ESL: Arif, tell us how you first started playing DotA and why you decided to start playing professionally?
Arif “MSS” Anwar: I started playing DotA when I was in elementary or middle school. I would only play a couple games a week cause I would mainly just watch my brother play. We only had one computer that was good enough to play DotA so we would take turns. But then we finally got separate computers and I started playing DotA like crazy. I played Heroes of Newerth and then transitioned to DotA 2. I played pretty casually through high school and didn’t really think I would ever play competitively. But I started actually getting good at the game, which surprised me and a lot of my friends too. I began standing-in for teams during my last year of high school. That was primarily thanks to Liquid’Bulba for asking me to ring for them. I was pretty nervous my first game; I thought ‘Oh crap, I could really embarass myself in front of a lot of people.’ But I played well and I began to realize how fun this game was when playing in a competitive setting. I immediately gained passion for it and just wanted to get better at the game.
ESL: Your rise to popularity was primarily spurred on by your stand-in appearances with teams like Liquid, Dignitas, and EG. How did you get the opportunities to play with such high-tier teams?
Arif “MSS” Anwar: I guess I’d give my thanks to ixmike88 for running IXDL, which is the in-house league for North American players. I guess I was playing pretty well in IXDL because one day Bulba added me and started talking to me because he thought I was good, I think we even played a few 1v1s. We just became friends and he asked me to ring for them one day .
Source: ESL
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