Now he is trying to take on more of a leadership role. In this regard, he is making a lot of progress - Saksa about watson

Team Yandex support Martin 'Saksa' Sazdov, in an interview at The International 2026, spoke about joining the roster, and also spoke about his teammates and the tournament.

I considered the options: either take a break or try to start with a new team. I think I talked to watson first and found out that he was moving to Team Yandex. I heard about the lineup, but at first I wasn’t completely sure.

Then we played several practice matches. I began to understand the guys better, played for them at FISSURE PLAYGROUND 2, and we took top 3. So everything seemed to start coming together. So I decided it might be worth a try and see how it goes.

[ How different were these players from your initial expectations? ] They are all very hard working and open to listening. These are quite young guys who are hungry for victories. Everything I tell them, they listen and try to improve. I was pleased to see how generally calm they were in real life.

[ It seems that there is practically no inflated ego in Team Yandex. Do you agree with this? ] Yes, there are almost no egos in the team.

Obviously he is a very strong carry. He had the first rank, he has a very high level of play. But I also think that as a person he is very calm. He's not one of those carry players with a big ego who doesn't really listen to others. He is open to advice and works really hard. I like that about him and I think he has a lot of merit.

[ But is he able to convey his ideas and make calls in the game when it is required of him? ] Yes, in general he is capable of this. I think he probably didn't do that as much before - he focused more on his game. But now he is trying to take more of a leadership role, and when he feels confident in the game, he makes strong decisions. So, I think he is making a lot of progress in this regard.

He's a little quiet, a laid back guy I would say, but he's also pretty cool and funny. He can simply say something with a serious face, but at the same time it will be some kind of stupid joke.

As a player, I think he is obviously of a very high level and knows what he wants to do in the game. It seems to me that he and Watson understand each other very well and are on the same wavelength. In general, he tends to take a more relaxed role in the game, allowing others to take the lead more often and simply focusing on his own play rather than calling.

[You already have one TI win under your belt, and of course you want to win again. Do you have any extra motivation to help your teammates raise the Aegis for the first time? ] Yes, sure. I want to win myself and I want to win the tournament for them.

[ Do you still find the motivation and desire to enter the main stage and play in front of the crowd at TI? ] Certainly. I think this tournament remains very important in Dota and is the biggest event. Throughout my career, I have always strived to win TI. I managed to do it once, but I see some players have done it twice. So I was a lot more motivated to do it again too.

Earlier, the editors spoke with Dmitry 'DM' Dorokhin. Offlaner Team Yandex shared his memories of each of his The International.