Miposhka after winning The International 2026: “I’ve never lost a grand final at a major tournament.”
Team Spirit coach Yaroslav “Miposhka” Naidenov and the team’s players commented on their victory at The International 2026, while manager Dmitry “Korb3n” Belov discussed Alimzhan “watson” Islambekov’s reaction to the ban on Spirit Breaker on the second map of the third-place match. They discussed these topics in the team’s YouTube vlog.
On the draft against Team Yandex
Korb3n: You know, basically... I still remember—they were playing KV. You banned Bar, and watson was like—I could read his lips: *** [Damn-it]. After the vlog came out, watson wrote: “*** [Damn], I didn’t say anything like that.” No, you could clearly read his lips: *** [Damn-it].
About the fourth map of the grand final
Korb3n: I think we need to consider the bear. I think they’re going to come back now...
Miposhka: It’s hard to take that one. We’re taking the FP right now; it’s inconvenient for them to pick it anywhere. You know what’s funny? I’m trying to go for a super-aggressive tempo pick: strong sides, a strong mid—I’ll try to make it work—and Lone Druid—yeah, he’ll hold his ground, do something early on, but if we hold our lanes properly, from the 10th to the 20th minute we can just run *** [wipe them out]—Lone Druid doesn’t help at all.
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Miposhka: I don’t know. Actually, I’m starting to think it’s not really about the last pick. The thing is, our supports are just crap. We have Wyvern—she has no impact; overall, she doesn’t really affect anyone. Clockwerk isn’t the most useful hero either, because we’re in KotL. As I’ve said before, Clockwerk isn’t the most impactful in KotL. Yeah, you blow off some stuff, burn through mana, but he’ll just always regenerate it, and that’s it—your cooldowns go to waste. They farm on supports; our supports don’t farm at all—they don’t even get their share of networth. I don’t think it’s even about the last pick here. Maybe it would have changed something, but it’s hard to say. <...> It’s just frustrating. That attack on Sand King was *** [really] frustrating.
On winning The International 2026
Larl: Like I said, I’m either going to win or get *** [the hell] out of the group. There’s no other option.
rue: I still don’t get it—it’s all a blur, *** [damn it]. I’m still in this *** [damn] best-of-5. I don’t even know how long it’s been. I wasn’t looking at the clock. ...> I even *** [broke] my headphones there. I just threw them. Everyone started yelling all of a sudden, and I was like: *** [holy crap]! *** [Damn], we won The International, and they came in third.
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Yatoro: Phil [rue] switched to the “five-man,” and three months later he won the International.
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Yatoro: I think that was totally *** [crazy]. I don’t know what it looked like from the outside. It was like I was asleep, honestly. After the fourth [game], I *** [couldn’t care less]—I just played on autopilot.
On the final days of TI 2026
Yatoro: Yesterday was just a hell of a day. I woke up, played Overthrow, we played a official match, we advanced, fell asleep, woke up, played Overthrow, played a official match, fell asleep, woke up, played Overthrow, played a official match, and after that we didn’t sleep, *** [screw it]. Falling into the lower bracket—it’s just… I think if we hadn’t played against Yandex in the morning, we would’ve crushed them 3-0.
Larl: Check it out, they made it to the grand finals with Wisp in mid and Ember as the carry. Well, there was a test run against a mid-lane Slark.
On Miposhka’s work as a coach and the championship
Miposhka: I came in and immediately started gradually addressing the issues: communication, gameplay, key moments, smoke screens, wards, positioning, team communication, player coordination, hero focus, discussing enemy locations, targeting enemies, pinpointing where their turrets are, focusing on objectives, playing around objectives—in short, I tried to address every little detail, tighten things up here and there, and help out a little. I talked a lot with the supports, and it seems it really paid off.
Today [This refers to the last day of the championship. — Ed.], of course, it wasn’t easy. You could tell the guys were still nervous during the support rounds and made some mistakes here and there, but making it all the way to the grand final is the result of a tremendous amount of hard work—it was incredibly satisfying to watch. Actually, the result itself is proof of that.
Well, the Grand Final—yes, the opponent was very tough, I’ll tell you that. We could’ve actually swept them 3–0, because in the second game the guys were just—I don’t know—I was saying, “We’re just going to sweep them; our draft is *** [incredible].” I had it all figured out… well, in the end it was just improvisation. With an SF against Slardar, what the *** [hell] is ground? Sure, if they get going, he’s a broken hero, but there, everyone should just fall in two hits.
It felt great—I even teared up a little. It happened in the first game too, and the second was a breeze. Right then, emotions just overwhelmed me—I was really discouraged. Well, it’s a rush—it feels really good. It feels good to win. I’ve never lost a grand final in a major tournament. I don’t even know what that feels like. I can’t even imagine it.
Actually, respect to my opponents. No matter what anyone says, they played really well. I feel a little bad for Vovan [No[o]ne-]; he tried *** [so hard]. Alan [Satanic] still has his whole career ahead of him, and I think the others do too, but Vovan… Well, sorry, there can only be one winner.
In the playoff qualifier, Team Spirit was on the brink of elimination but managed to advance. In the upper bracket, the team lost in the semifinals, after which they didn’t lose a single game until the grand final, which they won 3–2. Ilya “Yatoro” Mulyarchuk, Magomed “Collapse” Khalilov, Yaroslav “Miposhka” Naidenov, and the club itself became three-time champions, while Denis “Larl” Sigitov became a two-time champion.
Photo: Valve.
