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Ari: Falcons Feel Pretty Far From Full Power"
The competition at DreamLeague Season 28 is heating up, as the second group stage nears it's conclusion. While Team Liquid leads the pack, and Parivision has been eliminated, the remaining six teams are fighting for their spot in the playoffs.
Tundra Esports took a dominant victory in day five of the group stage. They defeated powerhouse Team Falcons in a convincing 2-0 that barely lasted an hour. After their victory, Matthew "Ari" Walker discussed the state of Falcons, his growth in the last year, and why nobody else picks Keeper of the Light.
Ari on beating Falcons: "It's not quite the same sweet victory we had before"
Falcons looked pretty strong in the first group stage, and managed to win the first series in the second. Unfortunately, due to an eye infection, Ammar “AMMAR_THE_F” Alassaf has been unable to play in the last four series. Falcons has gone 0-8 since his substitution. While any victory is important, Ari admitted that this isn't the same Falcons they faced before.
"I would like to say that we are just so good, and there was nothing they could have done. But to be honest, they feel pretty far from full power. So it's not quite the same sweet victory we had the first Blast win against them."
One thing Tundra has focused on is shutting down the new offlaner of the team. Ivan "Vazya" German (also known as Corrupted) has been targetted during drafts. As Ari explained when discussing stand-ins.
"Yeah you definitely adjust to a different player. Different hero pool, different strengths. I didn't personally [contribute to drafting[ but from what it sounds like, he really likes Centaur, it's his best hero. So we kinda felt it would be really contested between him and Neta, as both like it a lot."
Ari has focused on expanding his hero pool in the last year
In the past, Ari was well known for his prowess on certain heroes. Such as Hoodwink, Marci, and Rubick. But in the last year, he has focused on improving his hero pool and adding new tools to his arsenal.
"I would say, up until about a year ago, at any given time I have three heroes I am obsessed with. And I would want to play these three heroes all the time and make sure I am the best in the world in these three heroes. Where as now, I am a bit more balanced. Now I tend to have 6,7,8 I really like. I feel that's a really nice balance of having a big hero pool for any given situation but also feeling I have expertise on these heroes and not spreading myself too thin."
As of time of writing, Keeper of the Light has been picked 13 times. Eight of those by Tundra Esports. It's a solid win rate, but overall a small sample size to take any meaningful conclusion from.
Walker was asked to share his thoughts on the hero, as well as explain why few other teams place any value on Keeper of the Light.
"Bit hard to say because I am not seeing anyone else look good with this hero or even want to play this hero that much. So I don't have a good sample size for it. But what I can say is I felt the hero is really strong right now and it actually took me a lot of practice to feel confident with it. To the point that I am not griefing lanes, I am having good timings. Making the hero reliable, there were definitely some griefed scrims, some griefed pubs as well."
With a 4-1 record, Tundra Esports looks set to make it to the playoffs. Be sure to catch all the action live on ESL's Twitch Channel.
READ MORE: Skiter: "I Don't Really Like When Viper, Razor Are Meta."
Featured Image Source: Tundra Esports