Bach: “I’d compare The International to a book, and winning the championship is the chance to finish reading it.”

It was boot camp after The Summit 5 and before TI, and we were yelling at each other a lot. It all started with a discussion about some gameplay moments, but people got worked up, and the tension kept building. It went from “we have a problem with our gameplay” to “you’re so bad, you’re so stupid”—“no, you’re the stupid one.” Eventually, it escalated into a fight, but of course we stopped it; it wasn’t serious. It just seemed to us at that moment that we wouldn’t be able to play at TI like that, that maybe we’d just give it all up. It was a very difficult moment. And then he stepped up as a leader and gathered us together for a serious talk. You know, it’s even become a bit of a meme: it’s like every time before a big event, you have to have a fight and a serious talk first—and then you’ll perform well.

Team Liquid reached out to me before the 2024 season, when Zai was leaving. But I was on a break at the time, and I wasn’t ready to play Dota 2 yet, so I didn’t join them. That said, I did go visit their base—just out of curiosity. They’re really great people; we’re good friends, and I enjoyed spending time with them, but I still didn’t feel like playing at the time. In the end, I did end up playing that season, and Liquid went on to win TI 2024. And I was actually glad about that—I thought that if I had joined them, I probably would have ruined their championship run. That was my closest chance to join a Western team.

Back when Chinese teams were still strong, you could tell that, overall, all the teams from China placed more emphasis on team fights: we picked heroes geared for teamfights and played as a group. I think Chinese teams have always played that way, but at some point it stopped working as well as it used to—perhaps because the laning phase and individual play became more important. Solo play versus team play—that, in my opinion, is the difference between Western and Eastern Dota 2. I also think the smaller map was better suited for a team-oriented style: there aren’t many resources, and if you move together, you can secure them for yourselves, leaving the enemy without enough gold to farm. And in Western European Dota 2—you can see this even in pub games—everyone is great at farming, getting solo kills, and building up their full item set very quickly.

I’d compare The International to a book, and winning the championship is the chance to finish reading it. I had the chance to finish reading this book when I was very young, but back then I didn’t understand much of what was inside. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve reread it over and over—and each time I’ve seen different things in it, different meanings in every chapter. I’m still reading it today. I hope to finish it one day—I’m sure that when I do, I’ll discover many new things and experience completely different feelings. But if I don’t manage to finish it—that’s okay, too. After all, there’s always something in life you can’t do, and there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s what TI means to me right now.