At the TI14 main event, Jared “Nomad” Bajina has been the voice of victory, conducting adrenaline-fueled interviews with the winners of each match. Speaking to confident cores, triumphant offlaners, and celebrating supports, Nomad has provided the mouthpiece for post-game popoffs and sitdown interviews throughout the event.
We sat down with him on Saturday, Sep. 13, with TI14 marching towards its conclusion. That day, he’d chosen to don a custom suit, with the same cosmic, runic theming as the TI stage. It was the first thing we asked him about.
Before we get into it, I’ve got to ask you about the suit today. It’s got the same runes, the same colour as the TI stage. What’s the story there? Tell me about it, or do you know more about this rune mystery that we do?
Jared “Nomad” Bajina: “So essentially I came in for rehearsal. I didn’t know anything about the theming or the runes or anything like that. I came in for rehearsal and I saw all these runes everywhere and just in casual conversation with others, I said ‘this would look really cool if it was on an outfit.’
I do have a purple jacket and everything’s kind of purple and then the runes are in gold. That would look really cool. And then I was like, could I do that? And they’re kind of, ‘eh, probably not.’ There’s a lot of things which have to go right for this to happen. I’ve got to get permission from Valve, I’ve to go and find a tailor. But I was like, I’ll give it a try.
And the good thing was, the only reason it was able to happen was because they did our rehearsal a day before everybody else’s rehearsal. So it was me, Ted, Slacks and Tsunami and the translators who got a rehearsal a day earlier. So that meant it would then be two days until we went live. So I had a day off and I was like, screw it, I’m gonna give myself a mission. I approached Valve and was like, look, I’ve got this idea. And they said ‘yeah, really cool. Go for it. You’ve got permission to use our runes for that.’”
So do you know what the runes mean?
Nomad: “My runes? I know what my runes mean. I believe the community has already translated it, but it’s not exactly difficult. It doesn’t really give away anything because it uses three of the same letters as the word Dota. So yeah, they’re not particularly useful for the codecrackers out there. But it was really cool. To get permission from Valve who said, we like your idea, go and execute it.
I spent a day whizzing around Hamburg on an e-scooter trying to find a tailor that could do it. Got turned away from like four places until finally the fifth one was like, ‘yeah, I think we can get it done in time.’ And then it arrived by courier on Friday evening, just before the arena closed. And I was like, oh wow. It looked so good. They did such a good job. I was extremely privileged. So yes it was absolutely a custom job, so shout out to the tailors. I wanted to get more words and stuff on there but due to the time restraints I could only really do like a maximum like five runes.”
So just generally about TI, this is your second time on the main stage. We talked last year. Did this year feel more natural, easier? Are you more relaxed?
Nomad: “Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think most people have been commenting on that. Last year, you know, considering that was my first time on stage in front of people, I still think I did extremely well. But if I’m being completely honest, I was just keeping my head above the water trying to just do what I could to sort of keep the interviews good, keep the content good, and keep everything on track.
But I think I ticked the boxes last year, but this year definitely feels more like, I mean, I’m in control. I feel like I’m taking control of the stage. I’m feeling the audience and trying to keep everything in level with them. We’ve had some really good moments so far, which have been really fun.
I’m just able to actually think about what I’m doing this year. Last year I kind of just made a plan, went out and sort of like, vibrated my way through it. The shakes have stopped, which is pretty good. I’ve been working on that a lot. Confidence is a really difficult thing to work on. I think anybody knows that. It’s essentially overthinking. How do you work on overthinking? It’s like, you need to stop thinking about it. But how can you stop thinking about it if you’re trying to work on it?”
It’s not something you can train, it’s something you build.
Nomad: “Yes, exactly so I mean obviously huge shout out to PGL because they gave me a lot of work into doing interviews this year at the Wallachias.I did three of those so that gave me an excellent training ground to start to look into things a little bit more even. The head producer, Seb, there gave me some really awesome tips me to work on the run-up to The International.
Yeah, I mean, they’ve been a fantastic company to work with and then coming back around to TI just had such a better foundation to build from and tried to just do the best I can. And so far, I think I am doing that. There’s always stuff which you can look back on, you can work on. You know, I wish I had done that a little bit better, I wish I’d changed that, but I’m very happy with how it’s going so far.”
Last year when we spoke at TI13, you said to me, the thing is that you wanted to be the ‘most improved talent.’ That was your goal. Did you have a goal for this year? Can you tell me about it now?
Nomad: “Yeah, radically different approach this year where I was looking to be the most improved talent. *laughs* That goal doesn’t really change. It’s more of an ethos I guess than a goal. But, I mean, I think that’s a pretty attainable goal when everybody else here is kind of at the top of their game and I’m, you know, I’m still the newest TI talent, right? I’m still the new kid on the block.
I feel less that way this year. It’s not like they treat me differently. The talent in Dota is incredibly kind and loving and accepting and I’ve never felt like an outsider in that regard. Within myself, I definitely felt more like part of a group, which is natural. It’s the second time around.
Still, I have that feeling that I need to get to their level. That’s what I’m always trying to do. But I think each time, I’m getting better and better.”
Nomad at TI14 (Image credit: Valve)
Do you have any interviews that you’ve done this event that you’re especially proud of?
Nomad: “I think the SumaiL one. It’s a bit of a freebie, I won’t lie to you, interviewing SumaiL, it can’t really go badly. But I think I was happy because I’ve been talking about being able to think on my feet on stage, right? So we come off the back of the victory, it’s super hype. I’m ready to scream in his face basically, and just make everybody go mental because that’s really fun to do and it’s good to listen to the crowd.
However, the moment SumaiL starts talking, he’s giving good insights and he’s being very kind of reflective and soft spoken and giving this like a really good heartfelt interview. So I have to adjust the strategy and I kind of like to tone it back a lot. I was able to keep pace with him, not be over the top, and take the interview how he clearly wanted to take it and not push it in my direction.
I was actually able to think about that at the time because I wasn’t shitting myself. That’s a nice thing which I wouldn’t have been able to last year. And then at the end I was still like, well, I need to give the people what they want, know, people that have some air on the stage. So I think I used the line like, “The king has returned to TI!” or something and people went absolutely bananas. You can tell I’ve been holding it in all the whole time just listening, trying to hear what this player with an incredible legacy had to say and the fans were just ready to let loose. I felt like, you know, we reached that climax together and it’s lovely to be in sync with the audience.”
More of a general question, there’s a lot of talk in the community about TI still being special ‘in spite of the low prize pool.’ As someone who’s on-site, working, the entire event, what do you think it is about TI that makes it special and different to other events?
Nomad: “I mean it’s the effort which everybody puts in, honestly. I think it all kind of trickles down but Valve put in a tremendous amount of effort this year. The stage looks absolutely phenomenal. The organisation has been great. PGL, the production crew, has put in loads of effort as well. The talent, obviously, will give their A-game. And the players, they play their hearts out as well. Everybody knows what the Aegis means and even if it’s not the same prize pool as it used to be, the legacy is just as strong.
So that’s pretty much what it comes down to. So everybody knows that this is the event of the year. It doesn’t really matter how much money is behind it.”
Nomad at TI14 (Image via Valve)
Let’s be honest: Just from an in-game match quality basis, do you think this TI was better than last year, in terms of the matches we’re getting?
Nomad: “Yes, much better. I think last year we had a pretty clear hierarchy of teams. This year maybe it’s just Team Falcons pushing ahead, but we’re just not sure yet. It looked like Xtreme were going to sweep and they didn’t. They’ve gone down to the lowers now, so nobody really knows how it’s gonna go, which is quite fun. We haven’t had those long, drawn-out, super exciting matches up until right now. We’re doing this interview directly after the Heroic vs. BB series, which was our first TI main stage, you know, hype, ‘everybody’s losing their shit’ match. That was what we’ve all been waiting for. So it was very nice for everybody to sort of get that. Does that change the atmosphere and make the rest of the teams sort of sweat and play a little bit more hype? Maybe…
That does come from pressure and mistakes, which I think is why we’ve seen more of those like super-duper hype games in like the really high prize pool TI’s when the pressure is just unbelievable. But that still does come in especially for a lot of these teams that want it so badly and that’s the thing all the teams want it badly.”
Recency bias might take this one but is there a game that stands out as your favourite from this year’s TI?
Nomad: “I don’t think it’s recency bias to say HEROIC vs. BB Team. I mean, if HEROIC had won it would have been insane. Regardless of anything else, it’s just SA getting the highest result they’ve ever had. That alone is extremely exciting. We also have this sort of crowd which has adopted them in a lot of ways. Everybody loves an underdog, and HEROIC was so close to getting it. It would have been one of the hypest of the last few years if HEROIC had taken it.
It’s still very exciting even though BB did take it but hopefully they go far and keep giving us this quality of games.”
And then we’re on the penultimate day at The International. Do you have a prediction of who’s going to win or do you not want to jinx it?
Nomad: “I don’t mind who wins, but I just hope that the team with the best story wins. But I think Falcons, the analytical part of my brain, is definitely screaming Falcons at the moment.
They are in a really good place both gameplay wise and mentally where they can sort of outplay any team. It could be anybody but Team Falcons would be my bet.”
That’s fair enough! Thank you for talking to us.
Nomad: “You’re welcome, anytime.”
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