Dota 2's 7.35 update dropping in the middle of ESL One Kuala Lumpur is 'really bad', says Gaimin Gladiators' dyrachyo

Dota 2's long-awaited 7.35 update dropped on Friday (15 December) just before the main event of ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023, the last big tournament of the year, was set to start. And while most other players are having fun trying out all the new stuff in the update, others don't appreciate the timing of its release.

In an exclusive interview with Yahoo Esports SEA at ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023, Gaimin Gladiators carry player Anton "dyrachyo" Shkredov criticised Dota 2 developer Valve Software's decision to release the patch right in the middle of a US$1 million tournament.

"I don't think it's good, I think it's really bad for the teams that are still in the tournament because it's not fair for some teams," said dyrachyo.

"Today there's a new patch and everyone just got confused because it dropped during the tournament, especially [on the day] when Playoffs start."

Valve initially teased the release of the 7.35 update on Thursday (14 December) then pushed it live just before 8AM in the morning in Kuala Lumpur. Almost all of the players were still asleep when it dropped, with dyrachyo saying he only had enough time to read some of the patch notes and play one pub game before our interview with him.

Which teams at ESL One KL were most impacted?

Gaimin Gladiators as well as Chinese teams Azure Ray and G2.iG have the luxury of one day to figure out the new patch before they are set to play in ESL One Kuala Lumpur.

The likes of Team Secret, Team Liquid, Tundra Esports, and BetBoom Team, however, were not so lucky. Secret and Liquid notably had just around four hours to read through the patch notes, get a feel for the new update, and play for the right to stay in a US$1 million tournament.

But a day or two is far from enough time for players to be figure out the new patch, according to dyrachyo.

"So I played one pub, I didn't feel much different but it's hard to say right now because they changed a lot of items. Like Silver Edge, for example, I'm not sure I have to buy it right now on my heroes, these types of stuff," dyrachyo.

"We are gonna need to still figure it out, like after we play some official games, some scrims, some pubs. It's gonna take a while to figure it out."

This is not the first time that Valve dropped a major patch smack bang in the middle of a tournament. Back in April, the massive 7.33 update that expanded the map as well as added the new Universal hero attribute and tons of new objectives to the game was released during DreamLeague Season 19.

Gaimin Gladiators won that event, but having a whole new patch drop in the middle of it didn't make it any easier for them.

"We had this experience before when we played in DreamLeague and this patch with Tormentors and this type of stuff came out and everyone was confused because they made a bigger map," said dyrachyo.

For the sake of fairness, dyrachyo thinks Valve should at least inform players of when they plan on dropping major patches so they can at least have some time to prepare. Of course, he prefers if Valve just refrains from releasing patches in the middle of tournaments altogether.

"I think Valve should definitely inform [pro players] when this patch would be at least a couple of days before. It doesn't even have to be like a 'Oh we're gonna drop the patch at this moment' post from one month before," said dyrachyo.

"They should definitely inform players or don't do it during the events because it's not good for competitive players."

The ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023 main event will be hosted at the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre from 15 to 17 December, where the champions will walk away with US$300,000 out of the US$1 million prize pool.

For everything you need to know about ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023, check here.

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