sbdush: “It feels like the meta has become somewhat cyclical now.”

I actually feel that, on the contrary, it’s good to face Aurora Gaming in the early rounds. Because you can learn something from them. It’s important to understand that any Tier 1 team that comes to a tournament like this often isn’t at their peak when they arrive—they build up their form as the tournament progresses. If you face a Tier 1 team at the end of the group stage, they’re playing better than they were at the start. So there’s a chance for some unpredictability, where they might decide to test something out. ...> Even if you lose to them, you won’t be tilted afterward—after all, what did you expect? That you’d just show up and sweep Aurora 2-0? That’s highly unlikely. And second, you can learn something quickly. You’ve just played against them—you’ll have half a day to reflect on your loss. And the next day you’re playing again, but differently. It’s good for us that we’re getting our momentum going against the strongest teams while teams of equal strength are playing each other. I think we’re in a really great position in that regard.

It feels like the meta has become somewhat cyclical now. I mean, at one point—closer to spring—we had nothing but range carries in the meta and mage supports all the time; then that all went away, and now it’s as if those range carries are coming back again. Take Nature’s Prophet, for example—he’s practically the go-to hero. Yes, Nature’s Prophet shows up very often. Keeper of the Light, who was the go-to hero at BLAST, has taken a slight backseat.

First, I think a certain sense that we’d manage just fine—that everything was fine as it was—played a role. Usually, that’s exactly what catches you off guard at the worst possible moments. Second, the lack of time for proper preparation also took its toll, because we barely played any qualifiers—simply because we didn’t have the time. I mean, one player was on his phone, and another was checking email. Again, this was due to issues with the manager.

The first time, there was essentially no reaction at all, because everyone understood we had a second chance. But the second time, of course, there was a certain loss of spirit—just a morale issue—for everyone. There wasn’t a single person who took this loss lightly, because everyone was thinking: we were supposed to beat a team like 4ikibamboni. Given that we were leading by 20,000 net worth in the game, we were obligated to win.