KJ interview: “Yuma and I were eating tacos and talking about how we are going to win TI”

HEROIC’s captain, Matheus Santos “KJ” Jungles Diniz talks tacos and making history before they take on PARIVSION at The International 2025 playoffs.

HEROIC’s march into the playoffs of The International 2025 has been nothing short of impressive. Flying the South American Dota 2 flag high, the team has taken down Tundra Esports and Yakutou Brothers, as they proved that underdog stories are always being written. We caught up KJ, the team captain, right before they take on one of their toughest rivals, PARIVISION.

HEROIC look to make history as the sole South American team at TI 2025

Thank you for coming to talk to us today and congrats on the group stage run. I would like to start by asking how do you feel about your upcoming playoffs match up with PARIVISION?

I feel like we always play well when we play against them. It's never bad games. And one thing that it reminded me of is that when Spirit won their first TI, I remember they had to play against Virtus.pro, and they were like 1-19 against them, something like that. And I think we are 1-9 or 2-9 against PARIVISION. I don't know the numbers. That's how I'm visualising the game. I'm visualizing that we are doing what Team Spirit did that year, and I’m just thinking about my own gameplay, knowing that we always play well against them.

I want to talk to you about the group stage format because it's the first year that we have this Swiss system at TI. Do you like it or what's your personal take on the format?

It's like a different Swiss, right? Usually Swiss are three games, this one was four. I played the games without even looking at the format, because it was too complex. I would just play the next game. I didn't even know our game against Yakutou Brothers was elimination, which was good for me. They always try to make the groups now in a different way to try to make them fairer. You just cannot do bad when it comes down to it, and I think that is what happened to Spirit. I don't know what's the perfect format. It might be normal groups, or it might be Swiss. Sometimes Swiss, in theory looks fairer, but at the same time, I've seen Swiss groups where teams just get very easy matchups.

What's your best memory from this season leading up to TI?

My best memory is after we lost ESL One Raleigh. Me and Yuma were eating tacos and talking about how we are going to win TI. How we will be making history together. I think this is a very good one. They were spicy tacos, and it was in America. While the final was happening, we were eating and saying, “let's make history together”. There is also the moment we won PGL Wallachia Season 2, of course.

Let’s talk about the TI meta, specifically about Helm of the Dominator being so popular. How do you feel about it, do you like it?

I never buy it, but I kind of like it. It's a new way of doing things. I think it's a little bit boring to watch because it's just a bunch of creep skipping. But I like it because it enabled new heroes to appear. Without this item, I think we wouldn’t see so many new heroes. We would not see some Void or Invoker. I don’t think Invoker is reliable without it, so I enjoy that it brings new heroes into the meta that we don’t often see.

One of the things that is surprising is that, while we have three or four HoD each game, we don’t have a “zoo” meta developing. Why is that?

I think that there is one, but it is being banned out a lot. If you go through some teams, you will see Broodmother, like Tundra picked it, or Enigma like we played. But, usually, Lycan or Beastmaster are not getting past first ban phase because the item is so broken. If the hero loves to buy it normally, it is going to be even more overpowered. It is good that players are not letting it happen, because we don’t want to play against Lycan with Dominator.

What do you think would be the nerf to balance HoD? Maybe reducing the experience and stats you get from it be enough to kill this meta?

I think the regen of the creep is too annoying. Because you can do what Remco "Crystallis" Arets did in the game against Team Liquid. He just sent the Troll in front of their base and kept killing creeps. The creep just has infinite health and mana, which is very annoying. But you can know what IceFrog will do or what Valve will change. They could just completely kill the item out of nowhere.

What placement would you and HEROIC be happy with at the end of TI 2025?

I just go and play. Whatever happens, happens. I feel like for me personally, I don't get anything good from thinking about the future. I would say if we can get 5th/6th, or surpass the Thunder Awaken run from TI 2022, I will be happy. But I really don’t think about this, I just play.

Alright, we wish you best of luck moving into the playoffs and thanks again for taking the time to talk to us.

The International 2025 playoffs commence this Thursday, September 11 in the Barclays Arena from Hamburg, Germany. Day one of the playoffs will start at 10:00 CET with the upper bracket quarterfinals Xtreme Gaming vs Tundra Esports followed by HEROIC vs PARIVISION.