Ace Reveals Gaimin Gladiators’ Secret To Success

The offlaner discusses how his team came on the verge of winning back-to-back Majors

Gaimin Gladiators are within touching distance of winning successive Major titles and a third tournament trophy in the last two months. The European giants will lock horns with either 9Pandas or Team Liquid in the ESL One Berlin Major 2023 Grand Final. 

FINALS AGAINS
NON VEGAN BUT SORRY
GG WP 🤝 @9pandasgg #ESLOne pic.twitter.com/dGFjTXNvBh

— GG | Gaimin Gladiators ⚔️ (@GaiminGladiator) May 6, 2023

Before the big match, Gosu Gamers caught up with Gaimin Gladiators star Marcus “Ace” Hoelgaard. Ace, who has won the DreamLeague Season 19 and Lima Major 2023 with his current team, shed light on the secrets behind Gaimin Gladiators' consistent success and their ability to stay at the top of their game through various patches.

“I think the magic comes from the synergy in the team. Everybody is having a good time with each other, we talk to each other a lot, we go out together and do things together outside the game. On some other teams, sometimes people don't talk to each other that much, they play the game or they do the practice and then they go back to their room and do nothing while we are pretty close together and that makes us able to talk about Dota and theorize or strategize so much more easily.”

The 29-year-old has played under two coaches at Gaimin Gladiators. He joined the team on the same day that Daniel “ImmortalFaith” Moza took charge. ImmortalFaith was more actively involved in drafting and had the last say in that regard. Ace says that Aske “Cy-” Larsen, who took over the coaching role in December of last year, is more open to ideas from all members of the team.

“Yeah, we had ImmortalFaith for a long time with us, and as you said, he was more dictating, he wanted to do the drafts, and he wanted to use his ideas and stuff, but on this team, we already have a lot of smart players, very creative players and everybody has their own good ideas. So, we just felt it would be better if we can use our own ideas more, and when we started to look for a new coach, we went for someone who fits this mentality. Cy- is very good at getting everyone's ideas out and having conversations, conducting the discussion, if you want, towards a decision made together. He empowers our ideas and helps with whatever he can all the time so that was the change that we had in mind and it's exactly what we have gotten with him joining the team.”

Ace plies his trade as an offlaner these days, but he used to be a carry player. He made the switch to offlane after joining GG from Team Tickles. Ace talked about the transition and also said that it’s unlikely that he will return to his carry days in the near future. 

“Yeah, I do really enjoy playing offlane. It took me a little bit to transition to the new role because it's like completely different than the carry position, you are more selfish in a way as a carry, all you think it's your farm, and if you die as a carry is bad. But as an offlaner you buy items in order to empower your team, of course, now we have this aura-man meta that is only about that, but even before the patch, I'd buy items to make Quinn even stronger in fights, or to help my supports. To be honest, it takes a while to get into that mindset when switching from carry to offlane, but I do enjoy it now! It's more chill in a way, less stressful if you want. I'm probably not going back to carry anytime soon.”