Saberlight finally finds a home in Team Liquid Dota

You’d be hard pressed to find a player with as much personality as Jonáš "SabeRLight-" Volek. The Czech offlaner started his career in Europe but made his name in the North American DPC, helping teams TSM and Shopify Rebellion to compete at the highest level. Beyond the gameplay, Saberlight has been winning fans over on pretty much every interview and stream — you’d be hard-pressed to find a funnier pro player in the scene. 

This year though, Saberlight has taken his biggest step yet: joining a Team Liquid roster that just won TI, replacing one of Dota’s most mechanically gifted offlaners in the process. It’s been a bumpy ride with Liquid, with podium finishes and upset losses, but Saberlight and TL remain in high spirits. This is a team that’s used to riding the waves and biding time to build a system. And this is a player who, in this interview, tells us that he was bought into the system before he was even fully on the roster.

Talk to me about how you first joined Team Liquid. 

One or two years ago, when I was playing on Shopify, Fly was leaving and we needed to restructure the team. We played the ESL One Kuala Lumpur qualifiers but didn't make it through. Luckily, I had a friend who was close to 33 and she told me that he wouldn't be able to make it to Kuala Lumpur because of visa problems. I found this out way earlier than anybody else, so I messaged Blitz as soon as possible, and told him that I wanted to stand-in for them. From what I've heard, they didn't seem too keen on me but luckily it worked out. 

I learned a lot about how teams should function [from Team Liquid] and I was trying to implement some of those things on Shopify, and it wasn't really possible. So I knew if there was an opportunity for me to join Team Liquid, I would take it. 

I know from talking to Aydin [Insania] that, 33 decided that he would probably leave right before TI started, did you know after or did you know before? How did that happen? 

I knew before it was over. If I remember correctly, 33 and the team decided they would part ways after Elite League Season 2 which is very odd because they won the tournament. But I also heard, it was a very stressful time for everybody, despite the good results. I started talking to Blitz about joining a little bit before TI, and it was probably going to happen, but nothing confirmed. 

As they were going through TI and they started winning — on one hand, I was really happy for them because I think they really deserved to win it. I was hoping that my boys were gonna do well. On the other hand, with every win I was a little bit more and more worried that 33 would stay because why would you leave a team that won The International? 

You’ve mentioned that you’ve enjoyed your time with the team and you’re very comfortable, is there something specific that sets them apart as a team and organization that they’ve been doing so well the last few years? 

I think the biggest attribute is every single one of the players is insanely talented and very easy people to work with. There's a lot of really talented Dota players that aren't necessarily good teammates, but the Liquid guys are really good teammates. So we learn together and when it comes to showtime and we're playing some Dota, everyone performs. It feels very easy. 

Before joining TL and even before you were a stand-in, you took a break from competition and did a lot of content. You eventually played with the Gorgc stack for the International Qualifiers. Did taking that time away from competition change anything for you? Was focusing on content harder or easier?


That was a really interesting period for me, shifting into content wasn't entirely my choice. The situation was that during my time on Shopify, we had very different ideas of how to approach the game and how the team should function. It eventually got so bad that it felt like we would collect our salary, play a tournament and go through the motions. I felt like we didn't actually want to win. 
It wasn't a team that I wanted to be a part of, so I left. 

My hope was to join a different team, or that someone will need a stand for TI or Riyadh but none of that happened. The plan B was to stream, chill and take a break. Satisfactory had just come out so I was working on my factory and streaming. At the same time, I was grinding pubs to be the best free agent possible in case a team needed me. Luckily, I was also playing Elite League Season 2 [with Shopify], which is really nice. 

When I think of Saberlight the player, I think of your YouTube intro, where you are jumping and spinning on stage in your player introduction. How do you think having that lighthearted persona affects the team atmosphere? 

The reason why I'm playing pro Dota is because it's fun, you know? I don’t do it for the money. 
I don't do it to play on amazing teams. I do it because it’s fun! And I only have fun when you have fun with it, which is where the funny persona comes from. Why not be a little silly with it? It's also why I think I am a solid teammate, because I want people to have a fun time playing with each other, and I think that's where the vibe that I am a nice guy comes from. 

Speaking of your funny persona, another person I find hilarious is your brother, Jenik. I see him pop up in high MMR pubs sometimes. I was wondering what his influence was on your journey to become a professional player? 


Yeah Jenik is a legend. He is younger than me by three years; we grew up playing Dota together because we had to share one laptop. In the really early days, our parents only allocated 2 hours of video game time a day. Since I'm the older brother, I was ahead of him and I made it to the pro scene earlier and he was trying to do the same. 

That was three, four years ago and I don’t think the pro grind was good for him. He was struggling at school, he wasn’t sleeping enough, and he wasn’t in a good place. I think he felt that his brother went pro, so he needs to do the same, following in my footsteps. Eventually he chose his own path and he's at university trying to study to become a lawyer. He has a girlfriend, he still plays Dota from time to time and shows up on streams. It’s all good.

You mentioned that having your goofy persona helps a lot with team atmosphere. What do you feel like it takes to be a good teammate? Especially with your experience with Team Liquid for the last few months?

I think to be a good teammate. You need to focus on yourself. You need to make sure that you understand the game and that your ideas are good. You need to make sure that you are not griefing the game alone due to your own problems and emotions. Once you are settled, then I think you can be helpful to others. And that can manifest in different ways. Sometimes it's sharing ideas about the game. Sometimes it's being the shot caller inside the game. To give an overall answer, it is to do what the team needs at the moment. That varies depending on the situation.
Sometimes it's being very patient and understanding with your teammates — not stressing them out when they're already under a lot of stress. Sometimes it's the opposite — it's being hard on people and making sure they aren’t lazy and put in the work.

I know you speak from a lot of experience, and you’ve had many opportunities to learn from veteran players like you mentioned before. What are some of the most important qualities that you implement everyday as a player? 

The main thing
 that comes to mind is that Bulba taught me the importance of routine. I don't have much of one right now because we are on break. However, when the tournaments start up again, I will be waking up at the same time, going to the gym, having a pregame routine. Even when I play pubs, I do it systematically. I play three pubs then take a break, then another three because we mostly play best of threes. 

I think Insania has taught me how to be a good teammate in an emotional sense. I know how to be supportive and be there for people on a personal level. 

I've been asking this question to every pro player that I've gotten the chance to talk to over the last few months. Now that you've had time to reflect, how do you feel about the system right now? 

It's definitely better for me now considering I was playing the NA DPC and I think that was a joke. We would wait a month and a half to play one good team. I like the current system but there are too many tournaments. All we do is play tournaments, fly to a different tournament, bootcamp and repeat. In a perfect world, when the better teams take a break, the tournaments give a chance for tier-two teams to step up. 

That's what happened in Lima, some of the players didn't get visas, and some teams also skipped the tournament. Suddenly there are a bunch of South American teams that wouldn't have gotten the opportunity to play otherwise. These tier-two teams gain experience and provide more competition in the future. I think the main focus should be on finding ways for tier-two teams to get more of a spotlight in the future.