Chaos E.C. have recently signed Matumbaman. They are by far the most interesting team to look out for at TI9, and here’s why.

For a brief moment, Matumbamans absence from the Epicenter Major was a little concerning to fans. He was certainly going to participate at the open qualifiers, but whether he would do so with a random stack or a fully fledged team was unknown. Fortunately for him, he was able to find a decent lineup of underrated players. Let’s take a brief look at each of Chaos E.C.’s players, and understand why they’re such a special team.

Matumbaman

Matumbaman is a star player in his own right. He is an extremely decorated player, having 16 Lan wins including a TI win. Unfortunately, the last two years have been very shaky for the lad. He’s struggled to make his obnoxious and annoying playstyle work the last few months with Liquid. A combination of meta shifts, and play style evolution made Matumban struggle to find his place on Liquid. He did, however, continue to have excellent individual performances despite his peculiar situation. He shook the meta with his new Viper build/playstyle; opting for a more greedy style rather than a lane dominating one. As the months passed, he continued to innovate with other heroes like Lifestealer, being one of the first players to abuse the Midas Radiance build.

It’s without a doubt that Matumbaman has the potential to become a reigning TI champion once again. Chaos,a team that would likely play around Matumbaman, will give him a chance to really shine. With the vocal and stern captaincy of Misery, the team will be completely focused around giving him the best games possible. Matumumba will do his best to not make his second chance go to waste.

We’re excited to announce the acquisition of Lasse Aukusti “MATUMBAMAN” Urpalainen. He brings a winning attitude and a unique hero pool to our team. We can’t wait to see how he will contribute to the success of the squad. Full Announcement: https://t.co/WuezUXyiaI pic.twitter.com/Sat5DnxL0R — Chaos E.C. (@ChaosEC) June 22, 2019

MISERY

A true veteran in the scene, Misery has been a pro player ever since the dawn of Dota 2, at the first International. He has consistently had mediocre performances throughout his career, but that all changed at his TI6 run. DC (Misery’s team) were runners up to the TI winning champs of Wings Gaming. Misery would later be considered to be a highly valuable captain. Since his run at TI6, he was only able to win ESL One Genting with DC, and was later picked up by EG. His run with EG had occasional moments of brilliance, but they would continue to fall short at Lans. That year, EG had the worst season since their induction, and unfortunately, Misery was a part of that history.

Chaos E.C. can clearly see the fire still burning bright in Misery’s heart. He has always been known to being an extremely vocal and passionate player, and a team like Chaos would thrive with his high energy. Even when you don’t consider his deep and long years of experience, his ability as a leader is more than enough to set the other players of Chaos’ sights to victory.

Khezu

Khezu was an exciting early prospective player that rose to popularity at TI6. Synderen grabbed himself a rag tag group of 4 unknowns, which later turned out to be stars in their own right. That is, except for Khezu. After his TI6 run with Escape Gaming, he was picked up by Team Secret. Unfortunately, like Misery, Khezu was playing for a team that was on one of their lowest points in their history. It was a time when Secret and Puppey were thought to be on the losing side of Dota 2’s development back in 2016. After a strain of mediocre results, finishing off with a top 2 finish at The Summit, and 12th place at TI7, Khezu was kicked from Team Secret. Since then, he has mostly played pubs and streamed on Twitch. Until now.

Chaos was in need of an offlaner with an insatiable hunger to be a champion. Khezu has shown that he has the potential to qualify to TI’s, but just struggled to make the most out of his runs when he did. He has somewhat of a chip on his shoulder, seeing his past teammates like YapzOr succeed. With his second chance with Chaos, he will make sure that this TI run, he will make a mark on the world.

Gunnar

After a nasty controversy and unforgiving kick by Eternal Envy, Gunnar was quick to get back on the horse. Gunnar was set to participating at the MDL Disneyland Paris Major, but was unfortunately kicked weeks before the tournament. He was forced to sit out the tournament he had worked so hard to participate in. Before MDL, Gunnar has participated in numerous amateur leagues and tournaments on Faceit, and most recently competed and won NADCL Season 3. After that, he has had little to no experience at Lan tournaments, so TI is set to be one of his first.

After feeling robbed and lost in the metaphorical Dota 2 jungle, Gunnar was picked up by Chaos. To put it bluntly, Gunnar is a young talent equipped with the knowledge he gained from playing with veterans like Eternal Envy, and now Misery and Matumbaman. If he continues to compete the way he is for years to come, he is sure to retire as one of the greatest players of all time.

MiLAN

MiLAN has yet to prove himself on the big stage. For years, he has continued to try and participate in European Qualifiers for various tournaments, but with no success. It’s difficult to understand the path that MiLAN is taking since he’s been on an uncharacteristically large number of teams. However, his persistence his clear, and hopefully Chaos will provide him with a platform to finally strut his stuff.