Cover-Credits:
In a recent interview with the Russian Dota 2 news website cybersport.metaratings.ru, Team Secret’s Marcel "Ekki" Hołowienko revealed his experience playing for the team. Interestingly, Ekki, who used to be an assistant coach for Team Secret, revealed that Clement “Puppey” Ivanov had a hand behind his signing in the team as its position four support. Ekki also talked about what it was like to play with the Dota 2 veteran.
However, this information comes at a time of rumors about Ekki’s departure from Team Secret in recent days. One of the first people to start this rumor was former LevelUP player Milan "MiLAN" Kozomara, who took to X and tweeted that Ekki was out of Team Secret.
Ekki Shares His Experiences with Team Secret
In a recent interview with cybersport.metaratings.ru, Team Secret’s Ekki shared how he ended up joining Team Secret as its position four support despite never being a part of any big teams before.
He said, “During the reshuffles after TI, I was looking for a team. I had been a coach before, but I realized that I wanted to try myself as a player, I had a lot of ideas in my head about how I could play. Clement “Puppey” Ivanov contacted me and said that they were looking for a player for the fourth position. I replied to him that I could give it a try.”
Ekki also talked about what it was like to play with Dota 2 veteran Puppey. During the interview, Ekki said, “It is very interesting to play with him. When you become a pro player, there are a lot of subtle things you can't do. Puppey helps me to be better as a player. I make decisions within the game much faster now. Playing with Puppey is quite interesting.”
[Translated via DeepL]
Ekki was notably the assistant coach for Team Secret in 2023 for six months but left the team to coach TSM ahead of The International 2023. He stayed with TSM until it disbanded and was invited to play for Team Secret following this venture.
However, recent rumors in the Dota 2 community are suggesting that Ekki has been kicked from the team but there has been no official announcement from the team or the player regarding this matter. So far, Ekki has only played one tournament with the team which is the ongoing DreamLeague Season 22. But it should be noted that Team Secret exited the tournament with a disappointing 11th-12th standing.
