Cover-Credits:
Several of T1's Dota 2 players are long-time teammates and have previously played together with Geek Fam. In an interview recently, Karl “Karl” Matthew Baldovino discussed what it was like to play with his teammates. Regarding support player, Matthew "Whitemon" Filemon, Karl described him as "funny, annoying, and dumb." Karl then also expressed joy to have the opportunity to play with captain Carlo "Kuku" Palad again. In addition, the midlaner spoke about how the team, as a whole, recovers and comes back after experiencing a loss.
T1 Karl talks about Kuku and how the team recovers after losses
The current team of T1 consists of four of the five members, Kuku, Karl, Whitemon, and Kenny "Xepher" Deo, who have all been playing competitive Dota 2 together for a while now. Kuku commanded the four players on the Geek Fam roster in 2020.
Though Geek Fam disbanded in late 2020 due to external factors, the four of them then got together just in time to compete in the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) 2021 under the T1 banner. Having the opportunity to play on the team together with Kuku again, Karl mentioned how pleased he was considering Kuku's skill as a player and his intelligence as a captain.
“I (Karl) am really glad that I get to play with Kuku again because he is a very talented player and smart captain.”
Recently, T1 has been on an upward trend, and the DPC 2021 brought it considerable success. However, the team has also faltered and failed to be as good as one would expect them to be at times. Karl explained that, in situations such as these, they watch replays together in order to learn what has happened and then pick up on solutions.
“We are always watching the replays together after the loss and seeing what happened here and there. We discuss and fix the problems together and yes, move on and play better next time.”
T1 is currently playing from a bootcamp in Romania as part of their preparation for ESL One Fall 2021: Bootcamp Edition. The team's next series in the ESL One Fall 2021 tournament, which will run until 29th August, 2021, will be against Alliance in the lower bracket playoffs on 27th August.
Next, they will prepare for the biggest Dota 2 stage of all, The International 10 (TI10). TI10 will be held from 7th-17th Oct, 2021, so T1 has more than a month to prepare strategies and enter the event fully prepared.
