AT JUST 16 years old, Anathan ‘Ana’ Pham told his family and friends he was dropping out of school and moving halfway across the globe to pursue his dreams.

In December last year, the Aussie teenager made the move from Melbourne to Shanghai to become a professional gamer and reach the elite ranks of team-based strategy game DOTA 2.

DOTA 2 is played in matches between two teams that consist of five players, with the first team to destroy a large structure located in the opposing team’s base winning.

The video game has mass appeal, attracting more than 10 million players every month.

But for Ana it was the challenge of playing professionally and DOTA 2’s world championship that captured his attention.

This year’s championship offered a $A26 million prize pool and attracted more than 20 million viewers, Ana knew he needed to crack the professional ranks if he wanted to forge a career in gaming.

Now 17, he is playing a key role for one of the leading teams in the DOTA 2 landscape, with the ambitious youngster currently in a tournament, that could earn him $A200,000.

“I never thought going pro was possible but sometimes dreams come true,” he told Fox Sports.

Despite playing the game since he was 12, Ana’s journey has been far from smooth sailing.

The Melbourne teen said Australia doesn’t have a thriving gaming scene and our slow internet speeds made it harder to compete on servers based in other countries.

“The scene isn’t big at all but there is still a following and a small community of Australians that play for fun,” he said

“Since the scene was so small and was impossible to go pro, I kinda just played with a bunch of friends and did some random ranked (an online mode which pits players against others of a similar skill) marathons on the holidays.”

While this was fine to kill time, Ana knew he needed to join one of the DOTA 2 teams based outside Australia if he was serious about earning a living from his passion.

His journey first saw him joining a competition in Shanghai called the CDEC League.

While this competition was short lived, Ana was able to network with a Chinese manager who secured him a position with Invictus Gaming Vitality — winners of the $A1.3 million prize for the 2012 DOTA 2 world championship.

Despite helping the team collect approximately $A160,000 after winning a major tournament in Beijing, Ana was forced to leave the squad because of claims he wasn’t integrating well enough.

Determined not to give up, Ana kept active and waited for his chance to join another team.

His opportunity came after tournament favourites, OG, failed to rank in August’s DOTA 2 world championship.

The poor performance saw three of the five players leaving the squad, which led to the Melbourne teen being recruited.

“[OG’s team captain] approached my manager and myself,” he said.

“They knew each other because they met each other when we were in the Mars TV office in Shanghai for the Shanghai Major (a massive tournament which took place in March 2016).”

The opportunity to join OG meant he would be required to leave China and move to Israel, where he would live in house with his new team mates.

It was in this house, Ana learnt how seriously the upper echelon took DOTA 2.

“A normal day would be to wake up and play DOTA, go to the shops a few times a week and play about 6-8 hours of scrims (scrimmages) on most days, watch some videos then go to sleep,” he said.

Despite being confident enough to get to this point, Ana admits there was nerves associated with replacing his predecessor, Miracle — one of the most well-known and talented players in the world.

“I get a bit of pressure playing in Miracle’s old spot, but the pressure mainly comes from playing in such an experienced and extremely skilled team and still learning as quite an inexperienced player,” he said.

The first test for Ana is currently under way, with the Aussie gamer competing alongside his new squad at the DOTA 2 Boston Major — a 16-team tournament with a $A4 million prize pool.

Adding the intensity of the event, Ana was forced to face off against his old team Invictus Gaming Vitality in the early matches of the tournament.

His team successfully beat Invictus and fellow competitors, Ad Finem, to win the Group C series convincingly.

The win has secured OG a position in the main event bracket, which could see Ana walking away with $A200,000 if his team can win.

The competition continues.

Are you a fan of DOTA 2? Continue the conversation with Matthew Dunn on Twitter or Facebook.