MaNia retires from competitive play

Today a career spanning as far back as pubstomping WarCraft 3 ladders before ever Dota became a competitive game comes to an end as we say goodbye to Brian 'MaNia' Strandby the player and welcome MaNia the teacher and e-Sports personality. Hopefully, his transition into his new role will bring him everything he so rightfully deserves.

If you're a new fan of Dota and you're not all that familiar with MaNia, you may be excused. While he did have a very real impact during the first year of Dota 2, attending The International 2011 with Meet Your Makers as well as spending the 2011-2012 period with the Danish SK-Gaming squad, which was one of the top teams in Europe at the time, he has since then been a bit less visible. Add to this a very unassuming and quiet charm, and one of the true giants of the early days of Dota is unfairly easily overlooked.

But as anyone who has met him can attest, MaNia is extremely approachable, one of the nicest and smartest guys around. His legacy, which he forged alongside Jacob 'Maelk' Toft-Andersen during their time together with the various MYM lineups, spanning practically the entire competitive history of Wc3 DotA and no less than five years in total, is beyond question, and whenever the history of Dota is written, his Sand King will surely be immortalized as one of the true iconic match-up's between a player and a hero.

MaNia will move on to coach the next generation of Danish talent, opening up an esports club in Ballerup for some of the luckiest kids on the planet, who will get to benefit from this gentle giant's wisdom and guidance. As for the rest of us, we will hopefully see only more of MaNia in Dota 2 as it is hinted that he will move into a more e-Sports personality role. The insight that this man holds has the potential to elevate any cast as well as his easy repertoire and winning smile would make him well fit for various panel duties as Dota 2 becomes more and more of a LAN scene.

His replacement for the recently promising Flip.sid3/Quantic/dd.Dota squad was not announced along with his retirement, but Pascal 'paS' Lohmeier, former teammate of Adrian 'FATA-' Trinks from mouz, has been seen standing in for the squad earlier today and may be a natural candidate.

From all of GosuGamers I'd like to wish Brian all the best in his future endeavours. We are all looking forward to seeing you at future LAN events in your new role within the community.

Statement by Hector 'FrosT' Rosario

 

The players we have had during our short tenure were not just friends but most of us consider them family. We have much admiration for MaNia and his accomplishments. It is a regret of mine that he was not able to cash in despite his successful career which dates back to 2008. Sadly as an organization we couldn’t help him give him the payday we know he deserved. Despite this failure we will help him transition into the next phase of his career within esports. Fully expect MaNia to be making the rounds as a personality.

With the wealth of information this man has and with Dota 2 beginning to attract newer players we see an obvious connection. Our organization understands that players cannot play forever and we will do everything we can to make sure that players who decide to hang up their cleats will have a place within our organization.

This is a sad day for Dota 2 fans of MaNia’s play style but a great day for Dota 2 fans in general. He will remain in esports but now be more active within the community and this is something that I personally look forward too.

 

Statement by Brain 'MaNia' Strandby:

 

My time as a competitive player has finally come to an end. I wanted to give it a last shot with my previous team, but it simply took too much time and commitment.

These days most teams that are doing well or want to do well, are committing themselves full-time, and I really think myself that its the way to go for esports to move to the next level.

I wish good luck to FATA, Socks, 7ckingmad and last but not least miGGel, my closest Dota friend through many years. I hope they get everything they dream about.

I myself have turned old and grey, and will now on just focus on helping esports grow from behind the scenes. I’ll start a project, where I will do my best to grow esports in Denmark, by coaching Danish kids in a newly opened esports club in Ballerup, called Ballerup Esports.

I will also be working closely together with Flipsid3, helping them grow further as an organization. They have always been super supportive while I was playing for them and the whole staff behind them are talented and awesome. I have especially gotten a great friendship with Hector, who is one of the owners of Flipsid3. He has done so much with so little and ever since starting Flipsid3 about a year ago, they have grown into something spectacular.

Also a huge thank you to Samo, for being the best manager I’ve had in my 8 years of playing Dota/Dota2. He has done so much great work for us and he is one of the most trustworthy people I’ve ever met.

Lastly shout-out to everyone that has been supporting me since MYM times and through my whole career. I just hope I can give as much back to the community, as they have given to me. It has been the best time in my life playing Dota on a competitive level, but all good things must come to an end!

 

Current roster of Flip.sid3/Quantic/dd.Dota:

Sebastien '7ckingmad' Debs
Titouan 'Sockshka' Merloz
Adrian 'FATA-' Trinks
Mikkel 'miGGel' Berg

Islam 'Samo' Kenawy (manager)

Source: Flip.sid3