Anathan Pham (born 26 October 1999), better known as ana, is an Australian professional ''

Dota 2 ''Dota 2'' is a 2013 multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game by Valve Corporation, Valve. The game is a sequel to ''Defense of the Ancients'' (''DotA''), a community-created Mod (video gaming), mod for Blizzard Entertainment's ''War ...

'' player. As a member of OG, he has played in three iterations of The International, winning in

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

and

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, and has also won two

Major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

championships tournaments.

Career

Early career

Pham was born in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

on 26 October 1999. An avid Dota 2 player, he often played 10+ hours a day to the point where it started to impact his education. In 2016, Pham was offered a position in

Invictus Gaming Invictus Gaming (IG, sometime stylized as iG, zh, s=iG电子竞技俱乐部, l=iG Esports Club) is a Chinese multi-game esports organization founded in 2011 by businessman Wang Sicong. They are primarily known for their ''Dota 2'', ''League o ...

's in-house league. This necessitated moving to Shanghai. To pursue the opportunity, Pham dropped out of high school at age 16 and moved to Shanghai. Pham began his professional ''Dota 2'' career by joining

in March 2016 as a substitute for

Ferrari_430 The Ferrari F430 (Type F131) is a sports car produced by the Italian automobile manufacturer Ferrari from 2004 until 2009 as a successor to the Ferrari 360. The car is an update to the 360 with exterior and performance changes. It was unveiled a ...

. His most notable accomplishment with the team was defeating Newbee in the grand finals of NEA 2016.

Move to OG

Following The International 2016, Pham left the team to join OG. In November, he won his first ever tournament with OG at Elimination Mode Season 2 and later won his first major event by defeating Ad Finem 3–1 in the grand finals of Boston Major. The team's performance continued to stay consistent with additional top 4 performances at Dota Pit League Season 5, StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 3, and Dota 2 Asia Championships 2017. Pham would then take his second major at Kiev Major, and the team was invited for The International 2017. During The International 2017, OG underperformed expectation, finishing at 7-8th position, falling at the hands of

LGD Gaming LGD Gaming is a Chinese professional esports organization based in Hangzhou. It is one of the oldest esports organizations in China and currently has players competing in ''Dota 2'', '' Honor of Kings'', ''League of Legends'', ''Overwatch'', and ...

. Following their loss, Pham announced that he would be taking a break from the professional scene. In early 2018 he joined the short-lived Echo International.

The International victories

2018

In 2018, months prior to The International 2018, OG's co-founder Fly left alongside s4, leaving OG struggling to fill their roster as all high level players had already signed for the upcoming competition. Pham thus re-joined OG alongside an unproven newbie Topson. With Topson being a solo middle specialist, Pham moved onto the hard carry role. Despite a bad start at The International 2018's group stage, OG finished fourth and were seeded into the upper bracket of the main event. Considered underdogs during their entire time at the event, OG and Pham advanced to the grand finals and won the tournament by defeating PSG.LGD in the best-of-five series 3–2. OG's win was characterised by some commentators as a

Cinderella story An underdog is a person or group in a competition, usually in sports and creative works, who is largely expected to lose. The party, team, or individual expected to win is called the favorite or top dog. In the case where an underdog wins, the ...

and "one of the greatest underdog stories ever; not just in esports, but in all competitive pursuits". Following the victory, Pham decided to take a break from professional ''Dota 2''.

2019–2021

He returned to the team in March 2019. Later that year, Pham won

The International 2019 The International 2019 (TI9) was the ninth iteration of The International, an annual ''Dota 2'' world championship esports tournament. Hosted by Valve, the game's developer, the tournament followed a year-long series of awarding qualifying poin ...

, making him and the rest of the team the first repeat winners of The International. The commentators noted that Pham developed a completely novel carry Io strategy, which was previously considered to not be viable, which he utilised to great effect. Pham announced another hiatus from the team following the victory. He returned to the active roster in April 2021.

Retirement

After two months with the team, Pham announced his retirement from competitive Dota in June 2021. However one year after his retirement, in 2022, he returned to the pro scene playing as a substitute player for Team Liquid and Royal Never Give Up in Riyadh Masters and PGL Arlington Major.

Playstyle

In his early career, Pham played in the position solo mid, with comparatively little success. He received significant criticism for his solo mid performance and comparatively low creep score. Prior to the International 2018, Pham transitioned to playing as a carry, leaving the solo mid position to Topias "Topson" Taavitsainen. Pham has been described as an integral piece to OG's success. He developed a novel carry Io strategy which kept his opponents off balance throughout

. He was noted for his so-called "game sense". Commentators have called him as one of the best carry players, and one of the best ''Dota 2'' players overall.

References

External links

* {{Professional Dota 2 competition 1999 births Australian esports players Australian people of Vietnamese descent Dota players Living people OG (esports) players Sportspeople from Melbourne