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. The game is a sequel to ''Defense of the Ancients'' (''DotA''), a community-created mod for Blizzard Entertainment's '' Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos.'' ''Dota 2' ...

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

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

and

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, and has also won two

Major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

championships tournaments.

Career

Early career

Pham was born in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

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'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 Invictus Gaming in March 2016 as a substitute for Ferrari_430. His most notable accomplishment with the team was defeating Newbee in the grand finals of NEA 2016.

Move to OG

Following

The International 2016 The International 2016 (TI6) was the sixth iteration of The International, an annual ''Dota 2'' esports championship tournament. Hosted by Valve Corporation, the game's developer, the tournament began in June 2016 with the qualifier phase and ...

, 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 Boston Major was a professional ''Dota 2'' esports tournament that took place in Boston in the United States. The main event was played live at the Wang Theatre from December 7–10, 2016. Like other tournaments in the ''Dota 2'' Major Champio ...

. 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 The Kiev Major was a professional ''Dota 2'' esport tournament that was held in April 2017 at the National Palace of Arts in Kyiv, Ukraine. The tournament featured eight directly invited teams, as well as eight qualified teams from six different ...

, and the team was invited for

The International 2017 The International 2017 (TI7) was the seventh iteration of The International, an annual ''Dota 2'' esports world championship tournament. Hosted by Valve, the game's developer, the tournament began with the online qualifier phase in June 2017, a ...

. During

, OG underperformed expectation, finishing at 7-8th position, falling at the hands of LGD Gaming. 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 Topias Miikka Taavitsainen (born 14 April 1998), better known as Topson, is a Finnish professional ''Dota 2'' player. As a member of OG, he won The International 2018 and The International 2019. Early life Topias Miikka Taavitsainen was born in ...

. 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 PSG.LGD is a professional ''Dota 2'' team based in China. They were formed as a partnership between PSG Esports and LGD Gaming in April 2018. PSG.LGD has finished as the runner-up in The International 2018 and The International 2021, 2021. His ...

in the best-of-five series 3–2. OG's win was characterised by some commentators as a

Cinderella story In sports, the terms Cinderella, "Cinderella story", and Cinderella team are used to refer to situations in which competitors achieve far greater success than would reasonably have been best expected. Cinderella stories tend to gain much media and ...

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 (Dota 2), The International, an annual ''Dota 2'' world championship esports tournament. Hosted by Valve Corporation, Valve, the game's developer, the tournament followed ...

, 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.

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. Pham is noted for his long breaks from professional play, something that is generally recommended against, as the competitive landscape of ''Dota 2'' can change quite rapidly.

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