“Players have to play in Europe to improve”, — KJ about the situation in his home region

HEROIC's captain Matheus KJ Santos Jungles Diniz discussed the team's performance at The International 2025, Wisper's switch to mid lane, and the development of the South American scene. The esports player shared his thoughts in an interview with BLAST.tv.

According to KJ, TI14 was the best tournament of the year for HEROIC, but he admits that the team still lacks consistency.

"We made fewer mistakes compared to previous tournaments, and while we definitely could have gone further, we still played good Dota.

We just made some fundamental mistakes and did not execute on the basic stuff. We could have prioritized Roshan properly, been a bit aggressive with our warding game, and communicated better about information on the map. If we had cleaned up those basic aspects, we could’ve easily gone further in the tournament. But yeah, the basics held us back."

Matheus also commented on Adrian Wisper Dobles' move to mid and explained why Cedric Davai Lama Deckmyn took his place in the offlane.

"Wisper is incredibly skilled and has already played many games as a mid laner in ranked. We saw a lot of potential in him, and he was confident about the switch. Moreover, it was something he has always wanted to try.

We did consider bringing in fresh blood, but in the end, we felt the team would be stronger if we brought in an experienced player. Adding fresh blood can be risky, it might work out, or it might not."

Speaking about young players in his home region, KJ noted that a number of factors prevent American esports players from competing at the global level, receiving invitations to top competitions, and gaining international attention.

“The region itself is challenging, like North America. NA is basically dead now, so players have to play with higher ping in Europe just to improve. This factor alone makes it really difficult for new players to improve at a higher level.”

Nevertheless, the captain of HEROIC hopes that his team's good results last season will help improve the situation in the region and that other American representatives will have a chance to participate in European boot camps and major tournaments.

As CyberScore reported earlier, Heroic became the champion of FISSURE Universe: Episode 7.