Most effective Dota 2 rosters

Team managers, coaches and captains depend on the future fate of the Dota 2 team.

Now reshuffles are underway, teams are disbanding and creating again. Someone is trying to assemble a roster of well-deserved and experienced players. Other managers are looking for young talent on high rank. Others combine both of these methods.

Throughout the history of competitive Dota 2, there have been many teams that not only met expectations, but surpassed all expectations, earning a lot of money and fan recognition. Let's remember the best of those who have achieved success.

A legendary roster that will forever go down in Dota 2 history and remain in the hearts of a million fans of the game. A team that has held leading positions for three years. In 2011, fans learned the names of the first winners of the first The International to win a million dollars: Dendi, XBOCT, Artstyle, LighTofHeaveN and Puppey.

The next year, instead of Artstyle, which had a conflict with the leadership of the organization, Sergei «ARS-ART» Revin, now known to everyone as «Smile», played. The team finished second behind Invictus Gaming. By the way, it was then that ChuaN played for iG, who, after a long break, returned to esports as a coach for OB Esports x Neon.

In February 2013, ARS-ART and LighTofHeaveN left the lineup, and Funn1k and KuroKy took their place. After that, NaVi again took second place. However, this time TI was remembered by the audience with the hooks under the fountain and the legendary grand final against Alliance, where both teams showed their maximum.

They decided not to change the composition. And why, if Natus Vincere was one of the strongest teams that won many other tournaments in the interval between The International, which is pointless to list. Of course, in those years the prize money was not as huge as it is now. However, the guys played the game, got high, won and delighted the fans.

The turning point came at TI4, where the team failed to reach the grand final for the first time, losing to Cloud9 and finishing in 7th-8th place. The prize money was rather big for 2014, $518,889. But because of the game and such results, there was a conflict in the team. Puppey and KuroKy left NaVi and a week later founded Team Secret, inviting BigDaddy (N0tail), Fly and s4.

Natus Vincere did not give up and started testing new players for the roster. ArtStyle returned to the team, and SoNNeikO was taken to the 5th position. They were able to qualify and took part in The International 2015. But, in the first match of the main stage, they were defeated by Vici Gaming and took 13-16 place, taking home only $55,289.

Then there were endless line-up changes and the last places in the main tournament from Valve. In fact, NaVi's golden age ended with Puppey's departure. In four years, players have earned approximately $2,801,000. Compared to other teams, this is not so much. However, it is worth considering the time when NaVi played with their best line-ups.

In August 2015, a roster was assembled, which no one predicted success: shadow, bLink, Faith_bian, iceice and y`. However, none of the experts could have imagined that these guys, thanks to their perseverance and hard training, will be able to surprise the whole world.

The team's first success is first place at ESL One Manila 2016. Then first place at regional qualifiers in China and a ticket to TI6. And despite winning The Summit 5 ahead of the main event of the year, few people took this team seriously.

However, these five Chinese began to play and defeat the strongest teams in the world. Surprisingly, the only worthy opponents of the Wings were the Digital Chaos players, whom we mentioned in the article «Real script of The International». In the grand final, spectators watched the game of two underdogs who made it to the tournament through qualifiers. Four intense maps, with flips and comebacks, ended with a 3-1 victory for Wings Gaming. Endless training, a huge pool of heroes and teamwork brought such an incredible result.

Not only the players and fans were happy, but also the managers of the organization. After all, they received a good percentage of the prize money that could be invested in development. But, it didn’t work out as we would like. The Wings Gaming organization actually spent the funds on another League of Legends team, which ultimately failed. And the Dota 2 roster, the champions of The International 2016, were left without salaries and were limited by the terms of their contracts. But the roster wanted to play, even without organization. For this, the players received a boycott from the ACE, which prohibited players from playing in China and generally moving to other organizations. There was a conflict inside the squad, and the team finally broke up.

In a short but bright period, the team has won over $9,608,500 in tournaments. And they could have increased this amount, if not for the openly incompetent decisions of the organization and sanctions from ACE, which led to the disintegration of the composition. At the last joint show match at The Chongqing Major, the players admitted that they would like to go back in time and stay together no matter what. And only Faith_bian and y` are now actively playing on the professional scene at PSG.LGD.

The «golden squad» - this is how former VP players are now remembered, who managed to win five majors and take 5-6 places at The International twice.

In 2016, after Virtus.pro failed in the qualifiers for TI6, a new roster was announced: RAMZES666, No[o]ne, 9pasha, Lil and Solo. The team was able to qualify for The Boston Major 2016, but at the tournament itself, the players took 5-8 places.

However, the next year things improved. At The Kiev Major 2017, the team was literally one step away from victory, but OG won on the last map of the grand final. The defeat was also offensive because the tournament was held in CIS, where VP had a huge number of fans and the pressure on the players was enormous.

In the same year, Virtus.pro received a direct invitation to The International 2017, where they took 5th-6th place, repeating the success of the organization two years earlier. They decided to keep the roster, and it was the right decision. After all, in just a few months they will win ESL One Hamburg 2017 and DOTA Summit 8.

At the beginning of 2018, instead of Ilya «Lil» Ilyuk, Vladimir «RodjER» Nikoghosyan joined the roster. And after that, the bears really raged. Victories at ESL One Katowice 2018, The Bucharest Major and ESL One Birmingham 2018. Second place at China Dota2 Supermajor, third at Dota 2 Asia Championships 2018 and 4th at EPICENTER XL. And ahead was TI8. But the team just repeated their last year's success, losing to Evil Geniuses and finishing in 5th-6th place. Like last time, the organization did not change anything. And the players lived up to their expectations by taking first place at The Kuala Lumpur Major. However, this was their last major DPC win.

Of course, in 2019 VP still played at a high level and took high places in tournaments: second place at The Chongqing Major and DreamLeague Season 11, third at EPICENTER Major 2019. At The International 2019, the team took 9-12 place.

From that moment on, along with the decline of the esports scene in Dota 2 amid the COVID-19 epidemic and the cancellation of tournaments, Virtus.pro also fell into decay. The team disintegrated and in 2020 the main roster was replaced by young players from VP.Prodigy. However, no matter how sad the end of the story was, it is worth considering all that they won. In total, for a couple of years of the existence of the composition, excluding one replacement, the organization earned approximately $7,255,500.

At the end of 2015, Team Liquid signs the 5Jungz roster: MATUMBAMAN, FATA-, MinD_ContRoL, JerAx and KuroKy. Under the new tag, the players took 2nd place at The Shanghai Major 2016, ESL One Manila 2016, The Manila Major 2016 and 1st place at EPICENTER 2016. At The International 2016 they took 7th-8th place. JerAx went to OG, and FATA- stopped playing. They were replaced by GH and Miracle-.

Then there were victories at StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 3 and EPICENTER 2017. And in 2017 The International happened, and there the team showed its level. Lost in the upper bracket? Not a problem for these guys. Team Secret, Team Empire, Virtus.pro and even the three strongest Chinese teams could not stop Team Liquid on their way to the championship.

Naturally, after such a victory, no one wanted to change anything. The guys were in a good mood and, participating in various tournaments, they were ready to take Aegis for the second time. The first place in the group gave the team the confidence to win. However, this time they decided not to lose their first match in the main stage and go through the lower bracket, as they did last year. As a result, in the second match the defeat was defeated by PSG.LGD, and then by EG at the bottom. Result: fourth place. Not bad, but the players were hoping for more.

Then there was a year of hard training. But unexpectedly the roster left MATUMBAMAN two months before TI8. The organization had to urgently look for a replacement, and then w33 joined the team. Their first joint tournament was EPICENTER Major 2019, where they took second place.

The International 2019 was truly legendary. Unexpectedly for themselves, Team Liquid found themselves in the lower bracket right from the playoff stage. From the very bottom of the lower bracket, they went to the grand final, throwing one team after another with a score of 2: 0. And only in the final of the lower bracket PSG.LGD were able to win the first map, but that was not enough. And here is the grand final, in which two champions collided. Battle for the title of two-time TI champion. The first map was remembered for an incredible game from w33 on Meepo. If Liquid had only thought of banning the hero Tiny for the enemy in all maps, the final could have ended differently. But this did not happen, KuroKy and his friends lost with the score 1: 3.

After that, the entire roster left Team Liquid and founded his own - Team Nigma. In total, during the game in the previous organization, the players earned $20,265,068. The amount was calculated after the arrival of GH and Miracle-, but excluding the replacement of MATUMBAMAN with w33.

After almost a year of playing online tournaments, the team survived on the money from the prize money. But this year the guys finally found themselves. Now they play in a team called Nigma Galaxy, they have rich sponsors and a reliable organization. Unfortunately, due to the new DPC system, they were unable to get to The International 2021. But, judging by the photos from social networks, they are fine now and so.

The team was founded in 2015 by (monkey) Business players: N0tail, Miracle-, MoonMeander, Cr1t- and Fly. Even then, they won The Frankfurt Major 2015, DreamLeague Season 4-5, The Manila Major 2016 and ESL One Frankfurt 2016. They were serious opponents, but at TI16 they managed to take only 9-12 place.

After that, JerAx, s4 and ana joined the team. The already renewed roster took first place at The Boston Major 2016 and The Kiev Major 2017. But at TI17 something went wrong again, 7th-8th place. Ana declares that she is taking a year off from the pro scene. The team is not doing very well. After several failures in tournaments, in May 2018, Fly, a close friend of N0tail, left the OG team. But the main tournament of the year is ahead, and you need to immediately look for new teammates and prepare for the qualifications.

It was then, at the qualifiers for The International 2018, that the same legendary OG roster gathered: ana, Topson, Ceb, JerAx and N0tail. The guys were as motivated as possible at all costs. They were ready and eager to fight. Upper bracket, strong-willed victory and an honor match against Evil Geniuses, where their former teammates s4 and Fly left. The score is 2-1 and the historic post-match handshake. Although it should be admitted that in the end both sides have achieved more than in previous years. EG finished third, while OG defeated the Chinese team PSG.LGD twice to become the champions of the tournament.

Ana goes to the bench indefinitely, everyone is happy with the result and as relaxed as possible. They proved everything to everyone, play for fun and do not chase prizes. But TI9 was already approaching, and it was time to go back and prepare for the tournament.

OG, like last time, has done a good job of exploring the current meta and heroes. They were relaxed and played for fun. They did not feel any pressure from outside, they acted confidently and aggressively on the map. We tried to take only the heroes they needed. Fans have long remembered ana's legendary carry IO and Topson's play on Tiny.

And again, as in the scenario of last year, Fly again plays with EG in the upper bracket against N0tail, and PSG.LGD in the semifinals. But the ending of this tournament turned out to be different.

Having defeated Team Liquid in the grand final, OG became the two-time champion of The International, and the team members became the richest people in Dota 2. In subsequent years, the team was never able to repeat its success, and the attempt to take the third TI turned out to be a failure. But the sum of the prize money of the legendary five players in 2018-2019 alone is more than $26,900,000. In total, the organization, headed by the captain of the N0tail team, was able to earn $34,865,462 over the 5 years of its existence.

At the moment, the Chinese team is one of the strongest over the past few years. LGD already has three runners-up at The International in 2018, 2019 and 2021. At the same time, the organization over the past few years has had as many as two teams that can be considered successful.

In January 2018, LGD announced a new Dota 2 roster:

In April, the organization partnered with French football giant Paris Saint-Germain. Since then, the organization has rebranded and changed its name to PSG.LGD. And the roster itself won prizes at major tournaments of that year: 1st place at EPICENTER XL and MDL Changsha Major, second at StarLadder i-League Invitational Season 4 and Dota 2 Asia Championships 2018, third at China Dota2 Supermajor.

At The International in 2018, the Chinese team had to face OG twice: in the semifinals and the grand final. The European team turned out to be stronger, and PSG.LGD took second place. It was an achievement for them, the organization and the players decided not to change the roster until the next TI.

The following year, the situation repeated itself, and the team again met with OG one step away from the grand final. But this time the Chinese were in for an unpleasant surprise. Their likely opponents were Team Liquid and Team Secret, which did not bode well for them. As a result, they fought with KuroKy and his team and ended up losing 2-0. The third place isn't too bad, but PSG.LGD wanted to take revenge on OG in the grand final.

Then came the great Chinese reshuffles, the COVID-19 epidemic and the cancellation of all LAN events. For a whole year, the organization has been recruiting players and trying to assemble a new and strong roster. As a result, a new roster was announced in September 2020:

The new players immediately showed their readiness to win and made their way to The International 10. For more information on the new PSG.LGD roster and why they failed to become TI champions again, read our article: «How PSG.LGD players' fear keeps them from winning The International».

Here we will briefly summarize the results of both teams. It is worth recognizing that the managers of the organization are doing their job well. After all, it is extremely difficult to assemble a squad that will turn out to be one of the strongest in the world twice. In total, players for the period 2018-2019 earned approximately $8,865,000 over two years of playing. The new roster brought the organization over $5,945,000. China can really be proud of its esports players.

Despite the fact that Secret's roster has changed many times since 2014, it has been for the last three years that the team has been showing consistently high results in tournaments.

In September 2018, Nisha and zai joined the team. Together with MidOne, YapzOr and Puppey, they won The Chongqing Major, MDL Disneyland Paris Major and ESL One Birmingham 2019. At The International 2019 they are in fourth place, behind Team Liquid. Despite a high place in the tournament and earned $2,059,804, the team captain was dissatisfied with the result.

Later, MidOne goes inactive and then leaves the team altogether. He is replaced by MATUMBAMAN, and Heen becomes the new coach. The team is preparing hard for TI10, but the tournament is postponed indefinitely. There are only online tournaments left. But this did not upset the guys. In 2020, they skated across all the teams in Europe and won all the tournaments they could take part in. For six months, no one could win Team Secret in the final. And only towards the end of the year the team got tired and Puppey decided to take a break for a while.

In 2021, the first DPC season began, according to the results of which Secret were in first place and went to ONE Esports Singapore Major 2021, where they took 4th place. In the second season, the team finished 4th in the region and 16th at WePlay AniMajor. Many have noticed that the team is not playing at full strength and is constantly blowing out incomprehensible strategies and drafts.

However, at The International 2021, the team began to play seriously. Team Secret defeated OG and iG, but lost without a chance to the Chinese team PSG.LGD. Everyone was expecting that Puppey, together with the team, would still show themselves in the grand final. However, they clearly underestimated the young players from Team Spirit. Result: Third place, $3,601,600 and possible line-up changes. Not what the team has been preparing for for almost two years. However, we have to admit that, excluding one replacement, Secret earned over $8,255,000 in two years. This is more than half of all prize teams for all time since 2014.

The roster of the current Spirit was assembled back in 2020 by the manager Korb3n. Then they were called Yellow Submarine. In fact, for a manager, this was the best investment of his time and energy. We have analyzed in more detail the path of the team and its success in the articles: «Team Spirit phenomen. The journey from nobody to the stars», «Silent: from former player to top coach».

In just a year, taking into account one replacement in the line-up, $18,459,300 in prize money was earned. Naturally, the young guys got the lion's share for the first place at The International 2021. The roster made the Team Spirit organization the first in CIS in terms of the amount of prize money earned in Dota 2 tournaments. And, this is just the beginning of their career.

Since TI10, many teams and organizations have redefined their method of recruiting players and building squads. A generation has changed in Dota 2. Star lineups no longer bring results, you need a competent combination of experience and youth.

We wrote about what happened on the transfer market after the tournament in the article «Reshuffles after TI10», as well as news about important changes in the rosters on our website. In short, old players started leaving the professional scene due to the impossibility of competing with young players. Some experienced players have returned and are now becoming team coaches. After all, as practice has shown, a coach in a team is an integral part of victory.

Many insiders and public figures say that this year's reshuffles will be weirder, "memed" and even shocking than ever. Well, we are waiting for the official announcements in the hope of being the first to see the roster that can achieve incredible success next year.