Puppey Wished to Retain Team Secret's TI10 Roster

The captain of Team Secret, Clement "Puppey" Ivanov, provided some interesting insight into the team's recent roster changes in an interview with DreamLeague after Team Secret's win over Alliance on 4th Dec 2021. Puppey stated that he would have liked to have played with the same team from TI10 until the end but this was not possible because it was his "ultimate best option" while some other team members had other choices. Team Secret witnessed the departure of longstanding members Ludwig "zai" Wåhlberg and Lasse Aukusti "MATUMBAMAN" Urpalainen after a third-place finish at The International 10 (TI10). In addition to this, Puppey discussed the team's current situation after having added two experienced players to its roster.

Puppey gives his opinion on Team Secret’s recent roster shuffle

Puppey was called in for a post-match interview after Team Secret's victory over Alliance in the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) 2021-22. The details of the post-TI roster changes are usually a mystery to outsiders, but Puppey provided some interesting insight into his own team's transition. As a reference to his teammates’ other preferences following TI10, Puppey mentioned MATUMBAMAN who had recently indicated that after TI10 ended, he did not feel like he was a part of Team Secret.

While Puppey wanted to play with the same roster, he mentioned, “The second TI ended, stuff started happening and you know, a person started leaving, you might retire, you know maybe I am even losing my midlaner. All that stuff was out there.”

He also provided his opinion on roster changes in general. According to him, roster shuffles are "quite toxic." It is difficult to approach people with the intention of roster shuffles, he said, as it also reflects a loss of trust. Puppey said it was especially difficult this year due to the current global environment where it was hard to meet and converse, and everything in relation to these roster changes had to be communicated virtually.

Puppey discusses Team Secret's current state

With the departure of zai and MATUMBAMAN, Team Secret welcomed two equally experienced players, Syed Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan and Daryl Koh "iceiceice" Pei Xiang to its Dota 2 roster. Due to this, it was expected that the team would continue to be a dominant force in Western Europe, but the debut did not go quite as expected. In a matchup against a new and young OG team, Team Secret looked outmatched and uncoordinated.

Puppey also shared his thoughts on this series, pointing out that the defeat was the result of not only their poor performance but also OG's superior gameplay.

“I would say, terrifying (OG’s gameplay) and caught off guard. But this state can change for both teams obviously. I can’t really speak for the future because I don’t really know what can happen but I’ll tell you, right there in that match, they were scary. Their map movements, understanding of the draft were really scary and ours was garbage. So you see we are picking Pudges, you know, stuff like that running around, doing absolutely nothing, Winter Wyverns offlane. So, you can see that we are not in our groove, we don’t exactly know what’s going on yet to make ourselves win but we are on the right path.”

Team Secret was able to bounce back in its second series in the DPC 2021-22 Tour 1: Division 1 against Alliance, going on to win 2-0. However, Puppey acknowledged that the team would need more work before it plays at its best. Among the reasons he cited for his team not performing to its potential was that all of the players on Team Secret had a high reputation and they were anxious not to fail in front of each other.

“We just definitely need more time and it’s hard because right now we have a team full of people that are known to play good and kinda have been in the scene for a million years. So, there’s perhaps a little bit of anxiety of you know, not failing in front of each other type of thing going on. But overall, I think time will solve all problems and I think this win is very good for us. It will give us some kind of strength and we will just try to keep positive even though games are very hard and the meta is changing quite fast but regardless this is good and forward will be good.”

As the league continues, Puppey and Team Secret hope to improve, and Tundra Esports, one of the top contenders, awaits them on 11th Dec 2021 in their next series.

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