A few notable players will not be competing at The International 2022 and will surely be missed by fans around the globe.
The height of all Dota 2 competitions, The International, is about to commence. There are no higher accolades than competing at the pinnacle of all events, no greater achievement than seizing the Aegis of Champions.
Over the course of the next few weeks, 100 players from 32 countries around the globe will be competing in the tournament of a lifetime.
Many will be making their way for the first time. For others, it is their second or third time. For Clement "Puppey" Ivanov, it is his eleventh consecutive presence at The International as he continues his unmatched legacy in the game.
For all of those players attending, there are countless others who have put their dreams to attend on hold or even to rest.
Of those, there are a handful of notable players whose presence will surely be missed.
Seven of those players competed last year but now will need to watch from the sidelines.
Syed Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan started his spectacular career with Evil Geniuses at the tender age of 15 years old. It didn't take long for him to then go on to win The International -- in fact, it was within the same year. For five years he grew in more ways than one to become NA's 'King' -- rising in fame and collecting many trophies and accomplishments. In the post-TI9 shuffle, he left EG on rocky terms and that's where his career begins to sputter and stall. He joined Quincy Crew but was sidelined for four months over what has been rumored and speculated to have been contract-related issues. He was then recruited for OG in early 2020 but was short-lived due to the impossibility of joining the team in Europe during the pandemic times, and the high latency he had to overcome every match.
A short stint in Team Liquid, standing in for Samuel "Boxi" Svahn, came after nearly a full year of a competitive break for him. Following that he rejoined the double TI champions OG, and was part of the squad that qualified for TI10.
His run with OG at TI10 was brought to an end rather early. The King finally returned to the mid-lane after playing for more than a year in the carry position as he joined Team Secret for the 2021-22 Dota Pro Circuit. But that lasted only six months before parting ways with them and joining up with Nigma Galaxy. A rough Dota Pro Circuit year for Nigma Galaxy finished with a painful loss to Team Secret in The International 2022 (TI11) Western Europe regional qualifiers.
In July, Team Secret officially announced a roster change, thanking Yazied "YapzOr" Jaradat for the years spent with them. For the past five years, he had been one of the pillars of Team Secret.
His departure was due to a serious health issue for the player. Yapzor started the current Summer Tour in the Dota Pro Circuit, but he played only the first series in the six-week league schedule. After, Team Secret announced that Bakyt “Zayac” Emilzhanov would stand in due to YapzOr feeling unwell.
YapzOr had played in the support 4 position for Team Secret since May 2017, and under their banner, he became one of the best players in his role. Dubbed by the fans as Yap-God and Rubick-God, YapzOr won nearly a dozen of tournament titles, including 5 Major trophies and a third-place finish at The International 10.
After The International 2021, Topias Miikka "Topson" Taavitsainen announced that he would take the next year off to spend time with his family.
Regarded as one of the best mid-lane players in the world, and for sure one of the most spectacular to watch, Topson was scouted by OG ahead of TI8, when the team had to go find a quick solution to the rather shocking news of two of their members leaving for another team. He didn’t have much competitive experience and was definitely not expected to win TI on his very first appearance on the big stage. He proved everyone wrong and claimed his first Aegis of Champions with OG without losing a single series in the main event.
He came back even stronger at TI9 and once again, along with his team he marched through the upper bracket to lift the Aegis of Champions above his head for the second time and kept an unmatched record of winning TI back-to-back without experiencing a defeat in the playoffs.
Only two months ago OG released a goodbye video for Topson to announce his official departure from the organization and to give an insight into his decision to return to the competitive scene and his desire to actually make it to TI11.
While Topson talked about his wish to return to Europe in the aforementioned video, he ended up joining T1 as a stand-in for the TI11 Southeast Asia qualifiers.
Topson, playing alongside former two-time TI championship teammate, Anathan "ana" Pham, exited the SEA regional qualifiers in third place, being sent to LCQ by Polaris Esports.
Both players and their team were knocked out of contention in the Last Chance Qualifier by ViCi Gaming, ending in 5-6th place.
Daryl "iceiceice" Xiang is a highly decorated SEA veteran and a fan-favorite personality.
Daryl started to play Dota 2 competitively in 2011 with Scythe Gaming. At that time, he was playing StarCraft II, Defense of the Ancients, League of Legends, and Heroes of Newerth competitively at the same time. In March 2011, iceiceice joined FXOpen e-Sports only to leave the team shortly afterward.
His first steps in the Dota 2 competitive scene were when he attended The International 2011 with Scythe Gaming, taking third place after losing to EHOME in the lower brackets.
He later joined Zenith and took sixth place at TI3. He won the 1 vs 1 solo championship, defeating Chai Yee Fung “Mushi” to earn the “best solo mid in Dota 2” title.
Zenith disbanded shortly after the conclusion of TI3 and iceiceice went to Team DK to complete their roster. It was with Team DK that he would come in fourth at The International 4. He found a new home with ViCi Gaming, after DK disbanded and took 4th place at TI5 with the team. With EHOME took 5-6th at TI6 after getting to the event through the Wild Card qualifiers.
He missed The International 7, but came back with Mineski for 2018, Fnatic in 2019, and then Evil Geniuses for The International 10.
He has represented eight teams at The International, more than any other player.
The International 2022 SEA qualifiers were hot, but what has really heated up the regional scene is the fiasco regarding the team lineups and the absence of Team SMG, shortly after making roster changes for the purpose of the qualifiers.
Four months ago they released captain Michael "ninjaboogie" Ross under some controversial circumstances. Then, just three weeks ago made the announcement they benched Ryan "Raging Potato" Qui, released Johan "pieliedie" Åström from his contract, and added Daryl "iceiceice" Xiang finalizing their roster.
But in the end, they didn't play together at all for the qualifiers.
Several organizations in the region completely missed the team registration deadline —including TNC, Nigma Galaxy SEA, Army Geniuses, and Team SMG.
Teams had two choices. Revert to their previous/latest registered rosters or withdraw from the event.
Most are heading into the qualifier with their prior lineup. Team SMG had opted out of the event.
The veteran offlaner Ren “old eLeVeN” Yangwei started playing Dota in 2013. His first year was fairly uneventful. In 2014 he began to gain notoriety for his performances in the offlane and shortly after he joined EHOME, which is when he became known on the international circuit.
He has been loaned out to a slew of formidable teams over the last few years but is easily credited as one of the key contributors to the dominance of Vici Gaming over the last several years.
He parted ways with ViCi Gaming after a sixth-place finish at The International 10 and signed with Xtreme Gaming.
Once on board, he and the team went on placing top three in all tournaments that they participated in this year, including promoting to Division 1 in the first Tour of the DPC, followed by second and third-place finishes in the Spring and Summer tours.
However, nobody was able to see Xtreme perform outside their region this year due to the lockdowns and travel complications from China given their COVID situation.
After qualifying for the Arlington Major, they faced visa issues for their carry player and chose to forfeit their spot entirely in order to avoid any potential travel mishaps when returning from the Major. Unfortunately for them, the regional qualifiers ended with a 3-0 beat down from Royal Never Give Up, who sent them to the LCQ.
In the quarter-bracket lower finals they were 2:0'd by Team Liquid ending their TI hopes.
Zhang "Eurus/Paparazi" Chengjun began his career in 2015.
Paparazi, joined Vici Gaming in 2017 after two seasons with the Invictus Gaming organization. Though his time with iG was underwhelming, his time with Vici saw him become one of China’s best carry players. Paparazi helped Vici Gaming achieve elite status in the 2018-2019 season, winning three Dota Pro Circuit events.
Not only is he accomplished as a team player but his individual skills have likewise caught the attention of the DOTA community after winning two DAC Solo Tournaments in 2017 and 2018, defeating mid-lane masters Syed Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan, Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi, and Song “Sccc” Chun.
Playing with old eLeVeN on Xtreme Gaming this year has left him now watching from the sidelines for The International 2022.
Zhou "Emo" Yi, was one of the youngest mid-lane players at TI10. He made his breakout at iG.Vitality where he first played when he was just 17 years old. Less than six months after being recruited at iG.Vitality, he was promoted to the main team, in September 2018.
During the three years under the iG roof, Emo developed from a pub star into a full-fledged mid-lane beast. His flashy plays are now even more damaging to the opposing team as his map awareness and game sense are spot on.
At TI10 he took an impressive 4th-place finish, but this year the team fell from Division I to Division II and then placed 4th in the regional qualifiers for The International.
The International 2022
The International in Singapore will be the largest Dota tournament in history featuring 30 world-class teams battling out on the road to the Aegis of Champions across 4 consecutive weekends.
TI11 is to be held in Singapore from October 8th (starting with the offline/LAN last chance qualifiers) to October 30th with the grand finals.
- Read more about the schedule and format changes for The International 2022.
On 22nd January 2022, it was announced that the second and third-place teams from each region's qualifiers will compete in the Last Chance Qualifier LAN event prior to The International to decide the final two qualification spots - thus expanding The International 2022 from 18 to 20 teams.
