Puppey revealed who was responsible for their losses at two The International tournaments

Clement “Puppey” Ivanov stated that if Ivan “ArtStyle” Antonov had not left their team they would have won two more The International titles in a row since there were no equal competitors for them.

The Dota 2 pro scene legend said this during an interview with Khezu on YouTube.

“I think if ArtStyle had not left the team we would have destroyed the second and third TI in a row. The chemistry of that lineup was much better than in the later ones. Because ArtStyle was a real captain and he had been one for a long time. It was a well-established team and I was the random ‘five’ who joined them. When ArtStyle left everything had to be built from scratch I took over the captain role”

According to him Natus Vincere were the strongest team at that time and would have easily dealt with their opponents at TI2 and TI3. However the player noted that everything collapsed when ArtStyle left the roster.

Puppey emphasized that ArtStyle was an excellent captain the team was built around and after his departure everything had to be restarted from zero which was extremely difficult. He explained that that lineup was very strong and the players acted in sync and much better than the later rosters.