It’s no secret that the esports industry has exploded in the last several years, and with fresh investors and sponsors rolling in, established professional organizations have more room to grow than ever. Throughout this expansion, Dota 2 has proved to be a staying force in competitive gaming, and now some brands that once pursued failed ventures in the scene are giving it a second thought.

These re-established teams must now work to not only live up to the orgs’ powerful reputations in esports in general, from FPS legacies to investments from NBA teams, but also distinguish themselves from their banner’s Dota 2 history. Here, we take a brief look at three of these well-known organizations’ past and present in the game.

Ninjas in Pyjamas

Originally founded as a Counter-Strike team in the early 2000s, and with a focus on Swedish players and tournaments, Ninjas in Pyjamas was a forerunner in the blooming days of the modern esports scene. After a hiatus, in the early 2010s, the organization returned to CS and re-established its brand with a legendary roster, cementing their status as a regular name in the CS:GO circuit.In January 2015, they drove forward with this momentum from their reformed FPS legacy and picked up the Swedish Dota 2 squad LAJONS, with The International 5 as their likely end goal. The team notably contained Era, the former Fnatic player, along with current CompLexity player Limmp. NiP teammates Apemother and Chessie also worked in the Swedish scene as stand-ins to Alliance at different times when the TI3-winning squad was undergoing drastic changes. Unfortunately, NiP underperformed and were dropped after the 2015 Frankfurt Major qualifiers.

NiP picked up three former members of the recently-disbanded Escape Gaming late this past December. Instead of matching the org’s purely-Swedish past in this game, there is now a mix of representation: German members qojqva and Khezu, Era from Sweden, Trixi from Finland, and captain-support Synderen hailing from Denmark. So far, the team has only played in the Dota Asian Championship qualifiers, which they lost, and Moonduck’s Elimination Mode 3.0 (ongoing as of writing). However, as there are solid reputations for these players in the Dota 2 scene and the NiP name across esports fans are keeping their fingers crossed.

Cloud 9

Esports organization Cloud 9, which is relatively young compared to the other organizations discussed here, has its roots in League of Legends after a rocky team faced a number of brand changes. It formed in 2012 from the remnants of Quantic Gaming and saw a rapid rise to fame, soon branching out into other esports. Its LoL team is a major part of the League Championship Series, and it has a team or player in almost every notable active esport, including star Melee player Mang0.

Perhaps just as interesting, though, is the drama behind C9’s first Dota 2 squad in 2014, formerly Speed Gaming. Speed was formed in 2013 as an international iteration of Chinese org Rattlesnake, but complaints quickly arose about the manager, Marco Fernandez, from the team’s players. Each member—Singsing, EternalEnvy, Aui_2000, pieliedie, and bOne7—is at least a minor celebrity in the Dota 2 community, and so their accusations were not taken lightly. It culminated at the MLG Anaheim 2013 event, when their manager badly scheduled a flight that left the team with little time to rest before the tournament began. At this point, other accusations came out of the woodwork, including Marco having called himself a “babysitter,” a massive, demoralizing pre-finals rant by Marco himself, and issues with team salaries. After sharing their cautionary tale, the team quickly left Speed and re-formed in early 2014 under the C9 banner.

Past the initial drama, C9 itself was a fairly successful venture, though jokes quickly emerged from their consistent second place losses in major tournaments. The team’s playstyle and reputation at that point were largely defined by EternalEnvy, who would often make risky moves with varying degrees of success. After a devastating 9-12th place loss at TI5, the team split up, though the umbrella C9 org was quick to invest in a new NA squad. Unfortunately, it was plagued by regional drama with controversial player Ritsu at the forefront, including accusations of harassment and leaking scrim data, and after they released him from the team, they were never able to recover.

In the final days of 2016, tier 2 Danish squad The Imperials left their organization and returned to their old name Danish Bears, sparking rumors that they would be signed to C9, and in early January, the team’s new organization was announced. C9’s faith likely isn’t misplaced, as under the new banner, they have already won 2nd at WESG, losing to Filipino TI6 underdogs TNC Pro Team, though they failed to qualify for DAC and Starladder.

Team Liquid

It’s hard to understate European organization Liquid’s presence in the esports scene. Team Liquid itself began with Starcraft: Brood War in 2000 and soon rose to the top of the emerging competitive community by representing high-level, well-performing SC pros. With the introduction of their website and forum in 2001, when forums were the primary social outlets of the internet, TL’s user base quickly sprawled across the young competitive gaming fandom.

Their site, including the forums and “wiki” Liquidpedia, remains an essential site for aggregation of esports information across a large number of esports-heavy video games, and TL is still a force in a number of major esports. In September 2016, they were the prize investment of Axiomatic, a new esports investment group founded by basketball team-runners Pete Guber and Ted Leonsis, with investor names including Magic Johnson.

Their first roster was announced at the end of 2012, consisting of mostly North American players. The fanbase was a strong contrast to Dota 2’s “bandwagon” culture. It was a North American squad when very few formidable ones existed, and the Liquid brand carried over well from the Brood War and recent Starcraft 2 scenes. Its most notable players during this era were BuLba, a mainstay in the NA Dota 2 community, and DeMoN, who has since moved on to help the Southeast Asian region’s teams. To the disappointment of many fans, this iteration was shaken after losing at TI3. After a number of roster changes over its active years, the team disbanded in 2014 when their performance faltered.

TL re-established a team in 2015, this time changing things up with a decidedly European squad. While many rooted for the renewed team, the European scene at that time was described as a “bloodbath,” with each team needing to fight through a slew of well-performing teams to win European qualifiers for many events. Since then, for as strong as the organization itself has been, its Dota 2 history could be described as “grass in a storm”: rarely stable, but persistent and consistent. Though TL wasn’t present at the Boston Major after losing in the highly competitive EU environment, they most recently qualified for DAC and the next Starladder season.

The Rainbow Six Siege: Invitational came to a thrilling conclusion last weekend with Continuum outgunning eRa Eternity in the final. This weekend, there’s action from the League of Legends EU and NA Spring split to the Dota 2 Asia Championships. We even have the latest drama from the Heroes of the Storm: Global Championship. All the details on this weekend’s events can be found below.

Dota 2 Asia Championships 2017: Europe qualifier

So far the B)ears and Team Liquid have been the teams to beat as they claimed the first two spots in the playoffs from the European DAC qualifier. Ad Finem and NiP were the first two teams to be eliminated and so far the competition has been extremely fierce. The loser’s finals start today at 06:00 PST / 15:00 CET, while the grand finals kick off at 09:00 PST / 18:00 CET. Make sure you head over to Twitch to catch all the latest action.

League of Legends: 2017 EU LCS Spring Split

Misfits have improved a lot in their past few games as they managed to secure a win against Fnatic, proving that they are a top contender in their group. Meanwhile, G2 had their first perfect game of the split when they took on the Giants. G2 kept all their members alive and didn't lose a single tower in their first game, while their late-game aggression secured them the victory. However, Vitality are still having a rough time as they lost their series against H2K. Origen have also not shown any real progress and both teams will need to improve their performance if they want to secure a victory this weekend. The full schedule and stream can be found over on LoL Esports.

League of Legends: 2017 NA LCS Spring Split

Team Liquid had a rough start in week three when EnVy used their superior macro play to devastating effect. However, Liquid managed to dust themselves off and defeat Echo Fox after a series of back and forth games. Phoenix 1 tried to desperately hold off Team Solo Mid, but Inori failed to stop a Svenskeren Kha’zix from decimating his squishy team. We enter week four of play this weekend and Cloud9 are still undefeated, so it will be interesting to see if anyone can topple their reign. The full schedule and stream can be found over on LoL Esports.

Heroes of the Storm: Global Championship

We’re now less than a month away until the Western Clash at IEM Katowice and last weekend we saw a few upsets in North America and Europe. Both No Tomorrow and BeGenius had their hopes of attending the Clash crushed as they lost their games. Meanwhile, there was significant shakeup in the leaderboards as Tempo Storm overtook Team 8 in North America, while Misfits replaced Team expert in Europe. Both NA and EU schedules can be found here, while the stream can be viewed by heading over to Twitch.

Hearthstone: 2017 HCT Europe Winter Playoffs

The European branch of the Hearthstone Championship Tour kicks off this weekend with 72 participants being narrowed down to just four. It will be a Swiss Format for the first part, before the top eight players go head-to-head to see which four will get a trip to the Bahamas for the Winter finals in March. The matches kick off on Saturday, Feb 11 at 11:30 CET (2:30am PST), and Sunday, Feb 12 at 12:30 CET (3:30am PST). You can find all the details on schedule and bracket here, and watch on the official stream here.

Image taken from key art for the Elements of the Endless Plane set for Faceless Void by blossomalex.Dota 2 players never wanted stutter-step like this.

Over the last several months, the community surrounding Valve’s popular MOBA has launched an avalanche of complaints about a massive drop in the game’s frames-per-second performance. The issues became most prominent after the release of the 7.00 patch on December 12, which featured a massive design overhaul and the first Dota 2 hero to not have a counterpart in the original Warcraft III mod.

While there’s collective agreement across sites such as Reddit and Twitter that 60fps should be the bare minimum for remotely-decent play, many users are having issues even reaching a basic 30fps. Users report that high-end computers that typically run at 140fps have often dipped down towards 60fps, sometimes lower in more intense moments. These issues may tarnish the game’s reputation for being accessible on low-end computers, particularly as Dota 2 rises as an esport alongside similar, well-tuned games.

This is an issue for not only everyday players but also pros, who require precise input and responsiveness in clutch situations. Pros and streamers such as Arteezy, Limmp, and MoonMeander aired their concerns over Twitter. EternalEnvy complained late December that during teamfights, his framerate would cut nearly a third: from 144 to a mere 50. As fans raise their expectations for esports production quality, tournament organizers need the 60fps with visually-pleasing settings, typically “High” or “Ultra,” to execute increasingly higher-quality video streams.

Because of these widespread complaints, the words “performance patch” now make frequent appearances on the Dota 2 subreddit’s front page. Since mid-December’s patch, at least 150 complaint threads (manually counted, and rising) have been posted on /r/dota2.

The issue of low FPS has even become part of the subreddit’s comedy culture, known for its absurdist, blunt humor. One thread starts, 'TIP: How to tell when enemies use certain abilities' and lists some audio-visual indicators of characters’ abilities. The punchline: “Wukong's Command (Monkey King) - your game will freeze and your FPS will dip below 20 for a second or two.” This is a reference to Monkey King's ultimate, which summons several statues in a circle to attack opponents. Players find that using this ability causes lag, making big teamfights nearly impossible to navigate.

The largest thread was created by esports match observer Pimpmuckl as a “megathread” to aggregate, organize, and discuss the largest issues facing the community. Edited into the main post are both complex and simple ways improve FPS, which grew too big for the post itself and had to be carried over into a public Google Doc. Another user put up an extensive list of bugs, including a few lag and FPS issues, some of which may have been fixed since that initial posting.

The notion of community-sourced solutions is familiar to both Valve and the Dota community, and Pimpmuckl has been sharing advice with players and pros alike. He's using his general computing knowledge to help others to bring their computers up to par.

While Valve hasn’t provided a formal explanation for these issues, Pimpmuckl tells us that a combination of emerging factors from increasing numbers of particle effects for hats to the 7.00 map overhaul may be potential parts of the issue. He believes that these increasingly-complex parts of the engine may cause the CPU to get overworked, delaying commands called 'draw calls' from being sent from the CPU to the graphics card. Unfortunately, without the official word from the developers, there’s no way of knowing what specifically causes this to happen within the game engine.

As players attempt to play through the lag, Valve remains mum on the conundrum. However, hope may emerge as the Bellevue snow melts. Twice, the developers have released a 'Spring Cleaning' update once in 2014 and again in 2016, each in the midst of player bug complaints. The former was the first such patch after the game left beta, and each focused mainly on unintentional interactions between players. A dedicated patch could bring a lot more good news.

Of course, having the devs quickly attack issues as massive as these may be risky. In all fields of programming, shortcuts that can improve performance can have major implications for other unexpected parts of the game, which could drive away a good chunk of the game’s 13 million unique users. Therefore, a performance patch may not be as easy as “just fixing FPS,” and given the lack of a timeline from Valve, haste shouldn’t be expected.

For now, Pimpmuckl shared his best quick tips for fixing FPS issues. If you believe your graphics card is working up to par and want to help your CPU’s performance, turn off high quality water. If that doesn’t do the trick, turn down shadow settings. On the other hand, for graphics cards that are struggling, settings such as parallax mapping, tree wind and ambient occlusion should be the first to go. Adjusting the render quality should be a last resort as it can put more pressure on the CPU. And, while Vulkan should theoretically help with some issues, it seems to have more bugs than its DirectX 9ex counterpart.

While Valve hopefully works on a solution, players are left praying that they're not left lagging too long.

The World Electronic Sports Games wrapped up in China this week, with Team EnVyUs taking home the $800,000 prize by defeating Team Kinguin in the CS:GO final. We even got to see TNC Pro Team defeat Cloud9 in the Dota 2 finals. It’s certainly been a busy start to 2017 and we’re not slowing down yet. There’s plenty to watch, from top-tier League of Legends to the CS:GO: ELEAGUE Major. We even have some top quality action from Heroes of the Storm. All the details on this weekend’s events can be found below.

League of Legends: 2017 EU LCS Spring Split

League of Legends fans can tune into the European Spring Split today as the 10 teams from France, Spain, Germany and the UK, as well as Fnatic Academy, battle it out for their chance to represent Europe in the Mid-Season Invitational. We will find out if anyone has what it takes to challenge G2 for the crown. Misfits and GIANTS! Gaming kick things off today at 08:00 PST / 17:00 CET. The full schedule and stream can be found by heading over to LoL Esports.

League of Legends: 2017 NA LCS Spring Split

The NA LCS Spring Split also returns today and this season might be one of the most exciting to date. Top teams from the last split have all become a little bit weaker, especially TSM who lost their star player Doublelift and replaced him with Wildturtle. Cloud 9 have also acquired new coaching and player talent from South Korea and replaced Meteos with the talented player Contractz. Both these teams will be kicking things off today at 15:00 PST / 00:00 CET, while the full schedule and stream can be found over on LoL Esports.

Dota 2: Pit League Season 5

Eight teams will compete for the season five title and with a minimum prize pool of $125 000 on the line, plus the portion spent on chests and in-game tickets, it is sure to be a fiercely contested event. The tournament is scheduled for this weekend and the top teams are set to clash right from the beginning. Quarterfinals begin today at 01:00 / 10:00 CET and resume tomorrow at the same time. The event can be streamed over on Twitch.

CS:GO: ELEAGUE Major 2017

Sixteen of the best CS:GO teams will battle it out at the FOX Theatre in Atlanta, USA.  The group stage will take place from January 22nd to the 26th, while the playoffs begin on the 27th and end on the 29th. SK Gaming is set to be the favourites after they dominated last year’s headlines. However, the competition will be extremely fierce as everyone will want a piece of the $1,000,000 pie. The schedule can be found here, while the event will be streamed live via the ELEAGUE channel on Twitch.

Overwatch: OGN APEX Season 2

The star studded lineups have been battling since Tuesday in order to grab their share of the $180,000 prize pool. OGN APEX Season 2 has invited four Western teams to compete with the best Korea has to offer. So far the group B bracket has been the group that has received the most attention as it features Asia’s highest ranked team, Lunatic-Hai. However, Europe’s second highest ranked team, Misfits, will also be looking to reign supreme. It’s likely the winner of this group may go on to win the tournament. Group C will be starting their matches today at 02:00 PST / 11:00 CET, while Group D start at 03:30 PST / 12:30 CET. The event can be watched over on Twitch.

Heroes of the Storm: Global Championship stage

Heroes of the Storm’s HGC will see top teams battle for supremacy in regional professional leagues around the world. The best of the best will be tested in international clashes and a mid-season brawl as they fight their way to the finish at the HGC finals. The Heroes Global Champions will take home the crown and the winner's share of the cash prize. Europe’s first match between Team Dignitas and Misfits begins at 09:00 PST / 18:00 CET, while the North American match between Tempo Storm and Team Naventic starts at 14:00 PST / 11:00 CET. The full schedule and stream can be found here.

With the announcement of the 2017 edition of the Dota 2 Asia Championships in Spring, it’s a make-or-break period for Chinese teams. After invites were handed out, a curious squad was announced by a famous team. Newbee.Boss, a revamp of a pre-existing B-team, includes a mix of three established players, ChuaN, Ferrari_430, Xiao8, and 'newcomers' axx and Zei9.

To the confusion of those who are unfamiliar with the fresh faces, the team has been called a 'troll' team, not to be taken seriously in the long run. Meanwhile, the Newbee Weibo playfully stated: “Yes, they are serious~”.

So what’s really going on? According to fans aware of the Chinese scene, the indicator of whether or not the team is legitimate is “the boss” Zei9, who is reportedly… well, literally their boss. 

One of the owners of Newbee is playing on the squad using that handle, according to reliable sources. He apparently isn’t too bad, as he’s reportedly in the 6k MMR range and trains regularly under ex-competitive player SanSheng. According to a Reddit comment by a user who has translated Chinese Dota 2 content previously, “People used to jokingly say the most hard working Newbee player is Zei9.” Past images have shown the CEO in the 5k MMR range (circa TI5) and some fans on social media claim they have seen this player in action on ChuaN’s stream.

Meanwhile, new recruit axx has the Dota 2 community talking up a storm. After all, she is the most recent woman player to be given a shot at making it to a large-scale LAN—and it’s no token appearance, if her stats tell the story. She ranks in at an incredible 7100 MMR, and her tournament match win rate, according to DotaBuff, is an impressive 55% in 539 recorded games (with an even more astounding 65% pub rate). Axx plays a magical Invoker, about 75% of 33 games, and has a strong record on other carry heroes including Alchemist, Shadow Fiend, and Slardar. Having played in leagues with other major names such as fy and old chicken, the popular streamer and in-house player could be an essential core for the new team and a strong new presence in both the Chinese scene and abroad. 

Even with the lack of competitive experience of the two new players, the notable veterans in the squad are a force to be reckoned with. Those who are familiar with the Dota 2 scene will recognise all three of them as International winners.The Malaysian support ChuaN is a mainstay in the professional Dota 2 scene. As a part of Invictus Gaming, he won The International 2012, which started the West-to-East back-and-forth pattern seen in the annual Valve tournament. Since then he's had a rollercoaster ride in regards to his Dota 2 success, as other International victors have historically suffered. In late 2015, he left IG and joined Newbee instead, though he worked through similar ups-and-downs under this banner. He was last seen on the big stage at TI6 in August, where Newbee took the 9th-12th place slot; after this low placement, the took an indefinite hiatus from competitive play.

ChuaN’s ex-teammate and fellow TI2 winner Ferrari_430 has been hidden from the scene for a bit longer than ChuaN. According to his official DotaBuff record, the mid player’s last premier game with his former squad IG took place seven months ago as part of the TI6 China qualifiers. Since then, like many other high-rank players in China, he has been engaged in in-house leagues until his re-emergence into this new squad.

The team’s third International champion and captain Xiao8 won in 2014 as part of the core team of Newbee. Don’t be fooled by the relatively late win, though—the player has been around since 2010, notably in the first TI with IG in 2011 and with LGD in 2012, taking third place after being knocked out by some of his current teammates. In fact, he is one of the few players remaining who has made an appearance at the main event of every iteration of The International (Every. Single. One.), regardless of team affiliation. Most recently, he qualified for Boston as part of LFY (LGD.Forever.Young), but the team fell to eventual second place winners Ad Finem. 

He supposedly 'retired' after Boston for at least six months, though given Dota 2’s history of 'retiring' players, the meaning of this word may need to be reevaluated. Technically, this was his second 'retirement', as he did so after TI4 and returned in a serious manner not too long after. Still, it could contribute to why the team is not taken seriously.

So now that we can understand who all of these players are, we can start asking—what’s the deal with Newbee.Boss? Most likely, the speculation of the community is correct: this could be a 'just for fun' team, albeit with eyes on the main stage of DAC alongside the main Newbee squad. Between xiao8’s re-rise from retirement and the CEO of the company joining in, fans have found little reason to treat the squad like their A-team counterparts. Even with axx’s skill, some believe that she’s on the team just for kicks due to her streaming background.

To be clear, this fan-pleasing combination of well-known players with personalities isn’t unfamiliar in Dota 2. In the Western scene, NA’s Vegetable Esports Club is a ragtag team of rogue pros and English casters that fights through qualifiers for several tournaments. It’s a worthy effort, as VEC only lost in the Boston Major NA open qualifiers to ProDota, the cross-server EU team that eventually fell in the main qualifiers. Given Dota 2's frequent use of open qualifiers, squads of free agents pop up often with varying degrees of success. Most recently, Evil Geniuses CEO and ex-captain PPD formed his own squad with several other pros for the Kiev Major qualifiers.

While Newbee.Boss may just be a fun dream team to play on for Newbee's boss, it’s certainly not an unworthy squad. During the Dota 2 Asia Championship 'pre-qualifier' for an abandoned qualifier spot, Newbee.Boss looked strong in their first matches against Calvary and Rush.B, displaying a strong sense of team cohesion, Newbee.Boss cleanly took two games straight per match. In fact, zei9 performed skillfully among the chorus of pros. The team must now fight through main qualifiers, full of powerhouse teams such as EHOME, LFY, and IG, but this means that they have a very real shot at making it to the main event.

Newbee.Boss is a strange mix of long-time legends and complete unknowns. After all, “three Chinese legends, a strong female player, and their boss make a gaming squad” sounds like the start of a cheesy joke (or a Hollywood movie). Even so, while some of the former TI champions have come in and out of relevance, this formation could let axx break out into the international scene—and give Newbee's boss a taste of the glory that he's helped others achieve.

This weekend, all eyes will be on China as the World Electronic Sports Games opens its doors. There’s plenty to watch, from top-tier Dota 2 to the League of Legends EU Challenger Series. We even have some top quality action from one of Hearthstone’s highest ranked players. All the details on this weekend’s events can be found below.

Dota 2: World Electronic Sports Games

The World Electronic Sports Games event kicked off yesterday at the Changzhou Olympic Sports Center, China. The LAN finals event is the last part in the race for the whopping $1.5 million prize pool. A total of 24 teams have managed to secure their place in the final stage after nearly five months of gruelling regional qualifiers. However, it’s not all about the money as the tournament marks a historic moment in the Dota 2 competitive circuit. The WESG is currently the only event to offer over a million USD prize pool to teams formed exclusively from five players of the same nation. The full weekend schedule can be found here, while the event can watched over on Twitch.

StarCraft II: World Electronic Sports Games

StarCraft II also has a fairly hefty prize pool up for grabs in China this week. The WESG will be giving out $402,000 in StarCraft prizes, which is considerably less than some of the others games, but it’s still a substantial sum. The quarterfinals start today at 22:00 PST / 07:00 CET, while the semifinals begin tomorrow at 19:00 PST / 04:00 CET. You can watch all the action over on Twitch.

CS:GO: World Electronic Sports Games

CS:GO also kicked off its group stage last night and will resume today. The quarterfinals start tomorrow, while the semi-finals and the grand final will be taking place on the same day, January 15th. There has already be an unexpected surprise as the Swedish CS:GO team GODSENT will no longer be attending the WESG grand final. GODSENT were set to compete against teams such as Signature, Team Kinguin, Space Soldiers, Bravado Gaming, and FIVE eSports Club before they bowed out. The full weekend schedule can be found here, while the event can watched over on Twitch.

Hearthstone: World Electronic Sports Games

Counter Logic Gaming is set to be the favourite for this year’s title, as North American esports organisation welcomed Sebastian “Xixo” Bentert to their roster on Tuesday. His most difficult opponent will likely be fellow European player Liam “Lbdutchboy” Brouwer from the Netherlands.  Xixo was the highest ranked Hearthstone player on the GosuGamers ladder last year, as he won the StarSeries Season 2 and defeated Jon “Orange” Westberg in the European WESG qualifiers. Make sure to check the WESG Facebook page to find the latest schedule times and streams.

League of Legends: EU Challenger Series qualifiers

League of Legends fans can tune into the European Challenger Series qualifiers today as the 12 teams from France, Spain, Germany and the UK as well as Fnatic Academy, will battle out for the final two spots in the EU Challenger Series 2017 Spring Split. The finals will be best-of-five series, with the winner of each advancing to the EU CS Spring Split. Games will be played on patch 6.24 and the tournament will be played under the old six-ban rules rather than the new 10-ban ones. Play kicks off today at 08:00 PST / 17:00 CET, while the playoffs start at the same time on Sunday. The event can be watched over on LoL Esports. 

At the end of an intense weekend of Dota 2 Digital Chaos took the grand prize at ESL One Genting in the mountains of Malaysia, the first-ever LAN win for the squad. The team took home $125,000 for the victory, while runner-up team Newbee, hailing from China, ended their own impressive run with $50,000. 

Each player beamed with excitement as they stood together with the trophy. MoonMeander barely had words as the stage host asked how he felt. It was their first LAN tournament victory, a massive milestone given how close the TI6 challengers came to holding title before losing to Wings in the grand final.

Reso1ution even grabbed the mic to brag. “Our first tournament! Woo!”“We won Saksa a LAN, guys!” joked MiSeRy, the captain and one of the support players. “First LAN win ever, guys! Congratulations!” 

As a last word to the venue, Reso1ution made his feelings clear for the enthused crowd: “I love you!” And because a winner can’t be excited enough, he added again— “Woo!”

 The victory came after an intense series versus Chinese team Newbee that spanned the full best of five, including a 51-minute match two taken by DC. Both teams were seen as strong contenders going into the matchup, with Newbee’s relatively fresh blood seemingly tapped out and DC’s full potential being similarly exposed after each suffered rough runs at the Boston Major. Aside from the strength of the finalists, competition was tight for every team going into the tournament.

CIS favorite Virtus Pro was predicted as a reliably strong pick at the beginning of the event. They were looked upon as a mid-game powerhouse, spawning an aggressive meta after winning The Summit in November that other teams picked up into later tournaments. Unfortunately, the team dropped to the lower bracket, tried to fight through, and were eventually defeated by the versatile, soon-to-be champions DC in an action-packed semifinals matchup.

The semis between Chinese rivals Newbee and Wings were nothing to shake a finger at as each team kept their eyes on big late-game plays. Newbee stomped their national rivals in a short first game, but Wings had to be dragged out kicking after winning the second game. The teams went back and forth in tense and exciting second and third maps that brought the ticker over 45 minutes. Ultimately, in a final game, Newbee held control of the map despite a Wings draft, including Broodmother, that attempted to do otherwise.

Malaysia had its eyes on Fnatic, a local team recently featured in Valve’s documentary True Sight during their failed fight through the Boston Major qualifiers. Led by veteran Mushi after an anxious post-Major shuffle, the team sadly fell through both the group stages and losers bracket after losing to, respectively, VP and Canadian fan favorite NP.

Also representing the locality were Execration from the Philippines and WP.Unity from Malaysia, both of which won their respective local qualifiers. Execration likely had a bone to pick with WP.Unity, as the Filipino squad took second to WP in the SEA Kappa invitational cup in December. After a strong three matches, Execration eliminated their local rivals, though they fell to Wings in the next round.

NP remained a crowd favorite despite losing to VP in the quarterfinals. After losing to the eventual 2nd place winners in the group stage, they showed potential after wiping out Fnatic 2-0 in the first Bo3. Unfortunately, VP gave the same treatment. The team still got a lot of love from its fans due to the team's openness about its everyday life (including its affinity for anime, as the team lists its MyAnimeList links on its homepage). For instance, MSS shared his experience with food culture after buying “Sky Juice”—meaning water (“juice” taken from the sky, meaning rain). The incident became an inside joke throughout the event and its segments.

Beyond the rivalries and memes, there was no shortage of interesting drafts during the event. Meepo was drafted not once, but three times: once at a loss for none other than DC’s w33ha, famous for his “w33po” gameplay; another time victoriously for the Filipino Execration player Gabbi, against local rival WG.Unity; and finally for Newbee’s uuu9, in a winning game against Wings.

Every pub's favorite hook-thrower Pudge was picked five times by four different teams with varying results. In alignment with Wings’ reputation for unusual picks, they attempted to win with Broodmother in their third semifinal match against Newbee, unfortunately to no avail. Overall, 63 heroes were picked throughout the tournament, which is a great sign: every match was gripping for spectators.

2016 is well and truly behind us and it’s time to look forward to what 2017 has to offer. There’s plenty to watch this weekend, from top-tier Dota 2 to the Overwatch Winter Premiere. We even have action from the Hi-Rez Expo as both the SMITE World Championship and Paladins Invitational are set to thrill fans. All the details on this weekend’s action can be found below. Have a great weekend!

Dota 2: ESL One Genting 2017

ESL is kicking things off in style with the first Dota 2 stop for ESL One in 2017, at the Resorts World Genting in Malaysia. The first ever Malaysian ESL One event will see eight of the world’s best teams battle it out for their chance to win the $250,000 prize pool. The event will take place today at 03:40 PST / 12:40 CET and will carry right through to Saturday, while the finals start very early Sunday at 02:00 PST and later at 11:00 CET.  The full weekend schedule can be found here, while the event can be watched over on Twitch.

Overwatch: Winter Premiere

Overwatch’s Winter Premiere kicked off Tuesday, with eight teams vying for their share of the $100,000 prize pool. The Premiere has already been filled with a few surprises as both Cloud9 and Fnatic made the decision to drop out of the tournament despite qualifying, while the Renegades took down FaZe Clan (Fnatic’s replacement) 2-0 in the first round of the group stage. Things continue to heat up as we enter day three of the group stages and there’s plenty of action to look forward to. You can find the tournament schedule and stream here.

CS:GO: ESEA Season 23 Global Premier Challenge

The last major CS:GO tournament of 2016 saw Astralis outgun OpTic at the Esports Championship Series in an explosive final at the Anaheim Arena. It was a great event and many of us will miss the frenzied firefights, but you needn’t worry as we have another CS:GO tournament to look forward to. Eight teams are heading over to Burbank, California to participate in the ESEA Season 23 Global Challenge for their chance to play in the in the Season 5 ESL Pro League. Semifinals begin Sunday 09:00 PST / 18: 40 CET, while the finals start later at 16:40 PST / 01:40 CET. Check out all the action over on Twitch.

SMITE World Championship

The SMITE World Championship at Hi-Rez Expo 2017 will once again feature the top PC SMITE teams from around the world. Players will compete for their share of the $1,000,000 prize pool and will battle it out to determine who the best team is in Season 3. The event will be held at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre in Atlanta, Georgia. Make sure you check the schedule times and stream over on the Hi-Rez expo site.

Paladins Invitational

There’s a newcomer to the world of digital sports as the first-ever Paladins HRX Invitational started yesterday at the Hi-Rez Expo. The eight teams who qualified from regional tournaments in North America, Europe, LATAM/Brazil, Australia/New Zealand, and China will compete for their chance to win the $150,000 prize pool. Group play resumes today, with the first match beginning at 09:00 PST / 18:00 CET. The semifinals start tomorrow at 07:00 PST / 16:00 CET, while the finals begin the same time Sunday.  You can find the full schedule here and watch the livestream over on Twitch.

 Three's the magic number. 2013 is remembered as a charmed year for Dota 2—a high watermark that each subsequent era in the game's life has been measured against. 2014 will always be the year of the eight-minute International grand final, and 2015 gave us both the $6m echo slam and the frustrating, community-fracturing relaunch of the game with the Reborn update.

With that in mind, I think 2016 might have them all beat. This was an absolutely phenomenal year for Dota 2, from the spectacle of the pro scene to the metagame to the surprises that come from Valve's 'sure let's add VR why not' attitude to ongoing development. Dota 2 has never been more dramatic, a more open field of competition, more busted (Shanghai) or more polished (Seattle). It's never been more balanced and it's never been weirder, and somewhere between those two extreme's you'll find the game's soul.

So, yeah: this might have been the single greatest year in the history of the greatest competitive videogame on the planet*. Good job, 2016.

[*Other valid options are available, and these other games will get their own 2016 roundups. But I'm the editor and it's Christmas and I'll say what I please.]

A shambles in Shanghai

There was a time when these team intros were almost the silliest thing at the Shanghai Major. It didn't last.

Just as the professional community ran out of disasters to report from late 2015's World Cyber Arena, The Shanghai Major became the first Dota 2 event to fall down and not be able to get back up.

It was a technical catastrophe, with a new production team parachuted in at the 11th hour to rescue the event at one of China's most prestigious venues. This was coupled with one of Valve's most bizarre community management snafus yet—the highly public firing of panel host James '2GD' Harding, by Gabe Newell, on Reddit.

I wrote about the controversy in greater detail at the time, but the short version is this: while Valve's disinterest in traditionally corporate, shareholder-appeasing PR management is frequently laudable, this was not the play. Valve moved against the community's wishes for good reason, but couched it in such personal language that many took it personally. It's a testament to how well they've handled almost everything else this year that Shanghai feels like such a distant memory.

It wasn't all bad. The tournament itself was great, all told, with a run of fantastic moments that demonstrated that the game itself was entering a vibrant new phase. But when managers are getting trapped in offices and Gabe's on Reddit calling someone an ass, it's easy to forget that.

Magnificence in Moscow and Manila

Things took a sharp upturn after Shanghai, however. Both Epicenter in Moscow and May and the Manila Major in June were great showings for the game from a production standpoint. The former had a dynamic stage themed after the Roshan pit and the latter had, among other things, Game of Thrones' Kristian 'Hodor' Nairn literally holding the door for OG.

Look, I never said that any of this was going to make sense.

OG's win at both events ensured that they were the team to beat going into the International 2016, and their journey from Frankfurt underdogs to the very centre of the Dota 2 establishment in only a few months is a story all to itself. There's loads more to say about this period, from the faltering rise of Korean Dota in the form of the much-loved, hyper-aggressive MVP Phoenix to Newbee's extraordinary 29-game winning streak, which was brought to a close by OG at Epicenter.

Rosterpocalypse now 

Despite the introduction of a formalised roster lock system, reshuffle drama was still a major factor in the life of Dota 2 in 2016. Earlier in the year headlines were dominated by EG and Secret, whose ongoing game of musical chairs saw Aui_2000 booted from EG for the second time in a year and w33ha and Misery rendered teamless only days before Manila.

Then there's the scene-wide carnage of the post-International reshuffle, a tradition since 2014 that this year completely overhauled vast swathes of the Dota 2 landscape, from OG to Secret to Alliance and so on.

Yet in some ways the politicking of the professional community—and the waning influence of the old esports orgs in favour of player-owned teams—has given the year most of its best stories. DC's triumphant rise at the International is a Cinderella story that begins with its captain and midlaner being kicked out of Secret in March. Wings and Ad Finem both demonstrated that while the game's established elite are firing Twitlongers at each other, new talent can and will rise up to overthrow the old order.

Virtual insanity

Oh right, yeah: this was also the year that Valve added virtual reality spectating to Dota. It's both spectacular and kind of useless in practical terms, but I'm profoundly glad that it exists. I spent a weird evening sitting on the floor of my office watching Na'Vi vs. TNC from the ground level: hiding behind trees during teamfights, jumping up and down to warn Dendi of danger, and so on. It's exactly the kind of weird shit that I'd have joked about Valve adding to the game on a slow Thursday afternoon last year (in fact I did) and now it's real. Wonderful.

An incredible International

As a previous member of the 'KeyArena is never going to give us an International as good as Benaroya Hall in 2013' society, I have to respectfully admit that I was wrong. This year's main event was the best Valve have run and arguably one of the best contests in the history of the game.

Let's start with production: Valve nailed it, from the tone of the panel—which we'll get to in a second—to the stream and the stunning projection effects in the arena. They used AR to project life-size heroes onto the stage on the screens and during the analysis sections. They opened the show with Lindsey Stirling and closed it with an orchestra, first revealing Underlord and then shocking the community with the announcement of the first Dota 2-exclusive hero, Monkey King, via martial arts dance performance. Somehow, they managed to make whatever infrastructure changes were necessary to ensure that 2015's DDOS drama did not repeat itself.

It's hard to know how to sum up the tournament itself: I wrote 20,000 words about it at the time, after all. I'll start with the highlights: EHOME vs. EG, above, is the best game of professional Dota ever played. Bar none. It is the story of defending champions holding on by their fingertips for 75 long minutes. I've never been more exhausted or more elated by a videogame in any context.

Then you've got EG vs. DC, one of the best series of the year both in terms of play and the narrative that it sustains. DC were seen as a team of rejects, casualties of last-minute roster politics and either a second tier NA team or a second tier EU team depending on whether you ask a NA or EU fan. When they beat EG, the defending champions and the conquerors of EHOME, it was a statement.

DC retained a remarkable sense of fun even as their journey took them further than anyone expected. In a tournament partly notable for its remarkable meta, where only six heroes remained unpicked going into the final day, DC decided to throw caution to the wind and pick Jakiro in the lower bracket finals of the goddamn International.

This is to say nothing of Wings, the true masters of the meta (or at least, the absence of one). Their willingness to draft whatever, whenever and make it sing made them worthy champions. Standout performances by iceice and shadow closed out a phenomenal first year for this young team: last August, Wings didn't exist. Now they're world champions.

I forgot to mention TNC. Or MVP Phoenix. Look, it was a great International, okay? There's a reason it took 20,000 words last time.

Silly season

One of the accusations leveled at Valve in the aftermath of Shanghai was that the studio lacked a sense of humour: that they were set on delivering Dota with the sobriety of a golf tournament. I didn't agree with that assessment of the time—there are many different ways to be funny, and censorship-baiting gags about porn represent only one—and TI6 managed to put the matter to rest for good. They replaced the entire panel with puppets. They replaced the AR tech with a nearby cosplayer. After noting that making Purge explain games with a big touchscreen made him look like a weatherman, they doubled down.

A real sense of fun set in at Valve events this year, and it doesn't detract from the quality of the competition or the drama of those big moments.

A better meta

Thanks again to John Roberts for that amazing gif.

Back when 6.87 launched in April, I warned against the temptation to call each new patch 'the biggest patch ever'.

This was a year of the biggest patches ever.

6.87 brought substantial changes to the way stats scale and thrust Axe into the competitively limelight, as is only correct. It gave Earthshaker his wonderful Aghanim's upgrade, which I will demonstrate here:

...and arguably more importantly, it set us on the road to 6.88, which reigned in 6.87's outliers and in doing so created the most open meta that Dota 2 has ever seen. 95% of heroes picked/banned at The International is an extraordinary number, far in excess of where other MOBAs end up, and an amazing statement about the health of the game. There were issues, particularly with illusions, but damn—it's a small price to pay to see that many heroes viable, that many ways to win available to the best teams.

 Give Pit Lord

They gave Pit Lord! He's now called Underlord. The final unported DotA hero arrived in Dota 2 after the International, 'finishing' Valve's port of the game after five years. In a way, I think the community was more excited about Underlord as a concept than as a hero—he's situational and rarely seen nowadays. Shouting for him was a way of shouting for any kind of update, and giving the slowing rate of Dota 2 updates that's not unreasonable.

Side note: this is actually the first year in the game's history where the rate of hero additions hasn't slowed. We got two heroes in 2015 and we got two in 2016. Whether that's enough is another debate: but at least the number is shrinking by half every year any more.

Boston makes me feel good

A refreshed assembly of freshly-reassembled Dota 2 squads headed to Boston for the year's final Major, and it was a wonderful sendoff. The rise of Greek underdogs Ad Finem is the story, here, despite the ultimate triumph of nu-OG. Like OG a year before at the Frankfurt Major, Ad Finem escaped the 'maybe' column (by way of the 'who?' column) to surprise everybody with an impressive run to the grand finals. OG were clearly the better team, in the end, but OG didn't make ODPixel make a noise like this:

(That game, the third in the grand final, is incredible, by the way. You should watch it. And it deserves the 'best game ever' declarations that it provoked. It's not the best game ever—it can't be, in a year that also included EG vs. EHOME—but the fact that crazy stuff like this just keeps happening is a testament to how healthy Dota is right now.)

Dota 3

Look, I'm going to level with you. It was very late at night when they unveiled that trailer and sometimes it just takes a montage of splash art and some version numbers to bring a single tear to a man's eye. It is a beautiful dumb journey we have all been on: a decade of Dotas whose number begins with a 6.This month, that all changed. Dota begins with a 7 now. And it might as well be Dota 3.

This was the big announcement that Valve have been sitting on, as they are wont to do: bigger than Reborn, bigger than 6.87, bigger than that time  they moved Roshan a little bit to the right. 7.00 is the real rebirth of this game: a substantially overhauled map, a new progression system, a new UI. Every player has finished the year relearning a game that they knew inside-out. It has, and will continue to have, extraordinary ramifications for the pro scene—that, I suspect, will be the story of the early months of 2017.

At the time, what struck me about the update was the fact that Monkey King is actually least interesting thing about it—and he can climb trees and morph into a banana! What strikes me now is the confidence that it represents, both on Icefrog's part and Valve's. Dota 2 was in an extremely good place. Like I keep saying, this was a phenomenal year for the game. Tweaks would probably have been fine. Reign in the few remaining outliers. Do something about illusions—that kind of thing. I think that's what other developers would have done.Instead we got a total upheaval, a new game. This shows a profound respect for the fact that Dota 2 is ultimately about chaos, not balance. It's not meant to become a solved problem. It's supposed to be a sandbox for strategic inventiveness, virtoso technical mastery, and—frankly—really weird shit happening when all of the game's moving parts collide. Dota 2 has to keep moving to survive, and arguably the worst thing that could happen would be for Valve to think '2016 worked: let's just do that again'.

Dota 2 7.00 suggests that isn't going to happen. We're not going to get another 2016. We're going to get 2017, and honestly? If this year's taught me anything, it's not to make predictions. I've got no idea what is going to happen. I imagine a team I've never heard of will win the International and the next hero will be a big purple man. There you go. Check back next year to find out how wrong I am.

Playing mid in professional Dota 2 is like being the frontman of a band. When you’re the midlaner, you’re the guy your team looks to for the big plays. The player that can completely turn a Dota game on its head. There’s a reason why, when you join a game of solo queue, mid is the first position anyone on your team calls. It’s easy to be inspired by any of the names on this list.

Midlane is probably the most difficult position to master, but often offers the most bountiful rewards. The names of professional mid players are always on an audience’s lips. From hyper aggressive players like QO to straight up lane dominators like SumaiL, the variation in both player and hero matchups in this lane always makes for a great show.

SumaiL

Team: Evil Geniuses Country: Pakistan

SumaiL is one of Dota’s biggest success stories. Born and raised in Pakistan, a country that isn’t well known for producing esports pros, SumaiL started playing Dota at the age of eight. Since then he’s moved to the USA, become a key member of team EG and won an International. All impressive feats. Even more impressive when you find out he was born in 1999. SumaiL joined EG (one of the biggest names in esports, let alone Dota) when he was 15. Then, seven months later, he won TI5.

What makes SumaiL such a great mid is that his team know that, no matter what, he will win that lane. If the enemy team pick to specifically counter the hero SumaiL is taking mid, chances are he’ll beat them too. His laning mechanics are exemplary. If you want to become a better midlaner, watch SumaiL replays. And if you’re going to watch one in particular, watch this one. Game one of the TI5 grand finals, 16 years old, feeds three deaths early in the game, finishes the game 7k net worth ahead of the opposing midlaner. Magical.

Miracle-

Team: TeamLiquid Country: Jordan

Yes, Miracle- didn’t attend the Boston Major as a player. Yes, Team Liquid have been diabolical in recent months. However, he still has the skill to quite literally render two of the best casters in the Dota community completely speechless.He started out as a relatively unknown, but extremely high MMR mid player. Miracle- joined team monkey business (who went on to become OG) in 2015, and the rest is history. During 2015/16 he established himself as one of the greatest, maybe even the greatest, player that Dota has ever seen. He became the first player ever to reach 9,000 MMR during his time with OG. Miracle- has the ability to take over an entire game on his own, dictating the speed of play to suit his team’s needs. With two major titles under his belt, all that’s left for him to win is an International, something that his sights will be firmly set on for next year.

Ana

Team: OG Country: Australia

Miracle’s replacement in OG, at first Ana struggled to find his place in the new team. For some time, he was the scapegoat when anything went wrong. Fast forward to the present day, and Ana has become a crucial member of the OG team that just won the Boston Major.

In 2015 Ana moved to Shanghai from Melbourne with the dream of becoming a professional Dota player. He took part in a tournament where young, high-skilled Dota players were given a chance to show what they could do in a competitive environment. His performance led to him being picked up by team Invictus Gaming (IG), with whom he won NEA 2016. Now a member of OG, and the only Australian player to ever win a Valve event, Ana’s aggressive but calculated playstyle has won over fans and players alike. To step into Miracle’s shoes and do just as well, or even better, would certainly have been daunting. Ana has proved to everyone that he’s up to the task.

ThuG

Team: Ad Finem Country: Greece

After Ad Finem’s exceptional showing at the Boston Major, it would be almost criminal not to include this name on the list. The second-place finish at the Major is both ThuG and Ad Finem’s only real standout achievement. They came into the tournament as massive underdogs, but thanks to some incredible performances, punched way above their weight.

I don’t remember any game at the Major where ThuG didn’t win his lane. If there were any, there were very few. This tournament has really highlighted what this player can do. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a more accomplished performance on Puck than in game two of Ad Finem vs Newbee. It’s not only Puck where he excels, though, as ThuG appears to have one of the most diverse hero pools in pro Dota. He seems to be able to dominate the midlaneon almost any hero, a trait that’s incredibly important if you want to be successful. For ThuG to truly establish himself now he can’t be content with a second-place Major finish. He's done it once in Boston, now he needs to do it again, and again, and again.

No[o]ne

Team: Virtus Pro Country: Ukraine

Shadow Fiend was not a strong hero in 6.88 Dota. I’d go as far as saying he was probably one of the weakest midlaners in the game. Made of paper, and hurt beyond repair by nerfs to Raze and buffs to the jungle, he wasn’t in a good place. Then No[o]ne came along. In the first game of the Boston Major he not only crushed EternaLEnVy in the midlanebut he got a rampage. No[o]ne killed all five heroes on the enemy team in a single team fight. You’d think he’d probably be content with that, you know: one rampage is pretty nice. Over the rest of the first day he got another four.

His play style reminds me of fellow Ukrainian and Dota 2 legend Dendi. No[o]ne will regularly dominate his lane. Against weaker players, if left in a one-on-one, he can beat them to a point where they have so little farm that they are no longer relevant to the game. Nerves can get the best of him occasionally, but that gets easier with experience. Remove the nerves from the equation, and No[o]ne has the potential to elevate himself to legendary status.

w33

Team: Digital Chaos Country: Romania

Once ridiculed for claiming “all I want is TI, I’m going to go there whether people like me or not”, look at w33 now. Not only did he go to TI, he finished second. A super high MMR midlaner with an affinity for Meepo, w33 is one of a handful of players who can stun an audience with displays of superhuman skill.His Invoker is a sight to behold, and was the shining star in an otherwise poor Shanghai Major. Despite winning the Major in Shanghai and coming second at Frankfurt, w33 was kicked from Team Secret just before the Manilla Major. Along with former team mate Misery, he joined DC and since then has proved himself to be invaluable. Finishing Second at TI6, and third/fourth at the recent Boston Major. Some people label him as the best mid Windranger in the world, which I consider to be entirely fair.

bLink

Team: Wings Gaming Country: China

It would be really silly not to include bLink in this list. The only member of TI6 winners Wings Gaming over the age of 20, bLink is an experienced midlaner and has been a part of Wings for over two years now. He may not be the flashiest player in Dota 2, but he’s certainly proved himself to be one of the best.Consistency in the midlane is just as important as having the ability to go out and completely dominate a game. bLink very much fits this mould. His Invoker and Shadow Fiend are both impressive, but not quite at the level as some of the other names on this list. But when you’re part of one of the best teams Dota has ever seen, and you’re as stable a player as bLink, that doesn’t really matter.

QO

Team: MVP Phoenix Country: South Korea

MVP Phoenix didn’t do too well at the Major, but there is no denying QO’s skill as a midlaner. He plays Dota differently to most other players, let alone other midlaners. Typing QO on a Korean keyboard means “don’t back”: two words that perfectly describe MVP’s (and QO’s) playstyle.

He’s a very aggressive player. He may not get more last hits than his opposing midlaner, but he almost certainly will kill them. A lot. QO is well known for playing heroes that can commit way behind the mid tier one tower to get kills. His Phantom Assassin is one of the best (as shown at TI6), and he’s one of a few players who regularly take Slark mid lane. This Phantom Assassin game, recorded from QO’s perspective, shows just how talented he is as a midlaner. Scoring kill after kill, it’s a truly dominant performance. MVP will usually build their entire drafts around QO. On a team full of amazing individual players, that's a testament to how great he is.

Honourable mention: Dendi

Team: Na'Vi Country: Ukraine

Dendi is a legend. He’s the reason I, and many others, got into Dota. Between TI1 and TI3 Navi absolutely dominated. They were easily the best team, and Dendi was the best mid player. While he may have fallen from the top in recent years, there’s no denying how much he’s done for pro Dota. So many of the things we take for granted in midlane were started by him. He was one of the first players who really put an emphasis on denying creeps from the enemy midlaner. This alone was enough for him to be able to dominate his lane in most games, on occasions being an entire two or three levels above his opposite number. Dendi is still one of the best at this, and his technique has inspired many other midlaners, including a few on this list (SumaiL probably most of all).

During his time at the top he was also known for making crazy, unorthodox plays that no one expected. This is one of the factors that made Navi so thrilling to watch. Most games would turn into the Dendi show—especially when he got to play Pudge. This game where Dendi played Pudge at TI3 is still my favourite game of pro Dota to date. There’s an in-game set for Pudge that includes a Dendi doll hanging from his belt, that’s how influential this guy’s Pudge is. As well as being a wonderful player Dendi has a great personality. Always interesting and funny, his interviews are usually a treat. Dendi may not be the best midlaner anymore, but he’s still one of my favourites.