Ludwig "zai" Wåhlberg first rose to prominence as a top player in Heroes of Newerth, most notably playing for the Trademark eSports. In 2013, he joined a mass exodus of HoN players to Dota 2.
He debuted in the game in smaller events ahead of The International 2013 alongside former HoN rival Peter “ppd” Dager. The duo bounced between a number of different teams in the months that followed, but eventually joined up with Defense of the Ancients veterans Clinton “Fear” Loomis and Saahil “Universe” Arora as well as new prospect Artour “Arteezy” Babaev. This roster competed as SADBOYS, but was quickly sponsored by Evil Geniuses.
Evil Geniuses and zai had an on again, off again relationship for several years. The roster enjoyed strong success in the months that followed its initial formation, with EG most notably taking first at The Summit 1 and second at ESL One Frankfurt 2014. This was followed by a third-place finish at The International 2014. Evil Geniuses looked even stronger at the start of the next season, with first-place performances at World E-sport Championships 2014, StarLadder StarSeries Season 10, and DreamLeague Season 2.
Despite being possibly the best team in the world at the time, zai and Arteezy split off from Evil Geniuses in order to join Team Secret. Though leaving an established team was initially met with questions, answers came when Secret posted a string of first-place finishes in live events. The year ended on a sour note for zai however, as Secret finished in a disappointing seventh place at The International 2015 while Evil Geniuses won the event in dramatic fashion.
Zai returned to EG after the event, but spent most of the following year on the team’s bench as he returned home in order to finish high school. He returned to Evil Geniuses’ starting roster for the qualifiers to The International 2016. EG made the cut and Zai once again helped the team take third place at the event.
The 2016-2017 season would be Zai’s first full season with the North American organization. The year was a strong one as EG took the top prizes from Mars Dota 2 League 2016 Autumn, China Top 2016, The Manila Masters and China Top 2016. This was accompanied by top-four placements at the Boston Major and Kiev Major.
Despite being consistently solid, Evil Geniuses flopped at The International 2017 and finished in ninth place.
Following The International 2017, zai accompanied ppd out of EG in order to form The Dire. This team was sponsored by OpTic Gaming after performing well in various qualifiers, but posted mixed results at bigger events throughout the year.
Despite competing in a number of majors and minors, the team didn’t secure enough Dota Pro Circuit points in order to automatically qualify for The International 2018. The team successfully cleared the North American qualifiers for The International 2018 to sneak into the event, where they finished in seventh place.
After TI8, OpTic dissolved with zai returning to Team Secret and took over the off laner spot after playing as a support for a prolonged period. This proved to be the strongest year in zai’s career.
The new Secret placed top four in four out of the five majors of the 2018-2019 Dota Pro Circuit season, winning the Chongqing Major and MDL Disneyland Paris Major. The team entered The International 2019 as one of the favorites to win, but finished fourth.
zai remained with Secret after TI9. The team sat out the first major cycle, but returned to action and reestablished itself as the best in the game by winning DreamLeague Season 13.
