Category: English

“Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are dead. ” – Aldous Huxley

Contradictions and paradoxes are perhaps the elements that define our human nature. We adore change but are often scared of new things. The realm of technology is undoubtedly populated with these contradictions, including video games. Of course, all of us always want to appear logical and intelligent. However, we frequently hate learning new pieces of knowledge and instead use preexisting stigmas in our judgments.

The esports industry has been and needs to continue dealing with the negative views about gaming. Many gamers, unfortunately, also have been carried away by the mainstream media that often injects this negative stigma. 

Therefore, let us discuss and parse each of these negative views towards gaming; from the perspective of a gamer obsessed with philosophy.

1. Games Are highly addictive

Game addiction, as what most people call it, is one of the most popular arguments used when discussing the harmful effects of gaming.

The truth is, anything that stimulates our bodies to produce dopamine can be addictive. Please read this scientific article (PDF) if you would like to learn more about dopamine. In short, dopamine is a “feel-good” hormone produced by the brain, which is why it is released when we feel happy. Some drugs can even stimulate the brain to produce high amounts of dopamine and consequently pushes a dependency or addiction towards the drug.

Playing games is just one of the millions or billions of activities that can trigger our bodies to produce dopamine. For example, there are also people who are addicted to social media, watching TV series (such as local soap operas, Korean dramas, Game of Thrones, etc), shopping, working, and many more. Yet, all these activities don’t share the same degree of bad press compared to gaming.

Interestingly, love also stimulates dopamine production, which is why most people can get entangled in it. Lovers don’t ever want to be separated. They will go to any lengths to be together and care less about any other aspects of life.

I do believe that games have the potential to become addictive. However, we should also acknowledge that there are countless addictive activities out there. Should anything addictive to us be eliminated from society? What about romance, as mentioned previously? What about being a workaholic?

It would be naive to think that all activities that make us inherently happy should not be permitted in our lives. Therefore, I personally believe that the addiction argument here is extensively flawed.

2. Games Can Be Harmful to Your Health

In an article from Beritagar, there is a story about a parent who found out that their child had seizures and had a high fever after playing games on his laptop. It was later discovered that the boy suffered from epilepsy. In this case, did the game cause the boy’s seizures?

Let’s take a hypothetical example. Assume that we have a bunch of children who are allergic to peanuts and cats. In some unfortunate series of events, the kids swallowed several peanuts and came into contact with a cat, which prompted their allergic reactions. In this scenario, should we blame the peanuts and cats for harming the children? Obviously, no.

I think that many of today’s parents frequently find scapegoats for their failure to raise their children properly. Instead of spending time and paying attention to their children, parents blame video games, the internet, music (the blocking of Bruno Mars and similar musicians), and schools for their child’s misbehavior.

I have also been a parent for 11 years (at the time of writing this article), but I will not blame other subjects for anything that happens to my child. My wife and I are fully responsible for handling our child, at least until he turns 18. Having a child can be very easy. Raising them, on the other hand, can be a whole different story..

Others say that technology can make people lazy, severely damage their eyes, and so on. Like it or not, humans created technology to make their life easier and, by definition, accommodate their laziness.

Imagine the era before cars were invented. Everyone must walk or exert a lot of energy when traveling. Today’s internet makes communication effortless, which allows us to order foods and other goods from our beds. So, should technology be banned to force people to move, exercise and be healthy? I sincerely think that a life without technology will not be any better.

3. Games Promote Violent Behavior

Violence is perhaps another prevalent argument by people who hate new changes. You might remember that people back then claim that rock music induces violent behavior.

Unsurprisingly, acts of violence and crime have existed since the dawn of society. So does gaming actually increase violent behavior? To answer this question, we need to dive deep into the complex problem of violence itself.

Assume that there indeed exist a handful of people who commit crimes due to gaming. From this scenario, can we conclude that gaming causes violence? Of course, it would be naive for us to do so. Religion, for example, has been a catalyst of many wars and barbaric punishments in the past. However, religion rarely ever receives any backlash for the countless injustice it has performed.

The case is different for psychopaths or sociopaths. These individuals do have a unique way of viewing the world and would be, again, naive for us to think that gaming is the sole cause behind their unnatural behavior. A billion factors always come into play when we decide the actions (good or bad) that we make in our lives, even for psychopaths or sociopaths.

4. You Cannot Make a Living Out of Games

People who have a negative perspective towards games often think that gamers don’t have a great paycheck. There is probably some truth to this notion. However, like all careers or professions, everyone can be successful as long as they are willing to work with their utmost effort.

For example, which of the following professions earns the most money? Entrepreneurs? Bank employees? Programmers? Celebrities? Interestingly, there are more bankrupt businessmen than successful ones. Similarly, bank employees and programmers will not get promoted in their jobs if they are lazy. Celebrities can also stop being relevant if he/she does not continuously promote themselves. In reality, work ethic is the factor that determines a person’s success, not their profession.

The same thing goes in the gaming industry. Those who continuously work hard will be able to endure a long and sustainable career. I personally have lived off a career in the Indonesian gaming industry (specifically in the media sector) since 2009.

Any profession or career can be a cruel survival of the fittest. Those who cannot adapt and provide unique values ​​as professionals will not be able to compete and thrive. 

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In conclusion, everything in this world all has its pros and cons. Thinking that everything can be perfect is simply unsophisticated and one-dimensional thinking. Every aspect of life can, in fact, all have their respective negative impacts, such as school (when you get an unprofessional teacher), work (an intoxicating work environment), or even religion (when used maliciously for personal gain). The same thing goes with technology, games, social media, and other upcoming trends in the future. 

Socrates once said that the unexamined life is not worth living. It is, indeed, imperative that we realize the potentially negative or harmful side effects of the latest technologies such as video games. However, it is also crucial for us, humans, to look into the positivity and true nature behind these new inventions. After all, technology is created to make life more enjoyable and the world a better place.

Translated by: Ananto Joyoadikusumo

Dota 2 has been around for quite some time, a successor to the original Defense of the Ancients — which started out merely as a mod to Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. Since then, the game has taken various shapes, eras, and timelines which form the game we all know and love today.

However, Dota 2 isn’t just like any other MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) video games you would find. The game is famous for its ever-evolving competitive scene which has attracted millions of gamers, or more appropriately professional esports athletes, from all corners of the world.

Given how diverse the gameplay of DotA (and Dota 2) could be, different players have their own interpretation and understanding of the complex game. Distinct players have come up with their ingenious tactics and strategies which gave them the title of Dota Legends.

Though the title might be subjective to a particular person or group, these players have undoubtedly shaped the general understanding of Dota 2 and shall live on to be known as the world’s best DotA/Dota 2 players of all time.

This article shall list seven Dota Legends of all time (in no particular order), including players from both eras (DotA and Dota 2). Some of these players even played in both eras, some of which even still compete today. Aside from their legacies and victories, it’s also worth knowing what they were up to before retirement, which shall be discussed as well.

Vigoss

Dubbed V-God by the Chinese community, Ivan “Vigoss” Shinkarev is a Russian player known for his aggressive playstyle and team-ganking abilities. Indeed, he was amongst the earliest players to apply the Russian Dota playstyle of item-rushing and constant lane-pressuring — a tactic deeply rooted in the region’s playstyle. Together with ARS-ART, Vigoss quickly made Virtus.pro a Russian powerhouse in 2006-2008.

Perhaps Vigoss’ greatest achievement with Virtus.pro is his consecutive victories in MYM Prime Defending #6, #7, and #8. After his golden days in Virtus.pro, Vigoss joined other notable DotA teams like Ks.Int and DTS. Once Dota 2 was released, he joined the team Moscow 5 (M5) and even participated in The International 2012 where he, unfortunately, finished last. His last stint in the competitive scene was in 2015, but he has since hopped in and out of teams as a stand-in player.

YaphetS/PIS

Around the same time as Vigoss’ rise to popularity, Bu “YaphetS” Yanjun came to prominence in the Chinese scene. The pubstar-turned-competitive player had his skills showcased in a legendary video titled Perfect Is Shit, hence his nickname. Out of all the heroes he played, it is no doubt that YaphetS is known for his signature Shadow Fiend gameplay. In fact, one of Shadow Fiend’s nicknames was named after YaphetS himself at one time.

He played competitive DotA in 2010-11 and is renowned for his time playing under Nirvana.cn. They were generally known for being the second-best Chinese team at that time, ranked just below EHOME. He made a return to Dota 2 by playing with Immortal Magneto Gaming and Team FanTuan sometime in 2015, but failed to re-emulate his DotA achievements since then.

Merlini

In North America, another DotA legend soon came to prominence: Ben “Merlini” Wu. As of today, he’s probably known for being a commentator at Valve events, but his DotA career has a massive influence on the rest of the world. Merlini is popularized for his Zeus 1v3 ownage, but he too made novel strategies a popular choice in professional gameplay. For instance, Merlini arguably invented Boots of Travel Tinker and the Jungler role, both of which weren’t popular prior to his gameplay.

Merlini’s time in MYM quickly became iconic and he had joined several other organizations like EG, OK.Nirvana.int, and SK Gaming. In Dota 2, he joined Team Zephyr and Monib Baray for a short while, but ended up mainly as a commentator until 2017. From time to time, he also played with Vegetables Esports Club, a casual team consisting of Dota personalities.

YamateH

Back in the east, Ng “YamateH” Wei Poong also rose to popularity. Like his Chinese counterpart YaphetS, YamateH is iconic for his Shadow Fiend gameplay. In fact, the two faced each other off in a 1v1 Shadow Fiend show match in WDC 2010, where YamateH lost against YaphetS. Aside from that, YamateH’s Lina is also famous for outplaying SK Gaming’s Loda, which at that time, was the world’s best team.

Out of all the legends mentioned earlier, YamateH has spent the greatest amount of time in professional Dota 2. Since his transition to the new title, he has joined various Malaysian and Southeast Asian teams like Orange, Zenith, Titan, Taring, and last played for TEAM STAR in 2020.

Loda

As hinted earlier, Jonathan “Loda” Berg was part of SK Gaming which utterly dominated almost the entire DotA scene back in 2007-9. Loda is known for his skills as a Carry player and his leadership while in SK Gaming. The Swedish player has since replicated his achievements in Dota 2 by famously winning The International 2013 with his team Alliance.

Ever since his TI3 victory, Loda has continuously been in Alliance and remained as an active player in various eras of Alliance’s roster. He has only retired officially in 2018 and proceeded to become Alliance’s present coach and co-owner. No other legends mentioned earlier managed to achieve as much as Loda did after his transition to Dota 2.

BurNIng

If YaphetS is iconic for his Shadow Fiend, Xu “BurNIng” Zhilei does the equivalent for Anti-Mage. Considered the best Carry player of all time, BurNIng has been in the professional scene as early as 2010. In DotA, he played under legendary rosters of CaNt, 7L, Ks.cn, CityHunter, EHOME, and Team DK. BurNIng’s victories with EHOME in tournaments like ESWC, IEM V, SMM Grand National 2010, and World Gamemaster Tournament 2010 showed how consistently the 33-year-old player performs.

During Team DK’s transition to Dota 2, BurNIng is also included in the lineup although the team struggled in their earliest stages. However, they soon became a powerhouse in 2014 once the team recruited Southeast Asian duo Mushi and iceiceice, as well as Chinese veterans MMY! and LaNm. Although BurNIng hasn’t secured a single TI victory under his belt, he won DAC 2017 with Invictus Gaming, beating the likes of OG.

Dendi

Last on the list is Danil “Dendi” Ishutin, one of Dota 2’s earliest icons and often considered “the face of Dota.” Although the name Dendi might no longer be heard by newcomers, older players who followed the first few years of Dota 2 will certainly be familiar with his signature Pudge pick. Like many other legends, Dendi made a name in DotA and continued to do so once the scene transitioned to Dota 2.

His most notable victory is no other than Natus Vincere’s first TI1 victory, and their subsequent second-place finishes at both TI2 and TI3. Unfortunately, Dendi’s performance since then has been a steep downhill, but the legend just never stopped playing the game he knows and loves. After his memorable departure from Na`Vi, Dendi founded his own organization B8, and is currently participating in DPC 2021.

Closing Remarks

There are countless DotA and Dota 2 legends, and to cover them all would lead to an ever-growing list of players. Everyone has their most beloved legendary players who might not make the cut on this list. This list merely serves as a reminder to some of the world’s best and most iconic players who shall live on to be remembered as Dota’s legendary players of all time.

Cover Image by DotaBlast.

When we think of esports athletes, we tend to think of relatively older players who either have dropped out of school to chase their dreams or be semi-responsible for their academic lives. More often than not, it’s tempting to play games over doing homework, since most of us probably dislike the idea of not having fun.

Well, one might wish that we had been taught how to balance games and academics since we were young — perhaps most of us would be Ph.D. gamers by now. Jokes aside, a delicate balance between games and life, in general, is as necessary as ever, especially during a time like today where the pandemic made every other thing, aside from work and studies, a little more tempting than usual.

To have the innate ability to balance those two extremes is a talent of its own, one that needs to be nurtured since young. But since most of us are casual gamers, we might not have much of a problem. But what about the professional players? They certainly have a life outside of games, don’t they?

Most adult gamers literally have a job of playing games professionally, so they might not have too much of a difficulty in that aspect. Younger professional players, however, mostly have to keep up with their academic or work life. Without a good balance on both ends, things might get cluttered; either you give up gaming or studies altogether.

The ideal is to not completely abandon either one of them, as both possess their own sets of benefits and struggles. It’s safe to say that a responsible gamer is the best kind of gamer; one that understands the importance of both and upholds the responsibilities entrusted to them.

Such a character does exist in real life, a person whose age might shock older readers. His name is Jason “f0rsakeN” Susanto, a 17-year-old VALORANT player from Indonesia. Some of you might have heard of his name in the professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) scene, but he has since made the switch to Riot Game’s hottest esports title of today.

There’s a lot to be told about Jason. His earliest days of playing professionally, his transition to professional VALORANT, and his recent successes with the Singapore-based team called Paper Rex. Let’s break his journey down part by part.

Dawn of the Aerowolves

Jason started his first professional stint with the subsidiary roster of a prominent Indonesian CS:GO team of its time, Recca Academy. Back in the day, Recca Esports was amongst Indonesia’s strongest teams, especially when its roster was filled with the likes of BnTeT, FrostMisty, roseau, Sys, and Jason’s very own brother, xccurate.

In fact, Jason has started playing competitively since the age of 11, way before his prime career time. However, there was an internal problem in the Recca Academy roster, which ultimately led to the disbandment of the roster altogether.

Fortunately, Jason soon found himself playing with a former Recca Academy teammate of his, Jose “Histoire” Iman. After the team’s disbandment, Jose’s father founded the organization known as Aerowolf, to which Jason was quickly invited to their premiere CS:GO debut roster.

It was starting this time when Jason’s name quickly became a headline. With Aerowolf, the then 13-year-old Jason won ROG Masters 2017 Asia-Pacific: Indonesian Open Qualifier #2 and ESEA Season 25: Open Division – Asia-Pacific thereafter. Jason who was initially simply known as “xccurate’s brother” proved that he too had what it takes to be a professional esports player.

What’s amusing is not only Jason’s ability to achieve such a title at such an early age, but also his ability to balance both his academic life and chasing his esports dream. His secret lies in his father’s reminder to always balance responsibilities and Jason lives up to that standard.

In an interview with Jason, he explained that “since childhood, I was taught by my father to study earnestly and diligently if I’d like to play games. I was told to maintain a balance between academics and pursuing a career in gaming. That is what enabled me to try to balance things out in various ways. For instance, every time I come home from school I would immediately do homework or study before I play, and so on.”

Jason’s thought process at his age is truly commendable. Hearing his story made me realize how my younger self could’ve achieved more if only I had better managed my priorities.

Certainly, Jason is also somewhat lucky to have supportive parents behind his back. I had a chat with Jason’s father back in 2018, and throughout our conversation, it’s vividly clear that he’s open to a progressive perspective towards esports, so it shouldn’t be surprising that his children are presently excelling in esports.

But parents aren’t the only ones to deal with when it comes to playing professionally. Education plays a crucial role and excelling in school is seen to be of great importance especially in Indonesia.

Again, luckily for Jason, his school acknowledges and is very much supportive of his esports career. He said, “My school knows that I am active in the field of esports. They responded by having a positive outlook towards esports and I am even given the permission (to be absent) whenever I need to attend and compete in a tournament.”

Indonesian CS:GO Winter

Things were going well thus far in Jason’s esports journey. With the agreement and support from both his parents and school, he’s very much set to play CS:GO competitively; what’s left is for him to actually win tournaments.

Sadly, after being together for about five months, Aerowolf’s CS:GO division became inactive. With the initial departure of the Malaysian player Ashraf “acAp” Firdaus, Anlika “LurkZz” Putra, Andrew “Bali” Joseph, and Windi “wnd” Halim soon left the team as well. Only the two “brothers” are left in the team, that is, Jason and Jose.

It didn’t take long before Jason found a new home for himself. His choice was tied between joining either one of Indonesia’s top teams at that time: teamNXL and BOOM ID (now BOOM Esports). Jason finally decided to join BOOM ID, playing with the likes of 6fingers, and mindfreak, who is still Jason’s teammate up to this day. More on that later on.

His earliest days playing under BOOM ID, which later became BOOM Esports, weren’t exactly the nicest days. The team struggled to attain much of an achievement in the entirety of 2018 and had to undergo various player-swaps before starting to climb back slowly in 2019. BOOM Esports was able to secure several qualifier victories but still struggled in Main Events nonetheless.

During their time with Jason, BOOM Esports’ biggest achievement included their victory in Indonesia Esports Games 2018 and particularly GeForce Cup Pacific – Indonesia, where Jason took down his brother’s team to win first place. Later on, BOOM Esports won a third-place finish in GeForce Cup Pacific held in January 2020.

And now that we have entered 2020, you probably know what soon came down: the COVID19 pandemic. Most, if not all, LAN events got canceled worldwide due to restrictions, and most tournaments were forced to be moved online. Jason is “very sad because before the pandemic, events were held offline, but now we have to play from our homes.”

Before the pandemic hit, however, BOOM Esports already made a drastic roster change in their CS:GO division. They had just acquired players from the Brazilian team INTZ, and thus released their underwhelming Indonesian roster, except for Jason who stayed under the organization but remained inactive.

It is also around this time that the Indonesian CS:GO winter took place, perhaps even before 2020 kicked off. With the release of VALORANT, many former CS:GO players decided to transition to the new game given how stale the CS:GO professional scene has become. Nevertheless, Jason remained in the CS:GO scene, at least for a good while.

While being inactive under BOOM Esports, Jason spent a good amount of his time playing as a stand-in for different semi-casual and temporary lineups like FFAMIX, SGINDOMIX, and Big Time Regal Gaming.

Jason’s official team, unveiled in mid-2020, turned out to be a new team called JMT Game Team, consisting of the Taiwanese player Marek, Chinese players equal and Drea3er, as well as the Russian player killmatic. The team didn’t achieve much during their time, as the Asian scene was greatly dominated by more experienced teams, such as that of xccurate’s.

Unsurprisingly, Jason only spent a few months playing under the new organization and quickly found a new home in Paper Rex.

The T-Rex in Paper Rex

On September 4, 2020, Jason found himself playing under the Singapore-based organization Paper Rex. The team had struggled to keep up with the rest of the Southeast Asian scene, but picking up a new roster that included Jason proved to be the right fix they needed. It is also in this team where Jason teamed up with a familiar face, Aaron “mindfreak” Leonhart, whom he had played together with under BOOM Esports.

Aside from Jason, Paper Rex picked up players like Kumersan “Tommy” Ramani, Tidus “StyroN” Goh, and decided to move their player Alexandre “alecks” Sallé to the coaching role. With the new roster, Paper Rex won second-place in ESEA Season 35: Open Division – Asia-Pacific losing a short 1-2 match against TIGER in the Grand Finals.

According to Jason, Paper Rex is the best team he has ever played with. Out of all the teams he had played in previously, he chose Paper Rex as his favorite because “they are capable enough to manage what the players should do during training and are clever in setting schedules for training.” He also added that “the training given to us are never in vain as I gained a lot of knowledge playing with this team.”

Of course, playing under an international team like Paper Rex comes with its own set of challenges for Jason. Since he’s playing with an international team, he has to communicate with the rest of his team in English, which he admits to still struggle with until today. Moreover, their communication takes place via Teamspeak because of the current situation.

Paper Rex’s last achievement in CS:GO was their first-place victory in eXTREMESLAND Festival 2020: Southeast Asia, beating the likes of ZIGMA, Beyond Esports, and BREN Esports. After about five months of playing with a stable roster, the team suddenly announced an abrupt departure from CS:GO, including the retirement of all five of their players.

It is later unveiled on the following day that their roster, in fact, didn’t completely disband. The same five-man roster plus coach was signed into their novel VALORANT division, and their new journey awaits in a much greener pasture.

According to Jason, members of the Paper Rex roster agreed to make the switch and he himself agreed to it, especially seeing how much the professional Southeast Asian CS:GO scene has dimmed in recent years. Their switch looked very much inevitable. Jason himself had already made a name in VALORANT, as he topped first-place the Southeast Asian VALORANT leaderboard.

Paper Rex 2.0 and Beyond

Paper Rex didn’t take long to keep up with the rest of the Southeast Asian VALORANT teams — indeed a very sharp change since their CS:GO days. When asked whether he found difficulties during his transition to VALORANT, Jason explained that it was “not too difficult given VALORANT’s similar in-game shooting mechanics.”

Additionally, he shared that his CS:GO skill “just needs to be sharpened in the aspect of utilizing each agent’s abilities. Aside from that, the gameplay and aiming mechanics are almost identical to that of CS:GO.”

Jason considers his first-place victory in eFire Master League Season 1 and a third-place finish in VCT 2021: Southeast Asia Stage 2 Challengers Finals to be his best achievements in VALORANT thus far. His ultimate goal, however, is to not only play in a North American or European team, but to also win every tournament, and to be a world-renown player.

Paper Rex and Jason’s next upcoming event is VALORANT Champions Tour Stage 3, to which Jason claims that he’s “very confident and convinced” that he and his team could win VCT Stage 3 in the days to come.

Looking at how far Jason’s esports journey has come is truly inspiring. His story is unlike others and what’s even more amusing is that he is achieving so much at a very young age. As I begin to wrap up this writing, I came to recall his father’s closing message as we closed off our 2018 conversation: “I have kept my eyes on him. He will be the best player in the future.”

Cover Image by Paper Rex.