When people talk about the term “whales” in gaming, they’re usually referring to players who spend an insane amount of money in one game or company’s ecosystem.
In the case of Dota 2, one of the biggest spenders is a player who’s been claiming to be a Saudi prince. The alleged prince has already spent more than $6,000 on The International 2020 Battle Pass.
With that level of spending and their constant play-time in the game, they already leveled the account, “Purrrrrfect Devil Angel Yukeo,” to Level 14,430 in just four days. This is more than 4,000 levels ahead of the second-ranked player, with a $1,500 lead poured into the total, too.
And this is nothing new for this player, either. Over the last three years, they’ve spent a combined $69,494 and counting on the Battle Pass alone, with $42,100 of that coming from 2018. They’ve been the top contributor in each of those years and set a record by reaching Level 175,000 in 2017.
The claimed prince has been active on Dota since 2011 and has played over 10,000 matches in Dota, totaling a 5,772-5,467 win/loss record—a 51-percent win rate. Their play-time is private, but at the last time of recording, they had put 9,046 hours into Dota, along with nearly 550 hours in Team Fortress 2.
There are several things that can be called into question about the account, but the owner’s willingness to spend money on Dota is unquestionable.
Correction June 19 3:42pm CT: The original version of this story definitively linked the account to the crown prince of Saudi Arabia without adequately reflecting the lack of direct evidence proving this. We regret this error.
Published: May 29, 2020 08:15 pm