All about nouns, the NA team killing it at The International

William Davis Published 18/10/2023

While most North American fans put their hopes in Shopify Rebellion at The International 2023, the group stage has revealed nouns as the dark horse of the tournament’s home region.

Surprise upsets are some of the best parts of The International. Whether it was TNC Predator taking down a pre-Aegis OG or Wings pulling off the ultimate Cinderella story, those are the moments that Dota 2 fans most remember.

With the group stage of TI 12 over, this tournament’s shock victory may have already happened with nouns somehow triumphing 2-0 over last year’s champion Tundra.

Here’s info on the insane story so far and the players behind North America’s best hope to claim the Aegis of Champions.

The team of the hour has earned its popularity thanks to a shockingly good performance at The International. The squad had the misfortune of drawing Group C with triple-Major champ Gaimin Gladiators, Chinese powerhouse LGD, and South American threat beastcoast. The squad beat the odds to earn third place, even taking a game off GG. 

However, the team’s popularity shot up in phase two when Aegis carrier Tundra Esports chose nouns for its opponent to earn upper bracket for The International 2023 playoffs.

A phenomenal performance from both Pervuian carry Héctor “K1” Rodríguez and American mid Nicolas “Gunnar” Lopez secured a 2-0 win over the reigning champs. The team is now the only North American roster to start in the upper bracket at TI 12 against Azure Ray.

A who’s who of nouns The International 2023 roster

The nouns for The International 2023 consists of the following players, in descending order of farm priority:

• Héctor “K1” Rodríguez
• Nicolas “Gunnar” Lopez
• David “Moo” Hull
• Rodrigo “Lelis” Santos
• Luke “Yamsun” Wang
• Filipe “Astini” Astini (Coach)

While the team plays in the North American leg of the Dota Pro Circuit, the team and coach are split down the middle in terms of home continents. K1 is Peruvian while both captain Lelis and coach Astini are Brazilian. The rest of the team is American. It’s not uncommon to see one or two players from another region on a roster, but seeing both North and South American talent together is still somewhat novel.

While the team is currently sponsored by nouns, the squad first made a name for itself as 4 Zoomers during the online era. Gunnar and Moo formed the team’s core with an evolving player list until July of this year when K1 joined after the South American shuffle.

nouns qualified for The International 2023 with a near-flawless run at the North American qualifier, losing only one game each to Sand King Gomez and Wildcard Gaming.

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