Collapse on Dota 2 Patch 7.41: “I think the new patch wasn’t necessary at all”

With a case for being the greatest offlaner to ever play Dota 2 at the professional level, Magomed “Collapse” Khalilov is undoubtedly one of the most important and influential players still active in the scene.

Our editor-in-chief Sophie McCarthy sat down with him at ESL One Birmingham 2026, to talk about the new Dota patch, his thoughts on the removal of facets, and which heroes in his hero pool he’s hoping to try in the coming weeks.

How are you doing today?

Sophie: Have you been enjoying Birmingham at all? Have you had any English food or anything like that?

Collapse: What’s English food?

Sophie: Fish and chips, roast dinner, English breakfast…

Collapse: English breakfast, yeah. I like the… what’s it called? Hash browns?

Sophie: Oh, yeah? Like the potatoes?

Collapse: Yeah.

Sophie: Yeah, yeah, those are good! So, first question. We’re recording this on Saturday, just after the second patch of this tournament dropped.

What do you think of the changes?

Collapse: I think the new patch was not necessary at all. Just wait like, three or four days until the tournament ends. Then, release the patch. They release one patch [in the middle of a tournament] and then I’m like, “Oh my god, what? What have you done?” They released too many imba items and I’m like, “You need to do something.”

Sophie: What were your conversations like when the first patch (Patch 7.41) dropped on that Tuesday evening?

Collapse: I was shocked, when the English caster… Tea Governor…?

Sophie: Yeah, yeah, TeaGuvnor. [laughs]

Collapse: Yeah. He started streaming, and at that moment I realized that I needed to prepare for a new patch.

What was the most surprising change for you?

Collapse: I would say for me, they swapped Roshan, Tormentor, and added a few neutral camps. I don’t know, it was a bit surprising.

Sophie: Yeah, and I guess they put the Tormentor—

Collapse: Sorry, also the facets.

Sophie: Yeah, I mean, everybody thought that, right? Did you think that it was a good change to take out facets?

Collapse: To be honest, they were just tired. I thought about it, when they removed a few facets from heroes like Pangolier, and they saw that Pangolier was still playable even without facets. [I guess] they were like, “Maybe we can delete or remove all facets from the game. Maybe we’ll figure something out.”

Sophie: Yeah, for sure. I wanted to ask you, I think offlane has had a lot of changes this patch, right, with the way the creeps meet in lane. So what was so bad about offlane in 7.40? Why did it need to change, do you think?

Collapse: I mean the first is that many teams abused the “moment”. Like, with the starting creeps, they met under the tower, so the wave [always] died. Like, the carry was in a bad position, and they had to fix it. I don’t know, they just fixed the offlane meta, I would say.

How do you think the new position is going to change things for you specifically?

Collapse: I mean, not really. I would say that it’s just the beginning of the patch, and I’ll test it [eventually], but not for now.

Sophie: Okay, you’re gonna take a little break?

Collapse: Before, I wanted to take a break, like have a look at what other teams do. Also, my team, maybe they’re going to win the next tournament without me.

Sophie: Really? I was going to say, you’ve only just gotten Larl back with you guys. How has that adjustment period been to get him back in the team?

Collapse: I think not so hard, because Larl, he’s tryharding. He’s played a lot of pubs and a lot of scrims. I think he had his best form in this tournament, so it wasn’t so hard.

Sophie: Does it make you feel more confident to play with a full roster?

Collapse: Yeah, for sure. It’s always hard to play with a stand-in, because they play a different style, different heroes, and with a different mindset.

Sophie: I’d bet, I’d bet. I think this is the first tournament in a long time where I don’t think any team has any stand-ins, right? Did that affect how you were preparing or anything like that?

Collapse: No, no, no.

Sophie: Okay, so just exactly the same. Fantastic. Okay, I had just one last question for you, and it’s about your hero pool specifically.

Which of your heroes do you think has had the biggest change and you’re most excited to try again?

Collapse: I would say maybe Mars. They didn’t touch Magnus; I mean, they touched Magnus a bit — but like, you know, a “soft” kind of touch, I would say.

But Mars, I’m happy they changed the Aghanim’s Scepter, because it wasn’t usable for maybe like three or four years. I don’t even know what the past Agh’s [upgrade] was anymore, like I’ve forgotten about it. So they changed it, and I’m kinda happy. I want to try it. I haven’t tried it in officials, but I want to.

Sophie: Yeah, for sure. I think everyone was hoping to see the return of Collapse Magnus, but we’ll stick with mars for now, right?

Collapse: Yeah.

Sophie: Awesome.