Cover-Credits:
After the infamous “kick” of team captain Adrian "Fata" Trinks, Martin "Saksa" Sazdov was welcomed at Tundra Esports, leaving many with mixed reactions. In the past two months, however, the revamped roster has been able to hold its own and has performed quite well. Tundra Esports' new captain Wu "Sneyking" Jingjun mentioned the change in team dynamics following Saksa's arrival, in the post-match winner's interview, after the team's win over Brame in the Western Europe (WEU) Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) 2021-22 Tour 2: Division 1 on 19th April. Sneyking noted that Saksa is not the most vocal player on the team, but whenever he speaks, everyone pays attention to what he has to say since he has a lot of good ideas about the game.
Sneyking explains Saksa’s role at Tundra Esports
Saksa has played a good deal of games for Tundra Esports over the past two months, as he's been here for nearly the same duration. When asked about the changes in the team dynamic since Saksa arrived, Sneyking stated that there haven't been many. He did, however, stress that Saksa is a very confident person, and as such, the team does rely on him when he speaks occasionally.
“I think Saksa brings a lot of really good ideas and there is a meme going in the team like - Saksa doesn’t say much for the most part but when he says something, you better listen because he has really good ideas and he only speaks about them when he’s confident about them. So, it’s really nice to be always able to rely on Saksa. Whenever he says something, you can definitely stress it and act upon it.”
Following Saksa's February 2022 arrival as position four, Sneyking assumed the position five role and the captaincy. Tundra had done well in the months leading up to the roster change, so kicking a captain (Fata) came as a surprise to the community.
However, Tundra rose to the challenge immediately as just two weeks after Saksa joined, the team participated in the Gamers Galaxy 2022 and finished second among the best teams in the world.
During the ongoing WEU DPC 2021-22 Tour 2: Division 1, Tundra continued its form from the Gamers Galaxy event by winning three consecutive series in the start. It suffered a string of three losses after that, putting it in a precarious position to qualify for the Major, before rebounding in its final series against Brame to earn the Major slot.
Those losses, Sneyking said, were a way of staying grounded and reminding them that there was always room for improvement. He mentioned that they hope to use the lessons they learned during the upcoming ESL One Stockholm 2022 Major.
“I think we definitely were influenced a lot by our losses. We had a good momentum going 3-0, in a very dominant fashion as well in the series where we won. And then when we faced OG, and then Liquid, each loss kind of brought us down a little bit more. It reminded us that we are still humans, we make mistakes, we are here to improve, and hopefully, we don’t forget those valuable lessons we learn on the way and bring them to the Major.”
At the ESL One Stockholm Major, Tundra, OG, Gladiators, and Team Liquid will represent WEU. During the Major, all competing teams will begin their journey from the group stage on 12th May 2022.
