KJ on the team’s performance in the Esports World Cup 2026 group stage: “We didn’t have our best days, and we weren’t able to bounce back.”
LGD Gaming support Mateus “KJ” Santos and jungler Deniz, in an interview at the Esports World Cup 2026 Dota 2 tournament, commented on the second map against Inner Circle x Insanity during the tournament’s sixth day of play, spoke about his personal form, and summed up the group stage for the team.
On the second map against Inner Circle x Insanity
It was just an insane game. I think it’s because the game was, essentially, already won—I didn’t need to take such risks. But at times it got a little boring, and… I still knew the outcome was already obvious, so I wanted to push the game forward a bit. We didn’t really need to do anything—just let Lone Druid finish the job.
On My Personal Performance
I’m not sure—I think there were two matches where I didn’t play very well, and when I get back to the hotel, I’ll just go through a bunch of replays to analyze what I did. But I don’t feel like I’ve shown my best yet in this group stage.
On the group stage results
We’re no worse than the others, but… I don’t know the exact reason. I think, in part, we were a little tired because we played a lot—there were qualifiers and a ton of other work. Yeah, and on top of that, we had some rough days, and we weren’t able to bounce back. We played poorly in our first matches against 1w Team and Team Yandex.
Earlier, LGD Gaming defeated Inner Circle x Insanity 2-0 in the group stage of the 2026 Esports World Cup in Dota 2, and afterward, Santiago Olivos “TaiLung” Gustavo Agüero “TaiLung” won the third-place playoff in the 1v1 Solo Mid format against Virtus.pro.
