Former professional Dota 2 players Artour “Arteezy” Babaev and Max “Qojqva” Bröcker recently put together a tier list of the best carry players of all time.
The two had some interesting takes, and things got spicy in the D-Tier.
Arteezy and Qojqva’s Dota 2 Carry Tier List
Carry legend Arteezy and former professional player Qoqjva were featured on a Team Liquid Dota 2 video, where they were tasked to rank 25 carry players into a tier list.
Each tier could only hold five players, so they had to both group the players and rank them within each tier.
Arteezy and Qoqjva ultimately settled on the following list for the best Dota 2 carry players:
S-Tier Carry Players
- Illya “Yatoro” Mulyarchuk
- Oliver “skiter” Lepko
- Lasse “MATUMBAMAN” Urpalainen
- Wang “Ame” Chunyu
- Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi
The S-Tier category is only for players who have changed how the carry role was played and have achievements to speak of. The two unanimously agreed that Yatoro is the greatest carry player of all time – no questions asked.
They gave skiter a lot of respect as well. Even though he is often blamed for Team Falcons’ losses, he plays some of the hardest roles on the team and still executes them well. MATUMBAMAN is a very versatile player and has shown excellent longevity throughout his career.
Ame ranked highly even though he has never won The International. He reached the Grand Final of three TIs across different eras, proving he can still compete at the highest level even though the game has drastically changed. He is higher than many other TI winners on this list.
Miracle rounds out S-Tier – he’s legendary but mostly played a lot of mid throughout his career.
A-Tier Carry Players
- Michael “miCKe” Vu
- Anathan “ana” Pham
- Alan “Satanic” Gallyamov
- Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko
- Remco “Crystallis” Arets
The A-Tier is for players who know how to win tournaments and consistently make their team succeed. The two agreed on miCKe being very close to surpassing Miracle, but isn’t quite there yet.
Two-time TI winner ana was named the gatekeeper of the list. Arteezy believed his TI8 win was a bit of luck, but TI9 was “pure outskill.” PARIVISION’s Satanic has a lot of potential and several LAN wins under his belt, but due to his young age, it’s fair to place him below accomplished winners.
Pure is a great carry player, but Arteezy dislikes his inconsistencies. In some tournaments, he can look really bad.
Crystallis is praised for improving any team he joins, especially after a recent LAN win with MOUZ.
B-Tier Carry Players
- Roman “RAMZES666” Kushnarev
- Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao
- Artour “Arteezy” Babaev
- Egor “Nightfall” Grigorenko
- Yuma “Yuma” Langlet
Players in the B-Tier have a good idea of how to win games, but still aren’t comparable to the legends that make up the upper echelons of the list.
RAMZES666 was a monster during his peak, winning almost every Major he played in. Next on the list is EternaLEnVy, who Arteezy feels inspired a lot of people, including himself and Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling, now a multi-TI winner.
Arteezy places himself in the dead center of the list, calling himself an “average guy” despite having a long career and a handful of silverware to his name. Nightfall is undoubtedly talented, but has very severe flaws.
Yuma has a lot of potential and a good base for a top-tier carry. He’s respectful and tries really hard, but hasn’t found his stride yet.
C-Tier Carry Players
- Alimzhan “watson” Islambekov
- Daniel “Ghost” Chan
- Jin “flyfly” Zhiyi
- Nuengnara “23savage” Teeramahanon
- Héctor “K1” Rodríguez
Players in the C-Tier are generally very mechanically skilled and have high leaderboard rankings. However, Arteezy thinks these guys lack the “how to win” mindset that allows them to come back from difficult games or win games cleanly.
Watson is a player who has not lived up to his name. He has maintained the number one spot in the world leaderboards for a long time, but hasn’t translated that into many tournament wins. Ghost, flyfly, and 23savage are talented, but they haven’t achieved much throughout their careers.
K1 was named the best carry to emerge from South America and was the first player to make position five supports buy healing items for him in lane to conserve gold and hit item timings quicker.
D-Tier Carry Players
- Guo “shiro” Xuanang
- Du “Monet” Peng
- Max “Qojqva” Bröcker
- David “Parker” Nicho Flores
- Nikolay “Nikobaby” Nikolov
The D-Tier is where things get spicy. Arteezy looked like he felt bad putting almost anyone in this tier, except for a particular player.
Qoqjva mentions he frequently runs into shiro in pubs, but he has a low leaderboard rank. As a result, many European players bully him and take his carry role. Monter is a player with past tournament wins, but didn’t have much impact beyond that.
The Team Liquid producers intentionally slid in Qojqva to the list, even though he had never played carry professionally to begin with. Still, the pair ranked two carry players below him, which is quite telling.
Parker is an up-and-coming player with a lot of attention around him, but Arteezy bluntly notes that he’s mentally unstable and needs to fix his own issues before bringing them into a team environment.
The player to get the short end of the stick is Nikobaby. He had one good game at The International, but his career has been mediocre.