Use code THORIN at http://gamersupps.gg/?afmc=THORIN for 10% off an order of GamerSupps' delicious energy formula. ► Join the Scrilluminati to get exclusive perks and support this channel: https://www.patreon.com/Thooorin ► Check out a previous Reflections here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k63vouYO-UM Jesse "JerAx" Vainikka, legendary Support player for teams such as Team Liquid and OG and currently retired from active play, is the star of the 383rd Episode of 'Reflections'. This episode is part one of three about JerAx's career. JerAx's career began humbly enough, with his time in squads like QPAD Red Pandas and Team Tinker not yielding big results, though he got to played with more established names. Gambling on an ambitious MVP HOT6ix project he moved to Korea to play in the team which would attempt to communicate in English. Simply qualifying for TI5 proved noteworthy at this time. After that JerAx would find his way to Team Liquid and quickly he was racking up top tournament placings and by spring of 2016 TL was one of the best teams in Dota. Back-to-back runners-up finishes at the majors and a win at EPICENTER had Liquid arriving at TI6 as a favourite. Alas they were bounced out in 7th-8th place and JerAx chose to move on and play with OG instead. In OG results got even better, as the team won two majors and made a final at DAC. Sadly, it was another TI letdown on the cards for JerAx. Some could have wondered if he was cursed at that particular tournament but history about to disagree. After some bizarre roster ups and downs which eventually led to key member Fly choosing to exit for Evil Geniuses with s4 and OG looked dead in the water. Ceb had to return to active play full-time, ana came back from haitus and the squad gambled on signing Topson, a player with little professional experience. Qualifying to the surprise of many, what followed is one of the greatest tournament runs in esports history. OG won TI8 without dropping a series upon reaching bracket play, famously defeating titans PSG.LGD in some impossibly close series and taking the title. Even more strange was OG's ability to repeat their feat, with ana taking time off and the circuit not being particularly successful for most of the next year only for the team to reassemble heading into TI9 and repeat their feat by going back-to-back at TI! After that JerAx chose initially to retire but would have a brief comeback in 2022 as both a player and eventually a coach. He now coaches individuals from a performance standpoint. In part one, JerAx discusses his climb from obscurity as a former HoN player to playing with the likes of Kuroky in Team Liquid, his unusual time in Korea with MVP HOT6ix, why his self-esteem was so low for many of these early years, achieving success at the majors and OG's open system approach to the meta. This interview was recorded on the 17th of April, 2024. ► Time-line of topics discussed: 00:00 Red Pandas team 03:15 Heroes of Newerth 06:20 Military service 07:55 How good was he in the early days? 09:56 Earth Spirit in early days? 10:22 IeSF 11:45 MATUMBAMAN 13:26 Team Tinker 15:34 MVP HOT6ix 22:05 TI5 26:56 Dota in Korea 29:33 Getting into what became Team Liquid 31:54 Kuroky 34:13 Playing Wings 36:12 The Shanghai Major 38:33 Thinking he'd be kicked?! 40:47 EPICENTER win 41:29 TI6 fail after strong season 43:48 What is it like competing at TI? 47:47 FATA- 50:15 MinD_ContRoL 52:08 Did JerAx choose to leave TL? 53:19 Why was his self-esteem low? 55:25 Validation from being asked to join big teams? 57:01 Joining OG 1:01:32 Losing to iG at DAC 1:05:40 Support style changing over years 1:10:10 Kiev Major 1:11:06 OG openness to creative meta choices 1:15:37 Ceb 1:18:19 Virtus.pro 1:20:44 TI7 fail Subscribe this channel to get access to perks: null ► Check out bite-sized Thorin on my new clips channel: null ► Follow me on social media: https://twitter.com/Thorin https://facebook.com/Thooorin https://www.instagram.com/thooorinofficial/ ► You can discuss this content at my Discord server: https://discord.gg/rDKxKfM ► This video was kindly supported by: Frisky Matt, Pugnatio, Rajcula Ahmed Hadjou Jensen Goh Tobias Bernasconi Animosity touken_ Tosh Special thanks go out to JerCkysMiNi0n. #JerAx #Kuroky #Thorin