Evil Geniuses (EG) is an American esports organization based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1999, the organization has fielded players in various fighting games, Call of Duty, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, Fortnite Battle Royale, Halo,League of Legends, StarCraft II, Rocket League, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, and World of Warcraft.
Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) is a subgenre of strategy video games in which two teams of players compete against each other on a predefined battlefield. Each player controls a single character with a set of distinctive abilities that improve over the course of a game and which contribute to the team's overall strategy. The typical ultimate objective is for each team to destroy their opponents' main structure, located at the opposite corner of the battlefield. In some MOBA games, the objective can be defeating every player on the enemy team. Players are assisted by computer-controlled units that periodically spawn in groups and march forward along set paths toward their enemy's base, which is heavily guarded by defensive structures. This type of multiplayer online video games originated as a subgenre of real-time strategy, though MOBA players usually do not construct buildings or units. Moreover, there are examples of MOBA games that are not considered real-time strategy games, such as Smite (2014), and Paragon. The genre is seen as a fusion of real-time strategy, role-playing and action games.
Natus Vincere, abbreviated NAVI, is a Ukrainian esports organization based in Kyiv. Founded in 2009, the organization has teams and players competing in various games, such as Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, FIFA, World of Tanks, Paladins, League of Legends: Wild Rift, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Apex Legends, Rainbow Six Siege, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Fortnite, and VALORANT.
The International is an annual esports world championship tournament for the video game Dota 2, hosted and produced by the game's developer Valve. The International was first held at Gamescom as a promotional event for the game in 2011, and has since been held annually with the exception of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The current tournament consists of 20 teams; 12 based on final results from the Dota Pro Circuit; six more from winning regional playoffs from the North America, South America, Southeast Asia, China, Eastern Europe, and Western Europe regions; and two from last-chance qualifiers.
Danil Ishutin, better known as Dendi, is a Ukrainian professional Dota 2 player. He is best known for his time with Natus Vincere (Na'Vi) in the 2010s, where he was a member of the team that won The International 2011. He left Na'Vi in 2018 and formed his own Dota 2 organization in 2020, B8.
Luo Feichi, known by the gamer tag Ferrari_430, is a Chinese professional Dota 2 player from Hubei. He won The International 2012 with Invictus Gaming (iG).
The International 2014 (TI4) was the fourth edition of The International, an annual esports Dota 2 championship tournament, which took place at the KeyArena in Seattle. Hosted by Valve, the tournament began on July 8 with the Playoffs phase and closed on July 21 with the Grand Final. The 2014 edition of The International featured nineteen Dota 2 professional gaming teams that competed for a Grand Prize of over US$5.0 million. Overall, US$10.93 million were awarded at the event, making it the largest esports event by prize money until it was topped by the next International.
Xu Zhilei, known by his in-game tag BurNIng, is a Chinese professional gamer. He has played both Defense of the Ancients and Dota 2 professionally, and he is considered one of the best carry players in the history of Dota. In 2012, IceFrog, the developer of DotA and Dota 2, honored BurNIng by naming his signature hero Anti-Mage after him in the original Dota game. In September 2018, he founded a new team called "Team Aster".
Vici Gaming (VG) is a Chinese professional esports organization based in Shanghai. It has teams competing in Dota 2, League of Legends, StarCraft II, WarCraft III, FIFA, Hearthstone and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Vici Gaming's Dota 2 team has been a top contender in numerous tournaments, most notably as runners-up of The International 2014.
Clinton Loomis, better known as Fear, is an American professional Dota 2 player and former coach. With a career spanning a decade, Fear is one of the oldest Dota players in the scene. He was featured alongside Danil "Dendi" Ishutin and Benedict Lim "hyhy" Han Yong in the documentary Free to Play. With Evil Geniuses, he won over a million dollars as the winners of The International 2015.
Gustav Magnusson, better known as s4, is a Swedish professional Dota 2 player. As a member of Alliance, s4 won The International 2013.
Clement Ivanov, better known as Puppey, is an Estonian professional Dota 2 player for Team Secret. He is the founding member of Team Secret. Together with Natus Vincere, Puppey won The International 2011 in August 2011 for a one million dollar first place prize. They also took runner-up for the next two Internationals.
Artour Babaev, better known as Arteezy, is a Canadian-Uzbekistani professional Dota 2 player for Evil Geniuses. He is also one of the most popular streamers among the community.
Peter Dager, better known as ppd, is an American former professional Dota 2 player. He was the former CEO of the esports organization Evil Geniuses, where he also won The International 2015 as a player-captain, later playing for OpTic Gaming and Ninjas in Pyjamas.
PSG Esports is a French professional esports organisation founded in 2016. Based in Paris, it is the esports department of the parent club Paris Saint-Germain F.C. The organisation has active divisions in FIFA, League of Legends, Dota 2 (PSG.LGD), FIFA Online, Brawl Stars, and Arena of Valor. It also had teams in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (PSG.RRQ) and Rocket League. Since December 2020, the club has an online youth system in France and around the world called the Paris Saint-Germain Academy Esports.
The International 2017 (TI7) was the seventh iteration of The International, an annual Dota 2 esports world championship tournament. Hosted by Valve, the game's developer, the tournament began with the online qualifier phase in June 2017, and ended after the main event at the KeyArena in Seattle in August. The Grand Finals took place between the European-based Team Liquid and Chinese-based Newbee, with Liquid defeating Newbee 3–0 in a best-of-five series, winning nearly $11 million in prize money.
List of events in 2018 in esports.
The International 2018 (TI8) was the eighth iteration of The International, an annual Dota 2 world championship esports tournament. Hosted by Valve, the game's developer, TI8 followed a year-long series of tournaments awarding qualifying points, known as the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC), with the top eight ranking teams being directly invited to the tournament. In addition, ten more teams earned invites through qualifiers that were held in June 2018, with the group stage and main event played at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver in August. The best-of-five grand finals took place between OG and PSG.LGD, with OG winning the series 3–2. Their victory was considered a Cinderella and underdog success story, as they had come from the open qualifiers and were not favored to win throughout the competition.
The International 2021, also known as The International 10 (TI10), was the tenth iteration of The International, an annual Dota 2 world championship esports tournament. Hosted by Valve, the game's developer, the tournament followed a year-long series of tournaments awarding qualifying points, known as the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC), with the top 12 ranking teams being directly invited to the tournament. In addition, six more teams earned invites through regional qualifiers held earlier in 2021. The tournament took place in Bucharest, Romania, with the main event held behind closed doors at the Arena Națională due to restrictions on gatherings in the city.
