TobiWan: 'Teams are a lot closer in terms of skill level this year'

We caught up with Toby 'TobiWan' Dawson, English caster for The International 3, for an 24 minutes interview about the general outlook of arguably the biggest eSports event in history and his thoughts on east versus west.
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How was your trip to Seattle?
Perfect. Amsterdam curse was avoided. Last year there was a bomb at the Amsterdam airport and I was a day late but this time around got our plane in Berlin, then traveled to Amsterdam, arrived in Amsterdam, flew to Seattle, got here, came straight to the hall and everything was really good. I have no problems coming to The International. I'm feeling great.
Too good to be true? Shoutout to Delta Airlines?
No, they didn't give me First Class. Delta Airlines actually screwed up v1lat's flight so he didn't have a flight. We actually have the whole Russian cast on the same flight, v1lat did not have a booking when he first arrived and he made a call to Valve and Valve was like and he got an upgrade to First Class. So, he flew First Class from Amsterdam to Seattle.
What are the differences between The International 1 and The International 2?
First thing I would say is the teams are a lot closer in terms of skill level. Last year, you can easily look through the group stage and you can say this team will win. The preliminaries were very obvious, which team would win and which team would lose. This time around, it is a little more difficult except MUFC because of track record. As far as the other team goes, it is very difficult to predict. VP should lose, Zenith should win, you are just not really sure on what you want to bank on. While we are doing this, Liquid is going up against LGD. In best-of-three, I will say LGD will win hands down after watching them earlier today but Liquid in a best-of-one can pull a really fast one on them. LGD have fantastic players and so does Liquid. In a best-of-three series, I'd say LGD have the better chance of winning. I would put my rare on them but right now, Liquid has got a good opportunity. In fact, I think Liquid is winning as we are doing this interview.
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