Vasilisa on the intensity of the season: “Teams don’t have time to get into shape.”

Unfortunately, they [Nightfall] need to expand their hero pool a bit. If they don’t address this, Riyadh and Int will clearly not be their tournaments. But at the same time, an important factor is that they played non-stop at PGL Wallachia, DreamLeague, and BLAST. Why, for example, is Team Yandex playing well right now? Because they skipped DreamLeague; they gathered for a bootcamp in the 20s. I visited them, talked to them, and saw that they’re starting to work on their form—which means they had time to both rest and prepare. Given that we’re currently in a frantic, crazy pace, teams simply don’t have time to get into shape. And, consequently, Team Aurora is the very team that made it to the grand final, got swept 0-3, made it to the next Grand Final, and had a tight battle with PARIVISION—3-2—but we’re also coming to BLAST, and we’re playing the same way. We have the same ideas, everything’s the same—the concept is exactly the same. If we look now at the team that’s in the top 3 at BLAST, LGD surprises us with their flexibility and the absolutely unreal strategies they pull off. They have their own tricks, like Viper—a viper that sinks its fangs into TaiLung. They have this “five-man” Axe. They have Wisper, who can play anything. Our BetBoom Team is just the same. They brought Undying into the meta. They, too, are essentially creators and innovators. And Team Yandex—when DM joined—also, let’s just say, expanded their creative horizons compared to the other teams. As long as Aurora keeps playing the same way they did six months ago, they won’t take the championship.

In reality, this doesn’t affect anything. It’s just that Tundra Esports ran out of money; they have players, and they need to sell them to recoup some of their financial difficulties. There’s 1win—a major organization with a roster—but they’re in Tier 2; they haven’t made it through qualifiers yet, and they used to have an academy team. And, as we can see, 1win’s Tier 2 roster didn’t make it through the Riyadh qualifiers; they were eliminated by L1GA TEAM, even though, in theory, they were supposed to be the favorites in those qualifiers. So 1win sees that we have a roster and the financial resources, but they don’t have a brand. Yes, we want to be on the professional scene, but we’re not having success with the players we currently have. We’re simply bringing in players who are already delivering results, giving them a little extra support, and sending them to major tournaments. And after The International, it’ll be very interesting to see what they do, because we have LGD Gaming—basically, a team that returned for The International; they bought the roster because they need a Chinese Int, a Chinese team.

The path of streaming is all about making connections and communication. In other words, if you have a buddy who streams to a large audience, he’ll pull you up, and you can then build on that. You’re given a chance there—it’s up to you whether you take it or not. The path in esports—you sit there, grinding your MMR—and if you have a friend who can put in a good word for you, it’ll certainly be easier. But it also depends on the person. Not everyone will get noticed.