Gaming
We take a look at the 10 most likely candidates to break the 9k matchmaking barrier this year.
The Dota 2 community was astounded in June last year when Aliwi "w33" Omar became the world’s first 8k pub star – the game’s highest-ranked player according to his matchmaking rating. The highlights of his record-breaking Clinkz performance quickly collected over 300,000 views on Youtube and it wasn’t long before he was winning top-tier tournaments with Team Secret’s exciting new outfit.
Soon afterwards, several other elite professional Dota players decided it was time they bumped up their matchmaking rating with some serious ladder grinding, and we’ve now seen a dozen or so of the most talented players across the world pass the 8k milestone – with no signs of slowing down.
While many would argue that an individual’s MMR is not an accurate representation of their competitive value, since a team-oriented professional match with a complex drafting stage is a very different environment from a random solo queue public game, hitting such high ratings is nevertheless an extraordinary achievement and has become a mark of prestige among many professional Dota players.
Now with a host of players hitting 8k in this meta, it seems inevitable that in 2016 we’ll see the first player ever to surpass 9k. Let’s take a look at top contenders to achieve this remarkable feat first.
Badman
Many people hadn’t heard of Russian player Badman until he became the world’s highest-ranked player in January 2016 and brought Spectre firmly back into the competitive scene. By itemising for early ganking with items like the Drums of Endurance and the Urn of Shadows, Badman has managed to climb his way past 8,500 MMR largely playing his favourite hero: Spectre. While he’s played on the fringes of the Eastern European sides, he’s hoping a long-term professional career with a top team is next in store for him, and until then he’ll be steadily working his way towards 9k.
Arteezy
Evil Geniuses’ Artour "Arteezy" Babaev has been rapidly climbing up the Americas rankings over the past few months, shooting past 8k and showing no signs whatsoever of slowing down. If he carries on at this rate he could genuinely be approaching 9k in the near future. A famous carry player, Arteezy has recently been mixing things up in his ranked matches with a few dominant performances on Chaos Knight. Not traditionally a popular hero in competitive matches, he’s clearly strong in pubs and we’ll have to see whether EG pull it out at the Shanghai Major.
Miracle
Amer "Miracle" al-Barqawi is another famous pub star, and was the highest-ranked player by MMR for much of 2015. Since then he’s joinedOG and, with one Major to his name already, he’s clearly managing the transition into professional play extremely well. He’s particularly well known for his mid Invoker, but this clip of him battling it out against Badman’s Spectre has got to be one of the most awesome games we’ve seen.
Illidan Stormrage
Currently ranked second in the world, Ilya "Illidan" Pivcaev has been steadily rising up the European leaderboard since his departure from Virtus.pro and he’s now only a few wins behind Badman. Another talented Russian player, Illidan tends to favour the more elusive carries for his ranked games, which means plenty of Slark, Morphling, Weaver and Anti-Mage. He streams regularly on Twitch, so he’s a great one to watch if you want to improve your carry play.
w33
The first player to reach 8k, Aliwi "w33" Omar has not been quite as focused on climbing the leaderboard since his success in pub matches earned him a place with Team Secret’s exciting new line-up. Adapting to a team environment is likely to be his main focus this year. However, as the race to 9k heats up after the Shanghai Major he might well decide to mount a defence of his record. A consummate Meepo player, w33 is capable of winning pub games solo and does so regularly.
No[o]ne
Vega’s Vladimir "No[o]ne" Minenko is undoubtedly one of the most talented young players out there and he’s currently ranked fourth on the European leaderboard. An 18-year-old computer science student from Ukraine, No[o]ne has begun to earn himself a reputation as one of the most skilful mid players in Europe as Vega have impressed over the past six months. He’s definitely one to watch and if he finds enough time to keep on playing pubs then Badman had better watch out.
Ramzes
Roman "Ramzes" Kushnarev is another of Russia’s finest young players. This 16-year-old carry player for Team Spirit is already one of the highest-ranked players in Europe and he certainly has a bright future ahead of him. He tends to stick to the in-form carry heroes for his pub matches, which gives him good practise for his competitive games while he’s ranking up on the Anti-Mage or Ember Spirit.
SumaiL
Not to be outdone by his team-mate, Syed "SumaiL" Hassan is hot on Arteezy’s heels – he hit 8k at the start of February and we fully expect he’ll want to close the gap even more. Possibly the most talented young player in the world, Sumail made a name for himself last year with his aggressive plays off the mid lane and his part in EG’s TI winning run. Since his iconic Storm Spirit got nerfed, Sumail’s been playing a lot of Invoker and Queen of Pain on his way to 8k. He’s a competitive guy so he’s sure to continue climbing.
s4
A long-established professional Dota player and a TI champion, Alliance’s Gustav "s4" Magnusson is one of the most celebrated mids in the world and he passed 8k at the end of last year. With excellent mechanical skills and a fantastic ability to work with his team-mates, s4 is famous for his playmaking heroes like Magnus and Puck and brings a distinctive flair to his pub matches, as well as his professional games. He’s an absolute pleasure to watch – who knows how high he could climb if he puts his mind to it.
UNiVeRsE
Who could write off Saahil "UNiVeRsE" Arora? Currently hovering around the 8k mark, EG’s ice-cool offlaner has been consistently amongst the top players on the Americas leaderboard and with the recent return of the offlane Void there’s a powerful tool at his disposal if he wants to challenge Arteezy’s fast climb. UNiVeRsE’s name would feature in any discussion of the number one player in the world and if he gets a chance to grind out some ranked games, he could quickly rack up the wins.
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