Assessing the new Team Secret

Ladies and Gentlemen, boy and grills, the new Team Secret roster has been revealed! Wholesale changes have been ushered in to the EU all-star squad, with the Estonian, Clement "Puppey" Ivanov being the sole holdover from the roster that went into the 2015 installment of The International.


TI5 Team Secret Roster
1- Artour "The Motherf***ing Babaevanator"
2- Gustav "s4" Magnusson
3- Ludwig "zai" Wahlberg
4- Kuro "KuroKy" Salehi Takhasomi
5- Clement "Puppey" Ivanov (Captain)

The "New" Team Secret Roster:
1- Jacky "EternaLEnVy" (L)Mao
2- Aliwi "w33" Omar
3- Rasmus "MiSeRy" Filipsen
4- Clement "Puppey" Ivanov (Captain)
5- Johan "pieliedie" Astrom

Obviously this new roster has yet to play a tournament together, but just looking at this roster, what do you guys think of Team Secret? Will this roster have a shot at TI6? Or will the Russians simply davai their way past this "All-Star" squad again?

They just picked up the 2 best players (MMR related) in the pub scene, EE which is just bringing down every team he's been on because he's too arrogant and diediedie. I feel bad for Puppey at the moment.

I don't agree with the people that says it's a downgrade. Pieliedie is one of the best supports in the world. He is smart and makes very good calls overall. W33 is a strong player that yet has to prove himself, but I think that with puppey drafting for him, we might see some amazing stuff. The only thing I don't like is EE.

Since Puppey will captain the team, I think it's a good lineup. Obviously it's not as easy to predict them doing well as with the TI6 Secret (or even the original Secret), but they had two previous TI winners and Kuro. I think most people would agree that EE's has insane skills. He's just a terrible captain and has abysmal decision-making. If Puppey calls the shots, I can see him doing better. As to pieliedie ... well, every team has a weak spot, some are obvious, some aren't. ;)

The problem is it's unknown if EE lets Puppey call the shots. And pub stars =/= good professional players, though Misery has insane micro. And I don't like w33 because he's a huge *****.

I mean, w33 and EE are both incredibly talented mechanical players. It just comes down to how much EE listens to Puppey, which I imagine will be a lot if you consider that Puppey curbed most of XBOCT's moments during Na'Vi's time. Or at least enough of them.

And the idea of w33 being on a strong team is something I've been looking forward to, since the man can DOTA really well. He also now has a lot more professional expierence than his early Balkan Bears days where he was by far the best player there and just kept trying to solo carry games. At the very least he's calmed down a little from the w33-fresh days from what I can tell.

But it remains to be seen how it will perform. I don't think counting Puppey out is ever a smart choice

As always, it comes down to cooperation and team work. If they work together as a team, I can see them pulling off incredible plays and have a shot at the Majors.

I just wish there was Kuro instead of EE...

Well, I think Secret showed us that we can't judge a team by its star power. I mean like, Secret was potentially even more of an all-star team than DK. I personally think this team has what it takes to go far if the person chemistries work out fine. After all, it's still packing a lot of individual skill, captained by Puppan. The only player not proven is w33.

About EE vs Kuro, I think they'd take EE over Kuro just because of internal problems with Kuro and the rest of Secret. I believe EE is committed enough (who could argue with that?), and has the respect for Puppey. Honestly I'm expecting this team to perform really well, but we'll see.

I feel sorry for Puppey. It'll be like playing with XBOCT and Dendi all over again.
Mechanically good players aren't worth **** if they make stupid decisions all the time. Making an even amount of good decisions makes it look ok, but it's the horror of every captain.

I think the new secret has good skill and hopefully Puppey can bring them all together and make them play well. But to be fair I am worried by EE as carry he's just so salty and makes some dumb decisions but I still hope they perform well.