Team Liquid Matumbaman: “I think this creep [Harpy] shouldn’t exist in the game. It should have been removed on Day 1”

One of the bigger surprises in this Tour has been Nigma Galaxy’s lack of wins. The team is currently 0-6 after losing to Team Liquid in the penultimate week. Team Liquid on the other hand, looks en route to finish in the top four, a result that will ensure their invite to the Stockholm Major. 

The first game against Nigma Galaxy was a washout as Lasse Aukusti "MATUMBAMAN" Urpalainen on his Necrophos went without a single death. Building items that would scale into the late game, Matumbaman was able to outpace the enemy position 1.

He went 23-0, a phenomenal performance, irrespective of the opponent. When you factor in the fact that it was Nigma Galaxy on the other side, a team that features legends in the Dota 2 scene, Matu’s performance is even more impressive. 

In the post-game interview, the panel asked Matumbaman about his itemization on the hero, he ‘often builds slow items on fast heroes’. 

"I feel like position 1 still have to fill some roles in the game. You need to be able to do damage, you can't just pick a fun hero and expect to win with lotus orbs and stuff. S*** just doesn't fly you know. You got to amp yourself, be strong. And usually it works out, hopefully."

Nigma Galaxy were playing with Adrian "Fata" Trinks as a standin for Igor "iLTW" Filatov this match.

The latest Dota 2 patch made quite a few changes to neutral creeps. One of the creeps that received the most significant buff is the relatively harmless-looking Harpy.

What is the buff? Simply put, the Harpy now provides vision, a lot of it. To be precise, Harpy’s vision is 1800/1800, which means it gives 1800 vision during day and night. In a game where vision is often the most valued feature, the tiny Harpy can make or change games.

TeaGuv explained in detail why the Harpy is one of the most overpowered neutral creeps in the game.

The first Dota 2 Major of 2022 is the ESL One Stockholm. The tournament will see the world’s best Dota 2 teams compete in a Valve-sponsored LAN event for the first time this year. There’s been a small chance in the format of the Major, as all teams will now play in the group stage. There are also no wild cards for the Major which makes this new format a very interesting one. Matumbaman feels the new format is good, it allows for a better playing ground for all teams. 

“That is better. It's kind of unpredictable. It doesn't function as well for Dota 2 as it would function for other titles. So I think that is definitely a bonus, because it doesn't really give a free pass for some teams that do good in the League and then cash in the points from automatic placement at the Major.”

ESL One Stockholm will see two groups of nine teams each playing Bo2 round-robins. The top four teams in each group advance to the upper bracket while the 5-6th place teams go to the lower bracket.

Team Liquid went almost undefeated in the Tour 1, their only loss coming against Nigma Galaxy. After today’s revenge, Team Liquid are in a very comfortable position. Statistically they cannot be relegated to the lower division anymore. 

"We were definitely catching the pace. The first season was really easy cause we really had some strategies nailed down from TI to go into the League, we kind of had stuff figured out. Obviously Gaimin Gladiators, they abused us, but we also got a little bit lazy. We didn't really have good preparation in the end. 

And now we are trying to catch up the pace, a lot of things have changed. I can't really value it, I would say we were in a better spot in the first season. Now we're getting better game to game and we also have a few fun strategies like Necrophos Carry, no physical damage, you can't kill Roshan, you can only kill heroes. (laughs) So it's a fun way of playing Dota, you normally don't see it."

Liquid’s final match of this tour will be against Gaimin Gladiators, a match that could decide the status of their invitation to the Stockholm Major.
Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest Dota 2 news and updates.