Chen "Zhou" Yao is a Chinese semi-active professional Dota 2 player who plays for Old Boys.
Biography
A former member of team Catastrophic Cruel Memory, Zhou was picked up by Invictus Gaming in August 2011 as the latter organisation purchased CCM.[1] He attended The International 2011 along with SanSheng, xiao8, DDC and Ferrari 430, where he placed fifth/sixth and shared a $35,000 prize with his teammates. A year later, Invictus Gaming was invited in The International 2012 as well, with Zhou leading a roster comprised of Ferrari_430, ChuaN, Faith and YYF. They achieved a nearly flawless 13-1 record in the group stage and defeated Evil Geniuses in the playoffs first round, only to be sent into the loser's bracket by the reigning champion Natus Vincere. They nonetheless made it to the grand finals at the expense of EHOME, Team DK and LGD Gaming, and ultimately defeated Natus Vincere in order to secure the $1,000,000 champion's prize.
After a not as impressive performance at the next International, The International 2013, Zhou was removed from iG's roster.[2] A few days later he was announced as new carry player for TongFu.[3]
On February 10th, 2014 Zhou announced his retirement.[4]
Chen "Zhou" Yao is a Chinese semi-active professional Dota 2 player who plays for Old Boys.
Gong "ZSMJ" Jian is a DotA player from China, who is currently playing for Old Boys.
Biography
ZSMJ is a member of the first generation Chinese Dota players.
DotA
ZSMJ made a name for himself during the DotA era, as a member of team For The Dream, where he played a key role in his team's victory at SMM 2009.[1] Later that year, the team secured name sponsorships from sGty and LGD, rebranding as LGD.sGty, and went on to dominate the first half of 2010. Following a slump during the second half of the year, the roster led by ZSMJ started 2011 convincingly, with victories in StarsWar 6 and at G-League.[2]
On August 2, 2011, LGD's roster had four players (ch, 830, ChuaN and YYF) poached by new gaming team Invictus Gaming, therefore leaving ZSMJ alone in the team.[2] A week later, LGD unveiled its new line-up built and led by ZSMJ as it welcomed xiao8 and DDC (from Invictus Gaming), Yao (from Nirvana.cn), and DD (from TyLoo).[3]
ZSMJ announced his retirement from competitive DotA on November 19, 2011, stating that he hadn't been performing well during the last months and didn't wish to drag his team down any further, and that he missed the rivalry between 2010's top three (EHOME, Nirvana.cn, LGD).[4] In March 2012, he was reported to be considering to join EHOME, but complications arose due to a conflict of personal values, and the transfer was dropped.[5][6]
Dota 2
Even though he retired from competitive play, ZSMJ didn't rule out the possibility of switching to a Dota 2 career, and asked for a beta key to play his first games during the summer 2012.[7] In October 2012, he was rumored to be on the verge of returning to the competitive scene.[8] In early December, he confirmed that he would be making a Dota 2 team.[9]
After rumors of forming his team under LGD, ZSMJ eventually signed with Vici Gaming to lead their B-team. He was quickly promoted to their A-team, which had seen some success in G-League 2012 Season 2 and eventually lost due to a lack of experience. The addition of ZSMJ to the squad saw an improvement in results as ZSMJ led the team to finish 2nd in Netolic Pro League Season 2 and get off to a strong start in Dota 2 Super League.
HyperGloryTeam
Following several team shuffles including a short stint with Newbee, ZSMJ was announced to have joined Team HGT, also known as HyperGloryTeam in March 2014. It was here that he claimed his first Dota 2 title, the first season of WVW National Electronic Sports Classic. After this, HyperGloryTeam managed to qualify for premium-level tournaments such as WEC 2014 and i-League season 2, accumulating prize money along the way.
As 2015 approached, so did the Dota 2 Asia Championships. HyperGloryTeam qualified for them through the wild card, and finished 11th in the group stages, allowing them to play in the first round of the main event's lower bracket. After surprisingly defeating Natus Vincere in a best of 1 game, they were defeated 2-0 and eliminated from the tournament by Cloud9, finishing 7th-8th place and winning ~$115,335, ZSMJ's biggest winnings yet. Later on, HyperGloryTeam were invited to the Chinese qualifiers of The International 2015 but were eliminated in the group stages and thus eliminated from TI5 contention. Shortly after he left HGT on September 4th 2015.
Gong "ZSMJ" Jian is a DotA player from China, who is currently playing for Old Boys.
Bu "YaphetS" Yanjun, also known as 'PIS' or 'Perfect is Shit', is a professional DotA player who is currently teamless. He was considered the best Shadow Fiend player in the world at the height of his DotA career.
Biography
Originally a pubstar, he rose to fame with the release of the self-titled movie Perfect is Shit, which showcased his fast reflexes and game sense with Shadow Fiend.
Dota 2
He played a showmatch together with World Elite versus Captain Planet on March 24th 2012.[1]
On 4th April 2015, YaphetS announces his comeback into the competitive scene by joining Immortal Magneto Gaming.[2], though he did not achieve anything notable whilst on the team before he moved to Team Fantuan.
Team Fantuan would go on to fail in qualifiers for the Frankfurt Major 2015, after which he proceeded to announce an arm injury which would supposedly put him out of action for 3 months, but it was later proven that this was false news. Yaphets proceeded to leave the team completely after the Frankfurt Major Qualifiers and returned to streaming full-time.
Bu "YaphetS" Yanjun, also known as 'PIS' or 'Perfect is Shit', is a professional DotA player who is currently teamless. He was considered the best Shadow Fiend player in the world at the height of his DotA career.
Jiang "YYF" Cen is a professional Dota 2 player from China, who is currently playing for Old Boys.
Biography
Dota 2
Originally a member of LGD Gaming, YYF was recruited by Invictus Gaming in August 2011 along with his teammates ChuaN, 830 and ch, where they formed the line-up iG.Y.[1] In November 2011, iG.Y and iG.Z merged into a single roster comprised of YYF, ChuaN, Faith, Ferrari 430 and Zhou. Invictus Gaming was invited in The International 2012, where they achieved a nearly flawless 13-1 record in the group stage and defeated Evil Geniuses in the playoffs first round, only to be sent into the loser's bracket by the reigning champion Natus Vincere. The roster nonetheless made it to the grand finals at the expense of EHOME, Team DK and LGD Gaming, and ultimately defeated Natus Vincere in order to secure the $1,000,000 champion's prize.
On July 24th, 2014, YYF announced his retirement on his Weibo.[2]
Jiang "YYF" Cen is a professional Dota 2 player from China, who is currently playing for Old Boys.
Evgeniy "XaKoH" (pronounced ha-kon) Kochetov is a Russian professional Dota 2 player.
Started playing DotA in 2006. Managed to play to play in such teams as SWYC, LionsPride, zRage, Aware, Cleave, and aSpera. For a long time played in Team Empire as a standin.
Evgeniy "XaKoH" (pronounced ha-kon) Kochetov is a Russian professional Dota 2 player.
Kalle "Trixi" Saarinen is a Finnish professional Dota 2 player who last played for 5 Anchors No Captain.
Biography
Kalle "Trixi" Saarinen played HoN under the Fnatic colors until he left the organization which was announced on December 5, 2011. He then switched over to play Dota 2 as part of the EBIN team, which eventually became the first mousesports Dota 2 team.
In HoN Trixi was known as one of the most versatile players around, being able to play anything from Carry to Support with great success. When joining the mousesports Dota 2 team Trixi mainly played the carry for his team. However, in Fnatic.EU he was seen playing the offlaner most of the time.
Dota 2
On May 2, 2012 it was announced that Trixi alongside DeMenT and Rexi left mousesports, since then he disappeared from the competitive Dota 2 scene. September 3, 2012 marked the official return of Trixi to competitive Dota 2 as he joined his former HoN team Fnatic.EU, although he was seen playing with Fnatic for almost two months prior to his decision to join.
Kalle "Trixi" Saarinen is a Finnish professional Dota 2 player who last played for 5 Anchors No Captain.
Chen "Hao" Zhihao is a professional Dota 2 player who is currently playing for Old Boys.
Biography
Hao, nicknamed General Hao by the Chinese community, is known to be one of the most aggressive players in the scene. Having joined teams such as Nirvana.cn, TyLoo, Pandarea, TongFu, Invictus Gaming, Newbee, and Vici Gaming, Hao is no stranger to LAN competitions and is also known to be extremely fervent during matches. As a carry player, he has the urge to kill which can be seen in games where he dives countless times for kills. His risky plays defines his character, and the polarizing rewards or setbacks from the outcome of his aggression can make or break the team that he plays in.
Hao has played in every International, in 2011 with TyLoo (Placed 9-12th), in 2012 (Placed 7-8th) and 2013 with TongFu (Placed 4th), in 2014 with Newbee (Placed 1st), in 2015 with Vici Gaming (Placed 4th), and in 2016 with Newbee.
Dota 2
Hao was among the first players to make the jump to Dota 2 from Warcraft 3 Dota, remaining with Tyloo in the very first International. Despite the high hopes for the team and a strong group stage performance, they finished at bottom half, and the roster parted ways with the organization shortly after.
Moving to Tongfu along with long-time partner Mu, the pair quickly distinguished themselves as aggressive carries that held little regard for safety, much like the style introduced by the Russians as opposed to the more stable Chinese approach. The team was able to qualify for the International 2, but only finished at 7th - 8th and the team held improving results in the lead up to the International 3. At the event, Tongfu managed to finish at the upper half of their groups, only to be sent to the lower bracket by Natus Vincere in a controversial game 3, where Na'Vi was able to utilize multiple fountain hooks to come back and take the game. While the team would eliminate defending champions, Invictus Gaming, Tongfu would soon be eliminated by Orange Esports, finishing 4th. After which, Hao left Tongfu to play for IG, and the team held many top 3 placings such as those at G-League and Red Bull ECL 2013.
Finishing his brief stint with IG, Hao reunited with many of his former teammates from Tongfu's TI3 squad, and the group would go on to form Newbee, a superstar team holding veterans of the Chinese scene. The team had a strong start with their victory at MDL 2014, which later led to the team's massive victory at The International 2014, taking the tournament after barely managing to escape elimination before the main event. Newbee's performance remained strong for the remainder of the year with another first-place finish at WCA 2014. Soon, the team hit its first brick wall in the form of the Dota Asian Championships 2015, where the TI4 champions finished last. After this finish, Hao left the team to join Vici Gaming.
The change did not affect his results, and Hao continued to place highly in The Summit 3 and i-League, which led to the team's invitation to The International 5. Finishing at 4th, Hao rejoined Newbee, and joined the team in its slump, where the team consistently failed to qualify for premier tournaments, and also suffered last place defeats at the Frankfurt Major and WCA 2015. After the Shanghai Major, the team held another roster swap which brought Kaka and Kpii to the team, and Newbee was able to finally break its slump, with an overwhelming performance at EPICENTER, where the team held a record 29-0 win streak, which gave them the invitation to the Manila Major, which they finished 3rd. The team then defeating Wings Gaming at the Nanyang Championships to earn their invite for the International 2016. Despite strong performance in the past, the team was only barely able to make it to the upper bracket, where they were quickly sent down by Evil Geniuses before being eliminated immediately by Team Liquid.
After the disappointing performance, Hao publicly announced his temporary leave from active competition, stating that he will be gone from the scene for at least half a year.
In May 2017, Hao's return was announced by Vici Gaming.
Roman "Resolut1on" Fomynok is a Ukrainian professional Dota 2 player who last played for HellRaisers. He became well known playing mid for Team Empire between 2013 and 2015. In 2016, he made the unprecedented step of switching from the CIS region to North America, when he joined Digital Chaos. Later that year, he came second at TI 2016.
Dota 2
After some impressing results with iCCup (later Terrible Terrible Damage as they lost their sponsor) Resolut1on began to attract the interest of bigger teams. Ultimately Virtus.pro picked him up as they rebuilt their roster in the post-TI3 reshuffle.[1] Two days after leaving TTD he played with them as a stand-in at 2013 Techlabs Cup August, which they won, claiming $5,000.
When joining VP he would switch from playing the mid (2) role, to instead play carry (1), as the mid role was occupied by God.[2]
Resolu1ion's time in Virtus Pro would prove short, as he would part ways with the team after an early elimination at StarLadder StarSeries Season 7.[3] After this, Resolu1ion would go on to join Team Empire,[4] which he would spend the next two years of his career with. The team showed a high amount of potential, getting second at StarLadder StarSeries Season 9 and winning the Excellent Moscow Cup and Dota Champions League Season 3. Team Empire would later go on to be one of the invited to The International 2014, where the team suffered a disappointing finish at the group stages.
Nonetheless, the team returned to form by winning the Excellent Moscow Cup 2 and StarLadder StarSeries Season 11. Over the course of the following spring, they achieved first-place finishes at joinDOTA MLG Pro League Season 1 and Dota 2 Champions League Season 5 as well as a second-place finish at MarsTV Dota 2 League 2015 Spring, defeating many favorites of the succeeding International. In their peak once more, Team Empire was once again invited to The International 2015, to once again suffer a disappointing finish at bottom half of the tournament. The team's loss continued to linger as Empire failed to qualify for premier events, including The Frankfurt Major and The Shanghai Major.
After the team's failure to qualify in Shanghai, Resolu1ion left the CIS region and Team Empire for North America, joining Digital Chaos.[5] The change immediately proved costly as Digital Chaos had failed to make any notable wins, and the team faltered in qualifiers. After the team failed to qualify for EPICENTER 2016 the entire roster of the team except for Resolu1ion was replaced. With rosters shuffling rapidly to meet the new roster lock, Digital Chaos was barely able to meet the cut-off, recruiting Moo, whose Team Archon had collapsed due to ztok's ban by Valve, Misery and w33, who were kicked by Team Secret during the shuffle, and Saksa, after the collapse of Mama's Boys.[6] Resolu1ion would then shift from mid to carry to fit the team.
The team proved deadly during the qualifiers of North America, and Resolu1ion began qualifying once again for Premier events, however they struggled at LAN events and finished second-to-last at The Manila Major and The Summit 5. During The International 2016, however, Digital Chaos shocked the scene by crushing the loser's bracket after being sent there by eventual winners, Wings Gaming, and the team finished 2nd. As the year progressed, the team held better results with upper half finishes at The Boston Major and winning ESL One Genting 2017. The peak would not last long, however, and the team began faltering at StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 3, finishing bottom half.
Eventually, Digital Chaos's co-founder, Sunsfan left the organization,[7] with Resolu1ion and the squad following suit shortly afterwards.[8] The squad would later go on to form Thunderbirds, and the team competed at The Kiev Major, only to be eliminated immediately in the main event by Evil Geniuses. After the major, the team qualified for EPICENTER 2017 and were subsequently signed by Planet Odd,[9] although they failed to make it out of the group stage at the main event. They failed to qualify for The International 2017, and after reaching second place at DreamLeague Season 7 the team disbanded.
Although originally attending The International 2017 as a member of the Russian panel, Resolut1on stood in for his former team, Team Empire, after Chappie had failed to acquire a visa in time. The team outperformed expectations and finished top 8, falling at the hands of eventual winners Team Liquid. Resolut1ion's time as a free agent would be short, as he was immediately recruited by OG to replace ana, returning to the mid role he played for the first half of his career.
Resolut1on was released from OG on March 17, 2018.[10] Shortly after that Effect announced Resolut1on will join them as a stand-in for DAC 2018.[11]
On November 2, 2021, he announced he won't playing the 2021/22 DPC season.[12]
Roman "Resolut1on" Fomynok is a Ukrainian professional Dota 2 player who last played for HellRaisers. He became well known playing mid for Team Empire between 2013 and 2015. In 2016, he made the unprecedented step of switching from the CIS region to North America, when he joined Digital Chaos. Later that year, he came second at TI 2016.
Dmitry "NotInMyHouse" Krupnov is a Russian-language caster from Moscow, Russia.
Having the background of children's concert stage host, NotInMyHouse had his first Dota2 casting experience in 2016 at local students' tournament.[1] From that moment he started getting acquainted with other organizers of Moscow-scale tournaments and therefore getting more practising opportunities.
In July 2018 he became a participant of "RuHost" competition for becoming a new RuHub Studio host.[2] Being able to get to the final stage, he lost to Dmitry "Instamityay" Serebrennikov[3] but got an offer to work for RuHub Studio at the oncoming CS:GO tournament (DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018).[4]
From about that moment NotInMyHouse works for RuHub Studio.
Dmitry "NotInMyHouse" Krupnov is a Russian-language caster from Moscow, Russia.
Steven "Korok" Ashworth is a former DotA player from the United States. He most recently played for Team Archon.
Biography
Dota 1
Korok was introduced to DotA when it was still being played in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. After several years he moved to establish himself in the competitive scene. He was named captain of the Blight.USA squad, and was a stand-in for Nirvana.int at ESWC 2010, playing alongside Fear, Puppey, and Demon.[2] As the North American scene entered hibernation, he too found himself in HoN, where he developed his trademark style and was seen on both the famed SK and Evil Geniuses teams during their respective periods of dominance.[2]
Dota 2
After Valve's first international tournament, he came back to his first love, and played on It's Gosu alongside BuLba, UNiVeRsE, PAINTITGOLD, and Bdiz.[2] From there, he moved to Quantic, accompanied by PAINTITGOLD, where he cemented his reputation as one of the toughest carries North America had to offer. He led the team's run to qualify for The International 2012 and felt that they failed to do so because they didn't play their strongest.[3] Later on in the same year, when Quantic was to be no more, he found himself looking for a new opportunity and came across what would soon become Team Liquid, a team that was searching to fill out the rest of their roster.[2]
On Team Liquid, Korok alternated between the hard carry, mid, and offlane roles.[4]
After The International 3, Korok left Liquid for Team Dignitas.[5] After a short stint with them, Korok went on a hiatus to go back to school.[6] Korok and along with some of the other teamless Dota 2 pros formed North American Rejects for the The International 4 Americas Qualifiers. This would prove to be a wise decision, as NaR won the qualifiers earning them a slot in the main tournament. On June 3rd, Na`Vi announced that they acquired the North American Rejects squad, now to play under the tag of Na`Vi.US.[7]
Korok was arrested on May 15th, 2015, and charged with Malicious Bodily Injury after an incident in which he allegedly committed violence against his then-girlfriend. [8]. He was released three days later,[8] allowing him to compete in The International 2015 despite his arrest. He was later convicted of the lesser charge of misdemeanour assault and battery, and served time in jail. [9] He has not participated in professional Dota2 since then.