BurNIng’s Anti-Mage performance at Kiev Major is third highest GPM in competitive Dota 2

Chinese Dota 2 hero Xu Zhilei, better known by his handle BurNIng, yesterday showed why he was amongst the most famous players in the region after a Kiev Major group stage performance with his signature hero Anti-Mage.

Zhilei’s carry performance as Anti-Mage in the second game of a series against rival team OG saw him win the game nearly single-handedly for his teammates in Invictus. 

This isn’t particularly uncommon for Anti-Mage, a hero best known for farming quietly in the jungle before popping up after 30 minutes to batter everyone, but Zhilei’s Anti-Mage was farming so well that his performance landed him in the top three of all time GPM ratings in competitive Dota 2 with 1040 GPM. That’s if you’re excluding ridiculous gold monster Alchemist. 

It wasn’t just a record-breaking performance, but an essential one. At the 40 minute mark, Invictus were down 26-5. However, OG couldn’t get a gold advantage on the enemy team, despite winning teamfights and getting effective pick-offs, the gold graph remained fairly even on account on Zhilei’s massive farming efforts. Then, Invictus won a decisive teamfight, and the game fell apart for the European OG team. 

Invictus look in strong shape to take on the rest of the Kiev Major, but they’ll have plenty of competition as the top teams square off in Valve’s final tournament ahead of the summer’s International.