Gustav Magnusson (born April 1, 1992), better known as s4, is a
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
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 Alliance, s4 won
The International 2013
The International is an annual world championship tournament for the five-on-five esports video game ''Dota 2''. Produced by the game's developer Valve, the International is the final event of the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) and consists of 20 teams ...
.
Professional career
2012: Early Career
s4's ''Dota 2'' career started in early 2012 where he played at
Dreamhack Summer 2012 with his team ''The Tough Bananas'', however the team did not make the playoffs. In the fall of that same year he, along with
AdmiralBulldog, created ''No Tidehunter (NTH)''. At the
DreamHack Winter 2012
DreamHack is an ESL Gaming brand specializing in esports tournaments and other gaming conventions. It is recognized by the Guinness Book of Records and Twin Galaxies as being the world's largest LAN party and computer festival with the world' ...
NTH defeated
Evil Geniuses
Evil Geniuses (EG) is an American esports organization based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1999, the organization has fielded players in various fighting games, ''Call of Duty'', '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'', ''Dota 2'', ''Fortni ...
in the grand finals and secured first place in the team's first major tournament together.
2013
In 2013, NTH won several tournaments such as the StarLadder Season 5 LAN. In April 2013, s4, along with
AdmiralBuldog, Akke, EGM, and Loda moved to
Alliance
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
- a world-renowned esports organization. With Alliance, they won the year's biggest tournament,
The International 3
The International is an annual world championship tournament for the five-on-five esports video game '' Dota 2''. Produced by the game's developer Valve, the International is the final event of the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) and consists of 20 te ...
, and without losing a series and only losing 3 games; two of which in the final best of 5-game series. As a result, s4 was the highest earning eSports player in 2013.
2014
In June 2014, s4 and Alliance won against
Cloud9
Cloud9 Esports, Inc., or simply Cloud9 (C9), is an American professional esports company based in Santa Monica, California. The company was originally founded as a professional ''League of Legends'' team by Jack and Paullie Etienne in May 2013 ...
in the Grand Final of DreamLeague Season 1 - making them as the DreamLeague Season 1 champions. Unfortunately, s4 and Alliance placed 11th-12th at
The International 2014
The International 2014 (TI4) was the fourth edition of The International, an annual esports ''Dota 2'' championship tournament, which took place at the KeyArena in Seattle. Hosted by Valve, the tournament began on July 8 with the Playoffs phase ...
as they were eliminated early.
2015
After
The International 2014
The International 2014 (TI4) was the fourth edition of The International, an annual esports ''Dota 2'' championship tournament, which took place at the KeyArena in Seattle. Hosted by Valve, the tournament began on July 8 with the Playoffs phase ...
he decided to part ways with Alliance. He went on to create ''
Team Secret
Team Secret is an esports team based in Europe formed in 2014, best known for their ''Dota 2'' team.
In March 2016, Team Secret picked up an international female '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'' team. In April 2016, Team Secret expanded into ...
'' with
Clement "Puppey" Ivanov
Clement Ivanov (born March 6, 1990), better known as Puppey, is an Estonian professional '' Dota 2'' player for Team Secret. He is the founding member of Team Secret. Together with Natus Vincere, Puppey won The International 2011 in August 2011 ...
. Team Secret won the ESL One Frankfurt 2015. After Secret's disappointing placing in
The International 2015
The International 2015 (TI5) was the fifth edition of The International, an annual ''Dota 2'' esports championship tournament, which took place at the KeyArena in Seattle. Hosted by Valve, the game's developer, the tournament began in May with ...
and the subsequent disbanding of the squad, s4 rejoined Alliance.
2016
Alliance qualified for
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 ...
as the runner up to the Regional qualifier winners. They finished 3rd in Group A with 3 wins, 2 draws, and 2 losses. However, Alliance lost successive bracket stage matches to
EHOME
EHOME is a Chinese ''Dota 2'' team. The team was founded in 2004 which consist of Warcraft III and Counter-Strike teams. The ''Dota'' division was started in 2007. EHOME is one of the most successful ''Dota'' teams of all time. EHOME disbanded ...
and
Fnatic
Fnatic (pronounced "fanatic"; also stylized as fnatic or FNATIC) is a professional esports organization headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Founded 23 July 2004, the team has players from around the world, across a variety of games, such ...
and ultimately finished 9th. As part of the annual post-The International roster shuffle, s4 left Alliance. On August 31, s4 joined
OG and later won the
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 Champ ...
.
2017
OG secured another
Valve
A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fittings ...
Major title at the Kiev Major 2017. Despite winning several Major tournaments, OG was eliminated on the 4th day of
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 ...
by
LGD.
2018
In May 2018, he left OG to join ''
Evil Geniuses
Evil Geniuses (EG) is an American esports organization based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1999, the organization has fielded players in various fighting games, ''Call of Duty'', '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'', ''Dota 2'', ''Fortni ...
''. At The International 2018, s4 and EG placed third place securing $2,700,000 in prize money.
2019
At
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 ...
, EG got eliminated by Team Liquid and exit the world tournament placing 5th-6th. Later in September, it was announced that he would be leaving the team.
2020
In 2020, s4 re-joined
Alliance
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
as captain and offlaner.
References
{{Professional Dota 2 competition
Alliance (esports) players
Team Secret players
Evil Geniuses players
1992 births
Living people
Swedish esports players
OG (esports) players
Dota players
Copenhagen Wolves players