The 27-year-old Chinese Lu “Sonus” Yao was successfully active as a professional player in DOTA 2 (Steam) for 9 years. After a plague year in 2022, he ended his career disappointed. But the decision only lasted until Argentina’s victory at the Football World Cup.
Who is this?
- The 27-year-old Chinese “Somnus” is an extremely successful player in the MOBA DOTA 2. He plays the “Solo Middle” role and is known for his gameplay with heroes like Shadow Fiend, Storm Spirit, or Kunkka.
- During his 9-year career, he has collected over 3.2 million US dollars in prize money. In 2018 alone, he earned 817,000 US dollars for second place in “The International 2018”, the huge DOTA 2 tournament (via esportearnings).
- Although he played DOTA 2 successfully for so long, he never achieved the big victory: Somnus was never a world champion, even though he came close several times and finished in second and third places multiple times.
Corona virus kills Somnus’s last major tournament – He gives up disappointed
Why did he end his career? 2022 was a plague year for Somnus, in the literal sense: During the tournament “The International”, Somnus contracted the Corona virus. He even had to forfeit a game because Somnus was hospitalized after testing positive for Covid-19.
Later, Somnus had to go into quarantine, and other team members had to be isolated as well.
Despite a great group phase, the tournament went completely wrong from that point on and Somnus’s team, Royal Never Give Up, ended up in only 13th-16th place.
Somnus disappointedly announced the end of his career after being eliminated:
“[…] I accept the situation that I cannot change because it’s too late for that. Thank you to everyone for your support. My journey is over. Somnus Out.”
That was on October 20.
Somnus finds new motivation through Lionel Messi
What has changed since then?? Somnus watched the world champions in football and apparently, it changed a lot:
“Seeing Messi win the World Cup is inspiring and moves me. Messi fulfilled his dream only at 35, and after seeing Messi, I want to compete again.”
Somnus then began to reach out to his old contacts and apparently plans to team up with old friends from a legendary team he was closely associated with between 2018 and 2020, which was close to winning the World Cup.
And the old friends don’t seem to be averse. Maybe there will be another miracle in 2023 when the World Cup is held again. In DOTA 2, they compete for the World Championship every year, and Somnus apparently plans to stick around for a few more years.
Maybe a big payday awaits him:
