TORONTOTOKYO Mentions the Players Who Inspired Him and His Future Goals

Alexander "TORONTOTOKYO" Khertek put on a show at The International 10 (TI10) with Team Spirit, establishing himself as one of Dota 2's most popular players. During a recent interview, posted on Team Spirit's YouTube account, TORONTOTOKYO, who had only been a pubstar a year ago, named some of the players who inspired him. Citing players like Syed Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan and Amer "Miracle-" Al-Barkawi, he said such players represented a similar story to him - rising to prominence from pubs. Furthermore, TORONTOTOKYO also discussed his potential transfer fee and future goals after having won TI once already.

TORONTOTOKYO says he was inspired by Arteezy, SumaiL, and Miracle-

TORONTOTOKYO was a popular player in high ranking pubs, before joining Team Spirit in December 2020, going by the nickname "mio". Taking into account midlaners from past TIs who shot to prominence, TORONTOTOKYO cited three particular players whose stories he connected with during his early days. He also said that when he compared the peak performances of all these players and himself, the SumaiL of TI5 was the best.

“I got inspired by Arteezy, SumaiL, Miracle-, and all the players who came from public games and started playing really well. So they set an example for me that I could do so…Maybe SumaiL because he was the best player then at The International and he was very young.”

Now, a year and a half later, after joining his first significant team, TORONTOTOKYO is among the most popular players in competitive Dota 2 thanks to his victory at TI10 with Team Spirit. Upon being asked what his transfer fee would be at the present time, he said it would be extremely high as he believes he has a substantial role to play in a team.

“I don’t know…didn’t really have any examples. But I think I have a big impact on the team so I should be pretty expensive. Maybe it’d cost like Nightfall’s transfer to Evil Geniuses. I don’t know how much it cost. $200,000?”

As one of the most talked about Dota 2 player exchanges in the past few years, Egor "Nightfall" Grigorenko's transfer to Evil Geniuses in November 2021 was reportedly worth $125,000 USD.

TORONTOTOKYO talks about his future goals

TORONTOTOKYO, who has already won TI once, says he is not looking for another big dream and simply wants to keep up his form and grow as an athlete. He also added that his team hasn't reached its full potential and can still do better.

“I don’t have a big dream. I have a goal to keep playing well and grow to be a better player and teammate and develop my verbal skills. I haven’t done anything about that yet but I’m planning to. I just want to win everything that we can win. I don’t think we unleashed our potential. I always see that we can play better…We agreed that we won’t be arrogant just because we won TI, that we won’t let ourselves do that.”

Since the DPC 2021-22 Tour 2 for Eastern Europe (EEU) has been indefinitely postponed by Valve amidst the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, TORONTOTOKYO and Team Spirit are currently not in action. On 24th March, the team, its players, and staff relocated from Russia to Belgrade, Serbia.