Yatoro: "My motivation isn't tied to tournaments. My love for this game is what drives me to keep going"

I received several offers during my break, but ultimately rejoined Team Spirit because they resolved some underlying problems, the new roster and management also looked better, just like when I played here before. So, I just decided to come back.

They are a good team and have talented individuals who have a deep understanding of the game. Their decision-making at ESL One Raleigh was really good against us in the finals. We made a couple of mistakes during the drafting phase.

They had a better draft throughout the series; we had a rough start in all the games, which gave them an edge that lasted the entire series. Personally speaking, I made a mistake in the first game, and overall, we just got crushed.

My motivation isn't tied to tournaments. My love for this game is what drives me, and I'll keep playing as long as I can. During my break, I realised that winning with a good team, surrounded by good people, and having fun is all I need.

Everyone is fresh and motivated to win. This wasn’t exactly the case before I went on a break, but now everyone is trying hard to win.

Uh… there’s nothing special. I’m just a regular player who happened to win two TIs with great teammates backing me up.

Even though our schedule is demanding, I think playing tournaments is great. Unlike considering retirement hobbies like swimming or fishing, all I care about is playing more DOTA 2 – playing it better and playing it good.

We have the advantage of more new players coming to the scene than in Western Europe. Compared to WEU players like Micke, Nisha, Ace, Tofu, etc., who are all old, we’ve new faces making inroads into the scene.

The last new faces from WEU were probably ATF and Malr1ne, and that was quite a while back. Additionally, we have many good teams capable of winning tournaments like BetBoom, Parivision, us [Team Spirit], and maybe Aurora.

It’s good to see EEU emerging as a strong contender again.