5 things you didn’t know about Dota

Imagine charging into battle with your favourite main mage. Your teammates take the side lanes while you storm the enemy’s middle turrets. Attacks blast through heaps of minions that give you wealth you can only dream of. Connected with a common goal, you and your team overwhelm enemy defences to steal the victory. For 30 glorious minutes, escapism has never been easier.

It’s been more than a month since The International 10 (TI10) concluded. Everyone remembers how Team Spirit took the Aegis home after a nail-biting 3-2 victory against PSG.LGD. A new champion was finally crowned.

All hands on keyboards! The International 10 (TI10) is just a week away. But of course, Miss Corona still rears its ugly head around. Measures to make the biggest Dota 2 competition “a fully-masked, fully-vaccinated event” mean a quieter occasion, with half the fans.

With Southeast Asia teams like T1 and Fnatic set to feature among the 18 contenders for TI10, SEA pride is strong among this region’s Dota 2 fans. The likes of Indonesia’s Kenny “Xepher” Deo and Singapore’s Daryl “iceiceice” Koh will be among a group of at least 10 SEA players - with the rest others hailing from the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand - to feature in the October 7-17 event in Romania.

At 1 pm in the afternoon, Matthew “Whitemon” Filemon begins his workday. He sits in front of his computer screen for hours at a time, frantically pressing keys while verbally discussing strategies with an invisible audience.