‘Might have been my last TI’: Zai unsure of Dota 2 future after disappointing TI 2023 exit

In 2023, every Dota Pro Circuit Major featured Team Liquid and Gaimin Gladiators battling it out in the final stages—and The International 2023 was no exception. Team Liquid faced defeat yet again, leaving a bitter taste in their mouth and possibly marking Zai’s final appearance on Dota 2’s grand stage.

Following a rough exit from TI 2023 on the back of two straight 2-1 losses, Zai hinted that this middling finish at his ninth career TI might be his last.

“Well, after this game [Blitz] kinda looked at me and told me that I had to go after that Centaur performance,” Zai said while smiling. “Most likely I’ll follow his lead and this might have been my last TI. Remains [to be seen] a little bit, but I think I’m going to take a little break. What that means for me, I’m not quite sure.”

Uncertain about what this break might entail, Zai also expressed his dissatisfaction with his own performance. Criticizing his gameplay in the final match of the series, Zai admitted that his 11 deaths with Centaur Warrunner weren’t enough to measure up to the competition’s highest standards.

Despite not winning a major event, Liquid has been one of the best-performing teams of the 2023 season, achieving five top-two finishes at various Major tournaments including all three DPC Majors and Riyadh Masters. 

Zai noted that, while the team didn’t exactly win anything this year, their consistency with top performances and a sixth-place finish at TI were good—though Liquid would have “liked to do more.” 

“I’ve done better and I’ve done worse [at TI] so this is kinda back around the middle,” zai said. “I think the saddest part is maybe in this third game we kinda shit the bed and didn’t really perform as we would have wanted. But you know, life goes on.” 

Blitz followed up zai’s comments with an emotional message on Twitter, saying that he is “grateful to have worked with both [MATUMBAMAN] and [zai] at the end of there [sic] careers” if this is actually the end of this iteration of Liquid. He also joked that the team will only kick zai: “Fuck that guy.”

Zai’s former captain Puppey also commented on the situation, noting that the offlaner wanted to take a break in 2022 because of how much stress he deals with surrounding the game. 

“He wanted to [take a break] last year,” Puppey said on Nix’s stream, according to Cybersport.ru. “It’s about the Dota. He feels [the game] puts too much stress on him and he decides a lot of what happens in Liquid. Others do almost nothing.”

Retirement is an odd subject in Dota 2 since players often step away from the game for extended periods before returning to compete again. Take Somnus or Ceb this season as just two examples this year, with plenty more spanning Dota 2’s professional lifetime.

If zai does end up retiring, he noted that losing TI10 was probably the “TI that hurt the most” during his career, where he and Team Secret finished third after narrowly losing in the lower bracket finals to a Yataro Rampage.

Now, he walks away from TI12 without the Aegis, and only time will tell if he and Liquid will return for another campaign next year when the DPC disbands and throws Dota into an unsure future.