DOTA Rewind: The Top 10 Memes of 2021

This year didn't start off so well for Dota 2, with the biggest upset being Valve canceling the highly-anticipated Major. The grief that follows has certainly made these past few weeks gloomy, but don't worry, after every rain, there will be MEMES! To cheer up the Dota community, Esports.gg has compiled the biggest memes of 2021, but be warned, you might smile, laugh, or even cringe at these moments! So buckle up, and let's take a trip down memory lane.

Here are Esports.gg's top 10 memes of 2021:

The annual All-star matches have grown a little stale these past couple of years, but TI10's version was something different. In a hilarious battle between the English broadcast talent (the emotionally stunted gamers) against the Russian talents (the washed-out pros), we were overloaded by memes.

Not only can we hear the chaotic in-game communication in the booths, but we also got to see the brutal commentary by Jake "SirActionSlacks" Kanner and Kasumi “sumichu” Yogi:

Oof.. savage!

Who could forget the gold mine of memes at TI10 - yes, the post-match interviews.

While some of you might immediately think of the infamous loser interviews, we are actually talking about the amusing answers from the winners! Like when Secret obliterated OG to kick them to the Lower Bracket and Secret's captain, Clement "Puppey" Ivanov sent them a simple yet potent message: Stay down.

Or when T1's Xepher gave a shoutout to his mom!

And of course, not to miss the brutal interview by Vici Gaming's Ren "old eLeVeN" Yangwei after eliminating his former teammate, Daryl Koh "iceiceice" Pei Xiang.

A slight ‘that’s awkward’ moment in 2021 brings us to the pre-match group hug between Alliance’s members which didn’t go so well. At TI10’s elimination series against T1, Alliance wanted to do a group hug but Linus “Limmp” Blomdin decided to practice his deny skills on his teammates.

The group hug deny became the talk of Dota town and a meme was born. In the All-Star match at TI10, the English broadcast team even reenacted the epic group hug for a good laugh.

This time around, the mainstay of OG, Sébastien "Ceb" Debs was at the forefront of a Dota meme.

Team Secret's never-ending barrage meme-ing OG's losses have brought some laughs.. but also outrage. MidorMeepo, the man behind Team Secret’s account, revealed on his personal Twitter that Ceb slid into his DMs and he was pretty effing mad.

Some of his messages became an iconic copypasta and although Ceb might be a TI winner, he took a bit of an L in this aftermath.

Brothers, Syed Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan, and Yawar “YawaR” Hassan, in what seemed like a Squid Game fiction turned reality, had to fight each other off to avoid elimination at TI10.

Representing different regions, Yawar in Quincy Crew had to face off his younger brother, SumaiL in OG. Quincy Crew had a decent start to the series but OG recuperated to secure the BO3.

In the final moments of Quincy Crew’s life in the tournament, Yawar left a short message for SumaiL, – “GG GL lil bro.” said Yawar.

Aww.. maybe he's not so evil after all.

If you're enjoying the list so far, make sure you catch our video version of this list featuring Shu Faye Wong as our host! You can watch The Top 10 Dota 2 Memes of 2021 video on Esports GG's YouTube channel here.

There were many bad-mannered all-chats throughout the year. But one incinerating instance happened in the midst of the Team Spirit vs OG TI10 elimination series which became a spammed meme until today.

The defending champions were already one down and after a punishing teamfight in the second game, Spirit’s midlaner TORONTOTOKYO all-chatted an ‘ez game’. 

Yep. At the BIGGEST tournament in Dota 2 history, he pulled a pub classic.

The controversial move definitely raised some eyebrows. TI winner and broadcast talent, Aui_2000 even questioned the morale of an ‘ez game’ all-chat. Nevertheless, many still enjoyed the all-chat spiciness, and it definitely elevated TORONTOKYO's gigachad status.

What started as a harmless vlog by Alliance showing the team’s weekly journey through the DPC, erupted into the biggest Dota 2 drama (AND MEME) of 2021. It was seen that Alliance’s just recruited coach, Peter “ppd” Dager was communicating with the team in-game, which was supposedly against the rules and OG’s Johan “N0tail” Sundstein was quick to call them out.

It was later clarified that the rules indeed allowed for coaches to be involved in-game and the change was stated in a general mail distributed to teams. This sparked a huge backlash towards the captain of OG and the birth of the NoMail meme.

So remember kids, always read the instructions!

A Dota 2 anime and an anime-themed Major in the same year? YES. The WePlay AniMajor opens the TOP 3 of our list!

The AniMajor was hands-down the best Dota 2 event of the year, smashing viewership records and spewing a plethora of content. And of course, comes with it a gazillion memes!

From Capitalist and Kyle doing the candle challenge..

To Neal "tsunami" Khandheria on Copium..

Not to mention waifu SirActionSlacks..

The WePlay AniMajor delivered... And my GOD that stage was incredible. TI10 didn’t even come close. 

The year kickstarted with the spectacular Singapore Major and among the many amazing highlights, one particular episode in the Grand Finals became a HUGE meme.

When IG was on the verge of losing the third game against Evil Geniuses and all hope seemed lost, they managed to turn the tables. After IG wiped EG outside of their own base, Emo, who was clearly fired up, dropped a question mark in the all-chat.

THE AUDACITY.

But what happened next? IG won the rest of the games and became the champions of the Singapore Major. The question mark certainly worked like a charm. It even landed a plague of incurable question marks across social media!

Without a doubt, the most significant championships bring the best MEMES! The group of young talent from Team Spirit did not have an easy start on the road to TI10. Barely surviving the EEU Open Qualifiers, they came to TI10 with hopes and dreams - to only play in the world's smallest practice room.

In a vlog, Team Spirit revealed the horrendous state of their practice room. The state of the room was extremely cramped, the training area was set in the kitchen, there was a mysterious empty toilet paper in the bathroom, and they had no access to the internet at that point in time. It was also mentioned that some teams have better rooms because they were distributed according to DPC points.

Yikes, talk about a villain origin story.

But hey, despite a lousy practice room, they eventually won $18 Million dollars as the champion of The International 10. Now every team is going to want Team Spirit's practice room at TI11!

There are way too many good memes of 2021 and it was tough fitting the best into the top 10. So here are the rest of the memes that didn't make it to the list but are still WORTH the mention!

Who would have thought that the recipe for a TI win is to shave your head bald! In the midst of TI10, Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk suddenly shaved his head which "was a sacrifice to the god of Dota," and it definitely worked.

Another unforgettable meme by Team Spirit, specifically Magomed "Collapse" Khalilov, is his formidable Magnus. He was ON FIRE with his godlike Skewers which led to the team winning and clutching many fights.. and he quite literally Skewered their opponents to the airport.

Ever wondered how the Global Silence works if the Earth is flat? Yes, neither did we. But when Lacoste asked the TI10 panel.. what he heard after is the loudest silence in Dota history.

That's all for this list! Hopefully, 2022 will bless us with MORE memes!

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