OG are the champions of The International 2019!
OG are the first two time and back to back TI champions
OG have now won the single largest esports prize of all time at over $15.5 Million, $3.1 Million per player
OG has now won $27M in two years playing Dota
OG is life #TI9 pic.twitter.com/dqMrlOGwj8
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) August 25, 2019
Few areas of the entertainment world have enjoyed the level of growth that eSports has experienced in recent years. The industry has been on a remarkable journey, with Newzoo estimating in October that it is set to generate revenues of $950.3 million in 2020 alone.
Several games have become critical to the scene’s success, but one of the biggest and most important is undoubtedly Dota 2.
A true phenomenon
Developed by Valve and originally released in 2013, Dota 2 is still going strong and has become a true phenomenon in the world of eSports.
eSports Earnings suggests that the game could be regarded as the industry’s biggest title in terms of prize money, with more than $227 million being handed down to competitors across hundreds of tournaments. It is also the basis of probably the biggest date in the eSports calendar, The International. Across recent years, the tournament has featured huge prize pools, with the 2019 event offering up a total of $34 million.
Considering just how massive Dota 2 is, it almost goes without saying that the eSports scene around it is fiercely competitive. However, that, of course, begs one question – just who is the best player involved in the game at the moment?
Different approaches
Unsurprisingly, this issue is one that you can assess in several different ways. An obvious first step might be to look at current form, and the eSports rankings on Win.gg might offer some clues in that regard.
The site provides updates on a host of top eSports including League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2, while it recently released some fresh rankings on players involved in the latter game. At the start of November, Nisha, Matumbaman and Zai were named the best Dota 2 players by the site, with Eleven and Ame completing the top five.
Another approach that could be taken when assessing the best Dota 2 players is to look at the prize money that individuals have managed to secure. For this, we can again return to eSports Earnings, which reveals that Danish star Johan ‘N0tail’ Sundstein apparently leads the way in terms of winnings related to the game. His reported total earnings of $6.9 million mean he tops the rankings, with Jesse ‘JerAx’ Vainikka and Anathan ‘ana’ Pham coming second and third respectively. The trio’s figures have undoubtedly been boosted by the fact that they were all part of the OG team which won The International in both 2018 and 2019.
One year ago, we were the first ever back to back TI champions#DreamOG #TIMoments pic.twitter.com/1aQX5gEOXV
— OG (@OGesports) August 25, 2020
Plenty of talent
So where does that leave us in our search for the best Dota 2 player in the world today? Well, the information above shows that there are different ways to determine it, while it also highlights that there are plenty of talented players taking part in tournaments related to the game at the moment.
Dota 2 has proven to be a real mainstay of the eSports scene and it looks set to be crucial for many years to come. With that in mind, it will be fascinating to see just which players can go on to truly become legends in relation to the game.
Prone to fits of apathy. Music specialist. Extreme food enthusiast. Amateur problem solver.
