The proud brothers of DOTA 2 Bangladesh

Photo: Courtesy

Mohammad Aiman "Len" Iqbal and Zunnun "Jin" Iqbal, known as two of the most popular professional DOTA 2 players today, also hold the prestigious positions in the SEA server as two of the top 1,500 players. They have been playing the game for over six years.  They have played for one of most successful professional DOTA 2 teams of Bangladesh, The Council, for a long time. The last tournament Aiman played with The Council was The Local Cup Season 1, where they were the winners.

The Iqbal brothers had their own unique reasons to begin their journey in the world of e-sports. According to Zunnun, he started gaming because he was bullied at school.  DOTA was his game of choice. On the other hand, Aiman was always fascinated by the versatility of DOTA. Today, this game is an excellent source of earning for the two boys.

Aiman is currently studying at Independent University, Bangladesh. He further  aims to pursue Drama and Theatre and continue his career in DOTA 2. Zunnun aims to work as a coach of a professional DOTA 2 team and also develop a career as a caster of this game. According to Zunnun, having a good game-sense, making strategies, watching the replays of each match and analysing them is very important.  They further spoke about the difficulties they faced.  "There are a lot of account buyers and boosters who often become a big threat to us. We have to lose our match-making rate because these players have no skills to play in very high-level ranked matches with us and a DOTA 2 match cannot be won without the balanced effort of the whole team," said Zunnun.  Aiman added that Bangladeshi professional gamers are under paid and it is quite difficult to manage sponsors for a team. Even though The Council had sponsors like Cougar, MSI and CODesign, the facilities they received were not sufficient.

E-sports have become quite popular across the globe. The sector is a good source of income for the players.  For example, last year, The International 2018, the biggest tournament of DOTA 2, had a prize of $24.8 million. Talented players like Aiman and Zunnun, if given enough support, can create possibilities of representing Bangladesh at international tournaments.