Malady Names His Toughest Dota Obstacles

Published September 28, 2026

Team Yandex support Arman “Malady” Orazbayev picked Alan “Satanic” Gallyamov as the player he would remove from Dota 2 in a light-hearted rapid-fire interview. His reason was competitive rather than personal: Satanic plays aggressively, invites punishment and still feels almost impossible to kill. Malady also selected NAVI as the team, Bounty Hunter as the hero and Observer Ward as the item he would prefer not to face or use.

The format matters because the word “remove” was a prompt, not a demand for Valve or tournament organisers to ban a player, team, hero or item. Malady answered by naming the obstacles that irritate him most in different parts of professional Dota. Read together, the choices form a compact picture of pressure from four directions: a resilient opponent, a difficult matchup, an annoying hero and the repetitive duties of his own role.

Satanic was the clearest individual choice. Malady described a player who creates tempting opportunities by moving forward, then survives the response. That makes the aggression frustrating because the expected punishment does not arrive. The comment praises durability and limit-testing more than it criticises behaviour. No match statistic or universal player ranking was attached to the answer.

Why NAVI became the team choice

Malady called NAVI a difficult opponent for Team Yandex and described the team as a recurring kryptonite. The phrase expresses his experience of the matchup, not a complete historical record. It is useful because it identifies the opponent he personally finds most uncomfortable when asked to choose one. It should not be expanded into a claim that Team Yandex always loses to NAVI.

The answer gained immediate relevance at PGL Wallachia Season 9, where Team Yandex reached the grand final and NAVI emerged from the lower bracket to meet them. The official event structure confirms the teams’ presence and the championship setting. Malady’s earlier answer adds a player’s perspective to that matchup, but it does not predict the result of the final.

Bounty Hunter represented a different kind of frustration. Malady said he hates playing against the hero, without turning the comment into a patch analysis or a demand for a balance change. A support can be forced to account for tracking, vision and unexpected movement, but the interview did not specify a build, win rate or particular match. The supported conclusion is simply that Bounty Hunter is his least welcome opposing hero.

Observer Ward completed the set from the support player’s own side of the game. Malady said he was tired of placing wards, a knowingly comic complaint about one of his routine responsibilities. The answer works because it is recognisable role humour: vision remains necessary even when the player responsible for maintaining it is bored with the task.

A playful format with real competitive clues

Rapid-fire interviews compress opinions, so every answer needs a narrow reading. Satanic is difficult to punish, NAVI is an uncomfortable opponent, Bounty Hunter is unpleasant to face and warding is repetitive. Those are personal preferences grounded in Malady’s experience. They are not disciplinary requests, definitive rankings or proposed changes to Dota 2.

The value comes from the pattern. Malady’s selections move from the highest-level opponent down to the smallest recurring task. Together they show what stays in a support player’s mind: whether an aggressive core can be killed, whether a familiar opponent can be solved, whether an enemy hero disrupts the map and whether vision work ever ends.

• Player: Satanic, because Malady finds him extremely difficult to punish.
• Team: NAVI, described as a particularly hard opponent for Team Yandex.
• Hero: Bounty Hunter, whom Malady dislikes facing.
• Item: Observer Ward, chosen as a joke about constant support duties.

Prompt category	Malady’s choice	Careful interpretation
Player	Satanic	Respect for aggressive survival, not an allegation
Team	NAVI	Personal matchup difficulty, not a universal record
Hero	Bounty Hunter	A disliked opponent, not a balance demand
Item	Observer Ward	Humour about the workload of vision

Malady’s answers are best read as competitive humour with a useful edge. They identify the player, team, hero and task that create the most frustration for him without pretending that any should literally disappear. The upcoming NAVI matchup makes one selection especially timely, but the interview remains personal rather than predictive.