Puppey will not compete in The International 12

At the end of a long struggle, Clement “Puppey” Ivanov has failed to qualify for The International 12. Finally, the last remaining Dota 2 player who had competed in every single edition of the tournament, has joined the rest of the community.

This is a testament to just how difficult Dota 2 is. It doesn’t matter how skilled you were a year ago or how much experience you have. If you’re not up to date with the latest patches and if your team isn’t training intensively at all times, your odds of winning are slim.

Let’s not forget that Secret didn’t lose against the strongest teams in the world. Those teams are already qualified for the tournament. Instead, they lost against competitors who did poorly all season.

And even though some of those competitors feature former TI winners such as Kuro “KuroKy” Takhasomi and Sebastien “Ceb” Debs, Secret’s mission wasn’t exactly impossible. Still, in the end, Entity and Quest Esports were the two teams that qualified, just as the statistics were indicating ahead of the race.

Because of the prestige of Secret, Nigma Galaxy, and OG, people hoped until the last moment that at least one of them would go to TI12. But it wasn’t to be. Those who won the tournament in the past need to admit that others are now as hungry as they were 5-10 years ago.

Painful loss. Tough year. Dota is an amazing game, but also very hard to compete in. Can’t win them all, you know? I know I have lost the title of going to each TI, but maybe it was finally time to lose it. No regrets, life always changes. Peace ✌️

— Clement Ivanov (@CLEMENTINATOR) August 31, 2023

Secret’s run in the WEU Qualifier

Team Secret started the tournament with a victory against OG, followed by a defeat against Entity. The match versus OG was quite tricky and Puppey knew it. The heroes he chose to use have very specific timings that need to be respected in order to ensure a good result. Puppey did exactly that and he won both games.

Sadly for him, in his next match, Entity did exactly the same. The games lasted 41 and 42 minutes. The heroes that were played, Phantom Assassin, Templar Assassin, and others, need around 20-25 minutes to become scary and then they completely destroy you in the mid game.

In the lower bracket, Secret won two very hard games against Level UP. The first lasted 58 minutes and the second 81. Both times, he used Sven. He tried something similar in the match against Quest Esports. But once again, Puppey’s opponents employed his strategies against him. The score was 1-2 for Quest, who went on to qualify.

Header: Team Secret