Mushi, The Fallen Maestro

by TastyJack Wednesday, November 18, 2015 1 comments

Mushi was well known back in DotA All-Stars playing for Nirvana.My, one of the first colossal teams to gain prominence in the professional scene. His transition to DotA 2 was difficult and turbulent finishing 7th-8th at TI2. He, however rose to prominence at TI3 with Orange Esports. There he played mid, where he led the team to an extraordinary third place finish. In the lower bracket final, Orange would ultimately lose to Na’Vi, due to the infamous KyXy aegis deny. At the point before the deny, Mushi’s Outworld Destroyer was snowballing and had almost built an unsurmountable lead. The team had already won game one and as such, many have contended that without the aegis deny, it would have been Orange that would have faced Alliance in the Grand Final instead of Na’Vi. (Although, if Orange had won game 2, we wouldn’t have had an Alliance vs. Navi final, which consequently means no million dollar coil.)

 After the incident at the Roshan’s pit, Orange looked out of sorts, fighting the remainder of game 2 and the subsequent game 3 without the same crisp execution that Orange were known for. The third place result with the team and finishing runner up to “IceIceIce” in the 1v1 mid tournament, Mushi was widely considered the best player at TI3.

In the post-TI3 shuffle, Mushi was picked up by the Chinese team DK, (which was ironically eliminated by Mushi’s team, Orange), alongside IceIceIce, LanM, MMY and the “B-God” himself, Burning. Together, team DK, tore through the DotA 2 scene, winning multiple premier tournaments including Star Ladder, G-league and WPC-ACE 2013. At WPC, the only DotA 2 tournament to feature a best of seven final, where DK infamously came back from a 0-3 deficit to perform a “reverse all-kill” winning 4-3.

The team also came second at MLG Columbus; the tournament which is infamous for several reasons:

• The community discovered Arteezy. Arteezy came in as a stand-in for Bone7. Since Columbus, Arteezy has gone on to become, one of (if not the best), solo mid players in the world.

• The Legend of Eternal Envy (EE) gained traction at MLG Columbus. EE was the captain of the then Speed Gaming. He went on to captain Cloud9, the team which was well known for choking and second place finishes. Columbus was EE’s only Lan win for over 2 years which  was only broken recently when EE won MLG with Team Secret.

• Speed Gaming’s victory was not without drama, with numerous mismanagement by their sponsor RattleSnakes. Marco, the team manager, was universally condemned by the community for how he treated the team. During the tournament, the team dropped Rattlesnake as their sponsor and finished the tournament sponsorless. Of course, the team was picked up by Cloud9 shortly after; their first dip into the Dota 2 scene.

Despite this tear though the competitive scene during the 2013-2014 season, Mushi and Team DK hit a form slump just before TI4. The new patch didn’t suit their aggressive play-style and DK was not able to adapt. Whilst not completely destroying their team, the patch meant that DK were not able to inspire the same image of strength and confidence when they competed against other Tier 1 teams. This is shown losing to EG in the final of the Summit and to iG at WPC 2014. Mushi went on to finish in 4^th place at TI4, one place lower than his result in TI3.

There they were eliminated by ROTK’s Vici gaming. Burning, before the game, told ROTK that he couldn’t go on and to win the tournament for him. “ROTK” was in tears in the post-match interview, saying how he didn’t want to eliminate the “First gentlemen of Chinese Dota” and how respected Burning was back in China. Many, including “Burning” himself thought that it would be his last game, after almost a decade of professional DotA.

Citing the “retirement” of Burning and LaNm, team DK disbanded. Mushi went back to Malaysia, rejoining the teammates in team Titan; the team with whom he made his name with. He led the team, (rebranded to Team Malaysia) to a record breaking win streak. Many considered, these results to be a case of a “Big fish in a small pond.” Mushi was well known for not banning heroes in the meta, skewing pick-ban data for Rikimaru and Bloodseeker. In the finals for the Summit qualifiers, this strategy was punished and the streak was broken.

Following this, Mushi, tried to lead several team iterations. A brief stint with EHOME gave Mushi a hint of the success he had been craving, scraping a 9^th-12^th place at DAC (Dota Asian Championships). As an example of Mushi’s presence in the mid lane, Mushi beat Dendi to win the 1v1 tournament at DAC. However, several prolific 1v1 players such as IceIceIce did not compete.

Returning to Malaysia with health concerns, Mushi looked to build an all Malaysian team by recruiting Kecik Imba, Johnny, KyXy and Ohaiyo. Again, this team destroyed the local South East Asian scene and off the back of another lengthy win streak, Mushi’s new team, Fnatic, (formerly Team Malaysia) was invited to TI 5.

Like TI3, the team started strong, taking a game off fan-favourites Secret, but they would eventually lose in the first round of the main event finishing 12-16^th (effectively last). It is notable that, Mushi during the group stage, (showing the depth of his hero pool,) played support. However, in this most critical elimination game, Mushi took it upon himself to play a carry Naga.

After this last place finish, Mushi quickly reformed another team around himself. This time, it is to be a multi-national squad; Black from Germany, DJ from the Philippines and his old team mates, Net and Ohaiyo from Malaysia. Their form leading up to the Frankfurt major was poor and Valve ultimately punished them by not inviting them to the Frankfurt major. As such, Mushi took his team through the SEA qualifiers where they qualified second for the Frankfurt major, behind the Filipino team, Mineski. Recent loses at Nanyang and at the Summit qualifiers coupled with a second, last-place finish at a Major, Mushi’s current team should be considered to be the weakest one he has led.

Mushi’s fall from grace, has been spectacular and perhaps undeserved. A strong aggressive mid player with a diverse hero pool and perhaps a victim of circumstance, Mushi is now a shadow of what he once was. His Dota 2 career has come with close to 400,000 dollars in prize money, but with no TI victory, Mushi legacy is not quite secured. With age now playing a factor, time is running out for him to win a Major and cement his legacy as one of the greats of DotA.