A new season, a new roster, but the same underdog story is waiting to be written by nouns on The International stage.
It’s been almost 10 years since North America claimed the most wanted trophy in the Dota 2 scene. No other NA team has replicated the TI5 Evil Geniuses feat, and to the present day, there is still no real contender for The International title coming from the region.
nouns entered the Dota 2 scene mid-2022 and a year later, at TI12, they were ready to deliver one of the biggest surprises. In the new TI format, which places the teams on the “Road to The International” from group stage to finals weekend, nouns exceeded all expectations and made it to the arena days surpassing the likes of Shopify Rebellion, TSM, Evil Geniuses and Tundra Esports.
However, despite their top 8 finish in Seattle, nouns still lost a couple of players and their coach in the TI12 aftermath and the new year came with the same challenges NA presents when having to build a team in the region.
They brought Tal "Fly" Aizik from Shopify Rebellion, and instead of rushing things out, nouns preferred to start the new season with two stand-ins and go through a meticulous (re)search until finalizing the roster. Through the few months of roster building process, Nicolas "Gunnar" Lopez swapped from mid lane to position 3, as the team couldn’t find any good offlaners ,and this year he is the only player to attend two TIs in a row playing in two different roles.
It wasn’t until March this year that they locked their roster with the arrival of Philipp "Copy" Bühler in the mid lane and Milan "MiLAN" Kozomara in the coaching seat.
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nouns roster
nouns
Yuma “Yuma” Langlet
Philipp “Copy” Bühler
Nico “Gunnar” Lopez
Rodrigo “Lelis” Santos
Tal “Fly” Aizik
Once Copy became a full member of the team, nouns have truly started the hard work. While Shopify were pretty much gatekeeping them in all qualifiers through the first part of the year, the tide turned in June when nouns took down Shopify in the Riyadh Masters and the TI13 closed qualifiers.
Fly is an integral part of nouns’ steady progress throughout the season. He is one of the most seasoned veterans in the Dota 2 scene and someone who has been the pillar for a few very successful teams in the past. As now captain of nouns, Fly took the slow and steady approach, refusing to put any pressure or immediate expectations on his teammates, instead looking at “realistic goals” and how to make everyone improve by 1% every day, as he stated in an interview with PGL at Wallachia Season 1.
While nouns’ most successful strategies this year relied on Copy’s best heroes, Fly has slowly introduced new elements and new heroes into the drafts.
nouns most successful hero pairings before TI13
With less than two weeks before TI13, nouns are testing the new 7.37b meta through official games at FISSURE Universe: Episode 3. Some of the favourites at the TI13 title are there too, which makes this online tournament the perfect playground for everyone involved.
nouns have started from the play-in stage, which gives us a more comprehensive look at what changed for them in terms of draft priorities.
Having Yuma with a deep hero pool and good flexibility between him and Lelis, Fly is free to play the mind games in the early drafting stage. For instance, with the rise of carry Mirana in the current patch, nouns were able to first pick it and decide what to do with it in the second phase of the draft. They took crucial victories through the past few days with both Yuma and Lelis playing it. The two players can also flex a Windranger, or an Alchemist if needed.
While Gunnar’s offlane heroes are pretty standard, the support duo and Copy have added a bunch of new heroes to their repertoire as we approach the pinnacle tournament of the year.
Luckily, the meta favours Fly a lot, as Crystal Maiden, his all-time most-played hero, is a top pick. However, don’t be surprised if you see Fly playing Omniknight on the TI stage, as the team is already developing strategies around it. A position 4 Leshrac is also something Lelis has been testing recently.
Overall, despite having a new roster and starting the season slowly, nouns are once again in a position where they might take everyone by surprise at The International and even push for a better placement than last year in Seattle. They have the veterans and they have one of the greatest captains the Dota 2 scene can offer, so prepare for the unexpected as they might put NA back on the map.
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