Tundra Esports’ Nine: “We just went into Game 3 thinking, ‘F*ck it. They just had some good [idea] of Naga. Next game will be different.”

The main event phase finally began in the Dota 2 ESL One Berlin Major this week and for its first day, all four upper bracket matches were played in succession. In the day’s last best-of-three series, it featured reigning TI champions Tundra Esports and China’s PSG.LGD.

With both teams approaching this highly anticipated series in fine form following the end of the group stage, it was inevitable to see them play the full three-game set with a Top 6 place on the line. At its end, it was Tundra who came out on top by beating PSG.LGD off of a 16/1/10 showing from Oliver “skiter” Lepko on Sven and a 7/1/12 KDA from Leon “Nine” Kirilin on Void Spirit, with each gaining more than 25k gold for Game 3.

With PSG.LGD defeated, Tundra now sets their eyes on 9 Pandas of Eastern Europe, which recently defeated Shopify Rebellion in their first-round series in the main event.

Following the series with PSG.LGD, Ted “Pyrion” Forsyth talked to 33 for a post-match interview about how Tundra defeated their Chinese opponents, their recent knack for gaining more gold than the rest of their peers in the Major, and more.

This interview was edited for brevity.

Game 1, you guys looked like you had it in control, Game 2 looked like you didn’t have anything like control, and then in Game 3 you guys came back to win. What were you guys saying before Game 3 to reset?

Leon “Nine” Kirilin: Game 2 was rough but the only thing that made it really rough was the Naga [Siren] pick, honestly. They are really good at playing the map with Naga and it completely stopped us from doing any plays. We didn’t feel like we had any opening so we just went into Game 3 thinking, ‘F*ck it. They just had some good [idea] of Naga. Next game will be different and we’re going to play a different game and have it in our control again.’

You definitely managed that. One of the things I noticed when looking at your team is how everyone seems to have a lot of gold. You guys have set a lot of records in gold per minute. Is that a focus to get gold on everybody? And if so, who has to pay the price and get less gold than they would like?

Nine: It’s me. I guess everyone likes to fight in the team. Sneyking used to be a core player. Saksa is not like a core player, but right now it just feels like, [since] the map is so huge and has many camps, it’s really abusable when you can get farm [sic], so we just pick [up the gold] because it feels good and it feels right.

What is with all the papers that 33 is waving around? Is this all just his research that he’s checking during the game?

Nine: We just have mostly all the info about enemy players and their hero picks and Aui does notes on the papers, basically. I’m not going to tell which notes [are which] or whatever.

Feature Image Credit: Valve