Crystallis at ESL One Birmingham: “You have to check if the patch notes are even correct, because half the time, they lie”

Though he and the rest of MOUZ have already been eliminated from ESL One Birmingham 2026, Remco “Crystallis” Arets was kind enough to take some time to talk to our editor-in-chief Sophie McCarthy at the event itself.

She got to chat with him about the recent buffs to Monkey King, how his teammates reacted to the sudden arrival of a new Dota patch in the middle of the tournament, and what he thinks of the changes to the safe lane versus offlane dynamics.

How are you doing today?

Crystallis: I’m doing good.

Sophie: Have you been enjoying Birmingham?

Crystallis: I don’t usually leave the hotel that much, but other than that, it’s been fun. It’s a nice place. I feel like I enjoy being here.

Sophie: I’m glad to hear it. I just wanted to start by talking about the tournament and how the experience has been for you, particularly with this patch dropping in the middle of it.

Crystallis: Yeah, I mean, it was pretty good, and then the patch dropped and it was pretty bad. I wasn’t too happy about that one, but it is what it is. Suddenly a new patch is out, three of your heroes are in the dumpster, and now you have to pray that you find something in time — or not, and lose, which is what we did.

I wanted to ask you about the changes to Monkey King.

Crystallis: That was the one plus that I got. I think the one mistake we made was not first picking it every single game, like without even using our brains. That was the only thing we probably should have done, and that might have saved us, but, yeah, I picked Wraith King [in game 3] and it came over unlucky, I guess. I went in on a gamble, and it didn’t work.

Sophie: What is it about this hero, do you think, that’s particularly viable at the moment?

Crystallis: Oh, I don’t know if I want to reveal it yet… but I will. It’s Mage Slayer. It’s just f***ing Mage Slayer, that’s all it is. If that item was dead again, I would not play this hero anymore. But I think with Mage Slayer, it’s so good.

Sophie: Well, that’s good to know. I mean, you got a little bit of time before Wallachia. That’s coming up next, I think.

Crystallis: I have multiple qualifiers as well, I think, before then. So, I’m gonna be busy with Monkey King.

Sophie: Of course.

So tell me about what the vibe was like on the team the morning after this patch dropped.

Crystallis: We did know the day before, so I think the vibe was just like, you know, you’re in a way maybe a bit excited, because new changes are fun. But also, it’s obviously very stressful, because you have to read through the entire thing. You have to test everything, and you have to check if the patch notes are even correct, because half the time, they lie. It’s just wrong, what Valve says.

Sophie: Really?

Crystallis: [For example], the Bloodseeker Aghanim’s Shard doesn’t pierce Black King Bar. The Dragon Knight ult doesn’t pierce BKB. Shiva’s Guard doesn’t pierce BKB. But it says [that they do] in the patch notes. And so you might pick one of those heroes in a game, and then you might lose because well, okay.

Sophie: Valve says, “F*** you”, I guess. [laughs]

Crystallis: Yeah. In many different ways.

Sophie: Who is it on the team that’s like, “Okay, guys, I’ve found something. This might be what we can do.”

Crystallis: I think it’s a bit of everyone. I go crazy talking about how OP Mage Slayer is, then MidOne has his heroes. BOOM has his ideas. Coach has this and that. Everyone has something that they think is probably OP, and probably only one of us is right. And we just hope we go in with the right idea.

Sophie: So we’re doing this interview on Saturday, right? We’re doing this on Saturday morning. Another balance patch just dropped last night.

Have you managed to look at it at all yet?

Crystallis: Yeah, I looked through it. I think it was some fair changes. Some changes didn’t make any sense, but that was kind of it. I don’t think it does anything major.

Sophie: I saw Consecrated Wraps got nerfed, like the new item.

Crystallis: That is good. That item was a bit too much. They also nerfed Lifestealer, but that hero barely even seemed good anyway. But people were going crazy, so I guess it’s now even more gone. They also nerfed Wraith King a lot, which I think after playing the last game, wasn’t necessary — but according to them, it was. They saw the pub win rates and they were like, “Nope, Lifestealer has to go.”

The last thing I wanted to ask you is just about the safe lane and offlane creep positioning. How do you think that’s going to impact you?

Crystallis: Oh, I think this is a very good change. I think they should have done it long ago. I still find it very funny, because you have a bunch of offlaners who go behind your tower and start blocking the creep wave for no reason. It’s like, “Thank you, bro! You’ve helped me, and positioned it perfectly in front of my tower with no effort of my own whatsoever.”

I love it. It’s amazing. Before, as a safe laner, you had to just wait in front of your tower to see what the enemy offlaner was doing. If they’re blocking, then you’re blocking. If they’re not, then you’re not. But now, you can kind of start blocking a bit earlier, and actually have that affect your lane. I think it’s a good change.

Sophie: That’s interesting, because I guess a lot of people are saying this really favors offlaners.

Crystallis: It should, a little bit. But then again, you can start blocking the wave from your base or something to make it better for yourself. That might give an advantage. The offlaner might be thinking the same. Then maybe, you can start pushing waves [towards them]. Who knows? A bunch of things can change from this kind of change.