Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, played individually or as teams.
Dota 2 is a 2013 multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game by Valve. The game is a sequel to Defense of the Ancients (DotA), a community-created mod for Blizzard Entertainment's Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. Dota 2 is played in matches between two teams of five players, with each team occupying and defending their own separate base on the map. Each of the ten players independently controls a character known as a hero that has unique abilities and differing styles of play. During a match, players collect experience points (XP) and items for their heroes to defeat the opposing team's heroes in player versus player (PvP) combat. A team wins by being the first to destroy the other team's Ancient, a large durable structure located in the center of each base.
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 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, commonly referred as abbreviated name 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 2, Dota 2, FIFA, Brawl Stars, World of Tanks, Paladins, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Clash of Clans, Apex Legends, Rainbow Six Siege, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Fortnite, and VALORANT.
The International (TI) is an annual esports world championship for the five-on-five video game Dota 2. Produced by the game's developer Valve, the International is the final event of the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) and consists of 20 teams: 12 based on final results from the DPC; six from North America, South America, Southeast Asia, China, Eastern Europe, and Western Europe regional leagues; and two from last-chance qualifiers. The International was first held in Germany at the 2011 Gamescom to promote the game's release. It was then held in Seattle, where Valve is headquartered, until it began to be hosted internationally again starting with The International 2018 in Vancouver.
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).
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) were a Chinese professional esports organization based in Shanghai. It had teams competing in Dota 2, League of Legends, StarCraft II, WarCraft III, FIFA, Hearthstone, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Honor of Kings. Vici Gaming's Dota 2 team had 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 caster and former player. 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.
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.
Toby "TobiWan" Dawson is an Australian former Dota 2 caster. Dawson was employed by the Electronic Sports League. He retired from esports casting following sexual assault allegations in 2020.
The Shanghai Major was a Dota 2 tournament that took place in Shanghai from March 2–6, 2016, and was the second Major of the 2015–2016 Dota 2 season. 16 teams competed in the tournament; eight were given direct invitations and the other eight qualified through various qualifying tournament around the world. The Major was won by Team Secret, who defeated Team Liquid in a best of five series 3–1.
Artour Babaev, better known as Arteezy, is an Uzbek-Canadian professional Dota 2 player for Shopify Rebellion. 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.
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 2019 (TI9) was the ninth 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 awarding qualifying points, known as the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC), with the top 12 ranking teams being directly invited to the tournament, which took place in August 2019 at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai. In addition, six more teams earned invites through regional qualifiers played in July 2019. The grand finals took place between Team Liquid and OG, who had respectively won the International's 2017 and 2018 events. There, OG defeated Team Liquid 3–1 in the best-of-five series to become the first-ever repeat champion of an International.
Wang Chunyu, better known as Ame, is a Chinese professional Dota 2 player for LGD Gaming.
