Dota 2: 7 coolest western pro players

Throughout Dota 2’s long journey, there are many players who have contributed greatly to the growth and achievement of esports for the sport. Today, we will take a look at those seven Western players.

To create this list, the article only considers their age, awards, and influence on Dota 2 esport. The people on this list are people who have been consistently successful for a long time and still are. referred to as a legend.

7. Sebastian”Ceb“Debs

Ceb has long been a very confusing player, from a toxic and condemned on Twitter to now the first and only two-time The International champion.

The period when he started his career was not very stable when he had to jump from team to team and never achieved anything significant. His best achievement during that period was winning DreamHack Summer 2012 with Danish player Troels.”Synderen” Neilsen. After that, Ceb revived as an OG coach, he switched to the offlane and started playing for OG in early 2018. He won two The Internationals showing how much he has transformed.

If his competitive record isn’t impressive enough, Ceb’s contributions to Dota esports by leading the OG.Seed roster also make him on this list. If asked if he is the best player in history, the answer is obviously no! But he’s part of OG – an organization that has dominated two consecutive TI championships and is still at its peak since its first professional match since 2012.

6. Tal”Fly“Aizik

Named the player “with the most standard body” in the Dota 2 esport world: Fly, which holds number 6 on this list. Fly not only trains regularly in the gym but also competes very well. Fly has been in Dota 2 for a long time. He was part of Fnatic’s original lineup back in 2012, with his famous friend Johan.”N0tail” Sundstein, when they switched from Heroes of Newerth.

After Fnatic, Fly created an interesting superstar lineup that was the original Team Secret, with names like Gustav.”S4“Magnussen and Clement”Puppey“Ivanov. This is the team that owns one of the most talented members in Dota 2 history, but unfortunately still failed and in the end everyone went their separate ways when they couldn’t win The International.

Most of Fly’s legacy is built in one of Dota 2: OG’s most stable esports organizations. This is the first organization in Dota 2 history to win three Majors in a row: Boston, Frankfurt and Kiev Majors. OG is one of the first organizations ready to recruit young talent to develop them. Some of the names that were born in Fly’s contemporaries were Andreas.”Cr1t“Nielsen, Jesse”Jerax“Vainikka, Amer”Miracle-“Al-Barqawi and Anathan”ana“Pham. Some of the names mentioned above also won TI.

5. Clinton”Fear“Loomis

Fear is one of the oldest names in the North American market that is still playing Dota 2 until now (although it is currently on hiatus to wait until 2021). Fear has joined various teams, but his greatest legacy comes from his time with Evil Geniuses. He was in EG from 2012 to 2018 and took a short break during this time. But his peak career was also directly linked to the boom of Evil Geniuses, one of North America’s greatest esports organizations.

Fear is a Dota 2 veteran who can play almost any position. His career started in 2005 with DotA 1 when he played for Plug Pullers, one of the first Dota teams to be sponsored. During his long career, he played from position 1 carry to position 5 support and excelled in every position. He once won The International 5 and is still playing professionally until now.

After EG won TI 2015, the team also finished in the top 3 in the next two TIs and won many tournaments during this period. Although now is considered the end of his career, he is still playing and developing young talents in his new team.

4. Gustav”s4“Magnusson”

Magnusson is the 4th best Western player on the list. Here is another person who changed from Heroes of Newerth. S4 continues to compete in the current Dota 2. He is a player who rarely knows the combination of leading a team as a captain/drafter and possesses the skill to go up against the best mid players in the world.

The starting career of s4 was with the Swedish organization Alliancewith players like Jonathan”Loda“Berg and Henrik”Admiral Bulldog“Ahnberg. That squad didn’t lose a single tournament and won The International 2013, when they beat Natus Vincere 3-2 in the final. S4 entered Dota 2 history with the classic “Million Dollar Dream Coil.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBoV0wNShs0

S4 later also joined the original Team Secret, where he played with some of the players named in this article like Tal.”Fly“Aizik and a few names will be mentioned later. They won many tournaments, but only placed 7-8 at The International 2015. He then moved to OG and won 3 Majors in a row with Fly and N0tail. S4 then competed for a while against Evil Geniuses, with very high results, including TI. Now, he’s back as Alliance captain with members of his own like Maximillian “qojqva” Brocker and Tommy “Taiga” Le. They are a name full of potential and will likely become one of the top European teams in the coming years.

3. Kuro”KuroKy“Salehi Takhasomi

KuroKy is one of the oldest Dota players. He has everything of all the names on this list. He has been playing Dota since the early days of the game and started his career in 2008 with Mousesports. His first chance to compete in The International was with Natus Vincere’s legendary 2013-2014 roster with Clement.”Puppey“Ivanov and Daniel”Dendi“Ishutin. They were considered Alliance’s rivals in the period 2013-2014 when they met in the finals of TI3 and Natus Vincere only lost to Alliance very closely.

He then formed the original Team Secret squad with Puppey. They dominated many tournaments but couldn’t win The International, something KuroKy had been chasing for almost a decade at the time. After leaving Team Secret, he formed team 5Jungz with rising players like Lasse.”MATUMBAMAN“Urpalainen and Ivan”MinD_ContRoL“Borislavov. The lineup was later absorbed by Team Liquid. In 2017, they added a mid/carry star Amer.”Miracle-“Al-Barqawi and pos 4 Maroun quality”GH“Merhej. These two names finally helped KuroKy rise to the top when the team won The International 2017.

KuroKy now continues to lead this squad but founded his own organization called Nigma. His peak esport career did not stop when he faced OG in the final The International 2019.

2. Clement”Puppey“Ivanov

Second on the list is the multilingual Estonian and former KuroKy teammate: Puppey. Clement”Puppey“Ivanov is also a player who has been playing professionally since the very beginning of DotA and is now the captain of one of the strongest teams in the world right now: Team Secret. In many ways, Puppey shares the same story as KuroKy, except Puppey found his TI title the first time it was organized and became the captain of Navi until 2014. After leaving Team Navi, Puppey and KuroKy founded the first Team Secret.

After the unsuccessful 2014 period, KuroKy and Puppey went their separate ways. When the original Team Secret disbanded, KuroKy formed 5Jungz, and Puppey stayed on Team Secret to form his own team. After many changes of players like Johan”Pieliedie“Astrom, Lee”Forex“Sang-don, Maurice”Khezu“Guttman, Puppey stayed and kept experimenting to find the strongest possible lineup. And so we have the strongest version of Secret in history with Yazied.”YapZoR“Jaradat and Ludwig”Zai“Wehlberg.

After much trial and error, Puppey remains one of the brains of Dota 2 and continues to adapt to the ever-changing meta. He always retains formidable skill and is ready to give a chance to new names.

1. John”N0tail“Sundstein”

OG’s funny and handsome captain takes the #1 spot on the list of the coolest western players in Dota 2. In terms of achievements alone, n0tail deserves the top spot with two The International championships. .

N0tail started Dota 2 at the same time as Puppey and KuroKy, but a pro player of Heroes of Newerth with Tal.”FlyAizik before transferring and joining Fnatic in 2012. They were also the original Team Secret roster. N0tail then split from Team Secret and formed OG and Fly – now one of the most successful Dota 2 organizations of all time with two TI titles and three consecutive Major wins. Although the lineup has been changed more or less since its inception, N0tail still shines with OG with new names. Some of those players can be mentioned as Sebastien.”Ceb“Debs, Anathan”ana“Pham, and Topias”Topson“Taavitsainen.

N0tail is at the top of this list mainly because of his achievements. He has won two The Internationals and has participated in every TI tournament since joining Dota in 2012. He is a good pro player and offers many opportunities to different talents when he founded OG.Seed. This project has attracted some notable names like Zakari.”ZFreek“Freedman and Petu”Peksu” Vaatainen, allowing them to go pro level while working with the main OG members. N0tail’s talent is unquestionable and that’s why he deserves to be at the top of this list.

You can read more about the first part of the series