Soon, no more Herald plays for Tundra at LAN.
Team Secret faced off against Tundra in the first match of Week 3 WEU DPC, failing to get their second win of the season. As for Tundra, this is their third consecutive victory, having already won matches against Alliance and OG. Even though the series ended in a 2-1 victory for Tundra, they looked dominant on all three maps. In the post-match interview, Tundra Sneyking spoke about the team's mentality during the series enabled them to win Game 3.
Despite Tundra’s 2-1 victory, they could have closed out the game in Game 2 itself. However, there were a few crucial mistakes that cost Tundra the game. Speaking in the post-match interview, Tundra’s IGL, Sneyking highlights how the team’s mentality and ability to reset after Game 2 helped them secure the series.
"I think we made some mistakes on our aggression," Tundra Sneyking said. "Secret is a very good defensive team. Puppey always is very good at telling his teams to camp the vision and talk about how he wants to take fights on his side of the map. I think we were a little too careless too many times. And we just ended up throwing our lead so many times. And it just became a really hard game after that."
The focus on resetting their mindset actually helped them as they approached the third game confident. The positive mindset was a big reason for their dominant performance in the final game of the series.
"After Game 2, we were a bit frustrated, it was a tough loss. We were up a lot and we ended up throwing. But we were able to reset mentally and we were able to completely run it back as if nothing happened. I think that's a really important skill to have especially in the long runs of tournaments when you get deep into LAN and stress is going to get to you. But people are still going to be able to reset mentally after a tough loss and it's an invaluable skill to have."
We were able to reset mentally and we were able to completely run it back as if nothing happened.
Sneyking changed roles and took on the mantle of the team’s IGL after FATA’s departure. He has been focusing on his leadership style for the past few weeks. After the game he emphasized how the positive reinforcement comms helped Tundra in today’s match.
"I think it starts with having some sort of positive reinforcement in the team. I was telling today, "It's OK guys. F*** the game, forget about it, just reset. Go do something else. We were choking, we probably knew that we lost the second game, but we were still talking in a much easier way”, he recalled.
“I think despite us sitting in the base for 20-30 minutes, we kind of accepted the loss a long time ago, but we're still trying our best. During that time that we were just chilling, we were able to reset and refocus and it honestly, ended up being in our favor. Because heading into Game 3, we actually felt we were the better team and we were going to win this."
Heading into Game 3, we actually felt we were the better team and we were going to win this.
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Tundra on LAN
Tundra is aiming to qualify for the upcoming Arlington Major. The last time Tundra played at LAN, they lost to OG, finishing 3rd at ESL One Stockholm. With 712 DPC points, Tundra have still not locked in their place for TI11 and winning DPC Tour 3 is the first step in that direction.
Earlier in this Tour, Tundra Skiter had jokingly likened the team's performance on LAN to Herald plays.
"Honestly, failure is good because it prepares you to do better the next time. I feel getting the experience that we did in the previous Majors was really beneficial. I look forward to playing more LANs with my team before TI to even get more experience in front of the crowd so we wont' be as nervous or inexperienced and we'll have better results."
Tundra take down Team secret in three-game series
The first game saw a Techies pick by Team Secret, a pick that didn’t work out as intended. With some big cores and heavy hitters on Tundra, Secret needed to make the most of the early game. However, they could not apply enough pressure in the early game, allowing Tundra to take a massive lead with heroes that scale.
Despite the slow and steady networth lead for Tundra, Secret still managed to stretch the game to 45 minutes. With Nisha and Crystallis getting some good farm and crucial items, Team Secret rallied around their cores extracting maximum impact from good positioning and movement. Ultimately, however, Tundra had the upper hand mostly due to the scalability of its draft.
The second game saw Tundra take an early lead as wll. But this time, Secret’s playstyle reflected their draft choices where they had to get some important items on their Puck and cores and take it to the late game. It was a slow death for Tundra as they were aware fo their impending loss for a long time.
Despite the slow but sure turn of the game’s tide in favor of Team Secret, Tundra’s players took the additional time to reset their mentality. They came out much stronger in the third game which they won with a 21k networth lead.
With this loss, Team Secret find themselves in a tough spot. To qualify for TI11, not only do Team Secret have to qualify for the Arlington Major, they also need a good placement in the US LAN event.
Tundra meanwhile, will play another series this week when they take on Team Liquid.
Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest Dota 2 news and updates.
Featured Image: Tundra Sneyking at ESL One Stockholm. Image Credit: ESL.
