Dota 2 fans haven’t seen Danil “Dendi” Ishutin on the professional stage for a while, but his competitive return is approaching. However, it’s not in Dota 2, but in Warcraft III. For those who missed it, here’s how Dendi decided to conquer the ancestor of Dota.
Dendi’s organization, B8 Esports, has been out of the professional Dota 2 scene for about nine months. Their last match was on June 6, 2024, when they tried to qualify for The International but didn’t advance past the quarterfinals of the CIS open qualifiers. The defeat against SIBE Team (1:2) became their last official match at the time of this article.
After that, rumors emerged that B8 might freeze their Dota 2 roster and focus on their CS2 team due to financial issues. This makes sense because B8’s CS2 team performs better and is in the top 30 of HLTV.org, showing decent results in tier-2 tournaments.
Assembling a competitive Dota 2 roster for closed qualifiers in Eastern or Western Europe without significant funding is impossible. So, B8’s Dota 2 team took a break.
Taking a break from the pro scene, Dendi didn’t abandon Dota 2 but started exploring other games. Since November 2024, he actively streamed World of Warcraft for several months after Blizzard launched fresh Classic servers, accumulating over 300 hours of WoW broadcasts. Once he finished the available content, he switched to another Blizzard title – Warcraft III.
Since February 23rd, Dendi has been regularly streaming the classic RTS, still mixing Warcraft with Dota 2 streams. However, Dendi isn’t just playing the campaign for nostalgia; he’s tryharding in matchmaking, and he’s doing quite well.
Currently, Dendi mainly plays as Humans, although his statistics show matches as Night Elves as well.
Dendi is not just mindlessly searching for games; he’s actively trying to understand the game, watching replays, studying statistics, and learning other useful aspects.
He might not have the insane APM of professional players yet, but he has refined key development patterns and race-specific actions. His body-blocking skills from Dota 2 are still relevant, allowing him to effectively surround and block enemy heroes with his units. And all this training is for a reason.
While tier-1 scene is not on the horizon yet, Dendi is participating in a Warcraft III media tournament. On March 14th, he will compete in the OnlyFangs Invitational for streamers, organized by Manuel “Grubby” Schenkhuizen, a former professional Warcraft and StarCraft player.
Notably, the tournament has official support from Blizzard Entertainment. Participants include well-known personalities like Tyler “Tyler1” Steinkamp and Chance “sodapoppin” Morris. The event boasts a respectable prize pool of $10,000 for Warcraft III standards. If Dendi wins, he will earn twice as much as B8’s Dota 2 roster earned in 2024 from prizes ($2,500).
So, we’re waiting for Dendi’s breakthrough on the professional Warcraft III scene and the potential creation of a B8 Warcraft III roster. Maybe NS will even become a caster for this “young and перспективной” discipline.
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