Wang “Ame” Chunyu, the Uncrowned King of Dota 2, secured his legacy thanks to a thoughtful gesture by Illya “Yatoro” Mulyarchuk following his victory at The International 2023.
When a team wins TI, both the players and the organization’s name gets engraved onto the Aegis of Champions. This happens in real life and in the Dota 2 world. Valve asks players to submit their usernames for the occasion, and Yatoro decided to retain the Kanji character next to his name, pronounced as “Ame.”
According to machine translations, the character translates to “rain” in Japanese, and the letter is also pronounced as “yu” in Chinese, similar to Ame’s real name. Though Ame came incredibly close to lifting the Aegis himself, he always fell one step short.
Yatoro expressed his admiration for Ame in the past on multiple occasions, saying he would extensively study Ame’s gameplay to learn from him.
In 2018, OG beat PSG.LGD to win The International 8. In 2021, Team Spirit shocked the world, beat PSG.LGD to win The International 10, and Ame’s TI history also features third and fourth-place finishes.
Dota 2 fans believed Ame would win TI himself one day, but the star player announced he would hang his mouse and keyboard up alongside Lu “Somnus” Yao, who retired from competitive Dota 2. The two left the scene without a crown, causing Somnus to reconsider his Dota 2 retirement and eventually return to the scene.
Ame, on the other hand, has been more committed to his retired life, only returning to pro Dota 2 to form a Chinese super team for the 19th Asian Games. Ame can always come back for another chance at glory, but even if he doesn’t do that, his name will live on forever alongside Yatoro on the Aegis.
