I’ve watched Dota 2 for years now. In that time I’ve seen seven The International Champions crowned. I’ve seen the rise and fall of players all across the world. I’ve seen Wings, OG, Secret, Na`Vi, DK, Vici Gaming. I’ve seen incredible plays, I’ve seen the play, I’ve seen Liquid doing it. And in all that time I can confidently say that there is no Dota 2 player more entertaining than Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao.

His out of game antics are legend at this point. This is a player who announced his choice to go pro on a Teamliquid.net forum. There have been multiple memes built around him for his love of anime, his ability to throw, and his seemingly impossible comebacks. The Chinese have dedicated the song “My Chinese Heart” to his ability to throw against Chinese teams, have named him Agent 3154 for the infamous throw, and have called him the artist because, “His Dota like modern art is hard to understand.” He is a player who has created an entire pizza party meme that has now taken over the Dota 2 community.

There are numerous more we could go through, suffice to say there are more memes about EternaLEnVys than any other player in Dota. Yet all of those out-of-game shenanigans pales in comparison when we look at the antics he and his teams are up to in the server. This the the man who brought us literally unkillable Doom, Drow and Visage cheese, Creep Stacking, and level one Rosh rushing. All of his teams from Cloud 9 to Secret to NP to Fnatic have all had crazy insane moments.

One of the first times we see him is on No Tidehunter, the team that eventually became [A]lliance, the TI3 Champions. In that team he was part of the level 1 Roshan bait. At the Nanyang Championships Season 1, he was on Secret. In the upper bracket they played against Vici Gaming and his entire team got team wiped in a battle for roshan. In the ensuing chaos, he snuck into the roshan pit and stole both aegis and cheese. This became the pivotal moment that turned the entire game around. In another instance we have Snake.int in the MLG Columbus Finals of 2013 where the team used a triple force staff strat to snipe off rax.

The two instances that stuck out the most in my mind is the TI5 Group stages against LGD. In that game Cloud 9 were down 9-28 and LGD were pushing down mid rax. Realizing that all was lost if he returned home, he instead bet it all. As Antimage he got a divine rapier and took their bottom rax and forces the game into chaos.

The other moment I vividly remember the most is his double divine rapier against EG. EternaLEnVy recalls the moment in an interview with Monster Energy

“In that game, we were down a rax in 20 minutes, and I was getting one shot by every hero. If Axe calls me, I’m dead. If Wyvern touches me, I’m dead. If there’s Shadow Shaman, I’m dead. If I get darkness and feared, I’m dead. I had no vision, it’s dark everywhere because of Night Stalker’s ultimate, and we had no summons so we could never really scout. And if I die once, the game is over. So, for me, the only way to win the game is if I die zero times. And if I’m going to die zero times, then I might as well buy a Rapier. That’s my thought process — the only reason I’m buying Rapiers is because the only way to win is to not die. I looked at it another way as well: if I die, could I still win? If I die without the Rapier, I will still lose. But if I die with the Rapier, I can still win because I can put a spirit on my Rapier, right where I die, instantly buy back and pick up my Rapiers. That gives a chance for me to have two lives with my Rapiers.”

Then there is the flipside of that. The moments when his teams throw game after game after game with large unloseable leads. Where they all die because no one had a teleport scroll to go back to base to defend. Where he seemingly continues to feed over and over again. This is a player whose team all have the ability to win the unwinnable and lose the unloseable.

Looking into the mind of EternaLEnVy is chaos itself. You can line up the smartest minds in all of Dota 2, any pro player, any coach, any analyst, even IceFrog. Between the might of their Dota knowledge they could break down every team, every draft, every play, but EternaLEnVy alone can baffle them. He is a player who thinks his own way, walks his own path, and believes that is what will make him the best.

That is what intrigued me the most about his latest adventures in SEA. At IEM Katowice, Fnatic have been playing a controlled late game style. Playing to the late game was always something EternaLEnVy teams have done, but in this case he has taken on a more sacrificial role. In a transformation similar to what Xu “BurNIng” Zhilei did in 2017 for iG, EternaLEnVy is now playing more tempo control, less farm intensive heroes to enable his other core players in Abed “Abed” Yusop, Saahil “UNiVeRsE” Arora, and Djardel “DJ” Mampusti.

I thought for a moment that it was to be the end of the ridiculous EternaLEnVy moments on pro Dota 2 as many of his most iconic moments have him on Champions where he must be the hyper carry or the team loses, but I was proven wrong. In the final game against Secret in the groups stage, Secret were hammering on the door of Fnatic. They had taken the bottom rax, the roshan, and EternaLEnvy’s buyback. In that moment, all was lost but in typical EternaLEnVy fashion he spammed all of the information on the map and realized that there was a chance to steal the game. In the post game interview he yelled “TheThroneTheThroneTheThrone.” UNiVeRsE caught on and teleported the team to the enemy throne and stole the game in one of the best moments of the entire tournament.

At GESC Indonesia, we saw the EternaLEnVy game in all of its glory in the bo3 against Na`Vi. No game was ever safe, no deficit insurmountable, no lead unthrowable. Game three was the epitome of the latter with Fnatic taking all three rax of Na`Vi. Ilya “Lil” Ilyuk had heroic plays on kunkka and the game ended when Danil “Dendi” Ishutin picked up the rapier and the team went straight for Fnatic’s throne when Fnatic’s heroes couldn’t buy back. It ended in a base race with Na`Vi just winning out.

Even now in a new playing style, the EternaLEnVy style lives on. There is no player as exciting to watch in victory or defeat. Other teams can inspire you with awe, fear, or respect. Teams like Secret, Liquid, Virtus.Pro, Newbee, but only an EternaLEnVy team can make you feel befuddlement, confusion, despair, hope, and laughter all at once. And that is why EternaLEnVy is the most entertaining player in all of Dota 2.