People tend to either love or hate EternalEnvy. He’s a self-admitted weeb and doesn’t hesitate to speak his mind. He’s also prone to tilting and throwing the occasional match. We are all EternalEnvy, at least a little bit. Look deep inside your soul and admit that the anime you saw that one time at your friend’s house wasn’t actually terrible.
EternalEnvy (real name Jacky Mao) decided to put his university education on hold to concentrate on professional Dota back in 2011. He gained a lot of fans playing on NoTidehunter with Loda, Akke, AdmiralBulldog, and s4 before he was infamously kicked for a 5th Swede and NTH became Alliance as we know (knew) it.
Envy’s personality has earned him many fans and many detractors. Envy threads on Reddit are typically pretty contentious. Even googling his name brings up related searches that pretty much encompass who EternalEnvy is to Dota fans:
Envy’s self avowed weeb-ism causes many to pan him as an “autist” (whether that comparison is a fair comparison probably depends on the reader’s allegiances). He is also very blunt about issues that bother him, which he writes about in a blog on LiquidDota. His commitment to anime and frequent usage of anime names as tags and anime music on stream made it easier for his fellow anime and Dota fans to be more open about their interests.
The soundboard… comes from the infamous “drop your stick” incident.
EternalEnvy Quick Facts:
- Total Prize Money Earned: $757,866.28
- Age: 25
- Nationality: Canadian
- Favorite Anime: apparently it’s ‘Clannad: After Story‘. I had to scrounge around for this factoid.
- Current Team: Team NP (this writer hopes that will eventually be picked up by Cloud 9…)
EternalEnvy’s Twitch, Ask.Fm, Twitter.
EE is a high-profile player, so he gets a lot of flak for just about everything. My favorite is the ensuing controversy after he kicked a player as a team captain and declined to go into great detail why. After he provided some context for the kick and an explanation, people gave him more flak for “criticizing” the kicked player. He wears slide sandals to a tournament? Criticism. He loses a few pub matches in a row? Such criticism. I’m not sure if there are any Dota pros under as much scrutiny as EternalEnvy, save maybe Arteezy.
Envy’s twitter bio calls him a tryhard, and that’s a pretty accurate descriptor. He really cares about not just his career but the state of Dota as a whole. He’s asked for better player accommodations at tournaments and better equipment standards. I think that while a lot of Dota pros are trying to improve the scene, Envy’s outspoken-ness shows that he really cares about the future of Dota. Next time that you’re about to hit that submit button on a Reddit comment calling him the worst captain on a T1 team, think about what Envy brings to the scene before you criticize.
Except the No-TP incident. I think that’s deserving of criticism for a little while longer.