MATUMBAMAN Officially Retires From Competitive Dota 2

The 27-year-old Dota 2 legend Lasse “MATUMBAMAN” Urpalainen has officially retired from professional Dota 2. The announcement, however, does not come off as a shock, as MATUMBAMAN has planned to retire at the end of the 2022 season.

MATUMBAMAN officially retired from Dota 2 on Sunday, October 30, following Team Liquid’s semifinal defeat against Team Secret at The International 2022. Notably, it wasn’t Liquid’s defeat that led MATUMBAMAN to decide to take a step away from the game.

The 27-year-old has already planned to end his professional Dota 2 career by the end of the 2022 season, granted he likely wanted it to end another way – by winning the coveted Aegis of Champions. Nevertheless, MATUMBAMAN can be happy with what he has achieved with Team Liquid, finishing this year’s The International in third place – marking his fourth top-four placement at TI in his long career.

“Top 3 once again, was one hell of a run. I cannot imagine a better way to end ones career. Thanks for the enormous support I have received during this event and the past 7 years,” said MATUMBAMAN.

“Bittersweet moment, but I have no regrets. Thank you all, and see ya.”

To honor the veteran Dota 2 player, Valve prepared a short video which got played in the Singapore Indoor Stadium. In the video, Liquid players praised the Finn, and it also featured MATUMBAMAN, who shared his thoughts on the situation, stating that he is at peace with his retirement – which he has been planning for years.

MATUMBAMAN’s last ride ended on Sunday, October 30, when Team Liquid lost against Team Secret (1-2) in The International 2022 lower bracket final, thus ending the tournament in third place. However, despite the bittersweet ending, Liquid have achieved a lot this season.

MATUMBAMAN re-joined Team Liquid ahead of the 2022 season, having spent the last two years competing with Team Secret, and has helped Liquid achieve unprecedented heights. With Liquid, MATUMBAMAN won DPC WEU Tour 1, placed second in the Tour 1 Regional Final, and finished the second tour in third place.

Moreover, MATUMBAMAN helped Liquid win Gamers Without Borders 2022: Europe & CIS and finish DPC WEU Tour 3 in second place. Even though Liquid attended both ESL One Stockholm, PGL Arlington Major, and ESL One Malaysia, the European squad failed to find much success on LAN.

They placed ninth-12th in Sweden and Arlington and could only manage an 11th-12th-place finish in Malaysia.

Regardless of their shaky showings in LAN events, Liquid placed third in Western Europe TI Qualifier and made the finals in the Last Chance Qualifier.

In Singapore, Team Liquid quickly found serious traction as they placed second in Group A with a 5-3-1 record. With that, Liquid secured a spot in TI 2022 upper bracket but got quickly knocked down.

In the first round of the knockout stage, Liquid lost against Aster, who pushed MATUMBAMAN and his crew into the lower bracket. Still, that little slip-up hasn’t stopped Liquid from tearing through the competition, beating Entity, OG, Thunder Awaken, and Team Aster, against who Liquid got their revenge in the fifth round of the lower bracket.

Unfortunately, Liquid’s lower-bracket run came to an end on Sunday when they had to admit defeat to Secret, who would go on to lose the grand finals against Tundra Esports.

By retiring from Dota 2, MATUMBAMAN ended his long and illustrious career, which started in 2014 with Veni, Vidi, Vici. Throughout his career, the 27-year-old has played for some of the biggest esports organizations in the world, including Team Liquid, Chaos Esports Club, and Team Secret.

Yet, out of all the teams he was a part of, MATUMBAMAN has spent the most time with Liquid, who he was a part of from October 2015 – June 2019, and from November 2021 to today.

And not only has MATUMBAMAN spent the most time with Liquid, but he also enjoyed the most success with the European organization, which he helped win The International 2017 while also leading Liquid to a fourth-place finish in 2018.

It’s unclear what MATUMBAMAN’s future plans are, but he will now likely take a well-earned rest from the competitive scene. After that, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility to see MATUMBAMAN return as a coach or in another capacity.