Boxi on the Dota 2 EWC 2026: “Although we didn’t play that many games a day, many of the matches were pretty intense.”

The meta is pretty good. A lot of heroes are playable—you can pick almost anything you like, except maybe a couple of heroes, but that’s always the case. I think the map is pretty big, which is why games drag on. I think they could reduce some of the creep camps to minimize roaming, lane pushing, and hiding. Other than that, it’s fine. I’m not a big fan of metas that are geared toward pushing. If farming were a little harder, it would probably feel more standard.

Even though we didn’t play that many games a day, a lot of the matches were pretty intense, and there was a lot of work—like, “Go over there, do this, do that.” You don’t really get to relax in the evenings. We played a lot of Dota, but it was also fun. So, intense. Or fun. Both, I guess.

We were at boot camp 2–3 weeks before the tournament. We tried to fix all our mistakes. The game is constantly evolving: what items people pick and which heroes are popular keep changing. For me personally, I guess the main thing is just to play a lot: you play a lot of Dota, and that’s how you gain a lot of experience. And of course, stick to a sleep schedule so you have energy and aren’t tired. If you’re tired and not feeling well, you’ll play and train worse.

It depends on the day, but, let’s say, if there are no scrims or official matches—you’ll probably play eight, nine, or ten games in matchmaking, because they’re much shorter. You get there around 11 a.m. and usually leave at 11 p.m., but during that time you might only play five games. But if you’re just playing Dota 2 without ranked matches, I’d say at least eight. And many play much more than I do—some probably play 15 public games a day.