Philipp "Copy" Bühler is set to make his TI debut next month in Copenhagen with the North American team nouns. We had the chance to chat with the young German player at the recently concluded Elite League LAN hosted in Lima, Peru.
At 23 years old, Copy might be considered an up-and-coming player by the vast majority of Dota 2 fans. But for the German scene, he is a veteran already. Copy grinded his way to the top tier through ESL Meisterschaft and other German tournaments while balancing his studies and never losing sight of a professional Dota 2 career.
He was introduced to the game by his brothers when he was around 11 or 12 years old. At first, he would just watch his brothers play the game until one day when he watched The International 2013.
Despite choosing to play in the mid lane as a professional player, Copy remembers specifically how he watched NAVI’s Oleksandr "XBOCT" Dashkevych playing Weaver, Gyrocopter, and other carry heroes on the TI3 stage and “how cool was that.” He also realized that “you could earn a lot of money playing the game at that level,” and since then, Dota 2 has become his life.
While he describes Dota 2 as a “never-ending cycle of pain”, Copy has qualified himself to The International about 10 years after watching his very first TI.
TI13 will be just his third LAN tournament and looking back at his entire journey he describes the qualifying moment as the happiest day of his career.
It wasn’t until this year, when nouns laid eyes on him, that Copy would get to play against some of the biggest teams in the professional scene. However, heading into The International 2024, he has a few things on his checklist that will most likely not be possible to fulfil in Denmark. The biggest one is playing against Lasse "MATUMBAMAN" Urpalainen. He also regrets not having the opportunity to play against some of the old Chinese gods who are now retired.
“I would really love to play against Matu. There are also a few Chinese players against whom I would really love to get the chance to play at least once in my life.”
When we asked him what would be the difference between last year’s Copy and this year’s version of him, and how he feels that he might have changed after playing his first season alongside the best in the world, he bluntly stated that he thinks he is “still the same noob.”
Continuing the thought, Copy talked about what he should and could do to become an even better player saying that he needs “to be more mature.”
“If I'd put more effort every day, like playing more pubs, and take those pubs more seriously, not tilt as much, that would be the first step for me to grow. Gameplay wise, I think I have to just trust myself a bit more.”
Until joining nouns, the German mid laner played mostly with some of his friends at IVY. Leaving them behind was “rough,” he says, and a sacrifice that needed to be done to pursue his dreams.
“If I have to pick a specific instance, it's that I had to leave some friends behind. Before I joined nouns I was playing with my friends, so leaving them after we just won a tournament was rough.”
Speaking about sacrifices, like any other Dota 2 player, Copy too had to dedicate his entire life to the game although he is someone who is pretty invested in traditional sports.
He grew up playing a lot of football, he still follows the NBA closely and he goes climbing with his brothers regularly. He also enjoys both playing and watching Badminton. These are some of the sports he returns to constantly to help him wind down from Dota 2. When talking about other esports or other computer games, Counter-Strike came almost instantly as his “second most favourite game.”
With 2024 being the breakout year for him, we touched with Copy on what kind of impact might have had the absence of the Dota Pro Circuit, which was discontinued by Valve at the end of the 2023 competitive season. But, as someone who didn’t get to play on DPC, Copy said that he “doesn’t have a strong opinion on it.” However, he referred to the positive side of things that he got to experience.
“I would say that I played in a bunch of tournaments, I made it to some LANs this year, and I feel like with the DPC I probably wouldn't have been able to play on them. So, I prefer the current format, it's friendlier for the teams who aren't at the very top.”
As for any professional Dota 2 player, The International remains the most special tournament for Copy as well. “It’s the prestige and the history that comes with it,” Copy told us as he and nouns are entering their intense practice period ahead of the culmination point of the 2024 competitive season.
You can follow Copy’s debut at The International 2024 under the nouns banner starting on September 4, 2024, when the tournament is set to kick off with the group stage matches.
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