List of players who played in all TIs drops to 3 as TI7 approaches
The 7th edition of the International Dota 2 Championships(TI7) is about to start in a few days and fans are already relishing the idea of watching the best teams in the world battle it out for the ultimate prize in the professional scene.
Since the TI1 started way back in 2011, only 8 players have graced the stage at the Key Arena in Seattle in all the subsequent editions till last year. Unfortunately, this TI will be seeing only 3 players from the legendary eight. Dendi, MMY, LanM, Xiao8, Misery and Iceiceice won’t be attending TI7 as their respective teams failed to qualify for the group stage.
Puppey, Kuroky and DDC are the only veterans left proving that age doesn’t matter when it comes to playing Dota 2. Let us take a look at each player and their chances of winning the ultimate championship.
Puppey
Clement ‘Puppey‘ Ivanov has played Dota at a professional level for almost a decade now and is still outplaying the younger generation. Puppey joined Na’Vi, one of the most prestigious teams the professional Dota scene has seen in 2011. Playing under the captaincy of Ukranian legend Artstyle, Na’Vi went on to win the first ever International, taking home $1 million.
After Artstyle left Na’Vi in October 2011, Puppey took the reigns and lead Na’Vi to a second place finish in TI2. After a bad string of results in the subsequent TIs, Puppey left Na’Vi and joined Team Secret as its captain in 2014.
With Team Secret, Puppey wasn’t able to emulate the success he had with Na’Vi. Despite assembling a star studded team, Team Secret wasn’t able to taste success. All that changed when they won the Shanghai Major. Since then, the team underwent a major reshuffle and is one of Europe’s best. With their team competing in TI7, it is Puppey’s chance to become the only player to have won the International twice.
Kuroky
Kuro Kuroky Salehi Takhasomi is perhaps the unluckiest person in the entire Dota 2 scene. Despite participating in all the previous iterations of the International, he never won it. His best place at the tournament was at TI3 with Na’Vi.
TI5 saw Kuroky join a star studded Team Secret who were touted as heavy favorites. They couldn’t manage to advance further in the tournament after losing out to Virtus.Pro. After leaving Team Secret, Kuroky joined Team Liquid and assembled a hand picked team and managed to win the Epicenter 2016.
After TI6, Miracle and GH joined the team. They went on to win two consecutive DreamLeague seasons and also the Epicenter 2017. Team Liquid go into the game as one of the heavy weight teams.
Can Kuroky finally break his curse this time and win the International for the first time? Let us know in the comments!
DDC
Leong DDC Fat-Meng, one of the veterans in the professional Dota 2 scene also has never won the International despite playing in all its previous iterations. DDC’s best was a third place finish at TI2 with LGD Gaming. Although his subsequent teams qualified for the remaining Internationals, he couldn’t help his team as they always finished in a disappointing position.
After a short stint with Vici Gaming in 2016, DDC joined LGD.FY and managed to finish second at the Mars Dota 2 League. With a lot of experience to his name, is this team the lucky charm for DDC?
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