"You always need this hunger to aspire for more": Wisper talks about Evil Geniuses' form, the current Dota 2 meta, upcoming TI, and more

Evil Geniuses' new roster did not have a stellar season in the Dota 2 Pro Circuit season, with the team seeing both highs and lows. The outfit came fourth at the Berlin Major 2023 and won the DPC SA Tour 3 Division I. Given the size of the organization's fanbase, it is no surprise that there are high expectations for them at the upcoming event, The International (TI).

Evil Geniuses' Wisper talked to Sportskeeda (translated by Zipo) before the DreamLeague Season 21, discussing the team's current form, their loss against beastcoast, recent Dota 2 meta, and more.

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Evil Geniuses' Wisper discusses the team's current form, the latest Dota 2 changes, and more

Q: Evil Geniuses saw highs and lows this season, especially winning DPC SA and coming 4th in the Dota 2 Berlin Major. Did you guys live up to your own expectations for the season?

Wisper: At the beginning, when the team was built, everyone had very high expectations - fans and players themselves. While I am personally very happy with the response I’ve had, it’s always good to aspire to something more.

I always want to achieve more than I have. It’s also very important not to be happy with just the results you have. You always need this hunger to aspire for more.

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Q: At the Dota 2 BetBoom Dacha, you guys crashed out against beastcoast 2-1. What do you think went wrong in the series?

Wisper: There’s always this thing that happens when they play against beastcoast. I call it the beastcoast effect. I don’t know if it was with pressure, but honestly, beastcoast was better, and that’s why they won.

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Q: Patch 7.34 has overhauled plenty of mechanics and brought in a larger map in Dota 2. How have these affected the carry gameplay during matches from your experience?

Wisper: I think the change is good because I felt the game was getting monotonous. Without these changes, you are playing the same thing over and over again, which gets boring really quickly.

I like that there are more options right now and the sense of discovery while playing — like the buffs in the jungle, the bugs, the mechanics with the cheese, lotuses, and more. Now that the map is bigger and more open.

You can split push or farm in other spaces. In previous patches, you had to go to the lane, farm a little bit of the jungle, and then had to TP back. Right now, it is more open, so you have more options to play around.

Obviously, this is only fun when you can take advantage of the big map. If the other team takes advantage, it’s really bad. I really like these types of changes and will love more of them so that the game continues evolving.

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Q: We have been seeing supports picking up a number of buffs recently in Dota 2. Has that affected the kind of heroes you pick?

Wisper: I disagree that supports are stronger in this patch. This patch is more around the Carries.

Right now, with the bigger map, it doesn’t matter if you destroy the Carry in lane. For example, Medusa or Sven has built-in Battle Fury or Split Shot, which is a comeback mechanic. Lanes don't matter that much because you can farm.

I think Carries are the ones benefiting the most from these changes. Supports aren’t strong right now, but if changes were made to sentries and visions, they might be a little bit better off.

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Q: Which hero is the most annoying to play against in the current Dota 2 meta?

Wisper: I think Sven because he feels like the Alchemist from previous patches. He has a really good lane, he has a stun, and he has armor. Also, he comes online faster than other Carries.

He has a lot of damage because of his ultimate. I also think the Gyro is good, even after the small nerfs. He is the type of Carry that can come back and have a good lane.

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Q: With Dota 2 TI right around the corner, how has the team’s preparation been coming along?

Wisper: We are taking any tournament we can to practice. We weren’t playing much during the past month, taking a bit of a break. It always happens that when we come back from a period of not playing that much, we tend to fall back on some mistakes that we need to revisit and correct.

Right now, we are playing FISSURE with the mentality of, “Let’s practice, let’s make the mistake here so we don't make them at TI.” We were playing scrims, but it is different when you are playing for a prize pool and not for practice.

DreamLeague is also going to be this type of tournament, where we are going to play the best we can and make mistakes. I hope we get better results than FISSURE. But sometimes teams are better than you.

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Q: With DreamLeague being the final tournament before Dota 2 TI, will Evil Geniuses test out new strats or save them for the bigger stage?

Wisper: We normally give our all in every single tournament. We are not the team that saves strats for later. Personally, I like playing DreamLeague as it is one of the most fun tournaments to play in, and I hope that we do well.

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Q: Who would you say are the strongest opponents in the upcoming DreamLeague tournament?

Wisper: If I make an order, it would be - Gaimin Gladiators, Liquid, Tundra, Quest, and Entity. In the case of Tundra, it is really interesting with the change of Nine and Topson playing as midlane.

I really want to play against them as the dynamic will be really interesting to play against. Entity is like Tundra - with the change of Gabbi making them really good.

I also want to play against OG because with MinD_ContRoL they are stronger. The meme of Ceb and Mindcontrol makes it funnier that they are playing on the same team.

Spirit and 9Pandas also had good placements in previous tournaments. This tournament has really strong teams, and I like playing against them as they are really good practice.