wust before the beginning of DreamLeague Season 22, we spoke with Team Spirit’s Miposhka about their first series, removing the DPC and Spirit’s roster success.

Sophie McCarthy: Okay, so I want to ask you a little bit about Dream League. So first up, you guys are playing Liquid and Tundra on the very first day.

How are you guys preparing for those series?

Miposhka: To be honest, we had no preparation. We had to deal with some problems before the tournament starts. We also got to get a visa to UK. So We don’t have much time to prepare, but from today we will start to play some, and also we will play tomorrow. So we have like three, two days to prepare some strategies, some ideas. But now we didn’t play enough. We have practice matches.

Sophie: So you guys just haven’t had much time for scrims or anything like that?

Miposhka: Yeah, we’re trying to take some rest and also prepare as maximum as possible, but we don’t have much time now. So I hope we will start playing as a good team from the start.

Sophie: I mean, they kind of threw you in the deep end with those opponents. So it’ll be quite a warm up game, I imagine.

Miposhka: Yeah. Opponents will be strong. So we will try to prepare as maximum as we can.

If you could choose your first game against either Liquid or Tundra, who would you pick and why?

Miposhka: I mean, doesn’t matter. Both teams are stacked in my opinion. If I could choose from all group. It probably would be Shopify Rebellion, I would say.

Sophie: Why Shopify?

Miposhka: I don’t know. Just decide to choose them.

Sophie: So I wanted to ask a little bit about how the Dota year is structured now. So they’ve got rid of the DPC. It’s more of a tournament to tournament vibe.

Do you prefer that?

Miposhka: I mean it’s hard to say right now because season has just started, but the one thing we know right now it’s that we don’t have much time between tournaments. The schedule is really, don’t know the word, but it’s like tournament after tournament after tournament and there are very small breaks between them. I kind of like it. I also like our previous qualifiers where we played against Navi for the slot and against VP to Birmingham and also to the Dream League. In the qualifiers, we played two in series in one day, so we just played one best of three and in the evening, the second best of three. So I like that so much. It was like one day and after that one day we had time for a break so that’s what we did. And after like maybe five days, we came on boot camp again prepared to play another qualifiers. On the first day, we played and second day we played again against Navi and after against VP, I guess. So our second qualifier in two days. I also like it. It’s not like previous DPC where we could play one match per four days or something like this. So the longest DPC was like for three weeks. And I didn’t like. So now I think is better than in previous seasons. But we will see how it will be because right now it’s hard to say do I like or know current system? So we will see. But I like that’s what I can say. Sophie: That’s good. I think everybody I’ve asked has said pretty much the same. They much prefer it to the DPC. So that’s good to hear. I also just wanted to ask quickly about the patch that we got the other day.

Do you think it’s going to have an impact on the meta in the dream league?

Miposhka: Yeah, definitely. Maybe not from the start because as I already said, not enough days to see how the changes, how you should use it now, what heroes you should prioritize now. It’s probably not easy to understand from the start, but maybe during the groups, I think meta will change and people will start find some heroes again. So I think the meta will change, but maybe not from the start of the tournament. Sophie: Yeah, that’s interesting. Because I guess there’s been a bit of a nerf to Mage Slayer, so perhaps fewer natural Mage Slayer carriers. Miposhka: Yeah, but the item is still strong, I think. It’s not like they broke it. Sophie: I wanted to ask about spirit as a roster. So you’re one of the most stable rosters, I think, that we actually have in Dota. You guys mostly joined in 2020. I think Larl was 2022.

How important is that stability to your success?

Miposhka: I think it’s main point is that we’ve won something crazy. We won really awesome, great tournaments. So at least we know that if every one of us is motivated enough and we spend enough time to like practice Dota as we think we need it, so at least we believe in each other and we know that everyone suffers sometimes. We know that it might be some bad period or maybe something else. So we know that everyone just needs more time to get used to play right now in this new patch, because Dota is always changing with these small patches. So always you need to find some good strategies against some good heroes. And sometimes you need to practice because the heroes might be new for you. So we know that already. We won some good tournaments so we can keep believing each other. Sophie: Absolutely. I mean, “we won some good tournaments”, says the two time TI champion. Miposhka: Yeah exactly.