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After a mixed bag of results in the Dota 2 Pro Circuit this season, Team Spirit has been in dominant form lately. The team is looking excellent in the runup to The International, and one of their star players is a new kid on the block, Larl. While his early performances with Team Spirit had left many doubting his caliber, his current form leaves fans excited about what comes next.
Team Spirit's Larl talked with Sportskeeda before DreamLeague Season 21, discussing his experience with four TI winners, the Riyadh Masters 2023 final, Pangolier in the current Dota 2 patch, and more.
Larl on Team Spirit, Riyadh Masters 2023, Pangolier in the current Dota 2 meta, and more
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Q: Having joined the team at the tail end of last year, how has your experience been playing as part of Team Spirit and along with four Dota 2 TI winners?
Larl: It’s a great experience to play with players who won a big tournament. They give me a lot of new things to think about.
Q: While the current Dota 2 season was a mixed bag for Team Spirit, you guys did manage to win Riyadh Masters 2023 in emphatic fashion. What were the thoughts and plans going into Game 2 and the rest of the series after Liquid took Game 1?
Larl: They just outdrafted us in the first game. They took better heroes, and they picked items against Puck. It’s hard to play against these heroes. In the next game, we just thought about this thing and that we need to keep in mind Templar Assassin.
Q: With a significantly larger map and several new additions in Dota 2, have the recent changes with 7.34 affected your picks and mindset?
Larl: It affected some of my heroes - like Snapfire and Windranger, who were good in previous patches. Now, they are not that good. They are hard to pick right now.
They also changed Atos. So you can’t pick any Universal Hero and pick Atos. You need to think about Spirit Vessel. While it affected two or three of my heroes, I have more heroes right now because of this patch.
It’s forced me to play more and new heroes that I did not play in previous patches because they were trash back then. Now, when you play them, you really do a lot of things on the map. So, that’s cool.
Q: Pangolier has seen quite a few changes with the latest patches. How do you feel about the hero’s place in the current meta?
Larl: They always nerf Pangolier, patch by patch. But the hero is, anyway, OP. He just does a lot of damage mid-game, and he is very easy to play. He is strong in the early game and mid-game. Maybe in the late game, he is not that strong. But he also does a lot of damage to the enemy team.
To fix Pangolier, you probably need to increase the mana cost of his first and second abilities. I played a lot of Pangolier on the new patch, and I feel he is super strong. You can pick him up in the first stage and play.
Q: With Dota 2 TI beginning later next month, you guys will surely be looking to carry on your momentum from Riyadh Masters. How have the team’s preparations been coming along?
Larl: All the tournaments we play, we prepare for it just as another tournament. We don’t think we need to prepare more or something. For me, I don’t have much expectations. I just want to show my best game. That’s all in my mind.
