Capitalist on PvE in “Dark Carnival”: “I have a feeling that there will be something like Mann vs. the Machine from TF 2”

Casters Avery 'SVG' Silverman and Austin 'Capitalist' Walsh discussed the format of the Esports World Cup 2026, the influence of the brand of modern players on viewing official matches, and also assessed the likelihood of a PvE mode being released in the “Dark Carnival” as part of the Not For Broadcast podcast.

I have nothing against a playoff format without a lower bracket. If there was no pause for teams that won their groups and they didn't lose momentum, I would be fine with it. This brings some variety. We have too many tournaments that are similar to each other.

Capitalist: Is there currently a pro player whose departure would cause a drop in views?

SVG: Definitely not.

Capitalist: I think you're right. We don't have anyone even close to a name like Faker, for example. We don't even have Topson or Dendi anymore. Even among those who have been playing on stage for 10 years, you won’t find them like that during the day. When they leave, they will be replaced by some automatons that play just as well. I don’t think the viewing statistics will even notice this.

SVG: Views currently peak at the grand finals of tournaments. Perhaps if, for example, Yatoro and Collapse leave Team Spirit, then views of the grand finals with their participation will not be as high until they rebuild the brand value again.

Capitalist: Perhaps the same applies to ATF and Team Falcons. ATF seems to be one of the ones getting the most attention right now.

SVG: Yes, Quinn was in this category. I don’t know how correct it is to talk about player brands. Of course, the scene will suffer from their departure. But it works more in terms of each individual episode. If people know the players, they are more likely to watch the match.

Capitalist: I think there are now at most a dozen such players on the whole scene.

SVG: In terms of regional interest, Chinese players are important. The most important one now is Ame. Bach and XinQ also have fans. There, fans value heritage and history more. A similar thing happened in North America with Arteezy formulations. Shopify Rebellion has been followed quite a bit. It’s not that anyone cared about the club itself, people just wanted to see Arthur play under the leadership of BuLba. But here is the story of the last heroes of the regions who are dying. Perhaps the same thing awaits Western Europe. The region is already shrinking and may be dying, but not anytime soon.

Capitalist: Many people went through everything almost immediately because they had accumulated enough tickets. I have a feeling that there will be something like Mann vs. the Machine from Team Fortress 2. I will be extremely surprised if Valve doesn't eventually release a similar PvE mode. I understand that it won't be something big like Aghanim's Labyrinth. But they should replace the "Throne of Thorns" with something. I think it would be natural. We already have an old product in Team Fortress, we could transfer it to Dota. I think it's pretty easy.

SVG: I think there will be a PvE event at the end. It's pretty obvious. Will it be well received? Don't know. People are hungry for something like this. It can be quite large. Why do I think this? This idea from "Dark Carnival" is obviously from The International with a circus theme. They've probably been working on it ever since. And Clownfall itself used a lot of stuff from Crownfall, so it didn't require as much work. Or maybe they’ll just release even more clothes—for example, “the toughest personality.” No, damn it, I know. But that would simply destroy everyone. I know one guy who might commit a crime because of this. But the blood will not be on my hands, the decision is yours, John Valve. Act wisely.

Also on Avery's 'SVG' podcast, Silverman spoke about the talk about the death of Dota and talked about the inflated salaries of pro players.