The height of all Dota 2 competitions, The International, is about to commence.
Many will be making their way for the first time.
For others, it is their second or third time.
Of those, there are a handful of notable players whose presence will surely be missed.
Seven of those players competed last year but now will need to watch from the sidelines.
Syed Sumail “SumaiL” Hassanstarted his spectacular career withEvil Geniusesat the tender age of 15 years old.
His run with OG at TI10 was brought to an end rather early.
But that lasted only six months before parting ways with them and joining up withNigma Galaxy.
For the past five years, he had been one of the pillars of Team Secret.
His departure was due to a serious health issue for the player.
After, Team Secret announced that Bakyt Zayac Emilzhanov would stand in due to YapzOr feeling unwell.
Daryl “iceiceice” Xiang is a highly decorated SEA veteran and a fan-favorite personality.
Daryl started to play Dota 2 competitively in 2011 withScythe Gaming.
In March 2011, iceiceice joined FXOpen e-Sports only to leave the team shortly afterward.
He later joinedZenithand took sixth place at TI3.
Zenith disbanded shortly after the conclusion of TI3 and iceiceice went toTeam DKto complete their roster.
It was with Team DK that he would come in fourth at The International 4.
With EHOME took 5-6th at TI6 after getting to the event through the Wild Card qualifiers.
He has represented eight teams at The International, more than any other player.
Four months ago theyreleasedcaptain Michael “ninjaboogie” Ross under some controversial circumstances.
But in the end, they didn’t play together at all for the qualifiers.
Teams had two choices.
Revert to their previous/latest registered rosters or withdraw from the event.
Most are heading into the qualifier with their prior lineup.
Team SMG had opted out of the event.
The veteran offlaner Ren old eLeVeN Yangwei started playing Dota in 2013.
His first year was fairly uneventful.
He parted ways with ViCi Gaming after a sixth-place finish at The International 10 and signed withXtreme Gaming.
In the quarter-bracket lower finals they were 2:0’d by Team Liquid ending their TI hopes.
Zhang “Eurus/Paparazi” Chengjun began his career in 2015.
Paparazi, joined Vici Gaming in 2017 after two seasons with theInvictus Gamingorganization.
Paparazi helped Vici Gaming achieve elite status in the 2018-2019 season, winning three Dota Pro Circuit events.
Zhou “Emo” Yi, was one of the youngest mid-lane players at TI10.
He made his breakout atiG.Vitalitywhere he first played when he was just 17 years old.
