Ceb Explains Why Puppey Is the GOAT of Dota 2

In a recent Twitch livestream, former The International (TI) champion Sébastien "Ceb" Debs heaped praise on Team Secret’s captain Clement "Puppey" Ivanov. According to Ceb, Puppey is the Greatest of All Time (G.O.A.T) of Dota 2 since he has consistently shown good play for years. In Ceb's view, when he entered the game, Puppey was already a legend, and even now, a number of years later, he remains very skilled and familiar with the mechanics of the game, without appearing to be burned out.

In addition, Ceb talked about Team Secret's other players, such as Syed Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan and Daryl Koh "iceiceice" Pei Xiang.

Ceb lauds Puppey’s gameplay as a position five player, says he is the greatest of all time

As Ceb and Team Liquid livestreamer Max "qojqva" Bröcker discussed the performances of the top teams and players, the two of them proceeded to talk about Team Secret's stalwarts Puppey and Yazied "YapzOr" Jaradat. Puppey created Team Secret back in 2014, but YapzOr joined it in 2017 and has held on through multiple iterations.

Although Ceb believes YapzOr reflects a sense of burnout, he does not feel this way about Puppey. Ceb mentioned that Puppey understands the meta, mechanically delivers the best in each game, and also that it feels like he holds his own rather than being carried by his team.

“It doesn’t feel like Puppey can get burned out, even though of course he can. Whereas YapzOr is probably more of a follower. Puppey is so good. He is so skilled as five (Position 5), it’s crazy. And also, he has never been carried - what I mean is that a lot of players at some point start being a little worse but it doesn’t show as much because they are so smart about the game. But for him, he is smart about the game of course, but he never got carried- he is delivering just every game. It’s crazy.”

Ceb then went on to call Puppey the G.O.A.T. (Greatest of All Time), citing how he has been on top of the game for so long.

“If I had to name a G.O.A.T, I’d probably name Puppey. That’s how I feel. To me, it’s just like - I started Dota, he was already Puppey, you know. Truly man. I would fanboy to Puppey when I started Dota. I would meet him and there weren’t pubs back then - leagues and stuff, and I was like - Holy sh** it's Puppey. So, he was already Puppey, he was already crushing everybody, winning every tournament and stuff. This guy is a legend.”

Following the two back-to-back TI wins in 2018 and 2019, Ceb has himself been widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the game, along with former OG teammate Johan "N0tail" Sundstein.

Ceb talks about SumaiL and iceiceice’s performances at Team Secret

With regard to SumaiL, Ceb says he does not feel SumaiL is appropriate for the role of carry at the moment. Ceb said there are a lot of reasons for it, including the fact that SumaiL over thinks a lot when playing the carry role. Nevertheless, he said he hopes that SumaiL will prove him, and anyone else who thinks similarly to him, wrong.

“I’ll be blunt, whatever, I’ll get flak. I mean SumaiL is a great player. I don't think he should be carrying. And I've played with him [as a] carry a lot, I don't think he should carry. I'm not saying he's not good enough for that. There are a lot of reasons for that. His mid is still one of the best but I think he's confused when he plays carry, it makes sense. Like he overthinks and I don’t think he should play carry. That’s my take. When I saw they switched roles, I really hoped that he would prove me wrong and he has it in him to prove me wrong.”

Team Secret recently swapped roles by moving SumaiL from mid to carry and Michał "Nisha" Jankowski from carry to mid. This change, however, has not had a significant impact on the team's performance, as its results have remained middling.

He also spoke of iceiceice's role at Team Secret. According to Ceb, iceiceice tries to put pressure on his enemies aggressively. However, instead of using this space to put more pressure, SumaiL and Nisha, because of being greedy players, are more concerned with getting more resources for their heroes.

Ceb explained that the full potential of such a playstyle from iceiceice was unleashed when he played for Chinese teams such as Vici Gaming in the early days of his professional career. To win games, these teams would bait their opponents with iceiceice's aggressive playstyle and then punish them.

“I think ice's prime was with China because China is so disciplined. They don't think selfishly so they would just punish. It was a long time ago, but I remember even when he was playing in Vici Gaming, they would punish (the opponents). Iceiceice is this Timber who is doing some dumb shit. You go on him because you are like - What the f**k is he doing and his team is there, and you lose the game there. With Secret, you just go and you kill him for free and they are not reacting. He can be top net worth and then he dies twice and then the game is just done. I don't know if I want to put the blame on him.”

Team Secret is currently ranked fourth in the Western Europe Dota Pro Circuit 2021-22 Tour 2: Division 1 with three wins and four losses. All three outcomes are still possible for the team, which is to qualify for the Major, retain the Division 1 slot but not qualify, or get relegated to Division 2.