SumaiL

Syed Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan is a Pakistani/American professional Dota 2 player who is currently playing for OG.

Biography[edit]

Sumail was born in Karachi, Pakistan. He started playing Dota when he was eight years old. When his family moved from Pakistan to Rosemont, Illinois in 2012 he began playing in the North American Elite League. Sumail quickly became the highest rated player in the in-house league, establishing himself as one of the best upcoming talents in the North American scene.^[1] His play was so impressive that UNiVeRsE pushed for EG to recruit him in January 2015. Sumail’s LAN debut was at the Dota 2 League Season 5 finals in Las Vegas on January 6th 2015. The team performed poorly at the event, in part to lack luster performance by Sumail. Critics began to question whether he deserved a roster spot on a team like Evil Geniuses.

In February, Sumail would get a chance to redeem himself as EG participated in the Dota 2 Asia Championships. In his first match of the tournament, Sumail introduced his Euls Scepter of Divinity Shadow Fiend build, which would quickly become part of the meta for the tournament. EG’s captain ppd entered the tournament with a focus on drafting around Sumail, in order to ensure he was comfortable in game. This proved to be quite successful as EG found themselves in the top 4, with an 11-4 record, after the group stage. EG stormed through the upper bracket beating Na’Vi and Big God, but were soundly defeated 2-0 by VG in the upper bracket finals. After a 2-0 victory over the tournament favorite Team Secret in the lower bracket finals, EG had a rematch with VG in the finals. In the finals Sumail established himself as one of the best mid players in the world with his stellar play. Sumail’s most notable performance of the tournament was in Game 3 of the finals, where he found himself with a 0-3-0 score on Storm Spirit before the three minute mark. Undeterred by the poor start, Sumail quickly took control of the game and led his team to victory, while finishing with a score of 17-7-11. Sumail’s breakout performance at DAC led to widespread recognition as a young prodigy in both the Chinese and Western Dota scenes, and secured a reputation as one of the best Storm Spirit players in the game. Sumail helped EG establish themselves as the best team in the beginning of 2015, along with securing $1,284,158 USD for the team.

EG entered The International 2015 as one of the two favorites along with Team Secret; EG had finished 2nd behind Secret at each of the previous two LAN tournaments, The Summit 3 and ESL One Frankfurt 2015. Team Secret finished in 8th place, leaving the way to the championship open for EG. However, EG experienced a setback of their own after losing the Upper Bracket Finals 0-2 to the surprise wildcard powerhouse CDEC Gaming. EG defeated LGD Gaming in the Lower Bracket Finals and prevailed 3-1 in a rematch with CDEC in the Grand Finals to claim the International 2015 championship. Sumail’s play was particularly noteworthy in both the Lower Bracket Finals and the Grand Finals – Game 1 of the Grand Finals was eerily reminiscent of Sumail’s experience in DAC, as Sumail died 3 times on his signature Storm Spirit in the opening moments of the game, but proceeded to complete the fastest Orchid Malevolence on a Storm Spirit across the entire tournament. EG took home $6,634,661 for their first-place finish, making Sumail the youngest player ever to surpass $1 million in esports winnings.^[2]

Following the tournament saw the departure of Aui_2000 for Arteezy. He finished second place in the MLG 2015 World Finals and came third in Valve’s inaugural announcement of the Majors system, the Frankfurt Major 2015, losing to potential champions, OG in the lower bracket finals. Ending the 2015 calendar year, ppd’s decision to draft the Shadow Fiend for sumaiL in the grand finals of the The Summit 4 saw the team making an eventual comeback of 3-2, winning the tournament.

In 2016, SumaiL started off in a slow start and finished third in the Shanghai Major. However, after numerous roster changes throughout the year saw his team exit in the early stages of premier tournaments. After the announcement of being directly invited to The International 2016, saw a roster change to occur with the addition of Zai and Universe, causing the team to have to play in the open qualifiers. After qualifying, he attended The International 2016 for the second successive time under Evil Geniuses and came third place in the tournament. After the extended post-TI break, he travelled to China to compete in the MDL Autumn 2016 and came first place.^[3]

Trivia[edit]

• SumaiL was featured in Time Magazine’s top 30 influential teenagers of 2016, making him the first ever Dota 2 player to be included in the magazine’s awards.^[4]
• He is the brother of Yawar “YawaR” Hassan.
• He is the youngest player to win an official Valve event, doing so at only 15 years and 361 days old at DAC 2015.
• He is the youngest player to win an International, having won The International 2015 when he was just 16 years and 176 days old.^{[needs update ]}
• He looked up to Maelk in 2010.^[5]
• He enjoys cheese pizza so much that he has it every two days.^[6]
• He is a big NBA fan, cheering for the Golden State Warriors.^[7]

Statistics[edit]

• He holds the record for the most kills (31) in a single game at The International. He achieved this feat while playing for Evil Geniuses as Tiny against OG during Game 3 of their Upper Bracket series at The International 2018.

Achievements[edit]

Gallery[edit]

Biography Videos[edit]

2017[edit]

• 0908603917 | The Story of SumaiL by eSports Stories

Interviews[edit]

References[edit]