tOfu: “We were truly confident that we could win The International 2026.”

The whole season had its ups and downs, but by the time TI rolled around, we’d pulled ourselves together and, overall, had a very good tournament. Still, there was some disappointment. TI, the fans, the excitement—after all, we don’t have that many tournaments with a live audience.

In the first round of the upper bracket, we played against Team Yandex, and the match kept swinging back and forth. In the end, we lost the series. Then we lost to Team Spirit, who went on to win TI. In that sense, we were a bit unlucky.

Throughout our preparation and the tournament itself, we felt very confident. Even though the season as a whole wasn’t our best, we truly believed we could win TI. That’s why it was disappointing. All in all, the result is still decent, but we were hoping for more. In that sense, it’s a little sad.

After the tournament, we had a very relaxed break. Everyone was just resting. For Blitz, things were different: he was dealing with contracts, negotiations, scouting players, meetings, and everything else. According to him, most of the time it was pretty stressful.

I stayed a little longer in China and Malaysia before heading home. We also skipped PGL: there was a bit of confusion back then about which teams would be playing, what our roster would look like, and whether we needed a stand-in. So we just extended our break a little. We don’t have many breaks during the season, so I think everyone ended up being very happy with that decision.

Even now, the roster isn’t completely set yet. There are just the three of us at boot camp, along with MidOne. He’s very easygoing—he’s pleasant and easy to get along with. We’re mostly just hanging out, doing all sorts of things—running, rock climbing, and so on; of course, we’re also playing and streaming.

Everything still feels fresh and new. Everyone has learned from the past: what went wrong, what individual mistakes were made, where someone behaved inappropriately, and how to fix it. I think everyone came back with new energy and a fresh mindset, without the fatigue that had built up over the season. So far, there are only three of us at boot camp.

Wisper doesn’t have any issues with his Schengen visa per se; he just has a limited number of days he can stay, so our training is a bit split up. We’re also playing with MidOne as a stand-in, so I’m not sure what to expect from this tournament yet.