We sat down for a chat at TI 2024 with Cloud9’s coach Filipe Astini to learn more about his team’s preparation for the pinnacle Dota 2 tournament of the year.
Cloud9 are already in the top 6 at The International 2024 (TI 2024). They took the long road to TI and got there by fighting for a ticket to Copenhagen through Western Europe regional qualifiers. A lot has changed for the players since the start of the season. The line-up started the year under the Entity banner, mid-season Astini joined them, and only about a month before TI the roster moved to the North American organisation Cloud9.
While C9 has become in the meantime a true contender at the Aegis of Champions, just before TI, the team was rather inconsistent in results. We talked to Astini about how he joined the team and what were the main priorities in the team’s preparation for TI, what would make the difference for them in Copenhagen.
Hi Astini, so from SA to NA to Europe and now back to NA? Could you walk us through how you decided to come to Cloud9 (formerly Entity) after having the success you had with nouns last year in Seattle?
I was happy with our result at nouns last year. Then nouns had a new line-up coming into this season. I tried to work with the new line-up, I was actually happy with the new players and I believed we could have achieved great results, but I couldn't get on the same page with the organisation when negotiating for the next year.
I think their perception of the work of a coach is not true. Most talk I had was actually with ppd, who said that the value of the coach was determined by how much content he could produce. And I completely disagree with ppd on this one, so I decided to leave.
After I left, I made my own team in South America so I could keep competing because it was mid-season and I didn't think I would find a new team, but then Entity came to me. It was basically because I was being coached by Jerax, I was doing his course that's not really focused on Dota, it's more about life, and he referred me to Entity. That's how they came to me. At first, I said no, because I had my own project, but it felt like my project wasn't really evolving as fast as I believed we could, so I decided to join Entity, now Cloud9. I don't know if it's NA, if it's Europe, or if it's Europe with a CIS roster.
This is the first time when you get to work with a European team and play through the Western European region, which is regarded as the most stacked. Do you feel more pressure working with C9/Entity this year compared to any other team you worked with in the past?
No pressure at all. It feels easy, really. It's good to play against good teams. You learn and improve a lot, and it's way easier to improve when you actually play good teams. It also feels good when good teams want to scrim with you. That's different from when you are from SA for example, and you kind of need to beg to have a good scrim and then you have to play that scrim on high ping.
How did things change for you as a team after joining Cloud9?
Everything is still pretty new for us, this is our first big event as Cloud9, but I can already see that it's a way bigger organisation than what we had. We have like three people working on content with us here, we have cool merch, there are a lot of little things that I noticed and it feels really good.
You are lucky to have some of the most skilled players in the scene at Cloud9, but what were some of the things that you had to work on or to improve after joining the squad?
Discipline. In-game discipline to be more precise. Do the right things, and play for objectives because sometimes being so skilled comes with wanting to freestyle too much. You feel like you are completely in control of your own game and you end up throwing the game actually because instead of doing what would get you the win and what's simple, sometimes you want to do more and by “doing more,” you give a lot of comeback chances to the enemy team. So, trying to keep them under control, in a sense, is what we worked on. Play more for the objectives, don't do crazy stuff, and don't chase for a kill that will not mean anything besides the dopamine hit of "I killed this guy." Instead of all these, we should focus on how to close the game.
Did you expect to dominate the WEU qualifiers for TI13 the way you did?
Yes, to be honest, because when we were preparing for Riyadh qualifiers we stomped everyone, and we did until the qualifier's finals. In the finals it was the first time when we felt the pressure of "oh wait, we are going to qualify in this match" and we started to play really weird.
For TI, we just played each game without worrying and we stomped everyone. I know it sounds like we are bragging when I say I stomped everyone, but it's just the facts.
Although the TI qualifiers went perfectly for you, the Riyadh Masters itself was a bit of a disaster. What went wrong at Riyadh Masters and what are some of the lessons you took from that tournament?
It was my first LAN event with the team and I learned a bit about how they deal with pressure. It wasn't good. I didn't deal well with the pressure at Riyadh as well. I didn't know exactly what would happen and how to react, and I believe that now I know way better how to deal with these situations.
At Riyadh, we lost one match, and suddenly everyone lost all confidence in our strategies and everyone was saying crazy things during the drafts and we ended up being eliminated by picking heroes that we never picked before in the tournament just because "everything we know is wrong, let's just pick Jakiro."
Do you feel like you had enough time between Riyadh and now to fix this psychological issue?
Yes. We talked a lot about how we felt when losing and how that pressure felt. The players are also working with a psychologist. Besides this aspect, I also think that our safe lane didn't go that well, but that also had to do with us trying new heroes that we shouldn't have been trying.
To be honest I didn't know why I was picking Jakiro in Riyadh. I was just told by the players that they need to play this hero. So, if pressure times will come again, I know how to react better. We lost one game to Gaimin, who were playing very well and ended up winning the tournament.
The thing with GG is that when you are going to lose to them you will lose in 20 minutes, because that's how they play. If you survive 20 minutes, you probably win. But in Riyadh, everyone went crazy "oh we lost in 20 minutes, everything we know is wrong."
I think for TI we are better prepared psychologically. We also improved our communication and we know what to do so that the Riyadh scenario won't happen again.
You are someone who has been around since the old DotA Allstars days, do you remember the very first TI in Germany?
I remember watching it and wishing that I could have been still an active player. Yeah, I played a lot of Dota Allstars, but in Brazil all people went to other games around that time because there was no incentive to play DotA 1. We nearly got a few invite keys for Dota 2. It was very sad. I think it took about seven years for Valve to realize that SA was actually a region, so after TI7 we got SA slots and could actually dedicate ourselves to the game.
Does it carry an extra meaning for you that this year TI is back in Europe and you are a part of it more than a decade later?
To be honest, the TI in Seattle is more meaningful, at least to me. I don't want to hurt anyone with this comment, the tournament organisers or Valve. I just feel like the TI in Seattle was way more meaningful.
Has the prize pool impacted your perception of The International?
My perception from working with it, being a competitor is still the same. But as a Dota 2 fan I’m really sad. In Brazil I would talk to my friends, again, they all play League, and I would joke with them about their prize pools and would tell them to come to Dota 2. Now, the joke is on me.
Well, you are once again in the Main Event, with even a better result than last year for you personally and that’s no joke. Thanks for your time Astini, and we wish you and Cloud 9 the best of luck moving into the Royal Arena!
More interviews from The International 2024
- TORONTOTOKYO - BetBoom: “I would not be playing in a team that I don't believe could be champions”
- Akashi - Talon: We need to stop thinking ‘five Filipinos can play together and make it to TI’
- Fly - nouns: “Hopefully, we can ride that underdog story”
- Silent - Team Spirit: “I do not feel as though we are favourites”
- Jabz - Aurora: "It was scary at that moment"
- No[o]ne - Cloud9: “I am a super perfectionist”
- ponlo - Team Zero: “I just want to play Dota that I am proud of”
- Monet - G2.iG: “There is definitely a bit of pressure to bring glory back to China”
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