Korb3n criticized ESL and shared Team Spirit's plans

Team Spirit Dota 2 manager Dmitry “Korb3n” Belov shared his opinion on the performance of the Chinese team Azure Ray at ESL One Kuala Lumpur in his Telegram channel, and also touched on Team Spirit’s plans for the near future and assessed the past transfers.

The situation with Azure Ray

Korb3n directly stated that, as a fan, he does not care about the success or failure of Azure Ray at the tournament. His position is related to the ESL rules: if a team changes three players at once, it automatically loses points and should be disqualified. He recalled that due to the same rule, another team (“dragons”) was excluded from the tournament, but for some reason Azure Ray was allowed to play.

“I don’t care how they play, but these are double standards,” Belov noted. Nevertheless, the final decision, according to him, always remains with the organizers.

After the New Year holidays, Team Spirit plans to take part in two qualifiers that will take place in January. Korb3n admits that the ideal option for the team would be to play at ESL One Kuala Lumpur, take a place in the middle of the table and take a break until spring. However, not all players were ready for such a workload after the intense The International 12.

Korb3n criticized the current offseason: according to him, most transfers look “weak”. Many top teams either did not make any substitutions at all or made targeted changes. For example, Team Liquid limited itself to minimal changes. However, the manager is confident that new promising players will still appear during the season. “The last big discovery was kiyotaka, but after him there were no bright newcomers,” he added. As for Roman “RAMZES666” Kushnarev, Korb3n is sure that he will definitely find a sponsor who will allow him to assemble his own roster.

Speaking about Nigma Galaxy, Belov noted that the team has a real chance to qualify for DreamLeague S22. To do this, they need to beat PSG.Quest or Team Falcons, which is quite possible. At the same time, he emphasized the importance of regional quotas: MENA will receive two slots, which works in Nigma’s favor.

Life of tier-2 and tier-3 teams without DPC

The cancellation of DPC raised doubts in Korb3n. As the manager who assembled the Yellow Submarine roster, he understands the realities of the tier-3 scene well. According to him, without the support of large organizations and invites, many teams are forced to miss important tournaments. Even at the ESL qualifiers, it is almost impossible to break through the “big four”. “We will see how everything goes further,” he concluded.

Team Spirit, as a reminder, refused to participate in ESL One Kuala Lumpur, and now they will have to make their way to DreamLeague S22 and other major tournaments through the general qualifiers.