The Shanghai Major is over! Team Secret is victorious! So in order to celebrate we are going to focus on the player that led them to this huge win. Not saying I don’t love Envy, I do, but I feel like I have to give credit where it’s due. Puppey’s drafting was astoundingly great in multiple games so that’s why we are going to talk about him this time around.
Puppey. Cap’t Puppan. The Chinese fans call him father. He has NEVER been called Poopey. Because if you saw him in a nightclub you’d yell Clement Ivanov.
Why does Puppey have the least amount of nicknames of any of the players that we’ve looked at? That is because he’s respected, and respected a large amount. You see Puppey is one of the original players, he’s been around since Dota 1, and he has yet to lose his edge.
Clement Ivanov had been playing Dota 1 for literally years before Valve released their sequel, Dota 2. Around this time Puppey, who was known to be an experienced captain and drafter, was picked up by Na’Vi. Their history is glorious and storied. That original Na’Vi team will still be one of my favorites of all time. It wasn’t meant to be though, as around the end of Ti4 they just were not performing well. This team had seems the finals of three Internationals but when the fourth came around they seemed unprepared. So after that tournament Puppey left Na’Vi and went on to form Team Secret with Kuroky, Fly, S4, and NoTail.
This is where Clement is now, albeit with a few roster changes. Being the founder of Secret means that even if everyone else leaves you stay, and this is precisely what happened. The current lineup is Puppey, Eternal Envy, PieLieDie, W33, and Misery. This is the lineup that just won the Shanghai Major.
So why is Puppey so good? Why do I have such a crush on him? The reason is solely because of his drafting. He is the most devious, brilliant, and crazy drafter that exists. There’s been so many games that have been won just straight off of the hero lineup that Puppey provides for his team. He’s not afraid to use experimental lineups at any time, and these can fail but for the most part they are game winning. I mean drafting Kuro a nyx assassin so that Dendi could steal ravage as rubik?! The fountain hooking strat with pudge and chen?! I even remember Puppey drafting a support wraith king at some points!
It isn’t just the drafting though, as good as that is. Puppey is an incredible jungler and position 5. His micros on heroes like chen or enchantress are godlike. He’s still a great player mechanically. And I had to do it. I had to link the video that I’ve watched a million times (roughly) and will continue to watch.
If you don’t know what happening here Puppey is destroying that jugg. And I mean annihilating him. Jugg did not get a cs or a deny that entire time, and he got maybe two creeps of experience. You can also see that he’s talking in a fake Russian accent despite speaking perfect English. He likes to entertain people in addition to being a great player.
That’s the last reason why I have a huge crush on him. He’s professional and serious at times, but also incredibly silly and willing to please his fans at others. Puppey will give one of the best interviews of any Dota player, and then on the very same day he’ll tweet memes at RTZ. He can be one of the best captains in the world and still be a great personality too.
Puppey is the evil mastermind of Dota 2. You fear him when you’re playing against him because his drafts are so unpredictable. After the game though you still have incredible respect for this guy who has been playing the game for almost a decade. This is why Puppey is one of my very favorite Dota 2 players.
-David Wintrode
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