Two Games, One Legacy: Insania's Rise to the Top

Earlier this month, Aydin "iNSaNiA" Sarkohi announced his retirement from competitive play. After more than a decade of top-tier play that’s seen him becoming a champion in multiple games, the Swedish support is hanging up his mouse and keyboard.

His most iconic triumph came during his time with Team Liquid. In 2024, iNSaNiA and his squad hoisted the Aegis of Champions at The International (TI13), which on its own would be a fitting capstone for his long career. 

But a career is not defined by a single moment. INSaNiA’s certainly wasn’t. It was a journey filled with highs and lows, peaks and troughs, and the occasional disastrous misclick in the draft. From Heroes of Newerth to Dota 2, iNSaNiA has always been a trailblazer — and he did it all with a smile on his face.

Early Career

Long before Dota 2 became his domain, iNSaNiA was tearing it up in Heroes of Newerth. His breakout came in 2012, when he and future Liquid teammate Ludwig "Zai" Wåhlberg, along with Maurice "KheZu" Gutmann, Shamal "LezzQQ" Amin-Enemark and Valentin "SmackDonald" Schreiber, battled their way to a podium finish at the DreamHon tournament at DreamHack Summer 2012. Though they only took home just under $1,500, this was the moment this group of newcomers put themselves on the map.

Over the next three years, iNSaNiA carved out a reputation as one of the best HoN players in the region, consistently securing first place in NA/EU events and rarely falling lower than the top three in any tournament he attended.

By 2015, however, iNSaNiA was starting to see the writing on the wall. While HoN had started as the obvious successor to the original DotA: Allstars, Valve’s Dota 2 had emerged as the real juggernaut, with huge prize pools eclipsing those in HoN despite its popularity. So he made the switch, and through 2015 and 2016, iNSaNiA bounced from team to team as he tried to replicate his HoN success.

Even with these early moves into Dota, though, iNSaNiA wasn’t quite done with HoN. In 2017, under Fnatic’s banner, he and teammates Samuel "Boxi" Svahn and Michael "miCKE" Vu lifted the trophy at the HoN Tour World Finals 2017. It’s hard to quantify this achievement if you didn’t follow the Heroes of Newerth scene, but in Dota terms, you can consider it roughly equivalent to The International. What’s more, Western teams had been lagging behind compared to teams in Thailand and the rest of Southeast Asia. In spite of this, iNSaNiA concluded his HoN career as one of the most successful players of all time, the highest earner in the game’s history, and a player who ended his career as a champion.

Notably, this was also the start of a near decade-long period of playing with miCKE. The two eventually became one of the most inseparable duos in all of Dota.

A full-time move to Dota

In the months following their remarkable triumph at HoN Tour World Finals, iNSaNiA and some of his championship teammates would join one of Dota 2’s most storied organizations: Alliance. The newly formed roster found limited success with wins in Tier 2 and 3 competition, but struggled to reach the heights that the Alliance organization had had in the past. 

Instead of losing heart, this struggle became a catalyst for the team’s determination to grow into success. Their peak came at DOTA Summit 10, where they managed to battle through some of the Americas’ best teams to secure victory. In the process, their dramatic run made them a fan favorite.

With the fans behind them headed into TI9, things seemed to be looking up. Unfortunately, a weak showing in the group stage sent them plummeting to the lower bracket, and led to iNSaNiA being at the heart of one of pro Dota’s most iconic moments: ‘The Gyrocopter Incident.’ iNSaNiA, through a stroke of bad timing and bad luck, accidentally picked a hero he’d meant to ban, and Alliance was eliminated from TI.

Some years after the incident, iNSaNiA’s future Team Liquid coach, William “Blitz” Lee, said that it was a landmark moment for both iNSaNiA and his teammates. For some teams, this grievous error would’ve been the breaking point that caused a disband. But iNSaNiA’s leadership meant that the core of the team still held strong, despite being tested in one of the most dramatic ways possible.

Joining Team Liquid

Following the departure of their previous TI-winning roster in 2019, Team Liquid signed iNSaNiA and the rest of his Alliance teammates in what would become one of their most iconic rosters. After several months of play, though, the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped the esports landscape, turning global travel and international tournaments into online events and regional competition.

During the COVID era, Team Liquid attended any tournament around. In that first year of the lockdown period, the squad struggled with middle-of-the-pack finishes. But, just like the squad’s time with Alliance, they kept grinding. Their best performance of the online era was ESL One Germany 2020, where the team finally vanquished some of their biggest rivals. But with TI delayed, there was little chance for them to capitalize on this success.

At this point the team, and iNSaNiA, began to regress somewhat. They struggled with the harsh schedule of the new regional leagues, and didn’t even manage to accumulate enough DPC points to earn an invite to TI10. That year, iNSaNiA attended The International not as a player, but as an analyst. He sat looking on as Team Spirit lifted the Aegis.

Growth and Dominance

As the online tournament era came to a close, Team Liquid made roster changes. Taiga departed the team for OG, and qojqva took up the mantle of a streamer. In their place came two veterans, iNSaNiA’s onetime HoN teammate Zai and Lasse "MATUMBAMAN" Urpalainen. With the team revitalized, they finally started to play at a higher level. Even though the brutal competition of the regional DPC system meant that the team fell short of a direct TI11 invite, Team Liquid narrowly defeated Virtus.pro in the Last Chance Qualifier to secure their spot.

At TI11, the greatness of the team finally began to show. A thrilling match against Thunder Awaken and a top-three finish proved that this wasn’t just a bunch of old pros trying to recapture their glory. They were a team of veterans entering a new chapter, and a new prime.

The Gaimin Rivalry

With MATUMBAMAN retiring after TI11, Michał "Nisha" Jankowski joined the Team Liquid roster and slotted seamlessly into the lineup. And in 2023, the team’s performances spoke for themselves. They won the first two DPC WEU tours by a large margin, going undefeated in the first tour in January. They appeared in the finals of eight events that year, including The International.

But there was one problem: Gaimin Gladiators. In one of the most compelling rivalries ever in Dota 2, Gaimin and Team Liquid found themselves in the finals of five major events, including TI, in 2023. And each time, Team Liquid fell just short of beating them. The Lima Major, ESL One Berlin, The Bali Major, DreamLeague Season 19 and The International all saw Team Liquid just narrowly falling to their opponents.

After all the years of struggle, iNSaNiA had now helped create arguably one of best teams in Dota 2. Glory at The International still eluded him, but it was an achievement that was getting closer by the day. All Team Liquid had to do was overcome the one team that they could never seem to overcome.

The Pinnacle

The DPC system, which had been both a bane and a boon to iNSaNiA’s Team Liquid rosters, was completely abolished by 2024. This meant the team was able to get a lot more Tier 1 tournament experience. For a team that had historically been very good at grinding out the long seasons, this was the perfect setup. 

Everything seemed to click in August. At Elite League Season 2, the team secured their first tournament victory of the year. That momentum, combined with a direct invite to The International 2024, meant that iNSaNiA was finally on a collision course with greatness.

After securing their spot in the upper bracket thanks to impressive wins over Aurora Gaming, BetBoom and beastcoast, Liquid crushed the eventual runners-up Xtreme Gaming in their first quarterfinal match. They then swept through a stunned Cloud9 team to hit their old familiar roadblock, Gaimin Gladiators, head on. But this time, things were different.

With a blistering display from iNSaNiA’s longtime lane partner miCKe, Gaimin was unable to muster anything but a paltry response. Countless hours of work and improvement culminated in Liquid taking down the one team that had thwarted them for so long, and ensuring themselves a Grand Finals spot.

After that, it was just time to finish the job. Team Liquid defeated Xtreme Gaming without dropping a set, and iNSaNiA finally found himself lifting the Aegis alongside Boxi and miCKe, two players he’d walked alongside since their HoN Tour victory all those years ago. He also became the oldest player ever to win The International.

2025, in many ways, was a victory lap. Having reached the peak of Dota 2, iNSaNiA and Liquid handily picked up almost a dozen more victories and podium spots. Although the team finished low at TI14, iNSaNiA’s legacy won’t be defined by his final tournament. It will be defined by the kind of person and player he was: an inspiring leader, beloved by many, and one of the greatest to ever play the game.

iNSaNiA Accolades:

• 5-time Major Winner
• 3-time WEU DPC winner
• 5 TI appearances
• The International 2025 winner
• HoN Tour World Final 2017 winner