Egor “Nightfall” Grigorenko, the carry player for Aurora Gaming`s Dota 2 squad, shared his perspective on his teammate Alexander “TORONTOTOKYO” Khertek`s transition to the offlane role (position 3). During an interview on the PGL Wallachia Season 4 broadcast, Nightfall remarked on TORONTOTOKYO`s successful adaptation to playing offlane.
You can perform well in any position in Dota 2 if you have a deep understanding of the game. The third position is quite similar to the first and second positions—they are all core roles. I believe switching to offlane directly from playing position five would be extremely challenging, but TORONTOTOKYO wasn`t a support player from the beginning. I feel he always possessed the mindset of a core player. The fifth position simply didn`t align with his personality.
He likely came to the realization that he needed to be in a core role. Among the three core options, offlane was the most suitable for him. It would facilitate an easier adjustment and allow him to demonstrate his skill at a tier-1 competitive level, especially considering there are fewer highly dominant players in this role compared to others. Additionally, he already had a pool of heroes familiar from his time playing mid.
While TORONTOTOKYO was announced as Aurora Gaming`s offlaner initially, he had not professionally played this role before joining the team. His previous competitive experience includes playing position 2 (mid) for Team Spirit and position 5 (support) for BetBoom Team.
Finley Holt