Puppey: 10 Most Interesting Facts You Need To Know About Him

Puppey is currently one of the most emblematic troublemakers DotA2 has ever had.


Puppey is one of the most successful DotA 2 players. He has participated in three The International finals, winning one of them. He is considered one of the best captains and the best drafters (the person that is in charge of picking the 5 heroes that will be used for a match).

10) His real name is Clement Ivanov

Puppey is known to be a very trolling player during interviews, he constantly makes fun of the interviewer and jokes around, being camera shy is definitely not one of his traits

Puppey was born on March 6 1990 in Tartu, Estonia. He is a 27 year old Estonian professional DotA 2 player and one of the most experienced. He currently plays for team Secret and is the only player to remain from the original Secret team.

9) He has a musical talent

Clement is known to have fury attacks, turning into an enraged Ursa when his team makes a dumb move or when the other team is simply better

Puppey had musical education since he was 5 years old. He claims that he can play the clarinet, violin, guitar and saxophone, also that he sang in the school choir for 12 years until he got hooked with DotA. In an interview he stated that if he had never played DotA then he most likely would have dedicated his life to music.

8) He is the highest earning eSports professional in Estonia

Puppey has also earned 11 GOSU Awards, these were awarded both by the community or by the company itself. Among these awards you can find best team, best support and best semi support.

Having won over $1.3 million dollars so far in his entire professional career, Puppey is the highest earning eSports professional Estonian player. He is just one of the two Estonian DotA 2 players that have made money by playing the game. wARDEN is the other player, who has won $140 dollars.

7) He had to run 15km to participate in The International 2011

Just look at that messy hair, thankfully he no longer has that long hair.

After receiving and invitation to attend The International 2011, and just days before the event, the whole team had to get Visas to travel to Cologne, Germany. After going to the bank to get the traveler’s check, they got stuck in heavy traffic. Since the embassy was about to close they had to get out of the car, grab their travel bags and run 15km through Kiev to get to the embassy on time. Funny enough, the driver got there first; however they managed to get there on time and receive their visas.

6) He started professional DotA in 2007

As time passed by, Puppey went from a carry role to a supportive role, he currently plays position 4/5 (which means he plays secondary support or pure support)

The first team he managed to join was Team Xero Skill, when DotA 2 did not even exist yet. After joining he managed to play his first tournament, which was the Clanbase Euro Cup XIV- WC3. He played Ursa but lost against team MYM , being eliminated from the tournament. After joining Team Xero Skill, he abandoned the choir he was part of for over 12 years. His first DotA 2 team was Natus Vincere, a team he joined back in 2011.

5) He created his own team in December 2009

Originally the team was supposed to be called Ben's F*** Buddies, however considering that Dota is a game that kids from all ages play, it might not have been the best idea. Thankfully they changed it.

The team was named Bens Friendly buddies, the players that took part of this team were Puppey, Kuroky, Fear, Merlini , Demon, Amartnt and Pajkatt , the team quickly changed their name to Blight.INT, after getting a sponsorship from the organization Blight Gaming. Just a couple of months later they changed their sponsorship to the organization Nirvana and changed their name to Nirvana.int which promised them monthly salaries and 5 exclusive travels to the different events. However the team performance was not satisfactory and later dissolved.

4) He is the winner of the first The International tournament

Right after winning the money prize, he returned to Estonia where he spent a good amount of it celebrating, shortly after, he decided to settle down and invest it

On August 2011 he joined team Natus Vincere (often abbreviated as Na ‘Vi ) and participated in the first DotA2 major event, The International. The team managed to win the tournament and take home an enormous prize of 1 million dollars, the biggest prize of any eSports event yet. The team was highly successful and was known as the best team in that time, winning other important tournaments such as Electronic Sports WorldCup and StarLadder StarSeries Season 1. They also managed a spot in The International 2012 and 2013 finals; however they were unable to win.

3) He took part of the fountain hook memorable game play

The International Archives – Fountain Hook

The fountain hook is, for many, the best play in the history of DotA 2. It consisted of a combination of 2 heroes’ abilities: Pudge’s meat hook and Chen’s Test of Faith (teleport). Dendi played Pudge and Puppey played Chen. They managed to land the combo 7 times in just 1 game. This play was made during The International 2013 and consisted of Chen teleporting Pudge back to the base, and just before the animation ends (and the actually teleport occur), Pudge would throw his hook towards a player and if it landed on someone, it would take the enemy to the base with him and almost guarantee the kill.

2) He does not have a favorite hero

DotA 2 allows a ridiculous amount of hero combinations, your team chooses 5 heroes which all differ one from another, besides you can buy over 100 items for you hero that offer unique improvements. You will never play 2 games that are the same

As the team captain he is in charge of selecting the 5 heroes that his team is going to play as well as banning heroes so the enemy team can’t pick them. He claims that if he had a favorite hero then his whole decision would be somehow biased and would not be an effective choice.  In order to create a good and effective team he needs to be open to every possibility and be willing to pick every hero.

1) He won a match without even playing it

Getting paid just to play is a blessing, however getting the other team to surrender without even playing is something almost nobody can brag about.

During the Techlabs cup UA 2011, an event that occurred in Ukraine and that they participated just after winning The International, they reached the Quarter finals where they were faced against Team IV’AN.DOTA. The team decided not to play against Natus Vincere and surrender even before the game started. They would end up winning the event against Team Moscow Five securing the prize of $4,000 dollars.

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With hunderds of books read and countless achievements earned, Arturo the aspiring Grand Maester has been constantly improving his skills to defeat the darkness if it returns.
Gamer Since: 1998
Favorite Genre: MOBA
Currently Playing: DotA 2, Fifa, CS:GO
Top 3 Favorite Games:DOTA 2, FIFA 16, Call of Duty


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