The top three eSport players in the world are all Dota 2 players.
UNIVERSE
The number one eSport player is Saahil “UNiVeRsE” Arora, an American Dota veteran and T15 champ. Competing in every one of Valve’s yearly champs, he is a highly consistent offlaner. Known for his talent of balancing the game, he calms down even the most out of control games.
After the first International championship, Universe converted to Dota 2 and joined the Gosu team, which meant a whole new generation of fans. From there he moved to the Quantic Gaming team. After placing second in JoinDOTA’s Defense, he lost in the finals to Na’Vi, who was the TI champ at the time. After joining Evil Geniuses, and enjoying many successes, he moved again, this time to Dignitas where he proved his worth as a highly proficient offlaner.
However, he was invited by Fear to move back to Evil Geniuses, who recognised his ambition to be the very best. Still the master of game-changer plays, and with the transition to offlane, he always delivers whatever the team needs.
Over 58 tournaments Universe has earned $2,685,045 to date, excluding sponsorships and other bonuses.
PPD
Peter ‘ppd’ Dager is a former professional Dota 2 player. An American, he now manages the Evil Genius team. He is one of the highest earners in the industry, having won $18 million in The International 2015.
Specialising in Dota 2 and Heroes of Newerth, he started his illustrious career playing the latter, using peterpandam as his alias, which has consequently been shortened to ppd. An influential strategist he has the ability to out-draft his opponents. Another nickname attributed to him is the Salt King, for his outspoken nature.
ppd experimented with many teams until he settled in with the compLexity team in 2012.
Following the natural progression, he moved to Dota 2, playing for lesser known teams until the International 3, where he earned recruitment to the Super Strong Dinosaurs, playing with well-established players, Sneyking and ComeWithMe. When the team disbanded ppd, Fear, Universe, and Arteezy joined up to form S A D B O Y S. Dager endorsed himself as captain and drafting, proving his worth with his innovative drafting styles. This extremely strong team hit an incredible 19-game winning streak, including winning the prestigious “Electronic Sports Prime/Shock Therapy Cup”. In early 2014 S A D B O Y S were declared as the new Dota Evil Geniuses team. His total earnings to date equal $2,618,120.
FEAR
Another American, Clinton “Fear” Loomis’s first team was the PluG Pullers Inc in 2006, part of CompLexity Gaming. After the Dota division was closed down, he joined Meet Your Makers and stayed for a year, before he resigned a short while before the organisation filed for bankruptcy.
Next, Fear moved over to Evil Geniuses, where he stayed until the Dota division was shut down. From there, he moved to the star-studded Blight. Int. which disbanded over salary issues. Fear, with personal commitments, took some well-deserved time off. Upon his return his team Online Kingdom.Nirvana.int was invited to play in the 2011 International, after which he returned to Evil Geniuses, where he has stayed since then.
Amongst many tournaments, Fear won 1st place at the International 2015. After the championship, he transitioned from the carry position to support, in order to accommodate Arteezy, his former teammate.
After citing health issues in 2016, Fear retired from playing and now focusses on being the team’s coach. His total overall player’s earnings equal $2,383,155.
The pattern in these highly successful eSport players appears to be changing teams on a regular basis, and early retirement – sometimes in their early 20’s – due to the intense pressure.
