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From the “anything goes” era of early Dota 2 teams to the heavily structured era of the Dota Pro Circuit, the pro scene and its best teams have changed many times over the years. The one reliable constant is that great teams have found ways to come together. While the definition of “greatness” in the game has changed over the years, there are still a few teams that truly stand apart from the rest. We’ve listed those teams in reverse order, starting with our 10th-best team and ending with our pick for the best pro Dota 2 team ever.
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It’s difficult to understate how transformative Wings Gaming’s run at The International 2016 was to competitive Dota 2 as a whole.
For the most part, Dota 2’s balance was comparable to any other game with many different characters, whether it’s League of Legends or Street Fighter. Most characters were viable in professional play to some degree, but a decent chunk of the roster was dismissed out of hand. Wings Gaming almost single-handedly showed that this was the wrong approach.
While the team would still play meta staples of the day like Batrider and Elder Titan, it wasn’t above kicking off the playoffs with the prominent pub game duo of Pudge and Techies. This approach seemingly made every other team in the game rethink their own approach to drafting, and kicked off an era where almost every hero in Dota 2 popped up in big tournaments.
This was Wings’ biggest contribution to the Dota 2 pro scene, but it wasn’t its only strong showing. Though it didn’t compete in many LANs, Wings still notched strong showings in several other events during the season.
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When it comes to institutional success in Dota 2, LGD Gaming was long the model. From 2012 through 2023, there were few moments where the organization wasn’t fielding an elite Dota 2 team. In fact, LGD Gaming arguably stands as the most successful organization in Dota 2 history.
But when looking at its individual Dota 2 teams, the best iteration of LGD was its post-TI7 squad. On the individual level, each of these players are all-time greats. For three straight years, PSG.LGD was on the short list of favorites for each and every Dota 2 major.
Though the team didn’t win The International and is often overlooked as a result, it still notched second and third-place finishes in TI8 and TI9, respectively. The 2020 iteration of the team was its most consistently successful and, had The International not been canceled that year, it’s possible this roster could’ve been ranked much higher.
Valve
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Dota 2 fans of a very specific era can look back and chuckle about how OG once had a reputation as “the team that couldn’t win The International.” Even still, it managed to carve out a spot among the greatest teams in Dota 2 history.
Following The International 2015, Valve built a seasonal battle pass system into Dota 2 around $3 million majors that it organized with various partners. OG was formed by former Heroes of Newerth stars for Fnatic, Fly and n0tail, at that same time. And this OG team absolutely defined these events. Valve hosted five of these tournaments and OG won four of them.
The only trouble is that the team suffered middling performances at The International. That got fixed over time, though.
Image credits: Valve
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Team Liquid was left to what seemed to be hard times when its Dota 2 roster left to create Team Nigma. While it found a group of proven veterans by signing away Alliance’s roster, the new lineup just couldn’t match that success. It was reasonably competitive, but there simply weren’t any notable results.
That changed seemingly out of nowhere when the team made a third-place run at The International 2022. This effectively transformed Team Liquid from a middling squad into a legitimate contender in the biggest Dota 2 tournaments. But “contender” isn’t the same as “champion.”
Liquid became notorious for taking second place in, essentially, all the biggest tournaments of 2023. The lone exception was a top-six finish at The International. It technically took a step down in this regard with more mixed results in 2024, but it shattered its second-place curse in epic fashion by winning The International 2024.
Ultimately, that combination of consistently strong results and an Aegis of Champions victory lets the modern Team Liquid make the cut as one of the best Dota 2 teams in history.
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The original “best Dota 2 team” is probably also its most beloved. In the nascent Dota 2 esports scene, the core of Dendi, XBOCT, and Puppey offered anything that fans could want. Goofiness, intensity, and professionalism were all on display with this team. That didn’t just appear on-camera, but also on the server with the propensity for both workmanlike victories and cheesy comeback performances.
While it’s those performances at The International that are widely remembered for NAVI, the team took home many other trophies along the way. The team’s mantel was lined with championship from events of Dota 2’s formative years like The Defense, StarLadder, and the Electronic Sports World Cup.
Image credits: Yahoo Sports SEA
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Team Secret had some controversies over the years, but the organization maintained a steady rotation of all-time great players for much of its existence. The team’s best era, though, was built around Puppey and Nisha.
Puppey’s leadership and Nisha’s ability to dominate as both a carry and mid-laner made for one of the best pairings of any Dota 2 team, ever. They didn’t do it alone though, building up less-established talent like YapzOr and MidOne while cycling in established names like MATUMBAMAN and Resolut1on. Even while maintaining a fluid roster throughout 2022, Secret was able to post consistently exceptional performances.
All in all, this crew of players was able to combine for three top-four finishes at The International, three major championships, and a long list of other tournament victories.
Image credits: Valve
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OG had a reputation for struggling at The International, but its patchwork 2018 roster smashed that idea in dramatic fashion.
On paper, OG shouldn’t have even been at The International 2018 to begin with. After an underwhelming season, Tal “Fly” Aizik and Gustav “s4” Magnusson left the team to join Evil Geniuses, which was preceded by the departure of mid-laner Roman “Resolut1on” Fomynok. OG had to rebuild its roster on extremely short notice, and put together a hodgepodge of a team.
Former OG mid-laner ana came back as a carry. N0tail went from playing carry to hard support. Coach Ceb came out of a lengthy retirement from competition to plug the team’s hole at the offlane position. The final mid-laner spot was filled by a completely unknown pub player in Topson.
Despite having players with little recent pro experience and two of its established players playing in off-role positions, OG shocked the world by winning The International 2018. Then, despite having an underwhelming 2019, it did so again that year. In the process, it became the first team in history to win The International twice.
The one major knock on OG is that the team didn’t have any serious results outside of The International. Still, it’s hard to understate the team’s peak accomplishments.
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2015 to 2017 was an odd but very ultimately successful stretch of time for Evil Geniuses.
The team was a news cycle unto itself, generating both controversy and excitement with fans for its roster moves. Even when things were stable, there was always something to talk about. Fear bounced between injury hiatus, retirement, coaching, and active play. ppd briefly became the CEO of Evil Geniuses, only to form his own team on the side. Arteezy casually became a top Twitch streamer.
These were all big stories at the time, but most of them have been forgotten in favor of the team’s in-game results. Alongside its famous winning run at The International 2015, Evil Geniuses posted two third-place finishes at TI, the DAC 2015 title, and top-three finishes in four Valve-hosted Dota 2 majors.
This iteration of the team ultimately ended with a whimper, suffering an early elimination at The International 2017. Still, this era of EG brought home enough hardware to stand among the greatest Dota 2 teams of all time.
Image credits: Valve
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Team Spirit flew under the radar in 2021 for most fans. Though it had strong success in unofficial tournaments, the team’s mixed results in Dota Pro Circuit events meant it had to work its way into The International 2021 through qualifiers. Spirit seemingly overachieved by earning an upper bracket playoffs spot, but a loss to Invictus Gaming foretold an early exit for the team.
But instead, Team Spirit strung together an all-time great lower-bracket run and stunned PSG.LGD in the finals.
Spirit proved it wasn’t a one-hit wonder from there by posting a strong 2022 season that included an Arlington Major championship, though its success was overshadowed by a shockingly early elimination from TI11.
It looked like the team was set to sputter out from there with a rough start to 2023, but Spirit came online in July by winning Riyadh Masters 2023 and DreamLeague Season 21. That momentum helped carry the team to its second Aegis of the Immortals at The International 2023.
Image credits: Valve
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The KuroKy-led Team Liquid is comfortably the best Dota 2 team of all time, and by a deceptively comfortable margin.
For four years, Liquid was a favorite to win every single event it played in. It made good on that on many occasions, winning a long list of tournaments. But what makes this team truly exceptional is how good it really was, even in defeat.
Even when it wasn’t taking first place, it was oftentimes placing in the top four of big events. The most famous moment for the team was winning The International in 2017, but combining that with a fourth-place finish at TI8 and second-place run at TI9 was no small feat, either. Similarly, it won its share of majors, and was in the hunt for basically every event it competed in.
The ceiling for Team Liquid was as high as anything ever seen in Dota 2 before, but what makes it truly special, and what puts it at the top of the list of the best Dota 2 teams of all time, is how high the floor was.
Featured image credits: Valve
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