2012 & DotA 2 – The Teams, The Players, The Game

Written by Aman 'Cyn1c' Parmar

Little had anyone imagined how massive this unique blend of RTS and RPG elements would become when Valve announced DotA 2? Many said it won't work and the franchise was doomed.

However, some acknowledged Valve's feat of being the only successful company at picking up a mod and making an entire game out of it (Team Fortress anyone?). Before anyone even knew it, Valve hit the world with a fully sponsored 16-team invitational tournament, a global championship hosted at Gamescom 2011 in Cologne, Germany with a prize purse of $1.6 million! DreamHack and ESWC realized the transition was inevitable despite the former's reluctance to induct DotA 2 in the light of other mighty RTS titles such as Starcraft 2, Heroes of Newerth and League of Legends. Valve had made a statement with The International and it was just the beginning.

2011 was huge for DotA 2 as well as the players associated with it. The buzz among the community was off the charts as many famous ex-DotA players began showing up on DotA 2 servers and events. The Ukrainian giants had silenced the competition with a loud thud but instead of a cold war and complacent whimpers from those who did not take home the gold, came a flurry of changes that have paved the way for more players, teams, acquisitions and game plans.

Who've been the newsmakers in the competitive DotA 2 scene so far? Are the current rosters good enough to make the competition weep? Do big names necessarily mean good teams? Will 2012 show us some huge upsets? Will future rest on the shoulders of past laurels? Let's try to find out the answers to these questions and understand the scene as it's brewing now.

MYM

When The International DotA 2 event concluded in August 2011, MYM walked away with a 4th Place finish and $80,000. However, the team dissolved right away. MYM's new roster was formed with the entire Scythe-Gaming line-up as an immediate replacement. It turned out to be a short stint as well when xy-, Chawy, Roy and iceiceice departed from the team to serve in the Army. With only hyhy left in the team, the stand-ins never stood a chance against the competition. MYM quickly brought in the ex-MUFC roster to fill the void. Soon after their disqualification from The Defense as a result of not showing up for their games for the 5th time in a row, MUFC suffered a huge dent in their credibility as a professional team. Hyhy had apologized to the fans for putting up a chain of lack luster performances. However, after his pub-stomping through some online games with MUFC resulted in an immediate alliance between the two. Whether MUFC's internal issues will bleed into MYM's courtyard and intervene with their agenda for 2012 remains to be seen. MYM was quite a decorated team in DotA but their DotA 2 roster will have to perform exceptionally well to be taken seriously.

The old MYM line-up:

Han Yong 'hyhy' Benedict Lim (Captain)

Daryl Koh 'IceIceIce' Pei Xiang

Chee Jin 'Roy' Sheng Royston

Joshua 'ToFu' Tan

Toh Wai 'xy' Hong

The new MYM:

Han Yong 'hyhy' Benedict Lim (Captain)

Wai Cheong 'Ling' Sim

Wai Pern 'Net' Lim

Raymond 'Sharky' Wong Kie Yong

Daniel Wei Khit 'TooFuckingGood' Wong

NEXT.kz

NEXT.kz won the DotA 2 Star Championship QL#2where they beat MassPro and had a rather smooth journey throughout the brackets. At the Dota2Replays Brawl Qualifier #3 they faced off against True Brilliance, a mixed squad of Serbian and Lebanese players in the first round and went on to meet FnaticRAIDCALL in the Quarter Finals and took them down as well. They then met Pool Sorcery Stone and sailed past them as well before losing out to the winner Mousesports in a best of 1 confrontation. NEXT rose to fame at the ASUS Summer Cup 2011 where they had an amazing run all the way to the finals, only to fall short to Natus Vincere. They may not be one of the most skilled teams around but definitely have the potential to pull upsets against some high caliber teams. NEXT.kz's lineup is:

Andrew 'eQual'Railyan (Captain)

Ernar 'Mantis'Urazbaev

Vitaliy 'RONIN' Khan

Roman 'StOrm'Haziahmetov

Daniyar 'LuCky' Kasenbaev

SK-Gaming

It came as a shock to many when SK announced the departure of their All-Danish DotA 2 line-up just a couple of days back. Previously known as MonkeyBusiness, the team was contacted by Min-Sik 'reis' Ko (SK's player manager) at ESWC Paris and signed them before DreamHack Winter. Despite the team managing a 3rd place finish at DreamHack Winter and doing decently well at other tournaments, the announcement stated:

"Right now it is hard to see where dota2 is going and it is still in the beta version, so we couldn't find an agreement between both parties." Having removed Alexander 'CalculuS' Rathcke in mid-January to bring in Brian 'MaNia' Strandby, it looked like SK was gearing up for 2012 big time but as it stands now, the Danes are currently without an organization and SK without a team that could possibly compensate for the loss. This is by no means indicative that SK has quit the scene altogether, but with only a CS and LoL squad in place right now; their roadmap for the New Year could definitely use another milestone. SK's line-up was:

Martin 'AngeL' Olsen

Sylvester 'Link' Hoelgaard

Brian 'MaNia' Strandby

Mikkel 'miGGel' Berg (Captain)

Christoffer Borregaard 'Ryze' Winther

MTW

Shortly after winning the BenQ DotA 2 Clash, the ex-Nevo Danish line-up was signed up by SK-Gaming. SyndereN decided to join an all Swedish team called the Wild Honey Badgers. He might be better known for his shoutcasting at The Defense alongside Tobi Wan, but his DotA 2 skills and leadership got the better of everyone at DreamHack Corsair Vengeance DotA 2 Championship in Sweden. Considered as the underdogs at the tournament, the Ex-MonkeyBusiness Danish player led his team all the way from the BYOC Qualifiers without losing a single match on their way to beat FnaticMSI in the grand finals. Another solid performance at The Defense was enough to entice MTW as their new sponsors. Many believe that the WHB (now MTW) are one trick ponies and the DreamHack win came as a result of weak SK and Fnatic rosters. In hindsight though, they do admit that a stable team with good coordination will be better than celebrity spaghetti on any given day.

Troels 'SyndereN' Nielsen (Captain)

Petter 'pepp3' Nyström

Sebastian 'Matrim' Sundström

Björn 'Kuronity' Forsberg

Rickard 'Grunt/SeaBadger' Vuolikainen

FIRE

Team FIRE came out of nowhere and quickly established itself at the forefront of the North American DotA 2 scene. With their recent SECS Season 10 victory over their strong American rivals It's GoSu as well as a convincing victory over the Australian Powerhouse AL (Absolute Legends) at the Infused Cup 2012, FIRE looked hungry and motivated like no other team. Topping the ranking charts of GosuGamers with a 19-1 record and a 95% win percentage, FIRE have become THE Team to beat. They had themselves a little controversy with the usage of the Puck bug against N9 at the Dota2Replays Brawl Qualifier but respected the ruling and went ahead with their head up to win Qualifier #2. Having stoked the flames of the nascent NA DotA scene, they've pretty much become what was EG was to North American CS. Their current line-up looks rock solid and if they could continue their winning streak, they'd be without a doubt the best find of recent times and a force to reckon with in 2012.

Brian 'FLUFFNSTUFF' Lee (Captain)

Tony 'HANNAH_MONTANA' Talavera

Michael 'ixmike88' Ghannam

Jio 'Jeyo' Madayag

Tyler 'TC' Cook

Absolute Legends

After snapping all ties with CounterLogic Gaming, Absolute Legends organization retained the management but lost their former roster which consisted of players like froggen and Wickd to CLG.eu. As a result, the organization signed the up and coming Australian DotA 2 team previously known as Natural 9. With the qualification for the Dota2Replays Brawl and a victory at the BenQ DotA 2 Clash #2 already under their belt, AL seems to be the only team currently around that has what it takes to stop FIRE in its footsteps. AL's line-up is:

David 'envelop/r1sk'Arnous (Captain)

Alex 'blackshatan' Chang

Trong 'Snoopy' Truong

Justin 'xMusica' Yuen

David 'GoDz' Parker

Darcy 'Godot' Jose

dd.

The ex-nevo, MonkeyBusiness and the recently released All-Danish SK squad did not believe in wasting time and are now known as dd. When signed by SK, they were among the top 5 DotA 2 teams in the world. When Alexander T. Müller was interviewed and asked the reason behind it, he stated:

"We have different views on where DotA 2 is right now. We clearly understand the community and the desire for SK to have a DotA 2 squad as well. But simply look at what is happening tournament wise. League of Legends sets the tone in MOBA right now and therefore it is our number one priority in this segment. Now if two squads, LoL and DotA 2 want budget out of the same bucket, you will have to make a call, as simple as that. I understand the concern though and I can promise that SK is very open minded towards DotA 2 and the future of this game. All that happened is that THIS particular team and SK Gaming have to split because we have different ideas of where we are at the moment."

The Danes look in great shape despite losing out on a top sponsor and given how refined their gameplay is, it's only a matter of time before they prove their worth.

Mikkel 'miGGel' Berg (Captain)

Martin 'AngeL' Olsen

Sylvester 'Link' Hoelgaard

Christoffer Borregaard 'Ryze' Winther

Brian 'MaNia-' Strandby

Moscow Five

Moscow Five acquired the GarajGaming line-up before DotA 2Star Championship in Kiev. The line-up was on trial by fire as Moscow Five made their wishes evident from the day of the squad's inception – they planned to finish top 3. It turned out that the goal wasn't that unachievable as they placed behind The Retry (Russia) and Natus Vincere (Ukraine) for a 3rd place finish. However, the team soon lost Vladimir 'PGG' Anosov and Ivan 'Vigoss' Shinkarev who had replaced Smile and Santa after The International. Their 5th place finish and $35,000 prize money was motivation enough to carry on but it seemed that their expectations were too high as the team did not have a podium finish at ESWC 2011.Soon after that, the sponsor announced that the DoTA 2 team would be disbanding. M5 is currently managing the roster with a couple of Stand-ins including the legendary captain Ivan 'Artstyle' Antonov but he would eventually have to decide if he wants to call DTS or M5 as his home.

The Old M5

Sergey 'God' Bragin (Captain)

Yaroslav 'NS' Kuznetcov

Alex 'Santa' Koltan

Alexander 'kyky' Mineev

Ilya 'klif' Gavr

The new M5

Sergey 'God' Bragin (Captain)

Yaroslav 'NS' Kuznetsov

Alex 'Santa' Koltan

Andrew 'Dread' Golubev (stand-in)

Ivan 'Artstyle' Antonov (stand-in)

Natus Vincere

The beast from the east shocked everyone at The International as they went up against E-HOME in a cracker of a confrontation to win the grand $1 million prize money. They then went on to register a win at the ESWC 2011 in Paris followed by a 2nd place finish at the DotA 2 Star Championship where the Russian rivals The Retry took the gold.

Perhaps the biggest blow to Na'Vi came in the form of Ivan 'Artstyle' Antonov's departure. During ESWC 2010, Artstyle had very strong performances and helped DTS claim the 2nd place eventually losing to the Chinese powerhouse - EHOME. However, during WDC, Artstyle displayed amazing adaptability and decision making catching EHOME totally off guard and went on to register a win over LGD. Close to the end of 2010, Ivan was named captain of the year by GosuGamers. Had it not been for his conflicts with the DTS manager v1lat, he wouldn't have probably left DTS along with Dendi to switch over to Na'Vi to replace Mag and Deff. ARS-ART filled his position in DTS back then. His magic worked in his new camp as Na'Vi steamrolled through ASUS Summer 2011 and slammed EHOME 3-1 to win the $1 million Grand Prize at The International.

After the event, Artstyle went on a long vacation and missed the Techlabs Cup. His departure from Na'Vi soon followed. The team captaincy was shifted to Clement 'Puppey' Ivanov and the 5th slot was taken up by ARS-ART yet again. It will be interesting to see what this back and forth ends up achieving for both the players and their respective teams.

Dmitriy 'LighTofHeaveN' Kupriyanov

Aleksander 'XBOCT' Dashkevich

Clement 'Puppey' Ivanov (Captain)

Danil 'Dendi' Ishutin

Sergey 'ARS-ART' Revin

Fnatic

After acquiring the GamersLeague team as their new DotA 2 roster, Fnatic came really close to winning the DreamHack Corsair Vengeance tournament in Sweden. The line-up lost to Wild Honey Badgers (mTw) who did not concede even a single match all the way from the BYOC qualifiers to the Grand Finals. Fnatic recently withdrew from the Infused cup where their grit would've been tested against a good blend of teams like FIRE, Team Dignitas, mTw, Absolute Legends and more. A fully packed schedule and real life obligations were cited as the reasons for the withdrawal.

The ex-Gamersleague roster rose to fame with their spectacular performance during ESWC 2011 being unbeaten in the group stage and beating the dominant Ukrainian team Natus Vincere. They lost to EHOME in the semi-finals and placed 3rd in the tournament. The current Fnatic line-up is nothing short of brilliant and definitely has the potential to pull huge upsets if they manage to sort out their schedule and show up at a few big LANs. The Fnatic line-up is:

Marko 'BAJA-'Jovanovic

Nenad 'grizine' Lukic

Gordan 'Gordan' Prosic (Captain)

Damir 'Mitch' Skaricic

Andreja 'Andre' Mahovic

Apart from the aforementioned teams, some worthy mentions include Team Dignitas, Evil Geniuses, WW, GoSu, mouz, xP, Orange eSports, Infs and EHOME. While it may be true that currently DotA2 does not have major LAN presence at important events like IEM, MLG and the likes but having made an appearance at DreamHack and ESWC stages is a testament to the promise shown by the competitive side of the sequel to one of the most insanely popular games on the planet.

The phenomenon named Defense of the Ancients 2 continues to sweep across the world as millions of watchful eyes eagerly wait for Valve's next big announcement and embrace this beautiful e-Sport with arms wide open.