Zhilei ‘BurNIng’ Xu (Honorary mention)

Jiajun "Sylar" Liu

Yee Fung “Mushi” Chai

Daryl Koh "iceiceice" Pei Xiang

Johan "N0tail" Sundstein

Ludwig "zai" Wåhlberg

Artour “Arteezy” Babaev

Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao

Valve’s flagship event; The International is perhaps the grandest esport event of all time. Starting off with a 1.6 million dollars prize-pool at Cologne, Germany in 2011, the event has gradually turned into a behemoth by the ever-increasing prize money year-on-year via crowd-funding; a master stroke by the game developer. Millions of Dota 2 fanatics across the globe pitch in their money to crowd-fund The International resulting into a colossal accumulation of money, thereby, establishing itself as the crown jewel of Dota 2. With prize money being rewarded in millions to the winners, every player and organisation strive day in and day out, travelling from one country to another at the risk of burning themselves out, walking away with very little at times in an entire calendar year. Yet the bottom line remains the same; PLAY TO WIN. At the end of the day, only five players will be able to lift the Aegis of Champions. Others may retire or change rosters to try again the next year irrespective of their skills, talent, potential or their status. Today, we will be focussing on players who have been in this game ever since warcraft3 days and are yet to get their hands on the coveted trophy despite having the potential to win. Few have even retired trying. Some of them are termed as gods, some as legends and some are considered great.The man needs no introduction. B-God, as he is fondly referred to, has played for legendary organisations such as EHOME and Team DK at his prime. Respected for his farming prowess especially on Anti-mage as well as known for his acute map awareness that made it difficult to gank him. He has been on different teams throughout his illustrious career and has often come close to lifting the Aegis with his prime chance being at Team DK in 2014, also dubbed as the Galacticos of the Chinese scene. Ever since DK, Burning has bounced from one team to another such as Vici Gaming and Invictus Gaming but failed to find impressive results at the pinnacle event of Dota 2. He has since retired and appeared casually on Big God 1.0.If there is any player considered as BurNIng’s equal in the position one role, then it certainly has to be Sylar. His performance on Morphling kept us admiring him in awe. I’m sure many became instant fans of this guy and his plays. Sylar has come close to lifting the Aegis one too many times. He placed third at The International 2012 with LGD going undefeated in the group-stage only to be knocked out of the tournament by the eventual winners; Invictus Gaming. The second time he came one step closer to winning the coveted trophy by reaching the grand finals of The International 2014. However, his dreams were crushed by his former team-mate Zhing “xiao8” Ning and fellow comrades in NewBee. Today, he is still active and will be trying his luck with VGJ. Thunder at TI8. This also reminds me of a quote of his, “I won’t retire until I win a World Championship”.M-GOD, as he is popularly known, is one of those personalities that has always been in the limelight for his hard work, perseverance, and unmatched Dota 2 skills. A person, who inspires others, has been eluded by the Aegis of Champions for far too long. His first dream run was at The International 2013 with Orange esports where they shocked the then powerhouse, Team DK, in the lower bracket to a respectable third place finish before being eliminated by Natus Vincere. Eventually he was recruited along with Daryl Koh "" Pei Xiang to represent Team DK. Considered favourites to win TI4, this was another opportunity for Mushi to bring home the Aegis but they were eliminated by Vici Gaming in the lower bracket after being knocked down at the hands of Evil Geniuses. Now he represents Team Mineski, a team that has won both; Major and Minor and are the strongest SEA contenders at TI8.People love him. Period. He is one of the most charismatic players of his generation and is extremely loved by the community. Filled with abundant skills, one that only a select few possess, he is also popular for his troll-ish behaviour. He first appeared at inaugural The International held in Cologne, Germany playing under Team Zenith, a Singaporean powerhouse. Zenith managed to place third at the event after being knocked out by EHOME. Unlike others, iceiceice has been in a number of teams that had the potential to clinch the trophy. Besides being the heavy favourites to win TI4 under Team DK that eventually faltered in the lower bracket, he was also a part of Vici Gaming, who at one point was touted to be a strong contender to the title. He has teamed up with Mushi at Mineski and will be looking forward to compete at TI8 as one of the strongest SEA contenders capable of winning the event. I certainly think that someone who has played StarCraft II, DotA, League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth competitively at the same time has what it takes to succeed.Johan is another name that comes to mind we want to see win the Aegis. He became a darling of the Dota 2 community as soon as he made his switch to Dota 2 with his band of friends at Fnatic from Heroes of Newerth. He has been a part of Cloud9 and Team Secret although he found real success when he co-founded Team OG with his good buddy Tal ‘Fly’ Aizik. He along with Fly is the first player to win 6 Valve sponsored events (Majors). However, Aegis has eluded him ever since OG was formed. Being the strongest of contenders at two TI’s, his team has ended up performing below par as per their standards. This time around, OG hasn’t won a single Valve event and the continuous roster shuffle has hurt their performance. We all wish OG to replicate the same success as their earlier iterations and hopefully N0tail gets his chance to shine bright yet again.Despite his relative young age, Zai has already made name for himself in Heroes of Newerth before making his transition to Dota 2. He is arguably one of the most loved, if not the most, members of the community. He took the scene by storm when he was first recruited to SADBOYS alongside PPD that eventually became Evil Geniuses. Later on, he went to the hyped roster of Team Secret along with Artour “Arteezy” Babaev and quickly made a splash by winning many back-to-back premier tournaments in his time at Secret. However, after Team Secret’s dismal performance at TI5, Zai left to pursue his studies and took a break from competitive gaming. He rejoined EG in 2016, however, after EG’s below par performance he eventually made his exit. Today, he’s once again united with Peter “PPD” Dager – TI4 champion that led EG to the aegis – at Optic Gaming and in turn qualified for the main event at TI8. Who doesn’t want this fine young man to win the most coveted trophy in the world?Arteezy is Dota 2’s prodigal son. He’s extremely popular and is the apple of our eyes. He was known as one of the world’s best mid players before playing for a professional team and also served as a training partner for Bulba and s4. The start to his stellar career was rough as inactivity to focus on studies and little commitment acted as intruders. His true break-out was at the time when he stood-in for Speed Gaming a MLG Columbus where the young boy handily defeated several elite mid-laners, including Mushi and Dendi, en route to an underdog victory over Team DK in the finals. This event cemented himself as one of the elites and garnered a great deal of attention. From the year 2014-2017, Arteezy has bounced between two teams, Evil Geniuses and Team Secret, and has failed to get his hands on the aegis ever since. The biggest drawback has been his team’s consistent performance at every event other than TI excluding the current iteration of EG that has been unable to deliver top notch performances in 2018. However, with a revamped roster that brought it Tal ‘Fly’ Aizik – a capable and established leader and Gustav “s4” Magnusson, the hope is still alive. Can Arteezy win the trophy this year?EternalEnvy’s relationship with Dota 2 is weird in its own uncharacteristic way. People love him, and people don’t love him. It’s more of a love-hate relationship the community has developed with this key community figure, I might add. Infamous for destroying items during a pub game or calling someone out or not shying away from expressing his mind, Jacky is certainly one of those rare children of controversy. Jacky’s Dota 2 journey began with No Tidehunter with Black^. Later on, Jonathan “” Berg and Joakim “” Akterhall joined Jacky alongside s4 and AdmiralBulldog to culminate the famous NTH we all came to know. However, fate had other plans as Jacky was unceremoniously kicked out of the team he created. He then went on to represent Speed Gaming and Cloud9, with the latter being dubbed as “the second place” winners after a string of second place finishes in tournaments. Post TI5, Jacky played under Team Secret and Team NP (later on picked up by Cloud9) before joining Fnatic. Even at Fnatic, Jacky met with a lot of community backlash as it was revealed that he was instrumental in unceremoniously kicking Jimmy “” Ho and Khoo “” Chong Xin from the team on two different occasions. Fnatic has been shaky in terms of performance this DPC circuit and had to go through qualifiers to get a slot at The International 2018. Can this be Jacky’s year? Alexei “” BerezinSolo is another player that has gone through heaven and hell to reach at this stage in his career. I assume everyone is aware of the term “322”. To those who don’t, $322 was the amount that Solo won but never received from betting against his own team; RoX.KIS and thus the meme was born. Post RoX, Solo was part of Team Empire and Vega Squadron and found relative success and in an attempt managed to turn the viewpoint of the community on him in a positive and commendable way. Today, he’s the leader of the Russian juggernauts; Virtus.Pro and has successfully led them to numerous victories ever since he formed the team from scratch and with less known players. They are one of the favourites to win The International 2018 besides Team Liquid and LGD Gaming. Do you think Solo will clinch this year’s aegis?Image credits: Valve, ESL, GosuGamers, Dota2.ru, Mineski, OG If you like my work, follow me on Twitter -- KarY