Sneyking on Azure Ray: "Nice to have a storyline of East vs West"

Team Falcons continues their dominance in the Elite League, taking down Xtreme Gaming in the first round of the upper bracket and securing a top-three finish at the event.

The second game against Xtreme was the longest in the playoffs so far, taking nearly an hour for the Falcons to come back and sweep the series.

After an impressive comeback, team captain Jingjun "Sneyking" Wu sat down with the panel to share how they came back in game 2, who he wants to face next, and how Falcons operate in game.

Sneyking on game two: "It was a bit of a draft fumble and gameplay fumble."

Sneyking was the most farmed support in game two. (Credits: Valve)

Team Falcon started the series by dominating game one and giving Xtreme no chance to come back. The first match was a one-sided stomp, with a final score of 37-7.

Game two was an entirely different affair, as the Chinese team took over the map and controlled the pace of the game. Sneyking told the panel that his team messed up early and that resulted in the game taking an hour to conclude.

" It was a bit of a draft fumble and gameplay fumble. Obviously, we lost our lanes pretty hard and we had a pretty slow lineup, so when we lose our lanes and we have a slow lineup we're gonna feed and be really behind."

Coming back from a 12,000 gold deficit at 20 minutes is no easy feat, but the Falcons did it by using the tried-and-true strategy of avoiding fights till the enemy makes a blunder.

"We understood at some point we absolutely cannot teamfight Xtreme, we just had to buy time and hope they make mistakes at our high ground and eventually they gave us a couple of opportunities and we were able to strike back," said Sneyking.

Falcons have beaten Xtreme in five of their last six matchups, an impressive record for the MENA squad. Despite winning most of their pro matches, Sneyking shared that Xtreme regularly beats them in practice games.

"Our record in scrims against them is actually not that good. I think we're 1-5 in the last six scrims we played, but we haven't been practicing that much before this tournament because we had some visa issues.

But they are a very formidable opponent, so we definitely prepare a lot and don't underestimate them, despite our good record in officials."

Sneyking: "It's nice to spice things up with a best of West vs East."

Falcons went shopping in all regions to make their team.

Falcons have some of the biggest names in Dota 2, with multiple International winners, arguably the most famous offlaner in the world, and a legend from North America.

While having such a colorful cast might lead to communication issues in the game, Sneyking painted a surprisingly cooperative picture of how they communicate when behind.

"I think it depends on the situation, every player has their vision of the game and if one person sees the win condition, we will talk about it, discuss it, and expand on that idea. It's more of a team idea, someone will come up with an idea, and we will either agree or disagree and build on that idea. It's not just one individual person."

When The International began, it was common for a Western team to win the event and for a Chinese team to win it subsequently, this was broken at The International eight, as OG defeated PSG.LGD and broke that streak.

When asked about who he'd like to face next, Sneyking referenced the old days when East against West was seen as the pinnacle of Dota 2.

"I think going up against Azure Ray would be pretty exciting, it's always nice to have a storyline of East versus West, it creates a better story for the viewers, people are more engaged. It's also a matchup that is a lot less played than usual. Cause the western DPC we have seen Tundra vs Liquid, OG vs Gaimin Gladiators, it's kinda boring, everyone has seen this matchup a million times. So it's nice to spice things up with a best of West vs East."

Sneyking got his wish, as in the end Azure Ray took down Liquid, setting up the classic East vs West finals for the Elite League Upper Bracket.

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Featured Image Source: Valve