So yeah, not the greatest experience so far.
How about the city, have you been able to go outside, and explore a bit?
kaffs: Things are also expensive here.
That’s the main issue with going outside, I think.
I paid $15 for a 20-minute Uber drive and now I’m a bus person.
I will never again take an Uber here.
That makes more sense to me.
Panda: I’m actually fine with how the group stage format is now.
I don’t hate it, but what I really don’t like is the four-day breaks.
I didn’t like that at last year’s TI either.
I just don’t like long breaks during tournaments.
I’m looking at it from the perspective of upper-bracket teams.
kaffs:(laughing) Spoiler alert: We will cheese Gaimin.
What went wrong in the group stage for you?
So, I would say we’ve been struggling with gameplay and also with the drafting.
We’ve been losing mostly due to drafts.
The new draft structure is different and just weird.
Panda: Let’s just say we will be the dark horse in that match.
But yes, I agree, we had some bad drafts.
I don’t think we could have won even if we had played our best game.
kaffs: Especially against Entity, right?
Panda: Oh yes, the drafts against Entity were atrocious.
How do you like the current meta?
Have the last few balance patches changed the viable hero pool significantly?
Panda: From a position 5 perspective, the last patch changed the hero pool a lot.
Everything changed and I’m not that happy about it.
It’s a very tanky meta and I don’t like it.
I’m really squishy as a five.
I throw a spell and it doesn’t do any damage while I die to anything.
They have never been.
Are we going to see the Panda Oracle in the playoffs?
Panda: I hope so.
I didn’t get to play any save heroes in a long time.
I think he hates me by now.
We won both times.
They could play themselves and make some mistakes.
Based on what you have seen till now, who looks like the most formidable opponent?
Panda: Team Spirit are the strongest and then I don’t know who to place second.
It’s between LGD and Team Liquid.
But Team Spirit does everything better than most teams at TI12.
The playstyle that they won TI10 with.
And now they’re just taking the opportunity because they know the best what to do in this meta.
Last year, South America performed great at TI.
beastcoast finished in the top 8 and Thunder Awaken finished in the top 6.
This year, things have been very different.
Why do you think that is?
kaffs: This year we had four SA teams.
I guess the only surprise is beastcoast.
I guess they disappointed everyone.
Even I expected a lot from them.
And we talked about what went wrong for us.
We could have been in the upper bracket, but then things happened.
We also had two very big names to beat.
Team Spirit in the group, then Team Liquid in the seeding series, so yeah, tough luck.
What does the SA region need to do to be more consistent?
Panda: The people have to be more focused, they need to treat this as a job.
I think some players are still not thinking about this as being a true career.
kaffs: I think the players in South America have the talent but, they lack discipline.
They should just try hard, in general.
