Yatoro: "We’re a team that’s built on trust and we respect the decisions made by players"

We had a lot of problems with our preparation for The International 2025. Larl had health issues, so we weren’t sure if he would play. We didn’t get much practice with him, and that really hurt our preparations for TI.

Because of this uncertainty our coordination and teamwork just wasn’t there, and honestly speaking, it was obvious that we were not in proper shape to win TI this year, given how we played. We still gave it everything, but it just didn’t work out.

I wasn’t able to find the right style for myself this year. I tried to play a greedier style, which I have also done previously, but it didn’t fit with how the team was playing. It also didn’t particularly fit well with the patch or the meta in general.

There were a lot of personal mistakes from my end too; wrong decisions, misplays, not being able to read the opponents, etc. I’ve been thinking a lot about what I could’ve done differently, but overall it was just too many individual mistakes from me.

I think Panto is a strong player and fits with our playstyle. He’s great with early-game macro calls, and he can handle drafting responsibilities, and that’s really important for us, especially now that Miposhka has stepped back.

His role as a drafter will be more pivotal for us, and we believe that he is a good replacement for Miposhka.

Honestly, I don’t think the changes are that big. Yes, Miposhka was an important part of our team and did a lot of work, but it’s still just one player change. If Panto can handle the drafting and macro, I believe we’ll be fine and perform well moving forward.

We didn’t really think about changing more players. We’re a team that’s built on trust and we respect the decisions made by players. If someone wants to take a break, that’s fine. But overall, we still believe in our roster and didn’t feel the need to make further changes.

We have Silent and Panto working together now, and I think that dynamic has a great potential to work well. There’s already good synergy building between them, and I believe it’ll show in our results.

Xtreme Gaming looks solid. They have made some good changes. Liquid also made some interesting moves, though it’s still early to say for sure. They look really strong on paper. Aurora too. But it’s too early to talk about these things. We’ll see where things are after a couple of tournaments this season.

It’s a good sign but we still need to see one or two more strong Chinese teams rise up before we can say Chinese Dota is truly back. However, it will definitely inspire more players in the scene, and that’s always a good sign for Dota, especially when it's just Europe dominating.

We only aim for first place. That’s the goal.

We need to clean up our gameplay, avoid making small mistakes, keep our individual skill high, and play as a team. That’s about it I guess.

We will definitely be seeing him in pro games. He’s a flex hero pick, and teams will definitely ban him a lot in the first phase, because no one knows exactly how to play against him yet. And if he doesn’t get banned, then teams will definitely pick him.

He has six spells, and all of them are strong enough to be useful. He’s great in the laning stage, he can rotate early, farm well, and has good late-game potential. The only real weakness is that he can fall behind in the mid-game, but that entirely depends on how the early game goes. If he has a good early game, then he’s free to cause trouble.

Thank you. I appreciate it.