Skiter interview: “It feels good to play each tournament on a different patch”

Ahead of DreamLeague Season 22 we had the chance to talk with Falcons’ Oliver "skiter" Lepko about the team’s recent success, what changed and what he had to do after winning BetBoom Dacha Dubai.

Team Falcons roster was put together in November last year and despite being regarded as one of the most skilled teams from the post The International 2023 shuffle, the first LAN event didn’t end as anticipated by the fans.

Following the top six finish at ESL One Kuala Lumpur in December last year, Team Falcons welcomed aboard Kurtis "Aui_2000" Ling, who worked for the past couple of years with Oliver "skiter" Lepko and Jingjun "Sneyking" Wu at Tundra Esports, and who won TI11 with them from the coaching seat.

Immediately after he joined, Team Falcons won their first tournament and had already reached the upper bracket finals at DreamLeague Season 22, so we sat down with skiter to learn more about what Aui_2000 joining Team Falcons means for the roster.

Read also: Team Falcons soar at the start of the season

I would like to start this interview by asking you about an interesting challenge you had with Malr1ne at BetBoom Dacha Dubai, that if you won the tournament, you would have to wear a Hello Kitty sticker on your face. So, congrats on your first LAN victory, now the question is: Did you do it, did you wear a Hello Kitty sticker on your face?

Yes, I did do it. Marl1ne puts a temporary Hello Kitty tattoo on his face every now and then and it's like the most stupid thing ever. At some point, he asked if anyone was willing to do the same if we won a tournament and, obviously, everyone said no because it's so stupid. But I wanted to make him feel better, so I said that if we won a tournament, I would do it. So, we did end up winning and I had to do it. I had a Hello Kitty on my face for about two days.

After seeing the roster, I guess everyone expected Falcons to do well right from the get-go, but did you expect to win a tournament within two months after forming the team?

I try to go to every tournament with the mentality that I'm going to win it, so I can't really say it's a surprise. But it definitely felt easier than anticipated. We took the grand finals 3-0, and I would say that the group stage felt like the most difficult part of the tournament. Especially when we lost to Team Liquid the first time in the groups. They beat us 2-0, and I think that was the series where we learned the most. We had an important talk after that series and afterwards, it felt very smooth and easy to play every game.

It feels good winning, but I want to keep working hard and improving because I don't want to just peak right now and become lazy.

Have you done anything special between ESL One Kuala Lumpur and now to find the synergy and the groove with every member of the team?

After Kuala Lumpur, we were looking for a coach and that's when Aui_2000 came in and he did a lot of the work that had to be done. Malr1ne, for example, is still fairly new to the scene and Aui is trying to teach him some of the new concepts and stuff that he might be missing out. But besides this, the team bonding that we do resumes to going for some walks together, we go to the gym actually, as five, the whole team. Sometimes we go to the sauna together as well.

And one uncommon thing that I do with Malr1ne is that we actually fight. We get into these fist fights together like you would do when you were a kid with your brother. It's not serious fights, we just fool around, you know, like in childhood.

How hard was it to convince Aui_2000 to come back and work with you and Sneyking again?

After the whole Tundra journey was over for us, I did ask him if he wanted to come and coach our new team, because obviously, I have a lot of respect for him. But he was kind of undecided on what he wanted to do in the future, so he said he would just take a break until December or so to see if he wanted to coach, if he wanted to cast, or what exactly he wanted to do in the future.

Then, after the whole Kuala Lumpur happened I went and asked him again if he was interested and he told me that he had some other coaching offers as well. But eventually, he decided to work with us. And I'm very happy he decided to go with us.

It's good to see you three, yourself, Sneyking and Aui back together, you've accomplished so much together at Tundra. How do you like the new patch, are you happy with the changes overall?

I think it's too early for me to say if I am happy or not with the patch, but I am just happy that it's something new. I always like when things change, I embrace the change, so every time there is a new patch or some major changes that make the game fresh, I'm happy. It feels good to play each tournament on a different patch.

With this patch, I think one of the interesting changes is the one to Sange and Yasha because the item is now cheaper and it has the same bonuses that it used to have.

Now that you have a better understanding of how the competitive calendar looks for Dota 2 in 2024, do you prefer it to the DPC Leagues system?

I love this so much more. I think the DPC Leagues system restricted a lot of tournaments because there was no time for other tournament organisers to have anything going, so I think now it's going to be way more competitive for teams and also for the TOs. Overall, I think this is going to be very healthy for the scene and I cannot wait to see where this is going to go.