Entity's Founders Discuss How and Why They Entered Dota 2's Most Competitive Region

In 2022, Entity became the first Indian esports organization to ever compete at The International (TI) Dota 2 championships. The team went on to secure a respectable 9th-12th place finish in its debut TI, and is looking set to make it to the tournament two years in a row after a strong opening to the 2023 Dota 2 Pro Circuit season. However, the road here hasn’t been easy.

In AFK Gaming’s Men of Culture podcast premiering on 27th March, Entity’s founders Varun Bhavnani and Neerav Rukhana spoke about the organization’s entry into the competitive Dota 2 ecosystem. The two spoke about the motivations and challenges behind entering the Western European Dota 2 Pro Circuit where it has now become a stalwart organization.

“We’ve sensed the hunger from them. They want to win, they want to achieve”

According to Entity founder Neerav Rukhana, the organization reached out to several personalities within the Dota 2 scene, including Daniel "ImmortalFaith" Moza, who was at that time the coach of the current Gaimin Gladiators stack, to gauge the scene and assess the requirements for a venture into the most competitive region in the world.

“From the get-go, we knew that it was going to be a super expensive venture for us. Nevertheless, if we managed to make it in the most competitive region in the world, that is the definition of success. I think when we first started talking to Creepwave, which at that time had Dzmitry ‘Fishman’ Palishchuk, Ammar ‘ATF’ Al-Assaf, and Bozhidar ‘bzm’ Bogdanov. But three days before signing the contract or something, we get to know that Ammar and bzm are going to OG,” said Rukhana.

Despite feeling somewhat disheartened, Entity’s management believed that being chosen by OG indicated that they were moving in the right direction. “That basically got our confidence up and we created our roster with our manager and our captain. That’s how Entity started in Division 2,” he said.

Entity would go on to become one of the strongest teams in the region, getting promoted to Division 1 and never dropping to Division 2 ever since. “A lot of the credit goes to the team itself, we have seen the tremendous amount of effort they’ve put into this,” said Rukhana.

Entity's management also discussed additional obstacles encountered while attempting to establish a bootcamp amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war in the podcast. Tune in to the Men of Culture Podcast on Spotify and YouTube on 27th March to listen to the full story.