After sitting out almost all of the 2018 Dota 2 season, Mason “mason” Venne will be joining Infamous Gaming for the remainder of the 2018-19 Dota Pro Circuit.
The long-time pro is best known for stepping in and helping carry Evil Geniuses to a third-place finish at The International 2014, as well as his lengthy and successful stint with Digital Chaos, now Chaos Esports Club. After leaving DC on Dec. 4, 2017, things were very quiet on mason’s end.
Fans began wondering when he was going to rejoin the pro scene, especially since North America was growing as a Dota 2 power. With new teams forming across the country, the fact that such a storied player wasn’t among those stacks began to make fans think he might have chosen to retire or that something was wrong.
Mason finally spoke up in May 2018, posting to his Twitter to inform everyone that he was still playing pubs and was just waiting for the right offer and situation to reach him before he would rejoin the pros.
That right offer apparently didn’t come during 2018, as the first time he competed in a DPC event since his time with DC wasn’t with a big team. Instead, he formed a stack with several other American players who were without a team.
Along with Quinn “CC&C” Callahan, who competed with OpTic Gaming in The International 2018 and paiN X, the newly formed stack named “wut the frog” signed up for the StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor North America Open Qualifier.
Mason and his team went on to qualify for the next stage, a closed qualifier against the likes of compLexity Gaming. Even with some early success, they were no match for compLexity or the Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao-led Flying Penguins.
After that event CC&C went to play as a standin for EG at MDL Macau 2019, essentially ending the short-lived stack.
Meanwhile, Infamous managed to best Thunder Predators and several other good South American squads to qualify for the next Major.
But as Infamous looked ahead to their first appearance in a Major DPC event this season, they brought in someone with a little more experience. They dropped the homegrown Sebastian Cerralta “Robo-Z” Velarde in favor of the veteran mason who will have a little less than two weeks to get accustomed to his new squad.
Due to the roster change, however, Infamous will incur a 40 percent penalty from their DPC points earned at the event.
The DreamLeague Season 11 Stockholm Major take place March 14 to 24 in Stockholm, Sweden. Infamous is a big underdog at an event full of the world’s best teams, but perhaps mason will help their team perform on one of Dota 2’s biggest stages.
