Tundra Esports has dominated The International 11 Dota 2 tournament so far. In the group stage they won 14 of their 18 games, topping a stacked group B that also featured two other teams that have since made the top four and the defending champions Team Spirit. In the upper bracket of the playoff stage they easily dispatched two time champions OG and the best Chinese team in the competition Team Aster. Now all they have left to do is win two more matches and the trophy will be theirs.

But unlike other years, Tundra and the other three remaining teams in The International 11, have had to endure a painstaking five day break. As part of a new format for the competition, the main portion of the double elimination bracket was played over four days at the Suntec Singapore arena last week, while the top four teams will compete in the final four matches of the tournament this weekend at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. The last matches were played on October 23, with the next match set to kick off in a few hours on October 29.

In a tournament that has previously seen many winners cite the momentum of winning a lot of games in a short space of time as a key factor in their life changing win, you can see why this is a major new challenge for the players involved.

“Personally I hate it,” says Martin “Saksa” Sazdov, a veteran player at The International, when talking about the week break. “[It] feels like this whole tournament we’ve been completely immersed in Dota and focused on it, and we’ve been able to see many amazing games/performances for a lot of teams. Now that this break is here feels like it takes us out of that Dota mindset a bit and ruins the momentum for many players. Hopefully we won’t see something like this again.”

While his teammate, Neta “33” Shapira, jokes that it has allowed him to catch up on sleep which is a positive, he too argues that this break puts a stop to any momentum the team may have had, and has changed their preparation process for their upcoming upper bracket final match against fellow European roster Team Secret, considering they have had significantly more time.

“We had a day off after our match vs Aster where we just relaxed and watched the games, after that we had a full day of media so it was basically another day of resetting a bit from Dota,” says Shapira. “Now we are focusing on getting back into the tournament mindset so we make sure we keep a good schedule and play scrims/pubs. Our main focus is Team Secret. We’ve talked a bit about the other teams [left in the competition] but nothing serious, just some casual discussions on their play style/heroes that they like.”

With five days for each team to prepare for this upcoming match, no one really knows what to expect. Both teams know each other incredibly well, having played against each other throughout the year in the European DPC league and already at TI in the group stage where Tundra won 2-0, but with this extra time you can be sure both teams have analysed every second of those games and we could be in for a very different meta for these last four days.

But the Tundra players aren’t worried, in fact there is an air of confidence within the team, despite the fact that Sazdov thinks this match against Secret will be the toughest so far. After revealing how they felt their pre-tournament preparations had put them in a great position heading into the tournament, the team is still pointing to the fundamentals they mastered during this time as the reasons why they are confident of a good result.

“Our ideas of how to play the game, like what heroes compliment each other and how to counter the most meta heroes [are some of our key strengths],” says Sazdov. “Also probably the biggest thing we improved on is our team fighting, we put a lot of focus on that during our bootcamps and I think we’ve done a better job at that than most teams.”

They have also been careful to avoid previous mistakes. Sazdov points to the previous DPC season and the Arlington Major, where Tundra could only manage 15th-16th place, as a big learning experience. The team was burnt out by the time the tournament rolled around, having worked so hard for months prior. This time they made sure to prepare in a different way, and throughout the tournament have been careful to not overwork themselves, with the players having individual downtime and going on team walks together to get away from the screens.

With just a few hours to go before Tundra takes to the stage once again there is an air of anticipation around the Dota 2 world. Despite all of the well publicised issues around The International 11 production, the in game action has been some of the best we have ever seen. The four teams left in the competition all have incredible stories behind them, and are easily capable of lifting the Aegis of Champions on Sunday, meaning every map counts from here on out. For Tundra, top three is already a great result, but they rightly have eyes for the ultimate prize.

“I knew if we played our best and hit a good momentum we could easily reach top three and more,” says Shapira. “But going into the tournament expecting such a result is pretty bad since it puts more pressure on you. So it’s better to take things step by step. It obviously feels great to already be in the top three. I’m very happy with our performance so far and hope we can keep it up all the way to the finals.”