Etienne "ETPanda" Galea has risen up to be a prolific member of our squad, as well as of the Maltese Dota 2 scene in general. We're interviewing Etienne to get to know him better and his ambitions in esports.

1) Hi Etienne, could you kindly introduce yourself? How old are you, and what do you do when you're not denying creeps?

My name is Etienne Galea from Dingli, I'm 22 years old and have been playing Dota 2 for 5 years now, since 2013. I got into Dota 2 because I saw it on Steam as most downloaded at the time and it was free so I gave it a shot, luckily my laptop handled the game with minor lag issues. Usually as an Offlaner of course i need to deny as much as possible but with the current meta which is normal 1 vs 3 your only aim is not to die, get as much XP as possible, and slow the Carry as much as you can.

2) What draws you towards Dota 2? How long have you been playing the game, and what's your experience of the game so far?

Dota 2 is just the perfect game for me, it's very interesting and hard with a lot and a lot to learn, and when you outplay someone (with a kill or barely escaping alive) gives you so much satisfaction. I have like 5000 hours on this game and to be completely honest of course, neither the game nor the community are perfect and there will be moments when you say I'm not playing this game any more (or I think i need a break) but the interesting part is that I just love this game. I just go back to it over and over again.

3) It's been nine months since the Project Eversio Dota 2 team was founded, with yourself as one of the founding members. What is the status of the team at the moment?

Right now we are looking for a new mid player because N7 left the team and Yaster took his place leaving our Mid Laner slot empty so I would invite anyone who is interested locally or internationally to get in contact with us and give it a shot. Other than that we are quite disappointed that right now the local Dota 2 community just gave up on the tournaments  locally, but my opinion is that to play in a tournament you don't need to win to have fun, of course winning is a plus but if you're there with all your friends, discussing Dota and strategies and fooling around and basically having fun. Which this makes a game special that it connects all these people in an event who before they might have been total strangers such as in my case with Eversio, none of whom I knew before except Grimmy.

4) Last September, you participated in and won the Nova Series #1. You lost your groupstage match against your main competitors. How did it feel to turn the tournament around, and win the final on stage?

To be honest it was one of the best memories seeing that gg wp on the 3rd game vs Team Fido, and lifting up the trophy, it is just something special that I cant really explain, I have a dream to compete internationally and winning that tournament I felt that maybe it could actually happen. Since the beginning both us and Fido knew we will see each other in the finals, our first games in the group stage were with Fido and we lost 2-0 if I'm not mistaken just because we didn't do the right picks and some crucial mistakes from some team members. So we started on a wrong foot in the tournament, which morally destroyed us. But playing the other games of the group stage which basically we beat everyone and the matches weren't even close we gained our confidence back and before the final we decided to study a bit Fido, mostly about their picks. From there on we all know what happened.

5) You've recently started streaming. What's your schedule and what can viewers expect from your stream?

Yes and I am actually enjoying it a lot, to be honest I am saying to myself why I didn't do so before. My schedule is from 8:30pm everyday except weekend. On the weekends I might do longer streams or just no streams it depends on what i have planned with my personal life.

Right now, I am just taking it easy and trying the best way to find the right way to do it and getting used to streaming, but trust me I have big things planned!

6) What's your role within the team and the game? Who are your favourite heroes, and why?

Currently I am an offlaner/roamer since i have a very aggressive  play style. My all time favorite is Blood Seeker (the old one) but since the change I don't play him much especially because he is not viable in the current meta. Right now my favorite is Clockwork because the amount of lockdown he has is insane plus he is a very good counter of Pudge which is the all time most played hero in the game, so he is just perfect.

7) What are your ambitions in esports, and how is the team progressing to fulfill those? 

Currently we are trying to start small such as the weekly weekend ESL tournaments and battle cups, unfortunately we aren't having much success. But we are planning to keep our confidence and improve as a team and as soon as we get the new player we start to get back on track with our training as a team and hopefully one day we compete intentionally. 

8) Unfortunately, the local Dota 2 scene is in a bit of a slump, and the likelihood is that the game won't be featured at upcoming offline competitions in Malta, however, what advice would you give the local event organizers as to how they can create something to get the community excited and active?

To be honest I have been thinking about this a lot because it's a shame that Dota 2 which holds the world record for the biggest prizepool in a tournament, doesn't have a strong local community, and there are a lot of Maltese people playing, but they just don't like to compete because they just give up before they even try. The start is always the hardest time you will have trust me. My advice is that organizers just make tournaments that include also other teams from the international scene so we build a stronger community not just in Malta but internationally they will see our potential.  

9)Thank you for your replies, any shoutouts?

Shout out to all my team members, and all the new teams that are interested to give Dota 2 a shot in the local scene/internationally.