It’s no secret that Finnish Dota 2 wears player Lasse”MATUMBAMAN“Urpalainen has played for some of the most successful teams in the world, notably Team Liquid and Team Secret. At ESL One Malaysia 2022, some of his current and former teammates are Kuro”KuroKi“Takhasomi, Ludwig”zaiVolberg and ClementpuppyIvanov shared his thoughts on playing with him and talked about his strengths. Zai also revealed that MATUMBAMAN was originally going to retire after finishing third with Team Secret at The International 10 (TI10), but later changed his mind and joined Team Liquid in his place.
KuroKy, Puppey and zai share their thoughts on MATUMBAMAN
It was under KuroKy that MATUMBAMAN first entered competitive Dota 2, playing for 5Jungz and then for Team Liquid. From 2015 to 2019, MATUMBAMAN and KuroKy achieved great success for Liquid, most notably becoming The International 7 (TI7) champions.
KuroKy was filled with gratitude and had fond memories of playing with MATUMBAMAN as he spoke. “Mato as a player and as a person was a great teammate – professional, reliable. No complaints. He was a great teammate. We have so many good memories of him and the team.”
Just a few months before TI9, MATUMBAMAN and Liquid suddenly parted ways. Although KuroKy said he had explained the reason for this before, he added that it was just a mandatory change at the time.
“If you want to ask why we are breaking up and all that, feel like it always pops up, it was so long ago, people never let go. I once explained this, but it just had to be done, even he himself understood it, ” Kuroki said.
After leaving Liquid, MATUMBAMAN played for Secret where he enjoyed similar success from 2019 to 2021. According to Puppey, who was his captain at Secret, the player exhibits many qualities, including self-confidence. MATUMBAMAN had some negatives, but Puppey felt they were outweighed by his positives.
“The difference between new people and Mato, perhaps very similar to what I have with new people, is that you at least know how things work. I think he is very experienced, he has gone through so many variations of how he should play.
He’s the kind of carry player that instills confidence in you. I mean there are a lot of things, his strengths, it’s hard to just name them all. There are downsides, but the upsides are much stronger.”
After TI10, MATUMBAMAN decided to leave Secret and this time back to Liquid with a different roster, but ZAI paved the way. In Liquid, zai said they needed MATUMBAMAN, but he decided to retire; however, he changed his mind and then a clear call was made to bring him in as their new carry. Additionally, Zai highlighted MATUMBAMAN’s strengths on niche heroes like Lone Druid.
“I think after I joined Liquid we were looking at a few players and at first we all thought Mato had retired so he wasn’t part of the picture but then he changed his mind and obviously if he available and he wants to play, he is a difficult player [[[]]]]and we got along very well in Secret.
He has a niche of heroes where I think he’s just the best in the world and probably people don’t get close to him. And I think when we set him up to play his game and play his characters, he always succeeded.”
Regarding the difference between Secret and Liquid, Xai explained that MATUMBAMAN has more responsibilities with Liquid, but he did well to live up to the expectations of the role.
“I think one of the differences between Secret Matu and Liquid Matu is that now he has a bigger role in this team than before. I think that in Secret he was very busy with his own affairs. It was good for both of us, but a little more is required of him and I think he did a good job of fitting the role.”
With Liquid zai and MATUMBAMAN have not reached the same level of success this season as they once did with their previous teams. Liquid recently failed to make it past the ESL One Malaysia group stage and will now focus on the TI11 qualifier. Due to the fact that MATUMBAMAN previously mentioned that this year will be his last as a competitive Dota 2 player, he is very eager to finish it at a high level by taking part in TI.