Cap on the Ukrainian national team at the Esports Nations Cup 2026: “I think they could have put together a better roster.”

Cap: I’ve read various theories online. And it seems the two biggest ones on this topic are as follows. Since it’s Axe, it’s likely that they’re going to release a new hero. Maybe a new hero will appear with some kind of content, like they did with Kez when they tied his release to the “Fallen Crown.”

Maybe the next content will be dedicated to another hero from the Oglo, the Axe race. For example, I missed everything related to “Curiosities,” but I know there’s some kind of treasure hunter in there—an Oglood with a very deep voice. I haven’t read all that stuff, but maybe he’ll become a playable character in the future.

Or maybe it’ll be the same old story. Remember that promo with the Ringmaster, where he was catching an Axe? Maybe it’s related to that, because back then there was a theory that there would be some kind of carnival event. So, maybe they dug up some old content they’d already been working on, polished it up, and are finally ready to present it.

SVG: Or maybe it’ll be another crossover. Austin, have you ever thought about a Dota 2 crossover with Papa John’s? The greatest crossover of all time, where if you play 10 ranked games and have a win rate above 50%, you get a free pizza. Here’s an idea. That would be cool because there’s already pizza in the game—Underlord has a taunt. All you have to do is put a little hat on him, and there you have an event. It’s practically free content. A free idea—I don’t even need any money.

SVG: I don’t know who’s coming to the tournament, but if you just put together rosters based on players, the CIS has some of the strongest teams. Maybe Western Europe too, like Sweden or Finland. If you put together all the top Finnish players—there’s Topson and MATUMBAMAN—I think they could still do pretty well.

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Cap: I also saw the Ukrainian team’s roster. There are guys from NAVI, but there’s also some guy I don’t even know. kreker? I’ve never heard of him. I’ve seen QBFY, but he’s not Tier 1. They also have pma, Niku, and gotthejuice. I think they could have put together a better roster. But I don’t know.

SVG: The problem with debates about the best Dota players is that they played in completely different patches, on completely different teams, in different eras when the game was very different. And most importantly for me—they had different styles. You can’t compare them. Even within the carry pool: can you compare TI winner Fear, with his self-sacrificing, map-running style, to a player like Ame, who just farms? You can’t say that one is better than the other because they played the game so differently. That’s the problem with discussions about the best players: yes, you can pick your favorite, but it’s pretty hard to claim that he’s the best.

However, when looking at players at their peak, we can examine the numbers and see how much better these guys were at their peak compared to everyone else at the time, and whether they created a significant enough gap relative to others. And this is where it gets really interesting.