9Grade about Puppey: “At the draft you can just relax - he will do everything well himself”

PARIVISION support Edgar '9Grade' Naltakyan, in an interview at The International 2026, spoke about the status of the favorite in the tournament, and also praised the work of the team coach Clement 'Puppey' Ivanov.

I think yes. Everyone is trying to get ahead of us - they watch how we play, trying to imitate. Now we no longer try to try new ideas every time. We're just trying to play good Dota. And if the meta shifts, we just try to adapt.

itet. Everyone listens to him. He helps us with the game plan - where we should play, how we should play. He always prepares for his opponents. In the draft you can just relax - he will do everything well himself. It's good, you can focus on your game. [Does he work a lot? ] Yes, he is always on the PC. You go into the training room, and he drafts for 10 hours.

At ESL One Birmingham 2026 we tried very hard to adapt to the meta. There were a lot of problems in the team. It was like we were trying to learn how to play Dota from scratch. It was difficult and stressful. But when the patch came out, we started playing well because everyone started playing poorly. Initially the patch helped us, and then we worked very hard, worked every day, Puppey helped us. This was the most difficult thing, I would say.

There is one hero, I can’t say right now. This is a melee character, very strong now.

Last time it was okay for me not to take first place. Now I want to win. I think I'm ready.

PARIVISION showed the best result in the group stage of The International 2026. The team played the Swiss tournament without defeat.