Noticed on the group stage of The International 2026: “I don’t think there were any difficulties in terms of preparation.”
PARIVISION (TEAM VISION) offlaner Evgeny “Noticed” Ignatenko shared his thoughts in an interview with OFFSTAGE about the team’s advancement to the playoffs and commented on the difficulty of the group stage.
On his feelings about advancing to the playoffs
I’m just happy. I don’t really have any other emotions—I guess it’s just great that we managed to go 4–0 right away without any major hiccups.
On whether he expected this result in the group stage
Well, I expected it, but I thought we might stumble somewhere along the way. I mostly thought we’d go 4–1 or have to play a playoff match, but it turned out the way it did.
On the difficulty of preparing for the group stage
I don’t think there were any difficulties in terms of preparation. Puppey just prepares for everything, and we basically follow his lead. I think everything went pretty smoothly without any real difficulties. [Is he more of a process manager?] Well, specifically in terms of preparation, yes. We just give him—not exactly advice, but more like suggestions, I’d say—things we notice and so on, and he uses that to prepare.
On the impact of pressure from being the favorite
I don’t think it really affects anything much, because we were also one of the favorites before the EWC, and now we’ve just become an even bigger favorite—I don’t think that has any impact.
Earlier, PARIVISION midlaner Vladimir “No[o]ne-” Minenko commented on the team’s advancement to the playoffs of The International 2026 after finishing the group stage with a 4-0 record, calling the tournament the most competitive in history.
Photo: Valve.
