Panda Interview at Bali Major: “Supports are right now forced to always play the same few heroes”

From a top 4 finish at Berlin Major and top 6 at DreamLeague Season 20, Evil Geniuses suffered a terrible drop of form at Bali Major, the last DPC tournament before The International 2023.

With EG becoming the first team to be eliminated in the group play in Bali, we were able to talk to Jose "Panda" Padilla and learn what went wrong at this tournament for them and how is the morale heading into the most important tournament of the year, The International 2023.

Hi, and thank you for coming to talk to us, despite the result here in Bali. If you don’t mind starting with this, could you walk us through what went wrong for EG in the group stage?

There is a lot that went wrong. Our drafts were kind of outdated, we didn't really get to prepare that well. Also, everyone was really exhausted from the previous tournaments and the morale was really low after we lost on the first day.

At the end of the group stage, Pakaz is the player with the most different heroes played, 15 different heroes in 16 matches. Could you give us an insight into why did he play so many different heroes here in Bali?

It's hard to say. There were some games where even he was questioning why he was playing some of the heroes. But, at a certain point, we were already eliminated, so we were just trying new stuff for the next tournament. I would say that most of those heroes he played just once, were mainly to test things out.

Could you give us your prediction on how do you think will win this major?

It's probably going to be Quinn, Gaimin Gladiators or Liquid. One of those two.

For the first time ever, South America received two slots in the regional qualifiers for TI. What are your thoughts on that?

It's really good because for the past couple of years, we had the same teams going to TI and to the majors. That means that all the rest of the teams from the region can't get any international experience and it's these times when you get to play outside your regions when you get to improve by a lot. In SA, you can only practice with SA and sometimes with NA, compared to other regions, like China, SEA and Europe, which have more opportunities for scrims. And Europe is clearly the best region right now, so if you get to play with them it's incredibly good for you as a team.

Ignoring what just happened for you at the Bali Major, this was a pretty good year for SA in general and for your team in particular. Has this year's performance raised your motivation and confidence that you can improve on the top 6 finish from TI11?

Yeah, definitely. We already improved on major records, we were top 4 in Berlin and we are hoping to go top 4 or better at The International as well.

It always seems like one SA team tends to do well, and the other seems to falter at tournaments. Have you noticed that? Why could that be?

I don't know why can't both SA teams do well at majors. But, when one is losing, the other one needs to step up even more and do it for the community, for the SA fans.

Speaking about TI, is there something in the game that you would really love to see changed before the tournament starts?

There are a couple of balancing issues for the heroes. The supports are right now forced to always play the same few heroes. I want that to change.

How about Techies? Should it be toned down a bit or should it be removed from the Universal hero pool?

This hero is really dumb right now. He wins the lane like he never got to do it before. He has like 50 damage at level 1, he has a huge range, he provides vision, so he counters any movement that you try to do. The hero is really broken.

How has the gameplay changed for the position 5 role after the release of the 7.33 patch?

It hasn't changed much. You still have to do everything you're doing before the patch, it's only that you maybe get a little bit more farm, sometimes I get lost because the map is so big.

Who would you say is the GOAT in Dota 2?

Miracle-

How about who is the most talented player right now?

We have a lot of really good players right now in Dota, but if I have to pick just one, I would say Nightfall.

And who is the best individual player?

Quinn and Nightfall.