After almost ten years of competitive Dota 2, Saahil 'UNiVeRsE' Arora steps back from competing.
Its been a rough week for fans of Dota 2, especially those that have been following the game since the early years and even more so for NA Dota 2 enthusiasts. Only days ago Peter ‘PPD’ Dager bid farewell to competitive play, announcing his retirement and departure from Ninjas in Pyjamas.
Now, TI5 winner and legendary veteran player Saahil 'UNiVeRsE' Arora has also announced his retirement from the game.
His farewell announcement was short and to the point. After nearly ten years, it was just time to try his hand at something else.
I have decided to retire as a player from competitive dota 2. Whenever I do anything in life I tend to be an all or nothing type of person and dota was no different. For the past 10 years I have given everything I have to this game/competition and it was an incredible experience. Now the time has come to pursue other interests and figure out what comes next. Thank you
to my fans and past teammates for the amazing memories I will never forget.
Amazing memories and performances is exactly what he gave to fans around the world.
Saahil 'UNiVeRsE' Arora
Offlaner, Saahil is a well-known and accomplished veteran, having competed in all seven previous International championships.
In the first International, he was part of Online Kingdom, alongside his long-time teammate Fear. Following The International 2011, he had brief stays with various teams, before joining Evil Geniuses, in 2012. At that time, he only remained on Evil Geniuses for a short period of time, before becoming the offlaner for team Dignitas, in January 2013. During his time with Dignitas, UNiVeRsE developed into one of the best offlaners and was credited with much of the team’s success. After finishing ninth at TI3 with Dignitas, Saahil rejoined Evil Geniuses, where he would take a third-place finish at The International 4.
It wasn’t until TI5 that he would achieve the highlight of his career - taking The International championship title with Evil Geniuses. At that time Saahil was praised as a paramount key to success as he continued to demonstrate his ability to create space and showcase beautifully executed plays thanks to his timing and positioning.
TI6 was an equally impressive run as a second Aegis seemed to come within grasp, but the veteran was unable to lay his hands on the second trophy ultimately taking third place. Continuing to play for the North American giants alongside his TI5 teammate Sumail ‘SumaiL’ Hassan, the champion offlaner was aiming to re-claim the Aegis, only to end up with a devastating 9-12th place finish.
A bump in the road mid-season left Saahil's fans concerned for his eighth attendance at TI. In December, Evil Geniuses made the shocking announcement that the organization had parted ways with UNiVeRse, adding Rasmus ‘MiSeRy’ Filipsen to the lineup and switching SumaiL into the offlane. UNiVeRsE was a free agent for approximately one month before he headed to SEA, replacing long-time offlaner Chong Xin 'Ohaiyo' Khoo in the Fnatic lineup.
Things didn't come easy for him and his new team. Falling short of grabbing enough DPC points to warrant a direct invitation to The International 2018, Fnatic fought their way through the burgeoning region for their place. Once again he ended up with a disappointing finish, placing 13-16th at the end.
Following TI8 he joined up with NA team, Quincy Crew who was later picked up by a new organization on the landscape, Forward Gaming. The 2018-2019 season brought about a commendable season at start with the team sitting in the 14th position with 300 points, just barely out of the range of TI9 direct invite at the mid-season point. Then in March 2019 it was announced that the famed offlaner parted ways with the team and reported that he would be taking a break. It was a defining moment that would end up resulting in missing his first TI ever.
UNiVeRsE returned with the new DPC 2019-2020 season, joining back up with ex-teammate and TI5 championship captain, PPD in NiP. Together they rode out the new season with ups and downs, a path he had become used to taking in this later part of his journey. Earlier this month it was reported he had parted ways with the team, due to the pandemic of Coronvirus that had wreaked havoc on the gaming community and stranded many players away from their teams.
