Saksa Explains Tundra’s Recent Decline in Form

Tundra Esports’ support player Martin "Saksa" Sazdov became the latest member from the team to be pulled aside for a quick interview following its victory in Division I of the Western Europe Dota Pro Circuit 2023 (WEU DPC 2023): Winter Tour against newly promoted side Into The Breach (ITB)

During the interview, the North Macedonian player talked about the team’s recent decline in form despite having won three matches in the current DPC season. Additionally he also commented on the new DPC format.

Saksa noted that the team will not give if one of them finds a way

During the winner’s post match interview, Tundra Esports’ support player Martin "Saksa" Sazdov was asked by panelist Maurice "KheZu" Gutmann about the team’s recent struggles of getting a clean 2-0 victory over teams such as Nigma Galaxy and ITB as well as the team’s loss against Team Liquid in the previous week. While Saksa acknowledged that the team has been struggling as of late in terms of performance, he stated that the team had multiple reasons behind its recent struggles.

“I'm not sure. There's probably a lot of reasons why we're playing like shit right now. I think we got together too early in the bootcamp and we don't have the right motivation. I guess those issues are getting in our way. I don't know, there seems to be a lot of reasons and it's really hard to pick one. One thing is superimposed on top of the other. What can I say, we just played like shit at the moment.”

However, despite the team’s recent struggles Saksa also noted the team will not give up during a series should a player within the team finds a way to achieve a comeback.

“Usually, if one of us sees a way to make a comeback, we act on that plan. But if there are no ideas, we usually give up. We had this option in the first game [against ITB] - the odds were minimal and the win was already effectively in our opponent's hands, but we decided to try regardless of the outcome if one of us saw a small chance of making a comeback. “

The North Macedonian player ended the interview by talking about the new DPC format. While he noted that the new format is a bit better than the previous season, he also noted that the format from the previous season allowed the team to prepare better.

“The current format is not good for us in the short term because we are used to a six-week tour  where there is a lot of time to prepare for the next match. But overall, the new format is good. Six weeks is a very long time in my opinion. So the current system is not bad, we just need to adapt to it. I personally think the three weeks could be shortened even more, but even now it's fine. We are going in the right direction.”

Despite the team’s recent decline in form, Tundra Esports are currently on top of the WEU standings alongside Team Liquid. Tundra Esports will be playing its next series in the DPC 2023 against Team Secret on 20th January, with the latter having shocked many by losing three consecutive DPC matches in a row and currently sitting at the bottom of the standings despite having made The International 2022 (TI11) Grand Finals last season.