Gaimin Gladiators are on a redemption arc for the first time this year. After dominating the entire season, they now have to make a full lower bracket comeback run at TI12.
Gaimin Gladiators won all Majors leading into The International 2023 and a total of five championship trophies. At TI12, despite placing second in their group, GG ended up in the lower bracket rounds for the playoffs.
It is a completely new experience for them and we’ve been able to catch up with Erik "tOfu" Engel before the playoffs began and learn what went wrong in the seeding series against Talon and how Gaming Gladiators are approaching the most important tournament of the year now that they will play with elimination on the line in every series.
Evil Geniuses
vs
Gaimin Gladiators on Saturday, October 21 at 13:00 PDT
tOfu Interview with GosuGamers at The International 2023
How has your experience in Seattle been so far? Do you like the city?
I would say it's pretty good so far. We didn't go around too much. Most of the time we are staying at the hotel practicing and playing groups. It's somewhat cold already, a bit windy and grey, and rainy on some of the days, which is not my favourite weather.
What do you think about this new TI format for the group stage and the overall tournament with the four-day breaks between stages?
The breaks between groups stage, playoffs and finals I think are really good overall. The tournament doesn't feel so rushed, people can think and reset from their games, and the meta can evolve and change. You also have time to learn and adapt, so it's not necessarily a team coming in with a good idea and just rushing through. Everyone gets a chance to adapt to what's going on.
As for the group stage, the seeding matches don't really make sense because if you are a team that won all or most of your group matches and then lost the seeding series, you are suddenly in the lower bracket.
We ended up in the lower bracket, which is very unfortunate, but I guess we deserve to be there.
Hard luck on falling short of making it to the upper bracket. What went wrong in your series against Talon Esports?
There have been some issues from our side throughout the whole series. We've been improving a lot from the bootcamp and group stage matches and we've been constantly learning. In that series against Talon, we felt like we should have won all three of those games, but we ended up playing too passively and making some mistakes.
We can't have any more slip-ups now that we are in the lower bracket, and I actually think that it's important that we start to feel a bit the pressure. Through the groups, I think we didn't feel any pressure because we were playing from the hotel and we might have taken it too easy. Playing games from the hotel feels like playing scrims in a way.
For our team is really important to have this presence and the pressure that is going to come in from playing at the arena, in front of a crowd.
"We can't have any more slip-ups now that we are in the lower bracket, and I actually think that it's important that we start to feel a bit the pressure"
Is it a bit of a mental burden coming into the tournament as one of the favourites?
Are we? I mean, we've been favourites for quite some time this year, but we also had our down period for a bit. In a way, it was hard to keep up this momentum and the champion mindset for so long. Eventually the meta changes, but you also kind of hold on to your ideas, you are confident with that because you've won a lot with it. But then the meta changes and your play style, your heroes, and your items, all get a bit nerfed, so we need some more time to adjust.
Right now I wouldn't consider us as champions. Not because we don't feel like it but I think the fans, the viewers, and the other teams don't view us the same way anymore, which is good in a way. If all teams look at you as champions, they start to look at all your games, they watch your replays, they study what heroes you play, and it's honestly really annoying. The only good part about that is that people fear you more. It's also good that we don't feel the pressure of meeting other’s expectations that much. On high-stakes games, it's nice when people can feel free and just play the game.
Western Europe is having a much tougher time at TI12 as compared to most other tournaments this season and especially compared to TI11. What has changed?
For the last two years, Europe has been the most dominant region but yeah, at this TI, we have only Liquid in the upper bracket and I'm not sure if that's because of the group stage format or if it's because Europe is just having a weak phase right now. But, taking into consideration the scrims we played and also officials, I still think that WEU is one of the best regions.
The thing is that when the TI time comes, all teams get extremely competitive. For instance, in my eyes, we should have won those games against Talon, but all teams and players here at TI12 are good enough to take advantage of any of your small mistakes.
How do you like the current meta? Have the last few balance patches changed the viable hero pool significantly for you?
It actually did in some way. There are heroes that you could say are top five in every position but if the enemy is picking in a certain way, you need to go out of your way. But for me, I'm quite happy with my heroes.
There are a lot of Blade Mails and Hearts going on and some big boys like Primal Beast, Spirit Breaker, and Bristle Back, which are a bit annoying, so I hope we can get rid of those, but overall the meta is in a good state. Playing fast or dragging the games out long, splitting or playing together as a team, I think there are a lot of possibilities and a lot of teams play different styles and that makes it very interesting to see who has the best idea.
"The toughest opponent is probably ourselves"
Based on what you have seen till now, who looks like the toughest opponent at TI12?
The toughest opponent is probably ourselves. If we can overcome our burdens and get loose of the shackles, I think we are good. Just from watching the games, I think Team Spirit looks the best right now. They play really good Dota, it seems very coordinated. Even if they are behind, they figure out good ways to come back and it just looks good and clean. We will see if they can keep it up, if people will figure them out or if they figure out what's special about what Spirit are doing.
Thank you tOfu for taking the time to talk to us, and we wish you and Gaimin Gladiators to have a great time at TI12 moving into the playoffs.
Thank you for the interview and a big thank you to everyone watching the games, reading this and supporting Gaimin Gladiators. I hope we will make you proud at TI12!
