Manuel “Grubby” Schenkhuizen is one of the most decorated names in esports. He’s the most successful Warcraft III player of all time, having won 38 LANs, six of which were world championships, in a career spanning 2003 to 2011.
The 36-year-old also had stints in Age of Empires and Starcraft but has been retired for over a decade. Today, he’s known for being a full-time streamer on Twitch.
As fate would have it, he’s taken a liking to Dota 2, which descended from the classic popular DotA Allstars mod in Warcraft III, and has streamed it for almost 700 hours in 2022.
Grubby admitted he regretted not playing Dota 2 when he was younger, considering how much fun he’s having on it now. “I feel like I wasted ten years of fun!” he said.
But he insists it played out that way for a reason.
The first reason is that, as someone who has always been a self-described Blizzard loyalist, he felt like Valve took the Dota 2 franchise away from them and was bitter about it. “I was thinking, like, “Hey, this game company took Dota away from Blizzard,’” he explained. “I was such a Blizzard loyalist that I could think like that and somehow rationalize it.”
However, his opinion has changed since then.
Now, he understands Blizzard willingly decided to sell the rights to it because they didn’t want it, and he believes Valve has done a stellar job to make Dota 2 great.
The second reason, and the one that makes the most sense given his career trajectory, is that it wasn’t in his wheelhouse.
“I don’t play MOBAS. I play one-on-one competitive games,” he said. The temptation of earning megabucks by winning The International wasn’t enough to sway him.
“Should I start Dota 2 just because there’s a lot of prize money or it’s very popular if I don’t believe in it principally?” he said. His answer was no.
But like most people, his interests and opinions have changed throughout the years, and he believes now is “the right time” for him to dive into the world of Dota 2.
He’s been loving it, and the community has loved having him.
