OG’s Ana on his Dota 2 return and the road to TI10

Anathan ‘ana’ Pham, known for a cheery smile and fountain diving Phantom Lancer, has returned to the OG roster following some time off after the squad’s legendary run at

The International 9

, where he became part of the first team ever to win The International twice.

While ana has played on other teams, he’s spent most of his career on the OG roster, with

Johan ‘N0tail’ Sundstein

at the team’s helm.

Ana shared his thoughts on why he decided to return to the team, stating: “I’ve played with these guys before obviously, including Martin (Martin ‘Saksa’ Sazdov). We all just wanted to play together just to have fun and have a good time together!” The team’s make-up is very similar to what he left behind at the end of TI9, with Saksa the only change and he’d already played with ana before on team Echo International in 2018.

The group of players around ana is important to him, as he reveals: “the environment is relaxing and playing together is just something that I probably wouldn’t feel with any other team.” The fact that the core of the OG team has been so stable and consistent gives the returning player the knowledge of what the team is like and for OG, that’s a team that always seems to be laughing, as they fountain dive their opponents.

The true skill of ana hasn’t been doubted for a long time now, but the carry player told us that he hadn’t played Dota much during his time off. “I played some pubs around six to eight months ago, then stopped and didn’t really play until I reached the bootcamp, which happened around a month ago now.” This time off seems to have only powered up ana, as his performances have been excellent.

Ana taking breaks has become a regular thing now. While it makes perfect sense given the intense lifestyle and schedule of a Dota professional, it’s not something we see other pro gamers doing. He explains: “I never decided that I needed to [take a break] after TIs, but it happened the first time through feeling to need it and it just became a tradition after that, I couldn’t play Dota all year and just keep going. It’s too much for me.”

Perhaps we’ll see more people follow ana’s system of making sure they take breaks away from the game. As intense as it can be, resetting his mind seems to be working, as ana always appears to be in form when he’s playing.

When ana returned to Dota, he returned under a new name, ‘humblegod’, but he clarified it wasn’t a permanent change. “Definitely temporary,” he says. “It was just a name my friend created and he thought it was a perfect match for me and we both thought it was really funny, so I just decided to have fun with something new!” There’s a certain irony to one of the best Dota players ever to play the game, who isn’t known for bragging, naming himself humblegod.

With all this time off, what did the humblegod get up to? Well, quite a lot, it seems. Ana “became a first home buyer, so that was an experience!” Ana also got “quite intrigued by the crypto/financial markets for a good while, so that was something I was talking about with my close friends a lot.”

As gamer, ana couldn’t stay away from a keyboard altogether and revealed a few games he’s picked up in his spare time. “I started playing some other games, like Valorant and Maplestory and was playing a lot of it”. He even managed to reach Radiant in Valorant; his talents don’t end at just Dota, it seems.

The International 10 is on the horizon and after it was cancelled last year, the hype is turned up a notch. With OG still holding onto the Aegis, ana was quick to put the brakes on the hype train and focus on what’s directly ahead.

“Our only goal is to make it to TI, so I think asking us to defend the title is a bit far-fetched right now.” But OG fans will know that you should never, ever

rule them out

– especially when the three-peat is on. Welcome back, ana.