Team Liquid are heading into The International 2023 as clear favorites at the Aegis. They made it to the grand finals on five separate occasions this year and will look to take it all in Seattle when it will matter the most.
Team Liquid grouped up back in a bootcamp last month after taking some time off from Dota 2. They were fresh from their second place achieved at Riyadh Masters 2023 and were preparing for DreamLeague Season 21. That was the last big tournament before TI12 for everyone and Team Liquid took it as “a stepping stone for TI and also a chance to get used to playing tournament matches again, to get back into the groove of things, as Ludwig "zai" Wåhlberg said to us.
We talked with Zai about how the season went overall for him and Team Liquid, and how they managed to reset mentally from placing second in all major grand finals and a few other events as well. We touched on how Liquid is approaching TI this year and what kind of impact might have a lower prize pool on him directly.
This year was pretty stacked with events, be them online or LANs, and you've been to almost all of them. How do you feel now, at the end of the season, did you enjoy travelling so much or would you prefer a lighter schedule?
This year, compared to last year, it was much better by shortening the DPC leagues, I think they did a much better job with that compared to how it was before. Maybe I'm lazy, but I would always like some more time off, maybe in between the events. Sometimes you go to a tournament and then within a week or sometimes even less, you are playing your next DPC match. But overall, I think this year was much better and that it was going in the right direction.
How does the offlane feel for you in the 7.34, did it get better than the aura meta you had to play a few months back?
Both offlane and safe lane are in a pretty good place right now. I think neither side really knows what's the best, so there's still a lot of new stuff happening in these lanes with a lot of new heroes coming into play.
The support hero pool has changed quite a lot, pos 5 heroes are a lot different now and some offlaners are also quite different. You are playing Dawnbreaker and Brewmaster now, heroes that haven't been really played in a while, so I think it's pretty fun. They changed up the dynamic quite a bit and it's exciting.
You've just mentioned how the support hero pool has changed and this leads me to the next question. Who is the most annoying safe lane duo to play against that makes your lane harder than you would like to?
I just have to say Miposhka. After the Riyadh event, we started scrimming a bit and he is very annoying on the lane. He also has a very good synergy with Yatoro, so whenever we play against this duo I feel like I don't really get to do what I want to do. I don't feel comfortable in that way and it's very annoying.
We are towards the end of the competitive season. Do you have any fond memories from this year, before heading into TI, something that will stay with you for some time?
To be honest, almost every big tournament that we played this year had some nice moments. At Lima Major, we were playing against Talon when Boxi had to go home because he was sick and we managed to beat Talon with Jabz, our analyst standing in, which was crazy.
At the Berlin Major, we had that core Witch Doctor game where we beat 9Pandas, which was also great. From Bali Major I don't have anything special to remember, we just lost there. But from Lima and Berlin and from Riyadh as well there are games and stuff that were very exciting and that I will remember even when TI will overshadow everything from this season.
Zai on TI12 prize pool and event overall
Speaking about TI, does it bother you in any way that the prize pool this year will be so much less than we are used to from all the previous TI editions?
I think deep down, everyone knew that it wasn't possible to just keep growing year after year and just make it bigger and bigger. After TI10 it was already going down for TI11 and that was a turning point, in my head at least.
TI will still be an amazing event regardless of the prize pool. TI is magical, it's a very special time of the year, I like everyone who works on this event, I like watching this event, and I like going to this event so, for me, the prize pool won't change how I feel about TI. There is a special atmosphere at TI compared to all other tournaments and it's a very nice event to be a part of.
The last time TI was held in Seattle it was Team Liquid claiming the Aegis in 2017. Is this something that you have on your mind, does it put some pressure on you with TI returning home this year?
I hadn't thought about it that way before you mentioned it. I just thought about Seattle TIs in terms of my own experiences from TI4 up until TI7, just thinking back on how it was being there.
At TI7 Liquid won, but I, personally, had one of my worst TIs, so for me is more of getting revenge on how I left things in Seattle and hopefully come back with better results than what I had the last time I was there.
You also have some revenge to take from this whole season as well. I'm referring to the five grand finals that you played this year, four of them being against Gaimin Gladiators. Getting to the grand finals the whole season is crazy good and amazing but I'm sure it can also get a bit frustrating to fall short in all those grand finals. How do you cope with that, how do you regroup and find the right mindset going now into the most important tournament of the year?
I'm not going to lie, it does kind of suck to get second place most of the time. But, at the same time, I think getting to the grand finals is good, and it shows that we can be good when it matters. For us right now, it's just about finding those little things that will allow us to take it and go all the way.
Alright, thank you so much for your time Zai, and for sharing your thoughts with us. I hope you will have a wonderful time in Seattle and I hope to see you guys achieving your dreams on The International 2023 stage.
Thank you, appreciate your thoughts and thanks to everyone who is supporting Team Liquid and cheering us on. We will do our best to get to finals and maybe get first place this time.
