TeaGuvnor shared his thoughts on the Great Britain national team’s qualification for ENC 2026 through the Western Europe qualifiers
Robson “TeaGuvnor” Merritt, a player on the Great Britain national team, spoke in an interview at the Esports Nations Cup 2026 about the qualifiers, commented on the victory over the French team, and discussed how he prepared for the qualifiers.
On the Qualifiers
These national qualifiers are just stressful—it’s intense. Every day feels like facing a new team that’s spamming you with their interesting strategies. Every match is pure hype. The Esports Nations Cup 2026 is a completely different kind of competitive event, to be honest.
On the victory over the French national team
We thought we’d be a little better prepared on paper, but it turned out differently. I think beating France 2-0 meant a lot to us because… Look at our team: we don’t have Matthew “Ari” Walker—the only true British esports player. Well, symetricaL and Adzantick might count, but they haven’t been playing at a competitive level lately.
We could have requested a wildcard based on Matthew’s achievements, but we wanted to prove ourselves. Because everyone who looks at the UK laughs—they don’t care about our country in Dota 2. So just qualifying on our own already means a lot, honestly. We’ll try to be a real “dark horse” in this tournament.
On preparation
I was working at BLAST, working on the qualifiers for The International 2026, then I moved, and I was playing three public matches a day when I should have been playing seven. So I had to train in some official matches to warm up, which, to be honest, isn’t great. I let the guys down. But the other players were in the same boat—none of us were at our peak.
The Great Britain national team defeated France 2–0 in the lower bracket final of the Western Europe qualifiers and advanced to the Esports Nations Cup 2026. The team’s next stop will be the main tournament, which will take place in Riyadh.
Photo: ESL.
