Win Condition Episode #5: A terrific season for Tundra

This week on Win Condition was all about ESL One Birmingham 2026, the dominance of Tundra Esports, and the burnout of a tightly packed season.

ESL One Birmingham 2026 is over a week behind us now, and the antics of beer chugging (or Satanic sipping from his cup) are now behind us, albeit a very fond memory. With Win Condition, our bi-weekly podcast, this week we dived into the tournament, the patches dropped at crucial times, the player burnout, and Tundra’s emphatic victory, as well as the surprises which appeared alongside it.

With Andreea “Div” Esanu on ground at the tournament, there was a lot to talk about, including a ton of interviews with the players.

Win Condition: Everything about Birmingham 2026

Kicking things off this week, we heard from Div about what it was like at ESL One Birmingham 2026. With a major patched dropped right on the cusp of the playoff stage, teams were hit hard. With sleep patterns being ruined and strategies being torn apart, Valve removed Facets and threw a massive spanner into the works for the final day of the Group Stage. This was especially seen on the positive side for the likes of PARIVISION and Xtreme Gaming, who seemed to adapt perfectly to the patch. However, the likes of Aurora Gaming and BetBoom Team, it was definitely not the right time.

On paper, for the fans, the patch was the perfect entertainment, but the players felt differently.

Read more: Yatoro on Facets removal: “The problem is they didn't do it well”

Aurora can easily be seen as the team that were hit the hardest by Patch 7.41, where they went from an absolutely brilliant Group Stage performance to instantly getting eliminated in the playoffs. On the flipside, teams such as XG and PV went from nearly being eliminated during the Group Stage to solid third and fourth place finishes. Our discussion focused on the organisations and their infrastructure could be huge part of the way in which these teams evolved into a new mid-tournament patch.

The pros react

ESL One Birmingham 2026 was probably one of the biggest tournaments of the year in Dota 2, apart from the likes of The International and the Esports World Cup. We had multiple interviews with players, finding out how they felt about the patch, and gave our own opinions on it too. While some players found it terrible overall, others heralded it – although the timing could have been better in the grand scheme of things.

Read more: Mikoto interview: “We are kind of lagging behind with learning the new patch"

All these interviews, and much more, can be found on the Rdy.gg Dota 2 page.

Burnout and beyond

2026 has been packed with Dota 2. From the perspective of fans, it has been a pleasure, but we went into the discussion revolving around the players. The elimination of MOUZ from Birmingham came with a huge surprise, as Melchior “Seleri” Hillenkamp announced his retirement from the professional scene. The player cited the busy schedule becoming a bit too much, and we went into an analysis of what this season can be doing the players on the mental level.

Buy and Sell

Lightening things up, we closed out another week of Win Condition with our favourite segement, Buy and Sell. Here we give our opinions on some statements surrounding the current shape of the Dota 2 professional scene, the teams, and the players. This week had us looking at Tundra’s dominance, Wang “Ame” Chunyu’s performance with XG, and much more.

Finally, we looked ahead to what is coming in the near future. While we have a nice little break from major tournaments currently, qualifiers are ongoing for many of the upcoming events, and PGL Wallachia Season 8 is now looming on the horizon.

The full episode of Win Condition: Dota 2 and our previous episodes can all be found on the rdy.gg YouTube Channel and Spotify.