There is a Dotter belief that you can’t win a tournament before Int, but they won it — Inmate about PARIVISION

Caster Dmitry 'Inmate' Filinov, in a commentary for Esports.ru, discussed whether PARIVISION can be considered a favorite of The International 2026, whether clubs need academic squads, and also explained why it is important to have at least one experienced player in the team.

[Published with the original spelling and punctuation preserved]

On the one hand, obviously, there will be more preparation for them. On the second hand, there is a Dotter belief that you cannot win a tournament before Int, but they won it. This should also not be forgotten, because some doters are superstitious, and their superstitions can turn against them. The story itself is obviously a wild card, but the statistics also show that no team has won two tournaments in a row. At the same time, we do not forget that everyone will prepare for them.

Also, don’t forget that some kind of micropatch may come out one of these days. Such patches often “cut off” favorites. This is a proven story: some team dominates the year and their heroes are constantly cut, which is why they have to play hard on everything. It is possible that they won at the right timing and should be at least in the top 4. But Int is Int, and all sorts of “cinema moments” pop up on it, as was the case with Team Spirit and Nouns Esports.

If you play for the long haul, it’s very profitable. If you have a team of the level of Team Spirit, then you win, if not, you still win. This is always a winning option, because you grow your own player, either sell him or integrate him into your squad. There are no downsides. It is important to understand that not all 20 academy players will be 20 world class players. You have to be very, very lucky for this to happen, and on average 1-2 players will actually develop into strong Dotters. Here it is also important to approach the personnel who will teach young people and explain to them how to play Dota.

The old Daughters, like No[o]ne, have a million years of experience in the game, because they have been playing at the pro level since the very beginning. And the incoming young mid player, who is 16-17 years old, simply cannot understand that Nun was already playing on tier-1 at the moment when he went to kindergarten or just started school. And from that time on, Vova was slowly learning those things that a young person would only have to think about in a bunch of years.

All experienced players have an understanding of what and when they should do. In quartet games, not a single tier-1 team will sweat and try to win, they will test some things. And at all tournaments the following picture appears: in the quarters some teams beat Team Yandex conditionally, but in the official tournament they were demolished in 17-20 minutes. For this reason, teams usually line up in such a way that they throw one young man with the old men so that he gains experience, or throw an old man with four young men for long-term development.

On July 22, Virtus.pro disbanded the youth roster VP.Prodigy. The club explained this by assessing the current situation in the professional Dota 2 scene.