xsvampire on Yatoro's request on stage at TI 2026: “He definitely deserved it”

Professional player Danial 'xsvampire' Alibaev shared his opinion on the main news of the past week in an exclusive commentary.

During The International 2026 itself, Valve did not make any announcements. After the tournament, rumors began to appear that the venue for the next TI would be Singapore. Do you think it is right to hold the tournament for the second year in a row in Asia? Eastern Europe is now at the peak of its strength, and many would like to see TI in Kazakhstan.

I think TI in Singapore is awesome. Perhaps it is more convenient for Valve’s contractor, that is, PGL, to organize the tournament there, if we compare with Kazakhstan.

Virtus.pro has disbanded its Dota 2 roster. Do you think the club should build a team around players from the CIS again or should it continue to assemble an international roster? How do you see the new Bears roster?

VP can definitely succeed if they assemble a roster around guys from the CIS. Now our region is at its peak.

BLAST SLAM IX was moved from LAN to online to reduce the amount of travel for teams during a busy period of the season. Is this a wake-up call? Or, on the contrary, a positive solution for everyone?

Changing the format to online mode for me personally is rather an alarming sign. Perhaps doing a LAN event has become too unprofitable.

After winning The International 2026, Yatoro turned to IceFrog right on stage with a request to give him a purple Immortal item for Drow Ranger from the Compendium. After some time, the player reported that he never received the desired items. Should the developers have made an exception for the three-time champion? Or was ignoring the request the right decision so as not to create a precedent?

He definitely deserved it. If I had such power, I would support him and make an exception by giving out the thing he asked for.

You can find out about the main news of the past week in our material. Also, all important news events are covered on social networks: Telegram, VK, MAX.