Interview with Dominykas “MiniBoo” Lukaševičius

Carriço: How did you get into esports?

MiniBoo: So, I was playing rankeds before I was 16 years old. After I was 16 years old my brother invited me to play VCT qualifiers, together with Dreamas who is now playing at Team Liquid, l0udly who is my teammate, and krea6on who played for Tundra. 

We also played dreamhack together. We defeated Gambit 13-4 and after that GMT Esports invited me to play with them. So that is how I got into Esports. 

Carriço: Why did you choose to become a professional Valorant player?

MiniBoo: My dream was to become a CS.GO pro player. But in the middle of the path of becoming a CS.GO player I decided to try Valorant, I got attached to it and I stuck with Valorant. 

Carriço: Can you talk a little bit about your path in VALORANT before joining Arctic?

MiniBoo: So yeah as I mentioned before I played with my brother and my Lithuanian friends. Then after that, I got invited to GMT Esports. I spent four months playing in GMT Esports, and I'm very thankful to them for having picked me because I got a lot of invaluable experience that is helping me right now. 

After that, I got benched by GMT Esports, and one month after that I was contacted by thinkii Arctic coach, and that’s how I went to Arctic.

Carriço: You play manly as a duelist what are some things that make an excellent duelist player at the pro level?

MiniBoo: The excellent duelist player is the guy that feels when he needs to make a play. The guy that feels when he can do a play. The most important thing for me is that excellent duelist players will know when to stop. They are not playing only for kills, or anything similar. Doing nothing is also a skill. 

Carriço: What does your daily routine look like?

MiniBoo: I’m usually going to school but since now we are in the Summer holidays I’m not going to school. But my default day, when I go to school and also have practice is the following.
 
I wake up at 7 AM, I go to school and school ends at around 14 PM. Then I chill a little bit for a few hours, and then I’m practicing for six hours. After that, I do my homework and play some ranked games usually. Then I go to sleep and I repeat the same process every day. 

But now I don't have school, because it's the Sumer holiday so I’m just chilling right now, and I’m not doing anything just grinding Valorant and going outside. 

Carriço: How do you balance being in school but also being a professional Valorant player?

MiniBoo:  It’s not easy but I’m ready for this challenge because I really want to end school and play Valorant professionally. So I think I will get through this.

Carriço: How do you as a team prepare for opponents in general? What is your preparation method?

MiniBoo: Individually I don't prepare for opponents. But as a team, the coach, the assistant coach, or IGL, will review some of their games and talk about the main things about their game. Their playstyle, what they are doing specifically. But we get that information but we still play our game, we just keep in mind what they normally do. 

Carriço: What is your warm-up routine before the games?

MiniBoo: It’s nothing special because earlier I was doing a specific routine, like one hour of Kovac, or a lot of deathmatches, something like this.

But then I realized that the best warmup before officials is to do your default warm-up, what you normally do every day. Because if you are doing that every day that’s the key to consistency. So you should stick with your default warm-up. 

I’m just shooting in the range for 15 to 20 minutes, before officials and that’s it. 

Carriço: How was it to work with the groups of players at Arctic? 

MiniBoo: The people in Arctic are very friendly, they became my second family. They are all my friends and it’s a pleasure to play with them. 

Carriço: What are some of the things/intangibles each player brings that were very important to the team's success?

MiniBoo: thinkii and rau7e, the coach and assistant coach, helped us inside and outside of the game. They are supporting us, they are bringing new tactics, and help us to calm down. 

Our IGL is working a lot too, he is reviewing VOD’s, and creating game plans every day. 

Then I, VTaguT, synsi, and Dext are just thinking of what we should do in terms of macro plays.

Carriço: How important is it to have a great team environment, do you think in order to find success a good team environment outside the game is necessary?

MiniBoo: Yeah. In my opinion, it’s really important to have a great team environment, and in my opinion, that is the key to victory. Because I don't really think that a team with a bad environment can be the number one team. 

It is really important that every player feels comfortable in the team, and that you have a good environment, or it’s not going to work.  

Carriço: How would you evaluate your campaign in this VRL split? 

MiniBoo: We had a good start. In the first nine games, we performed really well, we surprised the audience, everyone started to believe in us and we felt like we were the number one team in the league. 

But then something happened and couldn't play the same way we did in the first nine games. Overall I think we did a great job. We surprised everyone and showed them that we can fight and win. But in the end, we didn't qualify for Barcelona, and it really makes me sad that we couldn't. Because I think we deserved it but, but we didn't win so. But we made good progress this split I think. 

Carriço: What are some of the things you think you need to fix or improve?

MiniBoo: I think I need to filtrate my communications. Because I think sometimes I say many things that aren't really necessary. I think I need to over peek less. Sometimes I’m over peeking too much when doing a play when it’s not needed. 

Carriço: How would you describe your playstyle? 

MiniBoo: I think I’m a really aggressive player. I like to always play aggressively, not giving space to the opponent. I think when opponents are playing against me they are waiting for that aggressiveness. 

Carriço: What are the teams or players that you take inspiration from, is there a particular player you look at and say “I want to be like him” or be able to play like him? 

MiniBoo: My idol is S1mple from CS:GO. I have always looked up to him. I really want to be like him. 

But if we are talking about Valorant then I would say Derke. I think he is the best player in the world right now. He is great, has a good playstyle, great aim, and I want to play like him.

Carriço: What are your goals as a player for the remaining of this year?

MiniBoo: As you could see on my Twitter I’m looking for offers right now. I’m not doing anything particularly. This year I’m not even sure what I’m going to do. 

Of course, I really want to enter the tier one scene someday. But I don't really know when it’s going to happen, or if it’s going to happen, but I hope it will. 

This year I will try to play in every tournament I can.

Carriço: Is there anything else you want to say to your fans?

MiniBoo: I would like to say that if anyone is trying to reach the professional scene, then you should focus not only on your aim, game sense, and decision making, but you should focus on your mental.

Because you should treat your mind the same as you treat your aim. Because even if you are a good player with a good aim, if you are getting tilted easily then you are not a good player. You should focus on that. 

I would also like to thank everyone who is supporting me, that means a lot to me. 

Carriço: MiniBoo thanks a lot for agreeing to do this interview, it was a pleasure talking with you, I wish you the best of luck in the remaining tournaments of this year, and I wish to see you in tier 1 as fast as possible.