Team Liquid’s new offlaner zai shares what he hopes Valve can change in Dota 2 to spice things up!
The 2021/2022 DPC season finally kicked off with the regional leagues taking place across the globe. Dota 2 fans are definitely hyped for this spicy season with many baffling roster shuffles announced, and one of them is Ludwig "zai" Wåhlberg’s arrival in Team Liquid.
The versatile offlaner has a long history in Dota 2 but his most memorable stint was with the European powerhouse, Team Secret. His 3-year long career with Secret showcased the Swede achieving spectacular results, winning the Chongqing Major, Paris Major, and the Leipzig Major.
Zai’s journey with Team Liquid begins
The conclusion of TI10 had Team Secret pull off an amazing run to secure the Top 3, its highest ever TI achievement in history. However, Secret’s mainstay, zai wanted to explore new opportunities. In an article posted by Team Liquid, zai mentioned what made him decide on the move.
The appeal to do things differently with Team Secret wasn’t as high as trying something completely new. The change in environment and people felt like a nice concept. That being said, there is absolutely no bad blood between me and anyone at Team Secret. It was an amicable split.
He shared his plans of leaving Team Secret with his teammates right after TI10 and did not hesitate to grab the deal with Team Liquid. MATUMBAMAN, position 1 of Secret, also joined Liquid not long after.
Matu came into the picture a little bit later, and wasn’t really a part of my decision making process. It seems that I can’t escape him. He just follows me!
The offlaner then shared his thoughts on what he wants to see in future Dota 2 updates.
Zai wants to see a switch-up in Dota 2
Dota 2 used to face constant changes; whether by map tweaks, mechanic adjustments, additional features, and more. But the last time we saw such a huge change was a long period ago and the update before TI10 was also quite underwhelming. Zai feels that the meta has grown stale and he wishes to see Valve do something to make it more enjoyable.
In my opinion, the laning stage needs a change. The dynamic between blocking camps, pulling waves, position 5 players spamming Healing Salves on the position 1 players has been going on for a long time. That is an environment that I’d like to see changed.
He also pitched in the idea of moving Roshan elsewhere on the map, something that we haven’t seen in almost 5 years. In patch 7.00, Dota 2 made changes to Roshan which massively impacted the meta.
Just move Roshan somewhere else and see what happens! It doesn’t have to be good. Maybe it will benefit one side more than the other, but it will be something different.
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“I don’t like Outposts; I don’t know what they do”- zai
The 24-year-old offlaner also expressed his dislike towards the uncanny existence of Outposts. In patch 7.23, Valve introduced Outposts as two structures on both Radiant and Dire that give players XP and a form of control on the map.
According to zai, Outposts are pretty much purposeless in the game.
To be honest, I don’t like Outposts; I don’t know what they do. You click [channel] them and they are yours. Then someone else clicks them, and then they’re theirs. It is uninspiring. I’d surely like to see a change – either in the effect that an Outpost has when you’re owning it or turning it to a different kind of building.
Zai despises the notorious Shrines
It seems like zai has some dark memories with Shrines.
“Don’t bring Shrines back! They can stay out of the game.”
Shrines were introduced with patch 7.00 in December 2016. The mini-fountains on each side of the map definitely caused some chaos in Dota 2 during its 3 years of life and most pro players do not have a good memory of the structure. In Remember When: Maps of the Past, some players also showed their distaste for Shrines.
Dota 2 fans were blessed with 2 new heroes recently; Dawnbreaker and Marci. But it would certainly be interesting to see heavy changes come to Dota 2 once again, especially as the 2021/2022 Dota pro circuit has just begun.
Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest Dota 2 news and updates.
