Maelstorm shared his impressions of EWC 2026 in Dota 2

Caster Vladimir Maelstorm Kuzminov spoke about the Esports World Cup 2026 for Dota 2. On his personal Telegram channel, he discussed the quality and beauty of matches at the tournament.

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Yesterday in the comments I came across a couple of opinions that disagreed with me about the level of play at EWC. Arguments in the style of "the games were boring." Let me tell you a secret: the higher the level of play, the less spectacular the games. Revisit the highlights of past EWCs. Let's say the famous 23Savage celebration or the Kiyotaka explosions. These are monstrous mistakes. I agree that we were a little let down by the favorites BB and Yandex. They gave up in the decisive games, like many others, for which they were instantly punished, because the level of the others was not forgiving. Literally 8 teams could reach the finals. The level allowed. I don’t remember tournaments being so dense and difficult to predict for a long time. The reason for the breakdown of PV's rivals is also important. These are the PVs themselves. What they did in macro was fantastic. They literally turned the best players in the world into bots with their wards and smokes, completely demoralizing them. Spectacular games at the highest level require a whole set of circumstances. Even 2 very strong teams with a score of 3-2 are more likely to give out 5 boring cards. This is the base. Was the level of play and competition high? Yes. Were the games epic? Only a small part.

Esports World Cup 2026 for Dota 2 was held from July 7 to July 19. The participants competed for a prize fund of $2 million. PARIVISION became the champion, defeating BETBOOM Team in the final with a score of 3:1. Evgeny Noticed Ignatenko's team lost only two maps during the tournament. You can learn more about the results of the competition in the report.