Ekki after being eliminated from the 2026 Esports World Cup in Dota 2: “Next time, we’ll come back even stronger.”

Of course, we feel pretty devastated. Losing is always tough. But at the same time, we’re still happy that we were able to beat several teams and make it to the final three days of the tournament. Making the Top 8 isn’t such a bad result, although, of course, we wanted to go further and achieve more. That’s life. Next time, we’ll come back even stronger.

I think our opponent largely determined the outcome today. It seems to me that they prepared very well for the match against us. The way they played the map really punished us for any mistakes we made. I think we didn’t have good answers to their tactics, and we had to adapt as the game went on. To be honest, they simply did an excellent job. For the most part, they managed to stop us and prevent us from playing our game. But they really are a very, very strong team—one of the contenders to win the tournament. That’s just how it goes.

I think in situations like this, everyone already realizes that the game is coming to an end. But you still have to stay optimistic and look for at least one chance to turn the game around. Even at the end, we were saying, “Alright, let’s build the Black King Bar now and fight for the second Roshan—that’s probably all we can do. If we just give up the Aegis of the Immortal, we’ll lose, so we have to at least try.” It didn’t even come to that, though—our opponents came after us first. But that’s exactly how you think in moments like that. Our job is to play and try to win no matter what. But when it’s all over, everyone, of course, already realizes that it’s the end.