From a substitute player in Invictus Gaming to two-times TI champion: this is the story of Anathan “ana” Pham, one of the best Dota 2 players that ever touched the game.
In this instalment of our two-part series, we are going to dive into things you probably did not know about the Australian superstar, so do not miss out!
Early career
Anathan Pham is an Australian Dota 2 player born on 26th October 1999. We already talked about Topson’s heroics during the last two TI’s and that's why we simply have to talk about a guy that set everything up for OG.
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Let’s start from the beginning – how did it all start? Just like every other esports player, ana got into gaming by watching his brother play. He picked up Dota 2 at a very young age and was spending over 10 hours a day playing this MOBA. However, he did not like school that much, and his mother was worried. He would often come up with excuses in order to stay home and play games. Whether this is healthy or not, decide for yourselves.
If you are an avid Dota 2 fan, then you probably know that the Australian Dota 2 scene is not that strong or popular. For such a talented guy, ana didn't really have the competition he needed in order to bring his game to another level.
In late 2015, he decided to drop out of high school and move to China in order to pursue his dream of becoming a professional Dota 2 player. First, he joined the CDEC in-house league where he competed against other top-tier Chinese players.
However, 2016 was the breakout year for Anathan who joined his first big team in March, Invictus Gaming. He was brought in as a substitute to a well-known Chinese pro, Luo “Ferrari_430” Feichi. His spell with Invictus Gaming did not last that long and later in 2016, he found his real home with OG.
It seemed like all flowers and roses early on but ana’s performance at The International 2017 was not as successful as other Dota 2 events. OG played really poorly and they ended up at the 7th spot as they were eliminated by LGD Gaming.
After a woeful elimination from the TI 7, ana wanted a break. He took things one step further by joining Echo International but that did not last long and he was back in the OG starting lineup in early 2018.
The rest of his story is epic and it will go down in the Dota 2 history books, so do not miss out on the second part of ana’s story where we will focus on his personal and team achievements.
Personal life
Truth be told, ana keeps his personal life to himself. However, we were able to dig up a few interesting facts about the OG hard-carry.
Anathan has a lot of siblings – two sisters and an older brother, to be more precise. His mother has always been against video games, but eventually, she became one of his fans.
Also, ana likes to cook and he sees Gordon Ramsey as his biggest idol.
At the time of writing, he is in a happy relationship with architecture and an urban designer called Anastasia (ana+ana, get it?).
Her Instagram can be found here. Spoiler alert – you may or may not see her cradling the TI Aegis in her lap.
This Australian superstar is amongst the few players that have earned over $6,000,000 in prize pool money. Given the fact that he is still inactive, we believe that he awaits the next TI in order to establish himself as the best player that ever touched Dota 2.
But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Stay tuned for Part 2 of our ana's story, where we will take a look at what makes him truly great among the Dota 2 pros.
And if you are interested in the best in brightest in the world of esports, check out the rest of our Life and times series:
- The life and times of s1mple – Part 1
- The life and times of s1mple – Part 2
- The life and times of xQc – Part 1
- The life and times of xQc – Part 2
And if you love the infamous MOBA that ana plays, keep an eye on our Dota 2 section for more news and tips!
