Fly: "This year I am hoping to become a real contender for multiple LANs.

At the first major LAN event of the year, Nouns captain Tal "Fly" Aizik sat down with the crew to share his feelings on the tournament, the host country, and the recent ban wave on Smurfs.

BetBoom Dacha is the first LAN of the year, with twelve of the best teams in the world competing for their slice of the million-dollar prize pool.

Fly is in Dubai for the first time

We wouldn't mind travelling there at all. (Credit: Royal Mirage).

BetBoom Dacha's qualifiers were held online but the main event and group stage are at One&Only Royal Mirage. The hotel aims to provide the experience of living in a palace in the Middle East.

So far the tournament organiser's efforts to impress the teams have paid off, as Fly had nothing but compliments for the place and Dubai in general.

"Because it's my first time in Dubai, just being in this Resort, it's really beautiful I did get to walk a bit outside and just kind of see the beach. In my free time, I would definitely want to go swimming if I can and I know Dubai has a lot of "biggest in the world" things, like the tallest skyscrapers and the biggest mall, so if I have a little free time I would like to go out for sure."

After leaving Shopify Rebellion, this will be Fly's biggest test with his new team and for now his goal is to focus on improving the squad as much as possible, "You always want to do your best but it's hard to say you're going to get first place or something, you just go as far as you can. This year I am hoping to grow with my team and become a real contender for multiple LANs."

Fly on the Smurf bans: "So I think it targets more the other player base, that isn't in like the top 1%."

Valve has made its stance crystal clear. (Credit: Valve).

Valve has taken a lot of steps to remove Smurfs from Dota 2. They were willing to resort to banning a player during a live professional match to send a message when necessary.

Multiple pros have shared their thoughts on the ban wave and as a whole, the response has been positive, with many praising Valve's efforts and recognizing the necessity of the action.

Fly echoed the sentiment of other professionals, believing that this helps the Dota 2 scene but won't really impact high MMR accounts overall.

"I think it's good, Honestly I don't know how much it affects pro players. I know there's some random eight or nine Nightfall smurfs here and there but overall I think most of the pro players, their accounts are very high mmr anyway, so it's maybe not the biggest difference. So I think it targets more the other player base, that isn't in like the top 1%."

Nouns ended their first day with a 2-0 loss against Team Spirit.  They will need to be in the top four teams to make it to the playoffs but at least their strongest opponent is behind them.

READ MORE: Five reasons Mage Slayer is dominating the Dota 2 meta

Featured Image Source: Shopify Rebellion