It’s a bizarre feeling for Dota 2 followers to not see Puppey competing at The Worldwide 2023 after having beforehand attended each iteration of the occasion. Because the battle for this 12 months’s Aegis involves a detailed, nonetheless, the previous TI-all-timer revealed he truly virtually made it to Seattle in a brand new position.
After Group Secret was eradicated from Western Europe’s TI12 qualifiers, many followers wrote Puppey’s 11-year streak off. Nevertheless, rumors of the long-time captain enjoying for Group SMG as a stand-in or attending as a coach for 9Pandas saved some hope alive.
In an look on Aleksandr “Nix” Levin’s stream, Puppey confirmed that each of these choices have been on the desk however neither got here to fruition—although it was a really shut factor. “Solely 9Pandas supplied to fly me to The Worldwide as a coach,” Puppey stated in an interview with Cybersport.ru. “I used to be alleged to play for SMG however the workforce’s assist acquired a visa two days earlier than departure.”
This info was backed by 9Pandas offlaner Matvey “MieRo`” Vasyunin who stated Puppey was offered the coaching opportunity however wished to attend as a participant extra, so when the chance with SMG arose, he moved to take it.
Puppey was noticed scrimming with a few of SMG’s gamers forward of TI as a result of the Southeast Asian workforce was coping with visa points for a number of of its gamers. The roster was already adapting to MinD_ContRoL standing in for Natthaphon “Masaros” Ouanphakdee and in addition thought that Januel could be unable to journey to Seattle.
Sadly for Puppey, his probabilities of enjoying at TI12 regardless of Secret’s disappointing DPC season evaporated simply days earlier than he was set to go out when Januel secured his visa, which can have been detrimental to SMG.
In line with MinD_ContRoL, SMG introduced Puppey into their scrims three weeks earlier than TI and so they have been working towards for 10 days collectively forward of touring to Seattle. Januel solely obtained his visa per week earlier than the occasion, which gave the workforce lower than 5 days to attempt to swap from what they labored on with Puppey to one thing new.
“We have been scrimming with Puppey after which Puppey couldn’t play anymore so now we’re enjoying with Jaunuel so much more gamers are coming in,” MinD_ContRoL said on Our Game. “It’s actually enjoyable [playing with different players] however on the identical time, it’s onerous for the thoughts. You might want to be actually robust within the thoughts to [play at such a high level].”
With SMG filling its spot proper earlier than heading to TI, that left Puppey and not using a position to fill since 9Pandas had picked up DM as a coach after a controversial departure from OG’s roster.
With no clear path to TI12, Puppey leaned again and shrugged his shoulders, deciding it was lastly time to overlook his first iteration of the occasion. However that doesn’t imply he isn’t trying again at qualifiers with a little bit of regret.
“I believe it was about time [to miss TI],” Puppey stated. “I wasn’t feeling something, [but Secret] ought to have gone by means of qualifiers. I believe we may have crushed Quest. Then we undoubtedly would have gotten by means of. I don’t suppose we might have misplaced to D1 Hustlers.”
Now Puppey is watching from dwelling and providing comments on the occasion, akin to calling Group Spirit the “greatest workforce in workforce fights and map motion,” stating that it’s clear and has been all 12 months.
In regards to the writer
