Five Years, 16 Teams, and One Indonesian Dota 2 Prodigy Who Never Gave Up: InYourdreaM's Story

Muhammad “inYourdreaM” Rizky, is not a foreign name to the Southeast Asian (SEA) Dota 2 community. The 23-year-old Indonesian star player has established his presence in the Dota 2 SEA leaderboard and has also played in several notable teams across the region. Currently, as the carry player for Galaxy Racer, a rising SEA team, inYourdreaM is well on his way to becoming one of the best Dota 2 players in the world.

The beginning of InYourdreaM's love affair with Dota 2

Back in his younger days, inYourdreaM spent his time gaming in his local internet café with his friends. One of the first games he played was the classic multiplayer game Gunbound and eventually, his friends introduced him to Dota. After school , he would spend a couple of hours enjoying the Warcraft 3 version of the MOBA game. Despite his blooming interest in gaming, he did have a few constraints.

“Back in the olden days, it was hard to get a PC because it was so expensive,” InYourDream told AFK Gaming. “So I had to go to the internet café. I started playing Dota 2 in 2014, because the internet café near my house upgraded their PC, so everyone could finally play Dota 2.”

As with any sport, small, local competitions can usually boost a person’s skill and tailor beginners to step into a higher level of competition. But opportunities were sparse for the Indonesian player.

“Back then, there were a lot of tournaments, but in my city, there were no tournaments in the internet cafes. A lot of tournaments were held in Jakarta, and my home town is in Bekasi so it's quite far,” he stated.

Though this was a setback, it didn’t take long for him to emerge in the pro Dota 2 scene. One of his earliest experiences in esports was when a friend requested him to play as a stand-in in a local mall tournament in Indonesia. The thought of pursuing esports as a career option had sparked, but he was still studying at that time so he did not really dive headfirst into a career in esports immediately.

However, despite inYourdreaM’s early hesitations about pursuing a career in esports, in late 2016, he finally stepped into the pro scene by joining one of Indonesia's well-known Dota 2 organizations - The Prime. Adhering to the position two role, his presence started growing in the local scene and throughout the SEA region. Together with The Prime, inYourdreaM competed in the Boston Major 2016: SEA qualifier #2 and placed 3rd-4th, barely missing the chance to appear at his first official Valve event.

However, his performances in regional tournaments had started turning heads, and soon, he got the opportunity to play for one of SEA’s biggest teams.