Dota 2 fans enjoyed a brief reunion of the iconic core duo of Artour “Arteezy” Babaev and Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan as Shopify Rebellion played with the latter as the stand-in midlaner for PGL Wallachia Season 1. During an interview at the event, Arteezy talked about what it felt like to play with SumaiL after more than four years. Playing once again was a “blast from the past” for him, and found it interesting that a lot of things about SumaiL have not changed over time. At the same time, Arteezy talked about how SumaiL has also grown more mature.
Arteezy says playing with SumaiL again is a “blast from the past”
While SumaiL’s behavior and gameplay have remained similar to when they last played together years ago, Arteezy said that he has evolved into a more expressive player with age.
“It’s definitely a blast from the past. He hasn’t changed at all since the last time I remember playing with him. He’s literally the same vibes. His behavior is the same. His reaction to things in the game is the same. His reaction outside…I think the one thing he’s improved is that he is a lot more vocal and a long time ago, I think he was a lot more like – I am the best. I am not going to need to talk all stiff but now he is a lot more expressive and I think that just comes with age.”
Watching SumaiL play, Arteezy remarked that this reunion period reminds him a lot of his younger self.
“I didn’t realize he said he’s 25 today. He’s actually quite old. We are all quite old so it’s been really fun. It reminds me of my youth a little bit. It reminds me of the clowny stuff like showing up late to scrims, all the stupid stuff that doesn’t really happen. It just happens with this guy. I mean he didn’t show up late to scrims. It’s just like an expression just in case he says something but yeah, it’s been fun.”
Between 2015 and 2019, Arteezy and SumaiL played together at Evil Geniuses, winning Mars Dota 2 League 2016 Autumn, The Manila Masters, and securing good results in The Internationals (TIs).
Even though they were not winning many tournaments during this period, they were among the top teams in the world for the most part and Arteezy and SumaiL as two core players excelled during this phase, drawing a lot of fan interest as well.
In 2019, SumaiL and Evil Geniuses parted ways, while Arteezy remained with the team. Currently, Arteezy now plays for Shopify Rebellion, a team that he joined with many former Evil Geniuses players while SumaiL is a part of Nigma Galaxy.
Following their elimination from PGL Wallachia Season 1, the two players will go their separate ways. The team fought till the end of the Swiss group stage before losing to BOOM Esports 2-1 to be eliminated.
