Solo: “We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us”

Alexey “Solo” Berezin, the captain of our Dota 2 roster, summed up the team’s showing in the eSports Russia Cup 2017 qualifier. He shared his impressions of Monkey King in Captains Mode and spoke about the roster’s upcoming bootcamp.

On Monkey King

“I hated that hero when I played pub games. Before reporting was fixed, I’d report every Monkey King on my own team and the opposing one. I didn’t expect him to be added to Captains Mode a month before the Major. We’re glad it happened; we’ve got Ilya [Lil] who’s played about a hundred games on this hero and controls it well, so we can only support this decision. The only thing is, when a hero as strong as this appears and gets either banned or picked in the first stage, that changes the entire concept of the draft. You used to have such first-pick/first-heroes as Centaur Warrunner, Lone Druid or Slardar, and now you have Magnus and Monkey King. It’s the only significant change caused by his being added to Captains Mode. You’re forced to spend a ban on him and play against the old Centaur, for example. Everything’s shifted, and the game is going to be more intense now.”

On the absence of Visage and plans for the near future

“Right now, we’re in post-qualifier rest mode. The bootcamp starts early in April; we’ll be honing new strategies there, trying out new things. Visage is a hero that requires a special playstyle, he needs to farm, and the team has to prepare for this hero. It’s not that simple. We’d prepared a lot of things for the qualifiers, and actually didn’t get the chance to play everything we had. Dota 2 Asia Championships 2017 is coming up now, at which teams will show their strongest strategies. It’s a premium-level tournament, the teams will show something new, the meta will certainly change and we’ll have to adapt as well. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us.”