Kpii Talks About T1 With Topson and ana

With the addition of Topias "Topson" Taavitsainen and Anathan "ana" Pham, T1 was expected to be the team to beat at The International 11 (TI11)'s regional qualifier in Southeast Asia (SEA), but underdogs Polaris Esports eliminated it in the lower bracket final. Polaris fell to Talon Esports in the group stage of TI11. After Talon's win, offlaner Damien "kpii" Chok expressed his thoughts about T1 being considered a favorite. Kpii said the community understandably hypes up Topson and Ana as past TI winners, but as a professional player, he knew Polaris Esports was a better team at the moment and that T1's elimination by them wasn't shocking.

Kpii feels Polaris Esports was better than T1 in TI11's SEA qualifier

In the post-match winner's interview, kpii was asked if Talon had expected T1 to play with it in the grand final, and if Polaris Esports win came off as a surprise.

As a competitor, kpii claimed that the viewers don't know certain details, which is why they believe players like Topson and Ana will win the qualifier and go to TI. He acknowledged the community's perception, saying that he knew where it came from but mentioned that Polaris Esports was a better team at the moment.

“I mean from a professional player perspective, I think sure Topson and ana are big names on paper and everything, maybe T1’s the favorite but based on watching games and based on our series against T1 and Polaris (I personally don’t know about my team), I felt that Polaris was indeed a little bit stronger.

I mean there are always these small details that not everyone knows about and you know, as a viewer, it would be just like - Oh my god, it’s ana, Topson, they are gonna go to TI or something which it’s understandable. I am not saying it’s bad or anything but yeah that’s what I think now.”

In the end, kpii's fan side also showed as when talking about who he would like to play against at TI11, he mentioned T1 due to Topson and Ana, hoping the team succeeds in the last chance qualifier. “I really want to see T1 at TI, no flames but I really want to see TI1 at TI because you know, it’s a TI without ana, Topson, right? So yeah, I hope T1 can make it through the last chance,” he said.

Regarding Talon's victory and the fact that he would play at TI this year, Kpii seemed rather overwhelmed with emotion, saying such a feeling hadn't occurred to him in quite some time

“I haven’t had this feeling for a very very long time. That’s all I can say. Especially, since it was like 3-2 (in the grand final against Polaris Esports, it’s even more… I don’t know, I just haven’t had this feeling for a long time.”

Kpii and Talon will begin their TI11 journey from the group stage which starts on 15th Oct.