There is no question that the success of Gaimin Gladiators is a team effort, but much credit has also been attributed to the team’s midlaner Quinn “Quinn” Callahan. Throughout his time with the team, he has consistently delivered strong performances in the midlane, transitioning the early momentum into the midgame with top-notch execution. In an interview with Ukrainian caster Oleksii “STORM” Tumanov, Team Spirit’s support player Myroslav “Mira” Kolpakov explained how to defeat Quinn in the lane. His strategy for breaking Quinn down is to gank his lane a few times as a support and kill him.
Mira proposes ganking Quinn early on to shut down his game
Mira stated in the interview that Quinn’s game has declined in comparison to earlier, while discussing how to push the player on the backfoot early in the game.
“Quinn used to be (Strong), now he doesn’t sweat as much anymore, he’s worse at it. I’ve already realized that if he’s at mid, I just run to the mid, kill him twice, and he always breaks stuff. I already know how to beat him now.”
The professional games haven’t seen Quinn griefing or abusing his teammates or opponents, but his pubs have typically found him destroying items, going AFK, or trashtalking them. The player’s tendency to fall victim to his emotions has often caused opponents to target him early on to win the mental aspect of the game.
This is something Quinn has been accustomed to, but he may be taking a turn for the better as he apologized for it in a long Twitter post last week, saying he is working on himself and will change his ways.
However, Gaimin has had a stellar year overall, one of the most dominating runs in professional Dota 2 history in terms of tournament victories, and it will not want to look at one recent tournament defeat and instead enter The International 12 (TI12) with full vigor and confidence.
Mira’s Team Spirit, a team that has progressively improved throughout the year, will be one of Quinn and Gaimin’s most formidable opponents at The International 12 (TI12), set to commence on 12th Oct 2023.