Skiter interview: “We work through problems instead of replacing people”

Team Falcons might not have walked away with the trophy at ESL One Birmingham 2026, but they left the UK with something arguably more impressive: a place in the history books.

In an era where professional Dota is defined by shuffles and mid-season roster collapses, Team Falcons officially broke a decade-old record for the most games played together as a five-man roster.

We sat down with Oliver "skiter" Lepko in Birmingham to discuss the mixture of experience and young talent that keeps Falcons together through the lows and the stressful reality of adapting to a big patch dropped mid-event.

ESL One Birmingham might not have gone the way you wanted, but let's focus on the positive and talk a bit about the awesome record landed during the tournament.

Congratulations on taking down a decade-old record: most games played together as a 5-man roster. What’s something that makes this line-up special, that kept you together for such a long time?

I think it's a mixture of the success because we won a lot together, which definitely helps keeping the players together, and also, we have a mixture of veterans in the scene. So, when some problems come inside or outside of the game, we try to be mature and work through the problems instead of going with the easy solution and replacing people. But the mixture of the experience and a lot of success definitely helps keep the roster together.

Speaking of success, you were one of the dominant teams last year, and you closed the previous season as TI champions. The start of this season, however, is so uncharacteristic for you. Do you feel the team is currently struggling with the 'target on your back' syndrome, or is it a mix of things that led to the recent results?

To be honest, I wouldn't necessarily think that last year we were dominant. I think the year where we had the most success was our very first year. We won a lot of tournaments in a row back then.

Right after TI, we won a Fissure tournament, got some good second-third places, but then it kind of went downhill, and we are still trying to find our prime again and our form. So yeah, we are kind of on the downtrend again.

Given how the recent few tournaments went for the team, did you feel like you came to Birmingham with the pressure of performing?

In the last two tournaments, we played with a stand-in, so that was pretty difficult for us. So, I was just very happy to get everyone on the roster to play together in Birmingham. Also, the last time there was a tournament in Birmingham, we won it. So, it was a lot of a boost, as you said, in the fact that we're going to reach the goal of the longest team together.

Getting five people together on the team again and coming to Birmingham was like so many cool things coming together. Plus, we knew the new patch was gonna come. I had a pretty high expectation for this tournament, even though it didn't really work out that way that I really wanted.

How did the team atmosphere change when you woke up to these 7.41patch notes?

It honestly was pretty stressful, even though, for us, it dropped at the end of the group stage. So we played against VP, which didn't really matter for us because we were guaranteed to go through the top 4. But it was very stressful because it was like an enormous patch. And it changed so much. And basically, when this happens, and you have so little time to prepare for the next matches, stuff becomes very random.

If some teams understand a hero is broken, and the other team might just get an advantage for the series, and stuff will just become very unpredictable, you find yourself in a not-so-great spot to be in.

How much did this patch impact your hero pool?

To be honest, I think the carries that initially were my signature, like the Lifestealer, Alchemist, Wraith King, all these heroes that I really like, are good now. So I was very happy with those changes.

That's what makes it even sadder, that I didn't get to play Alchemist at all on the stage, that I didn't get to show more of the heroes that I like to play.

Fire questions

Describe patch 7.41 in one word. Midlane.

**Ona scale from 1 to 10, how much do you miss the facets? ** Six.

**The most broken hero right now is? ** Leshrac

**Which of your signature heroes has just been ruined by the new patch? **

None. Honestly, I think it's none. I think all my heroes are super strong right now.

**How many hours of sleep did you get after the patch dropped? ** I think it was like four.

More interviews from ESL One Birmingham 2026

• Tundra 33 on being the first to win on 7.41 patch, the target on their back
• Tundra bzm: “We figured out some good heroes before other teams”
• Aurora Mikoto: “We are kind of lagging behind with learning the new patch"
• MOUZ Seleri: “Chen is unplayable. Why does Venomancer have 5 spells?”
• Team Spirit Yatoro: “The problem is they didn't do it well”