KuroKy on the 2013 The International final: “That’s by far the hardest loss of my career.”
Astra Invicta coach Kuro “KuroKy” Salehi Tahasomi, in an interview on the KheZu YouTube channel, recalled how his mistake on the fifth map of The International 2013 Grand Final affected the game and his career, as well as describing his emotions after the loss and explaining why he considers that defeat a blessing.
On the mistake in the 2013 The International Grand Final that could have cost them the victory
As a player, I’m very hard on myself: I look for ways I could have influenced the outcome. It was literally a split second. If I had given him [s4, who was playing Puck. — Ed.] Silence… I watched the replay, and as far as I can tell, he didn’t have a buyback. I thought, “We would have just won the game. I would have won TI.” <…>
If you look at the match as a whole, there were another twenty things we could have done differently. The way he gave away Coil, the way we overreacted to the split-push—we could have just defended our base. Maybe we could have even ended the game. The way we played at Roshan… There were a lot of moments. But for me personally, that was the moment when I could have changed everything.
On the toughest loss of his career and the tears after the TI3 finals
I was devastated. I think it’s still by far the hardest loss of my career. It was so hard that even six months later, just thinking about it would make my heart race. …>
I cried after that game. I felt terrible and sad. But I channeled that energy into the thought: “I don’t want this to happen again. I want to win.” After that TI, we kept playing against Alliance and practically stopped losing to them. Over the next year after that final, we consistently crushed them. <…>
The biggest factor was just how close we came. We were winning, taking down their barracks—you could already feel the victory. I remember our communication in that game was terrible. We were just screaming. <…>
For a player who’s dedicated his entire life to this, the TI title is the most important thing. It’s the ultimate goal of your life. That’s how much it weighs on your heart. So coming so close was just devastating.
On why he considers that loss a blessing
Looking back, it’s certainly a huge blessing. You never know what’s good for your life. Something bad might happen, but it’ll end up being for the best. Or something good might happen, but it might turn out to be bad for you.
Looking back, I’d say that winning that TI would probably have been bad for me, considering how everything turned out in the end.
In an interview with KheZu, Kuro also explained why he stepped away from the public eye after winning The International 2017, and discussed the negativity on social media and his reluctance to turn his personal life into content.
Photo: Valve.
