The captain of the Team Secret Dota 2 roster, Clement Puppey Ivanov, explained why the team began to decline in results. In an interview with RuHub studio, he said that the roster began to lose motivation.
According to Ivanov, Team Secret was initially set up to win The International this year, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, the team had to compete in online championships:
Clement Puppey Ivanov:
“We played well for a very long time. It’s been about seven months now – there is no longer any motivation to do the same. Usually you play well, go to a big tournament and win, after which a new stage begins. In the current situation, these stages are no longer felt – it just works.I can play all the time, but not all players are like that – sometimes they need to feel something different. Some of the members of our line-up lost fire and motivation. This fire was because we wanted to win The International. When we won the Major, the motivation just got bigger. But the coronavirus came and said there would be no LAN tournaments, so we played in the online championships as long as we could. The time has come for TI and nothing has changed – continue to play Dota.”
Puppey also commented on Team Secret’s victory in several nominations at the 2020 Esports Awards. Ivanov believes that this was important for the entire discipline.
Clement Puppey Ivanov:
“It’s good that our achievements are noticed – we won a lot of tournaments, and even with a score of 3:0 in the finals eight times in a row. It shows something. Usually, nothing happens in Dota in terms of premiums. I would say that this is not only our victory, but the entire discipline. It’s good that Dota was shown at least once – this usually doesn’t happen.”
From May to October 2020, Team Secret won eight championships in a row – each grand finals ending 3-0. After that, the team took fourth place at ESL One Germany 2020 , and since November 13 they have been playing at EPIC League Season 2 Division 1.
