Professional Dota 2 player Alimzhan `Watson` Islambekov recently discussed his idols in Valve`s MOBA title. During a stream, he shared that his motivation to become an esports competitor originated from watching the documentary film “Free to Play,” which featured prominent players like Danil `Dendi` Ishutin and Clinton `Fear` Loomis. Following his initial inspiration from the film, he became a fan of Artur `Arteezy` Babaev, and later Wang `Ame` Chunyu.
My idol… Honestly, I wanted to become an esports player because of the “Free to Play” movie with Dendi and Fear. After that, I started being a fan of Arteezy. I wasn`t exactly a fan of Miracle-. After Arteezy, the Ame era began, and after Ame, I stopped closely following anyone. Arteezy used to be incredibly dedicated. He invented a lot in Dota. At one point he was a midlaner, and there`s a concept called `Arteezy block` – he`d position himself near the tower so that four creeps were on one side, walk around it, block all four creeps, and always get ahead.
Earlier, Shopify Rebellion coach Kanishka Sam `BuLba` Sosale also mentioned his first idols in DotA. According to him, even before starting his professional esports career, he watched matches played by Ivan `Vigoss` Shinkarev and Dmitry `LighTofHeaveN` Kupriyanov.