Cover-Credits:
The Last Chance Qualifiers have finally concluded after five days of constant clashes between twelve teams, as the final two spots at The International 2022 (TI11) went to Team Secret and Team Liquid who won the Upper and Lower Bracket Finals respectively. Following the victory, Lasse "MATUMBAMAN" Urpalainen was chosen to be interviewed by the LCQ (Last Chance Qualifier) panelists.
During the interview, MATUMBAMAN talked about his team’s match against Virtus.pro, who were considered as favorites of the tournament. He also spoke of his plans for retirement after TI11, Team Liquid’s performance during the season, and more.
MATUMBAMAN gives credit to the coaching staff for the team's improved form
The interview started off with panel host Natalie "NatTea" Mahoney asking MATUMBAMAN about his feelings after qualifying for TI11 following an intense series against Virtus.pro.
MATUMBAMAN replied by saying that “Yeah, I’m exhausted. Preparing for these games is super stressful and you can see that the other teams are playing for their lives during the qualifier, like you can feel that they really care about the game. I mean, I’m just happy to make it to be honest, my last year of professional Dota so its my last tournament, absolutely so f***ing amazing.”
Maurice "KheZu" Gutmann then proceeded to ask MATUMBAMAN about his team’s improvement during the season, as Team Liquid performed well in the DPC league but was unable to replicate that performance at LAN events. MATUMBAMAN credited the support staff for the team’s improvement in form before being funnily interrupted by Clement "Puppey" Ivanov.
“JerAx does the in-game stuff. He talks about how we play our heroes in the game. Blitz does the drafting with me and helps me out with that so yeah, we just try to come up with better strategies than we did in the Regional Qualifiers because Entity just came out of nowhere with better ideas than all of the other teams and yeah, we just got stomped with my boy, Secret. What can we do, they [Entity] were too young.”
Clinton "Fear" Loomis then asked MATUMBAMAN about his opinion on the current meta for TI11, as opposed to other TI’s that he was a part of.
MATUMBAMAN responded by saying that “It’s going to be similar to TI10. I don’t see how the game would change that much. The map stayed the same, which is unusual since between TI’s you have major changes on the map. But except for the removal of the small camp in the mid lane, the map stayed the same for this year. I mean who knows really? Only at TI you’ll see the true Dota and who’s the best team and what their idea of Dota is. The winning team defines what is like the right meta in this Dota 2 game, not the second or third or even the other eighteen teams you know like, who cares about those guys? The winners will define it all so we’ll see.”
Rikumikko "T-Panda" Kangasmäki rounded up the interview by asking his fellow Finn what he would say to a younger version of himself if he could travel back in time and what message he had for the fans.
“Um, I don’t know. Enjoy every moment you have in professional Dota because it’s fleeing and some day it will be gone. [To the fans] I guess I’ll try my best and hopefully you will cheer for me. I don’t have anything else to say because in two weeks, I’ll be gone so see you!” said MATUMBAMAN.
Despite his last season in professional Dota, MATUMBAMAN is looking to end his career on a high as he looks to claim his second Aegis of Champions alongside Team Liquid, the same team he won it with back in The International 2017 (TI7).
