Cover-Credits:
Post-The International 11 (TI11), the roster shuffle season is in full swing with almost every top team changing at least one player. During the Fly and the Other Guy podcast, former Evil Geniuses' captain Tal "Fly" Aizik named an all-star team, including some of the best players in competitive Dota 2. Fly was asked not to choose players from the Evil Geniuses roster that recently parted ways with their organization in order to remove any obvious bias. The position five player ended up selecting two Chinese players and three Western European players to complete his Dota 2 all-star team.
Fly names Dy, Saksa, Faith_bian, Miracle-, and MATUMBAMAN in his Dota 2 dream team
In position five, Fly selected Xtreme Gaming's Ding "Dy" Cong, describing him as an underrated player he personally admires and respects.
“So, starting from position five, this is the weirdest one to pick because this is the role I play. So, I didn’t wanna choose something obvious, and then somebody I respect a lot as a player and maybe in the Western community, he is underrated, I am not sure but that’s Dy.
Recently, he played on Xtreme Gaming, used to be on VG, and I think the guy is an absolute boss player. He usually shows up at TI, but this time not so much. I think he’s super skilled. He’s someone I like to watch a lot when he plays from…he’s probably my favorite Chinese five.”
As for position four, Fly was tempted to choose Andreas "Cr1t-" Nielsen from Evil Geniuses but was unable to, so he chose Tundra Esports' TI11 champion Martin "Saksa" Sazdov. As Fly described, Saksa holds impeccable skill and consistently ranks highly as a support player.
“At position four, since I can not choose Cr1t-, I am going to go with Saksa. You got to take somebody from the TI winning team so I chose Saksa. I think Saksa has been number one on the leaderboards multiple times throughout the years as a support player on more than one account. The guy is an absolute mechanical beast and when it comes to Dota, I think that’s really impressive.”
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Fly listed Zhang "Faith_bian" Ruida as the position three player on his dream team, saying he is one of his favorite players. Fly deems offlane to be the second most difficult role to find after captain because it requires a lot of versatility. That is precisely what Faith_bian had and he was able to play any type of hero in the offlane as the patch desired.
“Position three, one of my favorite players of all time - Faith_bian, great guy…Faith_bian is one of the very few offlaners in the world who can do everything really well and I think that’s some sort - I don’t know what it’s in their brain that’s going on there that’s making them so flexible but that’s a super impressive trait to have and he’s also just a wonderful human being.”
As for the midlaner, Fly chose his teammate from the OG days - Amer "Miracle-" Al-Barkawi. Miracle- brings so much skill to the table that Fly was confused about whether he should be placed as a safelaner or midlaner.
“My midlaner is someone I played with before - Miracle-. He’s probably one of the most famous Dota players out there, for good reason. Great guy, he’s a great name, a great player, plays great carry, plays a great mid, I wasn’t sure where to put him. I definitely wanted him on this team. I think he just speaks for himself. I don’t know if there’s much to say about this guy. Just a terrific player.”
For position one, Fly said that he had the option of choosing between Lasse "MATUMBAMAN" Urpalainen and Wang "Ame" Chunyu, but opted for the former since he did not want three Chinese players on the roster. The duo of MATUMBAMAN and Miracle-, who have played and won TI7, would make a solid core for the team, Fly said.
“For position one I was debating between two players - ended up going with Matu so at least the one and the two can communicate with each other. Initially, I was debating between Ame and then you know, it will be kind of three Chinese players’ team.
Matu is truly a legend and I think, Matu and Miracle- won one TI together. Together, they have got synergy. They can both play mid and safelane depending on the heroes. I think they are just a good core pairing. I think, my team is very flexible between the cores. They can play anything.”
Fly also stated that if he had gone with Ame, he would have chosen Team Spirit captain Yaroslav "Miposhka" Naidenov as his position five player.
Despite saying that he didn't think the name made any sense, Fly named his all-star Dota 2 team "Rio International.”
Fly discussed the roster shuffles going on right now in the competitive Dota 2 scene, but it is not yet clear where the player himself will end up. In a recent Twitch livestream, he announced that some former Evil Geniuses members would continue to play together in North America.
