Five reasons people still love Dendi

Danil “Dendi” Ishutin is the last player from the 2011 championship team The Internatioanl still playing for Natus Vincere. The team has been in crisis since 2015, causing the organization to have to “change blood” many times. The managers replaced many players but did not achieve success. But Dendi has always been the mainstay of the team, and fans blame him for his poor results.

Former fans of Dendi say he has become ‘stiff’ and stuck in mid lane where he can’t compete with the versatility of younger players. The average age of mid laners at The International 2017 is just 20 years old, but Dendi has turned 29 this year. He is the oldest mid player in the top Dota Pro Circuit teams – some players are five, seven and sometimes 10 years younger than him.

Over the years, people started to consider Dendi as the problem in Natus Vincere. But they themselves forgot what he did for the organization and Dota 2 to help the game grow. Cybersport recalls how Dendi helped Natus Vincere grow and how he became the most popular figure among the CIS players.

Dendi played for Natus Vincere at the end of 2010 and has been the face of the organization for a long time. Very few players have such loyalty. Clinton”Fear“Loomis is probably the closest player, he had a career with Evil Geniuses since 2011, although sometimes Fear also took a break from playing for a while.

Dendi helped Natus Vincere win the game as well as attract big sponsors. This was very important at that time, when the big companies started to pay attention to esports and the prizes rarely exceeded 100,000 USD. He became the main character in the documentary Free to Play by Valve with Fear and Benedict Lim “hyhy” Han Yong. Now, Dendi streams regularly, attending autograph sessions and interviews.

Na`Vi’s brand in Dota 2 is reinforced by Dendi. Haters often confuse when they separate these two arrays, because Dendi and Na`Vi are one. The two sides help each other win the love of fans and the trust of sponsors, thereby sharing a common future in the esports industry.

Dendi is the face and one of the most prominent players in Dota 2. At times, viewers thought he was stupid because of his sociability and spontaneity, but tournament organizers loved and took his presence very seriously. Whether chosen by the community or Valve, this company certainly will not regret when Dendi is present in the matches of the TI show.

The International takes place every year, so explosive matches, finals and even highlights are gradually forgotten. But it’s hard to forget Dendi dancing Gangnam Style on stage, trolling caster during interviews, and playing 10v10 matches with the crowd while wearing Pudge costumes. In 2017, Natus Vincere failed to land a spot at The International for the first time, but that didn’t stop him from traveling to Seattle to take on the OpenAI bot.

Dendi regularly appears at the Russian analysis desk and sometimes even works as a caster, for example at EPICENTER: Moscow 2017. Roman “Resolut1on” Fominok and he were cast in the match between KBU and Filler Pick.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qk3vdH4jok

Dendi is a great Pudge. He has hundreds of games as good as Rubick, Invoker, Shadow Fiend, Magnus and others, but his Pudge highlights live on in Dota 2 history.

Dendi first performed Pudge at ESWC 2011. He destroyed EHOME in the first game of the finals with 20 kills and only died once. Sometimes, the number of lives is equal to the number of minutes of the match. Since then, the meme “one Chinese per minute” (one Chinese per minute) was born on the Russian stream channel.

The second most famous highlight happened in The International 2013 in the losing bracket against TongFu. Natus Vincere played badly: TongFu constantly pressured and didn’t let Na`Vi step out of his base. The chances were too low but Dendi and Clement “Puppey” Invanov turned the game around with a fountain hook error. It allows Pudge to pull the enemy back to Pudge’s base through Chen’s teleport if properly aligned. With many fountain hook phases, TongFu gradually collapsed. Valve later fixed the game after the game, so no one could recreate the famous Dendi Express (Dendi Express).

Valve paid tribute to Dendi’s Pudge skills. In addition to documentaries Free to PlayValve also released Sven, Doom, and Pudge kits with players receiving a portion of the revenue.

Dendi is loved for his prominence and devotion to his fans, that makes him one of the most popular esports players. I have 475,000 followers on Twitter, only 730,000 behind Artour “Arteezy” Babaev. Dendi also has 174,000 fans on t.qq.com, 108,000 subsribers on VK and 275,000 followers on Instagram. His stream attracts thousands of viewers and is a Twitch channel watched for more than 50,000,000 hours. Dendi is the only Dota 2 player to have his global emote on Twitch.tv.

It’s simple to see why people love Dendi so much. In his seven-year career, he has never been involved in a major scandal. He always praises the tournament organizers or at least gives modest comments, while other players criticize them heavily on his personal page. Dendi never had hurtful or insulting interviews.

Except for the one time joking around with Zhang.”xiao8Ning at the Alienware Cup Finals. Dendi sent out Chinese text messages without knowing what they meant, saying “happy ending with your girlfriend, she’s mine now.” He apologized to xiao8 after the game and xiao8 was not offended. The two players are still friends but it took a long time for the Chinese fans of xiao8 to forgive Dendi for this action.

Dendi became a role model for both amateurs and professionals. Virtus.pro’s mid player is Vladimir “No[o]ne”Minenko said the reason he chose mid lane was because of Dendi. Nikola “LeBronDota” Popovic, Henrik “Admiral Bulldog”Ahnberg, Enzo “Timado” Gianoli and other esports athletes call him their idol.

In a way, Dendi influenced the trend of Dota 2. No wonder his Pudge brand became the most popular hero in the game. Especially with the Russian community, which has the largest number of Dendi fans. Since then, he has partly helped Pudge win the recent Arcana vote. Like it or not, Dendi’s presence indirectly influenced the vote.

Dendi is one of the players who built the esports scene in the region. CIS is the birthplace of good mid players, including No[o]ne, Resolut1on, Rostislav “fn” Lozovoi, Bogdan “Iceberg”Vasilenko and others.

Source: Dmitriy “Craft” Murr