Aui_2000: “Mikoto played Omni mid this tournament already so we watched that game and he looked pretty good.”

With all the buzz surrounding the ESL One Berlin Major and its many different Dota 2 teams taking part in the occasion, it’s easy to forget about the reigning TI champions in Tundra Esports.

Since a disappointing 9-12th placement in the Lima Major, the team bounced back in emphatic fashion by remaining atop both Division 1 of Western Europe DPC and DreamLeague Season 19. 

While there has been some concern over the possibility of Tundra crashing out in Germany just like they did in Peru, it was thoroughly erased by the time the group stage finished. A 14-2 overall record after eight best-of-two matches for Tundra placed them in first for Group B to comfortably advance to the upper bracket in the main event phase.

Though there is still plenty more Dota to be played, for now, things are looking all right for the defending TI champs.

Following Tundra’s victory over Xtreme Gaming in the group stage, Tundra’s head coach Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling spoke to Ted “Pyrion” Forsyth for a post-match interview in the Berlin Major.

That [series against Xtreme] looked like a lot of fun.

Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling: I think, just in general, this patch has so much new stuff you can do. All of the games are super fresh and exciting.

I know Omni mid has been quite strong in this patch. Is that the kind of thing you guys like to pull out?

Aui_2000: To be honest, when there’s a new patch, I feel you can come up with some stuff, but generally, you just steal stuff. Mikoto [Rafli Fathur Rahman of Talon Esports] played Omni mid this tournament already so we watched that game and he looked pretty good. There’s also a young mid in EU called Malr1ne [Stanislav Potorak of Nemiga Gaming]. He has 20 games with Omniknight games on ProTracker and he’s winning almost all his games. The hero seems pretty good against Ember so we picked it.

This Underlord pick seems to have been crucial to this patch so far. It’s just all over this map. You guys did get into trouble a couple of times in some of these gate fights, but it still looked pretty effective.

Aui_2000: For sure, there was some clown stuff happening. We portal in, he portals out, we portaled back at him, then there’s a five-man Disruptor ulti—I don’t know what’s happening but the hero seems good obviously.

Does it feel like the kind of chaos that we have at the start of a patch? Are you guys enjoying that or is it kind of stressful?

Aui_2000: I think we really like it. I don’t know if you could find a pro who says they don’t really like it or that sort of stuff. With the last [set of] patches, even before 7.32, I feel they were pretty well balanced but they were very similar and these shakeups in Dota are what makes it insane, so I think everyone’s really enjoying it.

Feature Image Credit: Valve