The Story of Entity Gaming’s Crystallis: The Hard Road to Division 1

Dota 2 has seen an influx of young players as of late, and in all regions of competitive play, there are not only upstart players making it to the best teams, but also full-fledged squads of young players making a serious impact in the space. Each of these players has a unique story to tell about how they got there: some were recognized by top teams for their undeniable talent, while others formed their own teams to compete against the best that to Dota 2 competitive scene has to offer. And while there are a lot of interesting stories about players that clawed their way to the top of the scene, there probably aren’t many as interesting as Remco “Crystallis” Arets’ journey.

In early 2020, Crystallis started playing Dota 2 competitively with B8. Crystallis’ journey as a pro has not been without some challenges: from being part of one of the biggest losing streaks in competitive Dota 2 with B8 to becoming one of the best up-and-coming players in the Western Europe Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) region this year with Entity, Crystallis has worked as hard and struggled to get where he is today. And while Crystallis’ competitive journey is still in its infancy, the foundations of it were laid a long time ago in the summer of 2013.

Also Read: Does Age Truly Matter in Esports?

Crystallis’ baby steps into Dota 2

It is no secret that Dota 2 has an especially steep learning curve that many new players have experienced when first starting out. Some are lucky enough to have someone in our lives who have helped us learn the game, and for Crystallis that would be his cousins and his brother, who introduced him to the game when he was just 12 years old.

“I have always kind of enjoyed playing games,” Crystallis told AFK Gaming “I started off with Minecraft, Nintendo [games], and things like that. But when I was 12 and during summer vacation, my brother and my cousins introduced me to Dota, and then we played that for a year or two with my entire family. Eventually, they stopped playing, but I kept playing and by the time I reached 16, I was starting to get a bit serious. I was 1k Immortal and then now that I am 20, I am here. That’s pretty much how it went.”

Even at a young age Crystallis had begun to find his stride in the game and knew what he wanted to do (play professionally), but his parents weren’t really on board with his plans: “At first, they really didn’t like that and they actually had a lot of problems with it, especially with my dad,” he said. However, as time progressed and he reached the level he is at today, his parents began to support his dream.

Crystallis takes his first leap in competitive Dota 2

Being good at Dota 2, having the support of family, and after seven years of playing the game, Crystallis finally gets the opportunity to join a professional team–B8–which also features Dota 2 legend Danil “Dendi” Ishutin. Crystallis, along with Aleh “LastHero” Dzemidovich, Enis “5up” Elfki, and Dzmitry “Fishman” Palishchuk, came on board with Dendi just as B8 had set the record for the longest losing streak in competitive Dota 2 history–the team had lost an unprecedented 24 games in a row.

Crystallis’ debut for B8 did not immediately turn the team’s fortunes around, but he did show some promise, and then in his second series for B8, the team finally snapped a 26-game losing streak by defeating FlyToMoon 2-0. That success was short-lived as B8 ended the losing streak record but continued to lose games and events by wide margins. By all accounts, Crystallis’ competitive career was not off to the best start and he decided to leave the squad after just six months.

Also Read: B8 Esports Finally Break Their Losing Spree! Wins For The First Time In Two Months

“Dendi is a really nice guy by himself, but of course, when you lose every single game and you are almost setting the record for the biggest losing streak in esports, you don’t have the best atmosphere in the team, so it’s hard to say if I necessarily have fond memories of [playing] there,” Crystallis said.

With his first run as a professional Dota 2 player on a squad going a bit awry and delivering mixed results, Crystallis decided it was time to move on and try something new.

His fondness towards Creepwave

In the eyes of the outside world, Crystallis’ only achievement at B8 was being part of the squad that broke the losing streak, but to him it was much more than that: he was laying the foundation of a whole new squad, Creepwave.

“I actually did meet Fishman there (at B8) and we went on to make Creepwave so that was not like a fond memory but a good thing from the entire experience,” he noted.

At the start of DPC 2021, Crystallis created Creepwave alongside Fishman, and at the start of the season, the squad placed third in the first regional league and in Snow Sweet Snow #1.

As the season progressed, Crystallis hopped between playing with Creepwave, to Ghost Frogs, and back again, but he was unable to obtain the success he desired. Finally, 10 months after Creepwave’s formation, Crystallis won his first major tournament in the Dota 2 Champions League S4. In addition to Fishman, the rest of the team during this win consisted of 16-year-olds Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf, Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov, and Evgenii “Chuvash” Makarov, the only player with a reasonable amount of competitive experience.

Amidst the various versions of Creepwave and Ghost Frogs he played with during the year, Crystallis expressed his fondness for this particular team. Although he had clearly won his first significant tournament, there was more to it than just performances and results. Crystallis felt a wider sense of belonging that was unique to playing with these players.

“It was just an extremely fun team. You don’t usually come across teams where people just get along very well and it’s very friendly and funny. Usually, you have some conflicts, some other random shit that will make the atmosphere not amazing. But then Creepwave felt like you are playing with a bunch of friends and it was just an insane amount of fun. So, probably, that’s what made it special, I think.”

After this event, which was held around the same time as TI10, ATF and bzm were poached by OG and Chu joined as the organization’s new coach. During a DPC 2021-22 post-match interview, ATF had also expressed the sentiment of his former teammate, proposing that OG bring his entire Creepwave squad to the team.

On the other hand, Crystallis and Fishman were in the same place they were a year ago when they founded Creepwave, with the departures of ATF, bzm, and Chu. They had to find three more players in order to rebuild the squad, and while it proved challenging at first, they eventually found Tobias “Tobi” Buchner, Daniel “Stormstormer” Schoetzau, and Suzuya as replacements.

“Later on, of course, Ammar, and bzm got poached and we were like – ‘Okay, what the fu** do we do now?’ There are almost no players to be found in the Leaderboards anymore. It was kind of hard. Eventually, we ended up selecting Tobi and Stormstormer and we also found Suzuya from when he played with us before. He was actually a very good player. He is usually a five player but he transitioned into being a four player and then it kinda just worked out.”

Finding his stride with Entity

It was clear that Creepwave had a fairly fresh squad entering Division 2 of the DPC 2021-22; the team had placed second and third in the fifth and sixth seasons of the Dota 2 Champions League, but the DPC was an altogether different challenge due to the high stakes and difficulty of achieving them. DPC brings together the top teams from each region, and because it is the only path to Dota 2’s greatest event – The International (TI), all of the teams prepare for it as diligently as they can.

Moreover, Creepwave was no longer just a team that had been put together to play in the DPC. It had been sponsored by the Indian organization Entity not long after the squad got together.

“Me and Fishman, and I guess the Creepwave squad, already had some decent kind of reputation and we eventually just got in contact with Entity and they were willing to sign us and that’s kind of how it happened.”

We are thrilled to announce our lineup for the upcoming Western European DPC season with the signing of Creepwave @DreamHackDota @DOTA2

Please welcome our team:@Crystallis_Dota@StormingStorm@TobiDotes
@SuzuyaDota@FishmanDota2@mettpum@Th3ReaLJP#EntityEU #Dota2 #Esports pic.twitter.com/dDk8NzdtWz

— Entity (@EntityEUROPE) November 23, 2021

The DPC arrived, and Entity performed well enough to finish on top alongside Brame and Chicken Fighters. Ties were enforced, and Crystallis was now just one step from his short term goal with Entity – securing the Division 1 spot. In his eyes, he had no plans on finishing third this time, and Entity ultimately managed to vanquish both Brame and Chicken Fighters to take first place.

After churning out wins for the past couple of months, Entity finally had the Division 1 slot under its belt. Crystallis described this moment with sheer happiness.

“People were pretty happy as you would expect but I think everyone was also very tired from the entire season beforehand because it’s a pretty long season. We played a lot of games, we played several tournaments throughout DPC as well like D2CL. So most people were also kind of happy that we won but we were also like, ‘Thank god! We can go and take a break right now for a little bit and relax so we can come back to Div 1 well rested.’”

Two of the tiebreaker games saw some interesting strategies used featuring a carry Huskar and zoo heroes such as Lycan and Beastmaster which led the squad to victories over Chicken Fighters and Brame in quick 24 and 26 minute battles, respectively. Although it looked like a great deal of practice must have gone into creating this draft and executing it so well, Crystallis claims that the victory came from the normal working schedule.

“We just prepared in a very usual way, just played a couple of scrims and pubs,” he said. “There was nothing special, we didn’t plan insanely special drafts or whatever. We just played as we usually would and that was more than enough for the tiebreakers.”

The team had played for a majority of the regular group stage play from the bootcamp. While there were a few small issues outside of Entity’s control that made the bootcamp (which Crystallis believes should be free of distractions) a bit annoying, the entire experience was enriching, nonetheless.

Crystallis looks ahead to a dialOGue

Having the honor of being named the best Division 1 team in one of the top regions in Dota 2 is certainly an honor, and earning DPC points, a spot at the next major, some decent prize money, and some fame certainly comes with winning, but Crystallis believes that the biggest difference between playing Division I and Division 2 is the sheer joy of poking fun at people.

“You can now flame the Division 2 people in pubs and the Division 1 people can no longer flame you for being from Division 2. That’s the biggest difference for me. So, it feels very good.”

On the competitive side of things, there is just one aspect of being a Division 1 player that Crystallis is extremely excited about: in this region, there are many strong squads, but where Crystallis is eager for success is where his former teammates (ATF, bzm, and Chu) currently reside – OG. Crystallis is excited about the prospect of playing only OG and winning against it in Division 1.

“No, I haven’t set any expectations yet. I am kind of just going in blind. The only thing I care about is beating OG…Literally only OG. I care about winning against only OG and I don’t care about winning against any other team. I don’t give a shit. We can be 1-6 as long as we have won against OG, I’ll be happy.”

While Crystallis wants to defeat OG, there isn’t any animus or bad feelings between him and his former teammates: “Yeah yeah, because of Ammar, bzm, and Chu. They are still like half of our fucking team and Ammar is also my friend. It would be very fun to beat them. It will be a very epic match, the best match I am sure. So, I am excited about it but I really wanna win as well.”

The player will get his chance to do so when the DPC Western Europe 2021/2022 Tour 2: Division I resumes in March.