“They are real monsters. If you make a mistake against such mids once, it’s game over” - Ainkrad about EWC 2026

Level UP mid-leader Alexey 'Ainkrad' Diveevsky, in an interview after the first victory in the group stage of the Esports World Cup 2026, spoke about preparations for the tournament and the difficulties of matches against tier-1 teams.

About preparation for the tournament

Of course, we had certain expectations. We understood that we would play against high-level teams, but at least we wanted to get this experience and try to play our own Dota. If our opponents showed that our ideas weren’t working, we would simply adapt - adding new heroes, changing approaches, and so on. But it seems to me that we greatly underestimated the level of our opponents and played worse than we could. We often lost lines and made simple mistakes. For example, in the match against Aurora Gaming, I had a very good start in the mid lane, but I couldn't capitalize on it, so the game ended quickly.

Such matches are difficult to analyze because we didn’t even do the basic things that we constantly repeat in training. But we also had good games. The first map against Team Liquid turned out well, and in the match with Aurora Gaming there were also moments where we could have played better. We lost a few team fights, after which the game became much more difficult, but at least there was something to discuss after the match.

About the reasons for defeats

From my point of view, I got a little frustrated as the games progressed. It seemed like the situation should be good, but for some reason things don't work out the way we expected. For example, we want to take a rune, we think that it is definitely ours, but in the end for some reason it doesn’t work out. We want to take the tower, but the opponent defends it well. After such moments you begin to doubt.

In the second game I was already thinking about some points from the first map. Perhaps this had a slight effect - there was a fear that the opponent would be able to respond again. Sometimes this gets in the way because you start thinking about it even at the laning stage. And against such mid players this is especially dangerous. They are real monsters. If you make a mistake against such mids once, the game is over.

Previously, Level UP won its first victory at the Esports World Cup 2026, defeating L1GA TEAM in the final match of the group stage. However, this result no longer affected the team’s position in the table - after four defeats in a row in five matches, the team took fifth place in Group B and ended its performance in the tournament.