“Now, of course, in any case, the focus is on winning” - an interview with Miposhka about TI 2026 and returning to Team Spirit

Team Spirit coach Yaroslav 'Miposhka' Naydenov, in an interview at The International 2026, spoke in detail about his work as a mentor for the Dragons, and also shared his thoughts about the main tournament in 2026.

From this interview you will learn:

• About how Miposhka was offered to return to the team;
• What is it like to coach former teammates;
• Whom did Yaroslav see as his successor?
• How Team Spirit prepared for Int and what does the office have to do with it;
• Which of the participants at The International 2026 stands out?

A conversation with the two-time TI champion is in our material.

Hello, glad to see you again at the main tournament of the year! And in general, your comeback, it seems to me, made everyone in our community happy. How did it feel for you to return to the team? How's the return home? Or did everything change while you were gone?

Rather, it's more like coming home. Still, the main core remained: Ilyukha [Yatoro. — Approx. ed. ], Maga [ Collapse . — Approx. ed. ], Dimon [ Korb3n . — Approx. ed. ], with Phil [ rue . — Approx. ed. ] I know you too. Only Lyokha 'not me' is a newcomer whom we needed to get to know, but we also quickly found a common language. Therefore, in the first days it was cool: it felt like, yes, a return. A little nostalgia. It was nice to talk to the guys again, it was great.

When Korb3n contacted you and asked you to coach the team, did you immediately agree or did you have to think about it?

Let's just say that we talked about this topic several times. The first conversation was so tentative: he simply asked what my thoughts were in general. It was March-April - something like that. He asked all sorts of questions: did I like my vacation, did I think about coming back, and all that.

Well, closer to qualifying for The International 2026, around May, we met more thoroughly and discussed plans. And in general, I expressed a desire, said that I was ready to return and try to coach.

And if Korb3n hadn't called you then, what would you have been doing? Were there any plans?

Who knows? I would just sit at home. I would do the same thing as before. Maybe I could stream Riyadh [Esports World Cup 2026 – Note. ed. ] and The International 2026 (laughs).

When you took over as a coach, did you communicate with any of your coaching colleagues? Maybe you consulted Silent or someone else?

Not really. In general, I practically didn’t communicate with anyone, not even with Silent. Only with MiLAN, in fact. Well, when I already arrived at Riyadh, I was invited to a podcast with Ceb, there were also three coaches there - Aui_2000, kpii and KuroKy - this is the only time I talked to them.

If you didn’t consult anyone, maybe then you took something from past experience? From those coaches with whom I worked before.

Honestly, I wouldn't say. I remember G was there, JotM was there, ArsZeeqq was there. But it’s all like that - I wouldn’t say that everything was thorough and serious. Plus, we can’t say that we directly achieved great results. Well, they achieved something good with JotM, but it’s also not something super serious.

Don't know. I, relatively speaking, saw what they were doing, and sometimes it seemed to me that somewhere it could be done differently, somewhere there was more of something, somewhere, on the contrary, something less. And, accordingly, I rather adapt their approaches to suit myself. I’m just adding something somewhere that I think was missing.

Is your interaction with the team as a coach different from when you were playing?

Certainly. First of all, when I was still playing, we had Silent. He and I drafted together and worked as a duet. Now I’ve basically taken on this task myself, and MiLAN gives me more advice and help. But it’s me who makes up the overall picture.

I also try to watch a lot of replays and point out any critical errors. Not even for mistakes, but rather for some patterns of thinking. That is, I’m trying to change the approach to some situations - not in a specific game, but globally.

For example, if you are playing Shadow Demon, you obviously need to try to hide the hero who is attacked. If a person does not do this, then I try to point this out to him so that in the future, regardless of the situation, he will always follow the pattern of thinking. And so with many other points.

Plus I help the supports. I played a lot as a support and I know a lot of things: line, gameplay, and so on. And I tried a lot, especially at first, to interact with Lyokha. Together we watched him play, I suggested somewhere. Plus I try to give a lot of advice on warding.

That is, I mainly interact with supports and work on their gameplay. What else would I note? Probably, in general, I’m trying to somehow unite them.

Do you give motivational speeches?

Well, I wouldn’t say that I’m some kind of speaker, but sometimes I have this inspiration, some kind of feeling. Sometimes you want to somehow motivate, say some cool speech. I don't think I'm very good at it, but I'm trying.

I try to feel this moment when the team lacks some kind of motivation, fire in the eyes, energy. And I also tell the guys about this: “This won’t work, we won’t win anything. You need to try, you need to burn, you need to show your desire, and not just come to the KVshka: “Well, again, we need to play KV, well, my, well, okay, another KV day, another tournament.”

Since you brought up this topic, I’ll ask a question now. You train two-time champions, and it seems to me that this is a very complex story. Not every coach would agree, because it’s obviously difficult to teach something new to dudes with a lot of experience, achievements and skill. Was this a challenge for you?

I wouldn't say that there is any difficulty at all. I know them very well. How old have we been? We've been together for six years now.

Plus, I just somehow realized the fact that I came for a short period, and here it is - the end of the season. Therefore, if we want to win, we need to work to the maximum. Start here and now, right from the current second.

Previously, you were on equal terms, everyone was a player. Now you act as a leader, as a person who instructs. Was this transition difficult for you? Did you have to distance yourself a little so that guys would start treating you differently? And is this necessary at all?

I wouldn't say so. If this is a question of whether the guys listen to me, then I would say yes. Usually what I say is not just taken out of my head due to authority. I always try to argue, to convey my thoughts.

But if any controversial situations arise, I still try to either come to some kind of compromise, or leave it at the level of “okay, no big deal.” If you are not always able to come to a common opinion, I don’t see much of a problem with that. Still, the game is very complex, everyone has their own views on it. But the main thing, it seems to me, is to still try to maintain some kind of positive vibe. That is, even if you couldn’t come to an agreement, it’s okay if you don’t fall out and don’t close down.

We just talked calmly, openly expressed our point of view, and everything was okay. But basically, yes, it seems to me that the guys listen to me and respect me. Therefore, everything is extremely comfortable and calm in any discussions. I don't see any problems here. So I wouldn’t say that I had to change somehow or rigidly adapt. I'm just doing what I used to do, just on a larger scale.

In general, it is logical. You were the leader of the team before.

Yes, yes, yes. That is, I said a lot before: what’s right, what’s wrong, too.

You recently said that in the team you act as the “carrot”, and Korb3n is responsible for the role of the “stick”. Why don't you take on the role of the whip? Don't you want to be tough? Or perhaps you can't even?

In fact, it was more of a joke, because I would say that the role of the “whip” is not needed at all. All the guys are adequate, everyone understands everything. I always try to be somewhere in between when delivering my information. I never allow myself to show emotions, to say something negatively when someone doesn’t do something about what I say. Such a game! I can even give you an example: we are discussing, for example, the laning stage and saying: “Let’s do it this way. That's it, yes, let's do it this way. We will definitely do this." The game starts and it doesn't get done.

I look, I think... Hmm... How many times, I wonder, do I need to repeat this for it to happen? At the moment I was a little offended. What we discussed in theory, we are unable to test in practice - this is the most offensive thing.

You just need to be patient. The game is really difficult, and you need to be prepared for the fact that you will have to hammer in, hammer in, hammer in some information.

I just don’t see the point in some kind of “stick” or, conversely, in a too soft “carrot”. You need to convey your ideas in a balanced, competent manner and be prepared for the fact that somewhere you will have to show tolerance.

Let's move on to the team itself. First of all, I would like to talk about MiLAN, because it has a certain image in the community, formed due to various conflicts in the public. What exactly is he like on the team? As a professional and as a person.

It is very comfortable and pleasant to interact and work with MiLAN. He always tries to help, is always ready to fulfill some request if I consider it necessary. He never gets sad or angry and maintains a positive vibe. And I think this is no less important.

The main thing is that I feel more support from him in my work than attempts to somehow interfere or pull the blanket. That's why I feel comfortable with him. Yes, in some places we don’t fully understand each other—there’s still a slight language barrier—but he’s learning a little Russian. Actually, it's cool. Sometimes I speak to him in English, and he speaks to me in Russian. It turns out to be such an easy way out of your comfort zone, which is also cool (laughs). We support language exchange.

And so, he’s super nice and comfortable on the team. He always communicates, is ready to have a blast, have fun, add a little positive emotion in some super-passive situation, or loosen us up a little. I think he is very good in this regard.

What’s happening there in public places... Well, who isn’t toxic? Who hasn't had some emotionally difficult moments? I myself am constantly on fire too! I recently played public games there and just understood: “Well, f*** [horror].” Well, it’s just that some games are really one-wicket again: I get demolished, I can’t do anything, I sit and try in chanceless games. And nothing can be done about these negative emotions. There's really nowhere to go. It's unbearable.

It’s very difficult to stay in public (laughs). If someone succeeds, then he is simply a son of God, an angel. Therefore, somewhere I can understand MiLAN. But sometimes, of course, he went too far. But he received punishment, that is, everything was fair. And so, super cool dude.

Another quote: “Yarik 'Miposhka' helped me adapt most of all,” these are the words not me. Actually, how did you help him?

As I said, he is still a beginner, and when we started playing, I noticed that he needs to pay more attention: to his game, to some moments, to instill in him an understanding of how best to act in certain situations. And I just talked to him a lot. We just interacted more often: somewhere I tried to support him, helped him open up.

For example, a situation where he is embarrassed to call. You can understand, after all, he came to the champion team. How are you going to tell them what to do? “Who do you think you are, huh?” - one might think. But I always told him: “If you feel that this action needs to be done, then speak up, don’t be shy. We’ll always sort everything out at the replay, and I’ll always tell you that yes, that was cool, this is right, but this is not right, you need to behave differently, say different things. If someone doesn’t listen to you or says something, we’ll sort it out. If you turn out to be right, then I will note this and say: “Can you listen to him? He says sensible things.” That is, this is what I did.

Plus, we worked with him individually on the game. He played, turned on the demo for me, and I watched, somewhere I told him: “Do it here, you don’t have to go here, you can put a vardik there, but here it’s the right way.” That is, we discussed some micro-moments with him. Sometimes we just chat somewhere for life. In general, I’m trying to help him integrate into the team faster, so that he feels like an equal, like he belongs.

We talked about newcomers. Have the others changed? After all, six months have passed, and the structure of the team has clearly changed with your departure. Maybe someone took on more responsibility?

Nothing has changed at all. Everyone is the same (laughs)... I don’t know how to say it. Rather, the fact that I left affected the total number of troops in the game; there were fewer of them. When I played, I talked quite a lot and tried to lead the game.

Lyokha [not me. — Approx. ed. ] with Sanko [ rue . — Approx. ed. ] are still not experienced enough in this matter, and other guys in this regard were not particularly successful in picking it up. They, of course, are trying to show some leadership qualities and initiative a little more. But it’s still not easy to just take it and rebuild. Moreover, they are core players, they have a lot of their own things to do. Therefore, this is also one of the problems that we identified and tried to work on.

Rue's move to fifth position is one of the most unexpected twists in terms of Team Spirit reshuffles. But I’m almost sure that when you left the team, another thought probably crossed your mind. To be honest, who did you see as your successor?

No, I didn’t really think about it that much. Now, probably, only Dukalis, in my opinion, plays quite well. Well, at that time he also performed well. But it’s still not up to par (laughs).

We need to win at least a couple more Ints, right?

Well, naturally, yes. There is only one Yarik (laughs).

Actually, about the process of transition of rue to the “five”. How would you rate its results so far? Has he already fully settled into his new role or is adaptation still ongoing?

Yes, of course, it is still ongoing. In general, there is no limit to perfection in playing your role, so you can always learn something. Plus, the game is dynamic, patches happen sooner or later: if you don’t play for a month, you’ll already forget a bunch of things you knew, and you need to remember again how to line up, whether to block camps, how to lane against certain heroes, and so on.

There are too many microchips and nuances in the game that you constantly remember as you practice. And the more you play, the more you remember, and, accordingly, in the future you have more and more space for some new things. But if you don’t play for a certain period, your formed base will be forgotten, and you have to come back again: first restore this base, and only then you will be able to add something new.

And, of course, the “five”, whatever one may say, is different from the fourth position, so Phil needs to rebuild his mindset. Although now the concepts of “fifth position” and “fourth” are a little vague, as for me. But there are still differences in the laning, differences in the characters you play. They are big enough.

Nowadays, it’s not so important to play a certain role, but to play it competently on the characters you play, in my personal opinion. And somewhere in the moments adapt to the situation.

And so, Phil is still handsome. I also watched his show. And, in fact, I was surprised at how good a level he showed for a relatively new role and new characters on which he doesn’t have much practice.

Regarding preparations for The International 2026. First question: why was there a different location for the bootcamp?

I don't know for sure. I did not take part in the discussion (laughs).

What location was it?

Yes, it was just a hotel in Serbia. We rented a conference room, very spacious. There were five computers for the players and three computers for me, MiLAN and Dima. And we just came there in the morning, played, talked, discussed, ate. Well, in the evening we just went home. Just a little way out of my comfort zone, I would say.

Previously, you also had a bootcamp in Serbia, right?

Yes. In Serbia, just a house where we moved in and lived. It's always been that way. And here we decided to add a little zest.

In fact, this is an interesting format with traveling from house to house. I don't remember anyone practicing this.

Well, yes. This is a type of office format where you come to work, finish your shift and go home. At first I was also somewhat skeptical about this. And then in the process I liked it.

This is really interesting! It turns out to be literally a work shift: you arrive in the morning, work, shake hands and leave. But a classic bootcamp is still a place where you live, which means there is a temptation to relax there.

Yeah, so we decided to try it. I got it.

And one more thing about preparation. Korb3n said that you paid attention not only to the game, but also to other things. Which one?

We paid attention to training matchups, but there was already news about this too.

I also tried to add a polylogue, where we spoke out, clearly discussed what we want, what we are committed to, what our motivation is. Well, in short, he tried to somehow unite us. There was also work with a psychologist.

There were a couple more moments, but I probably can’t tell you everything.

What do you like and dislike about coaching? Let's say two examples.

What I really like is that I generally feel some benefit from my actions. This benefit is manifested in the fact that I share the knowledge that I have accumulated. That is, after so many years of playing, I have accumulated a huge amount of experience, and it’s a bit of a pity not to share it: that is, forget about it and that’s it, retire with all this knowledge.

In general, I like this process: I can share, discuss Data and tell what I know. Communicating, coming to something in common - this is the element of learning, I find it quite pleasant.

I also like to draft. This is probably a slightly separate topic - not really coaching, but still. I act as a drafter. And it’s nice when you sat down, thought, thought through a bunch of options, drafted them and feel that you like everything. Each peak went straight to your mind, you don’t feel that something went completely wrong somewhere. And this feeling when everything went according to plan is also cool.

What's not to like? Damn, I actually don't know. It’s just that sometimes some formats of schedules at tournaments... I can’t say that this specifically applies to coaching, just to the field of e-sports. But sometimes the schedule is too inadequate, in my opinion.

That is, even take, for example, Riyadh. This is, of course, some kind of nonsense! They tell us: “They qualified for the team.” And then because of this our schedule shifted - okay. How it was: half past twelve in the morning, they tell us: “You are playing tomorrow not at 16:00, but at 13:00.” In general, not a problem, because one way or another we got up early anyway.

We played, defeated Team Liquid, and we are scheduled to play with Team Yandex every other day. That day I was already calmly chilling out, I thought: “Well, today I’m thinking about something, we’ll play KVs, we’ll watch replays. Well, tomorrow, if anything happens, I’ll calmly prepare thoroughly.” At eight or half past nine in the evening they tell us: “You are playing tomorrow at one o’clock in the afternoon.” I was like: “Aaaaaaaaaah, *** [cool].”

Sleep is cancelled.

Well, yes. All. That's all - there is very little free time. I planned to watch replays, analyze some moments - we did it. Then I just got ready until one in the morning. I woke up later and also got ready. In the end, I was generally satisfied with what happened, but it still could have been better, in my opinion. That is, this is nonsense - that this happened at all. Jokes like this amaze me.

Well, or getting up at seven in the morning to play at nine in the morning - I am also amazed at this. What? I kind of played on the computer for this reason, so I could get up at seven in the morning? Well, sometimes it’s just a question about the schedule. But probably nothing can be done about it. That is, this is just an eSports problem.

Sometimes you might have a game at 8 pm, sometimes at 11 am. So what should I do? What kind of regime can we even talk about? But this is general. And if purely from coaching...

I recently spoke with MinD_ContRoL, he told me what he doesn’t like: this feeling of helplessness when you are drafted and leave the team without the opportunity to help them during the game. Do you have one?

It's inevitable. It is, it will be. It will always be there. It’s just that I would rather focus not on this feeling, but on what you can do later. You still watch, you can notice some points and think about what to say between cards during the series.

That is, it was, is and will be. I just try not to think about it. What's the point in worrying about something that's inevitable? Maybe I don't like it either, but I just don't think about it. These are all just working moments.

Finally, let's discuss a little The International 2026 itself. First question: how did you get there? Did the typhoon hit you?

No, everything is great with us. We came, we had business class, we checked in, sat, ate something in the VIP lounge, talked, got on the plane, everyone settled down there, lay down, ate. I went to bed and didn’t wake up even once during the entire flight. They eventually woke me up when I had to go out. That's it - we woke up and went out. Well, in short, everything is super easy, no problems at all. We're lucky, really. Very lucky.

Do you think this factor affected the teams that faced flight postponements due to the typhoon? Team Yandex, BetBoom Team, PARIVISION?

Well, time will tell. This can be interpreted as additional stress, but sometimes stress can be a good thing. Let the teams themselves say after the tournament how much this affected them.

To be honest, this even affected us, since KVshki couldn’t play - many teams couldn’t fly in. And the other half of the teams we agreed to play with ended up in our group. There wasn't much work, let's put it that way. I sat and prepared a little. But this mental work is also quite exhausting, tedious and it is very easy to lose focus. Sometimes it happens: I’m watching the game, I seem to be involved, I’m closely following everything, noticing some moments, and then I just catch myself thinking that I really want to sleep.

This, by the way, can be noted as something that I don’t like a little.

Let's say Team Spirit is already in the grand finals of The International 2026. Who are you waiting for next?

PARIVISION and Team Yandex are the first ones that come to mind now. These are really very strong teams, they stick together very well. They also have good strategies, they always know what they want to play with, that is, it is difficult to take them by surprise. Only if they somehow don’t put a spoke in their own wheels due to some kind of hyper-confidence.

I didn’t expect anything from Team Yandex at all, to be honest. I didn't directly observe the Dota scene before I became a coach. And when we already played with Team Yandex, I was surprised by their level of play. They were able to build a really, really good team.

PARIVISION could often play well, but sometimes play poorly. But now, with the arrival of Puppey, it seems to me that he has covered their weak points very well. I was rewatching The International 2025 and they were constantly playing with Monkey King and Slark. And then two heroes against them were banned, that’s all - there was no team. They just didn't know what to do. They played very poorly because they lost one of their important players.

Now I can’t single anyone out. That is, if at that time The International 9Class stood out because it had a very narrow pool, now I can’t say that. It became more difficult for them to identify some weak point with the arrival of Puppey. So yes, I would also see them in the grand final.

Who else is there? BetBoom Team, Iron Wings, Aurora Gaming. These teams are probably a little lower echelon for me. But they shouldn’t be written off either. You never know what to expect from them.

In short, a very unpredictable tournament, but this has been the case for a long time - every team can beat everyone. But it is PARIVISION and Team Yandex that still stand out, in my opinion.

I know that the skin of an unkilled bear is not divided. But let's say you win - you raise the third Aegis. What will this mean for you personally?

Yes, just a nice bonus, achievement.

This is just a really cool achievement. It’s very nice to know that you were able to achieve such a result in life. Ilya and Maga will also become owners of a similar title.

Now, of course, in any case, the focus is on winning. In general, this has always been the case. Regardless of the tournament, I always just wanted to win. It just so happened historically that we did a little more at The International and Riyadh (laughs). As I already said, if we win, it will be great. If we don't win, life goes on.

The International 2026 takes place LAN from August 13th to 23rd in Shanghai, China. As part of the competition, the 16 best teams in the world are competing for a prize pool that exceeds $2.8 million. You can follow the progress of the main Dota 2 tournament of the year in our “Esports” section.