Reaching the top of the Dota 2 leaderboards has always been a magnificent achievement and for the European region, it seems as though CIS players are dominating any and all competition.
Dota 2 leaderboards are often a tough shell to crack, with the players at the top not necessarily always on the best teams. That said, the European leaderboards are currently very stacked with all five of the top players coming from the CIS region. There was once a time when the CIS region reigned supreme over a lot of Dota 2 – with Natus Vincere being a dominant force, Virtus.pro challenging everyone and even the likes of Moscow 5, amongst many others. With that in mind, in recent times, we have seen a lot less from the CIS squads in tournaments, albeit due to the current pandemic – yet still having seemingly fallen off the pace.
However, although that may be true, the European Dota 2 leaderboards
are a sight to behold as the top five players are currently all from the CIS
region. Considering the plethora of players that are within the European region
as a whole, this is a massive achievement and we will look at who this top five
are today.
5 – Vladimir ‘No[o]ne Minenko
No[o]ne is an extremely well-known Dota 2 player, not just
in the CIS region, but around the world and having played with Virtus.pro for
nearly three years now, his middle lane proficiency has become quite clear. Helping
the squad reach many Dota 2 Major finals and winning, the only thing missing
from his resume remains that elusive victory at The International but that has
not stopped him from reaching the upper echelons of the leaderboards.
While we have not seen VP in action for a short while, No[o]ne
is currently perched at the number five spot of the leaderboards, with the team
set to play against the likes of OG and Team Nigma in a little under two weeks in
the OGA Dota PIT Season 2: Europe & CIS event.
4 – Vitalie ‘Save-‘ Melnic
Having only appeared in the Dota 2 professional scene a
little over a year ago, Save has quickly made a name for himself, playing
alongside FlyToMoon, Virtus.pro and now, VP.Prodigy – Virtus.pro’s youth squad.
In recent times, Save has shown that VP.P, the squad he captains, are a massive
force to be reckoned with and even reached the 10,000 Matchmaking Rating
achievement toward the end of June, 2020.
With the fact that he has reached 10K MMR in mind, that
would mean that everyone ahead of Save on the leaderboards is currently at a higher
rating and without VP.P having any currently scheduled tournaments, it is
likely that we see the player climb higher in the coming weeks.
3 – Egor ‘epileptick1d’ Grigorenko
Another fairly new face to the scene that also found their
start alongside Virtus.pro is epileptick1d – who, at his young age, has shown
some amazing potential in recent times. Also playing for VP.Prodigy now,
epileptick1d is another player who recently broke the 10K MMR barrier and finds
himself sitting in third place on the EU leaderboards. Much like the
aforementioned Save, in being on the same squad, epileptick1d has no currently
scheduled events lined up and could possibly move up, depending on how well he
is doing in his ranked matches.
2 – Danil ‘gpk’ Skutin
Gpk has only been in the Dota 2 pro scene for two years, but
in that time he has already broken records while playing for Gambit Esports. A short
time after joining the squad, gpk claimed the record for the highest hero
damage in a single pro game ever since the switch to the Source 2 engine with
203,863 from a Zeus. While Gambit are currently without a full roster, gpk has
been lending his talents to the likes of Team Spirit and FlyToMoon– helping them
attain some rather great results.
With Gambit’s roster missing two players, it is unclear
whether gpk will remain with the team or if the number two player on the EU
leaderboards will get picked up by another squad – but for now, he can revel in
his second-place and his high MMR too.
1 – Vladislav ‘Crystallize’ Krystanek
For nearly three years, Crystallize has been part of the
Natus Vincere lineup, dealing with the ups and downs of the famous
organisation. The carry player has been seen atop the EU leaderboards many
times over the past few years, constantly pushing himself to be the best and
attaining that too. While we do not know his specific MMR, it was on June 20th,
2020, that Crystallize reached the 10K MMR achievement and since then has kept
himself atop the leaderboards.
While Na’Vi themselves have had struggles, two new players
have recently joined the roster and they will look to show them off at the OGA
Dota PIT Season 2: EU & CIS event in a few weeks. Below you can find a
recent interview with Crystallize where he speaks about everything from
possible captaincy through to hero choices.
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