Lasse Aukusti "MATUMBAMAN" Urpalainen is one of the most well known carries to embrace the game of Dota 2. After lifting the Aegis at The International 2017 with Team Liquid, Matu went on to have a successful two year stint with Team Secret, in which he won multiple Majors and culminated his journey with them with a third place finish at TI10. As he prepares for his return to Team Liquid, we caught up with him to talk about his decision to come back to Team Liquid, his expectations for the year with the new roster and his time with Team Secret, amongst other things.
Things have been fine for me. The post TI10 break was quite short again; the next season starts quite early after The International. You had to start practicing one month after TI10 ended but I did get pretty good rest, and I’m ready for the next season.
We’re currently bootcamping together, and will be for the first few games of the EU DPC League. But at some point, we will go back and play the rest of the games from home.
I’d say I’m somewhat happy about it. In the moment when we were knocked out, there wasn’t a lot to be cheerful about. But as time passes, you start appreciating it. In the grand scheme of things, the third-place finish with Team Secret didn’t really change anything for me [having already lifted the Aegis at TI7]. In that sense, I’m still disappointed.
I don’t put a lot of weight on scrim results, as they’re not the best indicator of a team’s strength. I can’t remember if we scrimmed Team Spirit or not, but it definitely was a big surprise to see them perform so well at TI10 and win the whole thing. The organization and the roster hadn’t won any other tournaments coming into TI10, so it wasn’t something anyone would have expected. But credit where credit is due – the Team Spirit players are extremely talented. In hindsight, their position 5, Yaroslav “Miposhka” Naidenov, is ranked 20 in the pubs. I can’t think of any other player who could reach rank 20 playing position 5!
After our loss at TI10, I told the team I was thinking of retiring. But after going home and thinking about it with a calm head, I came to the conclusion that there still was one more year in me. During that time, my former teammates [at Team Secret] were quite stressed about the situation because of my uncertainty. After a while, it didn’t feel [like] I was a part of Team Secret and it didn’t feel right for me anymore.
It would be hard to be a Dota 2 professional if your gameplay didn’t evolve with every year, as there are always younger and better players coming up. There were quite a few things to take away in my time with Team Secret though. Clement “Puppey” Ivanov gave me a new outlook on drafting; he’s the best drafter I’ve had the pleasure of playing with. There were a lot of individual tricks to be learned from Michal “Nisha” Jankovshi; just looking at him is mesmerizing at times. On the whole, it was a pretty good learning experience.
I resonate with everyone working at Team Liquid. I wanted to join Team Liquid a lot earlier [after TI9, before joining Team Secret], but back then, it wasn’t possible. But this year, I was willingly taken in!
I got along with Zai extremely well when we played together at Team Secret, but he wasn’t a factor in my decision to join Team Liquid. When Zai left Secret and joined Liquid, I was still pondering about my future as a player and was yet to land on a decision on whether or not I would be playing. In the end, things just fell in place for me to go back to the organization with whom I lifted the Aegis.
The ultimate goal is always to lift the Aegis at The International. But I would like to win it while enjoying myself and doing it right. It will be my last year as a professional player, so I want to have a positive work atmosphere without experiencing burnout. Even if I don’t win The International with Team Liquid again, I’d like to see the newer players benefit from my experiences so that when I retire, I can take credit for their insane plays!
— Lasse Urpalainen (@MATUMBAMAN) November 17, 2021
The last time Matumbaman played with Team Liquid, they were a force to reckon with. In the past few years, even though the team has had some strong showings, consistency has been lacking. If the new roster can harness Matu’s potential and experience, Team Liquid could return to their dominating ways and take the EU DPC League by storm.
There’s nothing that would change my decision to call it a day a year from now. I don’t really think I want to make the switch to being a coach.
The meta gets really stale when there aren’t any map or objective changes for a long time, which is what has happened now. It leads to regression in play for the professional teams, because the repetition hampers gameplay. It has gotten quite dull for me.
It surely is a solid carry meta. There is a plethora of viable carries, and position 1 players aren’t forced to play the same few heroes every game. The choice of hero is very game-dependent, which is a positive sign. There are few heroes like Naga Siren who haven’t seen the light of day for a long time but are decent in the current meta. She’s not the best carry out there, but she can be strong in certain situations.
Ward mechanics is something I’d like to see changed. First off, it should be easier to deward hill wards than it is right now. Sentry ward mechanics should also be improved, as to how they block camps. I can’t pinpoint my finger on what the best fix is, but the way sentry wards and dewarding works, [it] feels like an unnatural part of the game. It is like a mini-game in the game, which makes you forget the flow of the game and the big picture.
The other thing I’d like to see changed is Outposts. Either the channeling time should be reduced or they should be changed to a different building. But please don’t bring back Shrines! The element of having HP and mana regeneration in the jungle is not something I want to see added back to Dota 2.
The last major change I wish to see is with Healing Salves. Position 5 players should not have the ability to keep on healing the carry with multiple Salves in the laning stage.
There should surely be a longer break. Two and half months seems like a good time for the players to recover. For the past few years, it has been around a month and the grind begins again. A month is not enough for teams to fully recover after The International, which is why a lot of teams previously skipped the initial part of the year. But now with the new DPC system in place, players don’t have the option in the bag anymore.
I like the DPC Leagues and the fact that the number of Majors has been increased to three, but I would definitely shorten the duration of the leagues. It would also be nice to see the old Majors be brought back – the Eaglesongs and Mystic Staffs for trophies and, even though not realistic, the $3 million prize pool can be a massive incentive for players.
I like to eat hot chicken wings and drink beer!
A big shoutout to all the supporters of Team Liquid.
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