Saksa on Essence Distiller: “There are many uses. It will almost always be useful."

Team Yandex support Martin 'Saksa' Sazdov, in an interview at the Esports World Cup 2026, spoke about the team's form, the meta of the tournament, and also assessed the usefulness of the new artifact Essence Distiller.

I think skill-wise we are strong and in good shape. The only thing is that some of our players got sick, and this limits us a little, but overall we are playing pretty well.

Not much has changed. The heroes we value highly are still the same. The only difference is that we are trying to break some imbalanced heroes, for example, as we gave away Lone Druid in the series against 1win Team. So, only the priorities of the heroes we want to play against have changed a little.

This is one of those items that can break the meta as the tournament progresses. He's in almost every game now because of the way he reviews. Its best use is to catch someone. Also, when you go to an object, for example, Roshan, you can put this thing on the stairs. If someone passes, you'll get a lot of review. There are many use cases. It will almost always be useful. Even if Smoke of Deceit goes there, you get an overview of the area and even a little bit of the hero. It will be as if he is still in the smoke, it is as if you can’t see him. Like Charge of Darkness on an invisible hero.

Team Yandex won 9 maps out of 10 during the group stage of the Esports World Cup 2026 and took 1st place in Group D. The team secured direct access to the playoffs of the tournament.