Misha on 1w Team’s slump: “This might be the team with the worst approach to the game in the entire pro scene.”

At the start, this roster looked incredibly formidable: there was 33, fresh off two victories at The International with Tundra and Team Liquid; there was Pure, coming off a third-place finish at The International alongside Whitemon in that lineup; and there were the young and fiery bzm and Ari from OG. The guys won a ton of tournaments—one after another. Mostly these were BLAST events, but there were also DreamLeague tournaments and just about everything else. They started off very, very strong; the roster looked as formidable as could be. They were racking up title after title, and it seemed like they were contenders to win The International. But then, all of a sudden, a losing streak began—one that’s lasted so long that many have stopped taking this team seriously and don’t understand what’s going on with them.

Personally, I’m concerned about this team’s discipline. They might just have the worst approach to the game in the entire pro scene.

We have Pure—who loves to throw games and dive into the fountain. This brings to mind his numerous ultra-aggressive plays that ended in losses. A recent and significant example: two consecutive deaths on the elimination map at The International while playing Io.

And then there are the moments outside of the game—yesterday it was hanging out at a madk1d concert. Today, there’s an 11 a.m. match and yet another 0-2 loss to GamerLegion, a team that isn’t exactly the strongest. There were times when Pure would go play Path of Exile after being eliminated from tournaments.

My former teammate, my favorite bzm. At the time this video was recorded, he’d just overslept the official match, so Mikoto had to play in his place with a 200 ping. That said, you could easily put together an exhibition of highlights from bzm’s meme-worthy plays, but I don’t want to dig up stuff from years ago—from today, it’s the Aeon Disk on Earthshaker against Silencer instead of a Black King Bar.

The gang leader is 33, the team captain. He just went through some kind of unreal tilt. Once a genius, inventive, and one of the strongest players on the planet—a key player on two teams that won The International—he simply faded away in the midst of it all, right within his own team.

As I see it, 33 is not someone who lacks discipline—by any means—or has a bad attitude toward the game. Perhaps the atmosphere within the team is just getting to him; perhaps he himself is difficult to work with, especially in a situation like this. After all, there was a reason he left Team Liquid after winning The International with them—things like that don’t just happen. There was a reason Saksa left him—because it had become difficult to work with him.