go back to try and find success in EU?

I have thought about it previously, but that wasnt a thought this year.

How do you like the current DPC system?

What changes would you like to see?

The change from the six week DPC Leagues to the three week DPC Leagues was a positive one.

Now we can bootcamp for the entire tour, rather than selectively bootcamping only before playing the strong teams.

It would be nice to see more slots for DPC Majors and even the DPC Leagues.

On the whole, I think the DPC system is in a good place right now.

It has given the professional scene more structure.

Previously in a region like NA, teams would get created a day before the Major qualifiers!

About a month ago, Dota 2 patch 7.33 was just released.

Do you like it?

I like the patch a lot!

The new map is pretty cool.

It feels nice that there is a lot of movement around the map.

That is something that needs to be addressed.

I dont like the fact that Broodmother was buffed in 7.33d, and she is a Universal hero.

Weve already started seeing the Black Arachnia in DreamLeague Season 20!

How does the mid role feel right now?

Does the mid lane feel like a bit of a dead lane because of the Twin Gates?

There are no supports checking every Water Rune.

Has the mid lane become more skill based now because of lesser early rotations?

What ends up happening a lot of times is both mid heroes just hit creeps and farm.

What do you love doing when you arent playing Dota 2?

I play a lot of video games!

I like streaming, and I stream a lot of Dota 2 but I also stream other games.

Streaming is like my recreational activity.

Outside gaming, I like hanging out with my dog.

Thank you for taking the time to talk with us, Gunnar!

Shoutout to my team.

Weve been putting in the effort, and it has shown.