The GosuGamers 2010 Solo Player of the Year Award
The 2010 Solo Player of the Year Award recognizes the contributions of the middle lane players of DotA. This is without a doubt the most high-profile and visible role in modern DotA, and so the nominees in this category are some of the most distinguished and admired players in the world.
Solo players are tasked with a simple job: dominate their lane, and carry their team through the middle phase of the game. While the theory behind the role is rather simple, its execution is very much the opposite – it is a path marked by extremely unforgiving circumstances and overwhelming pressure to perform. What defines the solo role is the intensity of facing then opponent head-on while simultaneously watching for ganks and fighting over runes – the margin of error in these mid-lane battles is always razor-thin.
The heroes these players are asked to handle are the ones possessing the largest windows of effectiveness. They also happen to be the most skill-intensive heroes in the game. A solo hero normally becomes a team’s focal point within the first 10 minutes of the game, and will stay at the focal point until the very latest stages of the game. He is not only expected exert his influence in his lane, but also across the entire map, as needed. A solo player needs to have a strong grasp of roaming or else the open-endedness of the role will always get the better of him.
The players that gravitate toward this role are the most lavishly gifted players in DotA. Due to the role’s high degree of difficulty, only the players possessing the most powerful micro, quickest reflexes, best split-second decision-making, and greatest mettle prosper – and those that don't quite cut it bear the full brunt of the community’s criticism.
Tell-tale traits of a top solo player include his ability to exert influence over the entire map, turn the tide of team fights, and make seemingly impossible plays possible. The five players nominated here represent what GosuGamers considers to be the most highly-skilled, ingenious, and dominant solo players for the year 2010.
The Nominees:
YYF - YYF is one of the main contenders to the “Y-God” throne. No doubt one of the most gifted players in modern DotA, and also one of its most versatile players, YYF is a combination of astonishing ganking ability and unmatched decision-making. He began his rapid rise to international superstardom when he joined LGD at the beginning of 2010 to replace the departing KingJ and Sharingan. YYF started as more of a utility player for LGD, primarily playing ganking heroes like ES, Chen, Zeus, Dark Seer, and Lion. It wasn’t until the departure of 2009 that he took on the more high-profile roles for LGD, playing mobile carries such as Morphling for a brief period before switching to the full-time solo role. As a solo player, YYF’s main heroes are Windrunner, Pugna, Storm Spirit, Beast Master, and Lion. Unlike others on this list, YYF’s play once he leaves his lane is what distinguishes him most. YYF is a ganking prodigy; his understanding of gaps and his intuition in tight spots is only equalled by his ability to execute his imagination. Also an extraordinarily clutch player, he represents the very pinnacle in playing fragile and high-pressure heroes. To say that YYF deserves the nomination for Solo Player of the Year is rather an understatement, as YYF would make our theoretical short-list for 'Player of Year,' without breaking a sweat, period.
YaphetS / PIS - 2010 was a great year for, arguably, the most famous player in world DotA. YaphetS is universally admired for his unmatched ability to handle one of DotA’s most skill-intensive and high impact heroes, Shadow Fiend – the legendary ‘2009’ recently called him the perfect SF player – and his absolutely excellent all-round play with any other solo/semi-carry in general. A former public league star, he began the year playing the solo and secondary carry role in CH before relocating to Nv.cn and taking up the full-time solo role. While he has always been overwhelmingly known for his Shadowfiend, PIS has since become extremely proficient with heroes like Pugna, Wind Runner, Storm Spirit, Lion, and even Priestess of the Moon. His excellence with these heroes comes from his quick thinking, his natural ability to carry, well-developed ganking skills, and super-human reflexes. It is common, when watching PIS handle his favourite hero, to wonder whether he was in fact born to play SF, or if SF was created to be played by him. Icefrog’s indirect answer to this question came with the release of 6.70, as ‘YaphetS’ became one of Shadowfiend’s alternate names – one of DotA’s greatest honours, and indicative of the player’s status as an icon of world DotA. We would write more, but there is too much to be said about PIS; we simply ask that readers try to look past the overwhelming strength of YaphetS’s Shadowfiend play and take the time to also appreciate his fantastic play with other heroes.
Mushi - If Yamateh is the elder God of Malaysian DotA, Mushi is its foremost prophet. He began the year playing for one of Malaysia's most exciting teams, Cybertime, before joining Loveen's Nirvana organization in March to play gankers and the occasional carry -- acquiescing the solo role his then-teammate Chuan. Eventually, with the depature of Chuan, and the merger with Kingsurf, he took over the primary solo role and never looked back. One of the most unique and creative players to have ever played the game, Mushi was the godfather of heroes such as Ursa and Lanaysa, and one of the finest exponents of the likes of Puck, Batrider, Storm, Lion, Doom, Necrolyte and almost any other semi-carry/carry you could think of. In the wake of SMM 2009, European DotA prodigy Kuroky came out and said he had a lot to learn from the Mushi, after having faced the frighteningly-talented Malaysian in the middle lane. In 2010, the rest of us got a chance to see what the fuss was all about, and boy did it ever warrant a fuss! A player with bottomless skill -- also known as "The Blink Guru," for his ability to utilize the item to its fullest potential on any hero -- Mushi is one of the brightest laners and carries in international DotA. His timing is perfect, and his positioning is impeccable; he is a player of amazing reflexes, great intuition, and is as complete a solo-mid as there could exist.
Dai / X!! - EHOME’s most feared ganker and primary solo player; X!! is EHOME’s automatic mid-lane counter to any player or hero. While Dai has been a top player for EHOME for about as long as anyone can remember, he only became an international sensation after his performances at ESWC 2010, where he set the bar for Storm Spirit and made solo-Lion the nightmare of every SF and Storm Spirit in the world. His trademark heroes – since time immemorial – are Puck, Lion, Sniper, Tinker, and Storm; and his exceptional play with various gankers such as Sven and WD is worth mentioning as well. Dai is what we could call a “stable” ganker, a rare breed player that is always manages to find perfect timings for initiation, yet is never more aggressive than he should be. Add to that his unrivalled lane control and you have the monster that has, throughout 2010, found a way to outplay and frustrate every other nominee on this list at least once. EHOME have relied on Dai’s remarkable laning and roaming skills to pull off their trademark late-game style since early 2009, and as we enter 2011, the remarkable young man has yet to disappoint.
ChuaN - Chuan is Malaysian DotA's prodigal son, and the mercurial star of the SEA scene. Although he is known as one of DotA's more difficult personalities, his combination of natural skill and relentless mentality make him one of the most formidable solo players the game has ever seen. Chuan spent 2010 playing for a great number of teams, though it was par for the course for someone of his history. He began the year in Kingsurf, before joining Aeon.cgc. He 'retired' from DotA in March, but then came out of reitrement just a month later to join Nirvana.my -- only to eventually leave the team to become a professional DotA player in China. He achieved some impressive results with ToT, though the team eventually broke up; he flirted briefly with joining LGD before joining Deity; he eventually left Deity to move back to Malaysia, after a series of disappointments at WDC and SMM.A legendary player of Shadowfiend, Storm Spirit, and Priestess of the Moon, Chuan's incredible natural skill with action semi-carries makes him one of the most sought-after players on the international scene. Through all the instability and clan-hopping, Chuan never failed to shine as an individual. He is at once one of DotA's most flawed players and one of its most brilliant -- and certainly of the top five solo players of the year 2010, without a doubt.
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(co-edited by heikki and Tjernobylbarnet)
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