Tundra Esports are heavy favorites to win it all at ESL One Birmingham 2026. Having performed with dominant style in the group stage, they’ve headed into the playoffs with a confidence that’s hard to match.
One of the keys to this confidence is definitely the consistent play of offlaner Neta “33” Shapira. Super-charged by the 7.41 patch that bolstered heroes like Doom and Beastmaster, Tundra a poised for victory in Birmingham.
We spoke to 33 ahead of his upper bracket finals match against Team Yandex, and asked him about his history with ESL One Birmingham, the busy pro Dota 2 schedule, and, of course, the 7.41 mid-tournament patch.
Image Credit: ESL FACEIT Group
You’re probably aware of this, but you’re the only player to have competed at every edition of ESL One Birmingham. Does that make it more comfortable to be at this event? And how do you think this edition compares to some of the other ones?
Neta “33” Shapira: “I didn’t know that. That’s an interesting stat.”
Yes, 2018, 2019, then at 2024.
33: “I remember when I played the first one here it was one of the favorite tournaments I’ve played. The hotel and the arena were in the city center and I enjoyed walking around the city seeing the canals and everything so it was a really nice event. It was also the first time I got second place and it was my best result I guess at an actual real tournament. It was a Major even though it was a little bit of a scuffed Major because there were not the best teams here. The last two I don’t think I had as much success.
We just got to the arena and I haven’t gotten a look at it so I can’t really tell you how it compares. But yeah, I’m sure it will be nice. It’s good to come back here.”
“I think it’s a privilege to be able to play tournaments all the time. Sure, sometimes you think, ‘oh it’s so much work and I want to be home’ but at the end of the day you don’t have to play every tournament. You can skip on some but the reason people don’t is because these are really nice events to play, very high price pools, a lot of good teams and at the end of the day, yeah it’s a grind but we should be really grateful that we get to do it…” 33 on the Dota 2 competitive schedule.
Tomorrow you’re playing Yandex, the upper bracket. Obviously you’re quite familiar with Saksa who was on Tundra before. Do you have any kind of special preparation you guys are doing to get ready for the matchup with them or is it just kind of another match for you guys?
33: “It’s just another match. We’re just gonna do our usual preparation and focus on ourselves and hopefully the best.”
Assuming you either find yourself in the finals after tomorrow or God forbid falling to the lower bracket, is there anything you’d prefer to face or are you ready for all covers?
33: “We’re ready for everyone, I guess. It would be fun to play… maybe Spirit. Spirit is always fun to play. China is always fun to play. Falcons are never fun to play. Hopefully we’ll never see these guys again.”
Why do you say that China is fun to play? And the same with Spirit. Is there something about the way they play that makes them a more interesting opponent?
33: “I guess you have the Western European rivalry, where you keep playing against European teams all the time. Obviously you keep playing against the same people all the time, and also if you lose to them… It’s annoying, you don’t want to watch them win.
But watching China or Spirit win, it always feels good. There’s not as many good Chinese teams as there used to be. So it’s always nice to root for them. They kind of became the underdogs. Whenever a Chinese team manages to go back to the top, it feels nice to watch.
And Spirit is always very nice to play with. If I had to lose to someone, would rather it be Spirit or China.”
Image Credit: PGL
A few questions about the new patch (7.41). First of all, mid-tournament patches, do you like them or are they just never good?
33: “It’s not great but there’s not that much you can do because there’s tournaments all the time nowadays. If you had to wait until no tournaments, no qualifiers, no nothing…”
We’d never get a patch?
33: “Yeah, or there would be a very strict schedule. I think the way Valve does it is maybe sometimes they don’t know exactly when they will release it. They release it when it’s ready. It just makes the games a bit more interesting. It adds a little bit of randomness, which I would have really disliked if it was, let’s say there’s like three big majors a year and they are so important for TI.
Then yeah, you don’t really want to add randomness into it, but now there’s so many tournaments all the time, so a little bit of randomness in some of them, it’s okay. It makes it more interesting.”
It feels from my limited perspective that this is a really off-lane focused patch in my opinion. A lot of off-lane heroes got buffs, the wave speed changes, lots of other small elements. Do you agree with that or and how would you think you’re going to take advantage of that kind of focus?
33: “Honestly it’s too early to tell. It’s impossible to know for now. It seems like some laning buffs, some member fives got nerfed and the lane starts closer to the off-lane tower. It seems to make laning a little bit easier.
It’s hard to know how the meta will continue. It probably depends on what heroes will turn out to be OP and yeah, really hard to tell.”
I’ve been talking to other players interviewing them and overheard some interviews today and they think Tundra is one of the better and faster teams at adapting to new patches. Do you think that’s true and what do you think the reasons for that are?
33: “I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I guess if that’s what people think then maybe it is, I think we just keep an open mind, guess, and just try to think things out. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, we’ll see.”
Is there any facet that’s gone, all the facets have gone obviously, but are there any that you’re going to miss or any that you’re just happier gone?
33: “Losing the Timbersaw Double Chakram is kinda rough, because I got so used to playing with it and now feels like the hero just lost a spell and didn’t get anything in return, so that’s pretty annoying. I hope it comes back in the form of maybe a shard or an axe or a hound. That’d be good.”
Finally, it’s been a really hectic season, constant tournaments, looking like April is going to be no different. Do you think the schedule is too punishing? And would you prefer a more split apart schedule?
33: “I think it’s a privilege to be able to play tournaments all the time. Sure, sometimes you think, ‘oh it’s so much work and I want to be home’ but at the end of the day you don’t have to play every tournament. You can skip on some but the reason people don’t is because these are really nice events to play, very high price pools, a lot of good teams and at the end of the day, yeah it’s a grind but we should be really grateful that we get to do it and if maybe in the next year suddenly there’s going to be half as many tournaments, people are going to be looking back at the good old days where you could play tournaments every week in your tournament.
We have had tough streaks so far. We’ve had two months in a row, until now we have like two months with maybe slight breaks in between. But I think it’s good. I would say though it’s really tough for the teams that had to play qualifiers also. And that I don’t really know how you can solve it. That’s a bit unfortunate but luckily for us we don’t have to do it.”
Stick with Jaxon.gg for more Dota 2 news and guides and continuing coverage of ESL One Birmingham 2026.
Featured Image Credit: ESL FACEIT Group
21+ and present in VA. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.
