Ospreay on Team Yandex at MCC Season 8: “I think it’s been a good regular season for our team overall.”
Team Yandex coach Vladimir “Ospreay” Gonchar summarized the regular season, explained the latest changes to the meta, and shared his thoughts on the new map modifications in a video message for the official Mobile Legends: Bang Bang esports channel.
On the regular season
I think it was, overall, a good regular season for our team. We played consistently for the most part and even set some kind of record, though we weren’t really thinking about it at the time. Sure, we didn’t manage to go undefeated for the entire regular season—but then again, who’s been able to do that lately?
On meta changes
We can talk about changes to the meta—there are now a lot of tanks on the experience lane: Beleriks, Minotaurs, and Atlases, which we most often see in the roam position. This started happening because players really want to have a “quadruple” on these heroes before the objective, plus they’re very good at neutralizing certain creeps—they can neutralize them—and this reduces risks in the game, so it’s worth using. This is very useful against the huge number of Rangers in the current meta.
About the New Maps
The new cards—I think they’ll be a lot of fun, I think, but it’ll also be challenging because we’ll definitely need to prepare for them—and prepare in a way where, for each map, we might need to do a separate draft, where we figure out how we want to play, but that takes time, and it’s clear that not everyone will have time to prepare—that’s just how it goes.
On Further Preparation
We identified some of our weaknesses after the last series, following the loss we suffered; we identified some of our strengths, figured out where we can improve, and will continue to work on it. Thanks to everyone, and cheer on Team Yandex!
Team Yandex finished the regular season in 2nd place in the standings with a 13-1 record. The team’s only loss came against Team Spirit. Next, the team will compete in the playoffs, which begin on October 9.
New map modifiers were previously added to the game. In one variant, players will no longer receive a shield for killing the Turtle, but in exchange, the unit will help push the lane; with the “Golden Tower” effects, heroes will earn more gold for destroying turrets, but the turrets will be reinforced with additional health points. RAKUZAN’s Kamil “Mashiro” Gavadov called the latest modifier “too unbalanced.”
