Seleri Announces His Retirement From Dota 2

At ESL One Birmingham, Melchior "Seleri" Hillenkamp shared the news that he will no longer be competing in competitive Dota 2. He cited the long demanding hours as his reason for hanging up his mouse and keyboard. 

While it's sad to see the 26 year old leave the scene, he has definitely left his mark. Let's take a look at Seleri's long and impressive journey in Dota 2

From Viking to Gladiator

Seleri's early years in competitive Dota 2 were fairly unremarkable. While he joined multiple tournaments, most were very small scale. His attempts at big LAN qualifiers didn't bear much fruit either. 

Things started to look up in 2020, when Seleri joined Vikin.gg. The team contained talented individual like Indji "Shad" Lub and Miroslav "BOOM" Bičan. With their impressive roster, Seleri started to win bigger tournaments, such as BTS Europe and Dota Summit.

Seleri's big break came in the start of 2022, when he joined Team Tickles. This lineup included most of his career defining teammates. His lane partner Anton "dyrachyo" Shkredov, his support duo Erik "tOfu" Engel, and offlaner Marcus "Ace" Christensen. Team Tickles didn't last long as Tickles, within three weeks, they were picked up by Gaimin Gladiators. The team did fairly well in most events, but it wasn't until Quinn "Quinn" Callahan  joined the team in December that Gaimin's reign began.

Dominating the 2023 Dota 2 season

There is no way to describe the 2023 Dota 2 season except that it was Gaimin Gladiator's and Seleri's year. They won six huge Dota 2 events, most notably being the three time back to back Major championships. Gaimin also maintained a top three finish in all DPC tours.  They ended the year with a silver medal at The International and capped it off with a second place finish at ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023. Seleri's stable performance during the year allowed Dyrachyo to play as recklessly as possible and pushed Gaimin to end most games in less than 30 minutes.

The good times didn't last though. By 2024, their rivals Liquid and new power house Team Falcons had overtaken Gaimin Gladiators in most tournaments. The team was even discussing roster changes, but an unexpected victory at Riyadh Masters 2024 convinced the team to stay together. This led to another 2nd place finish at The International, Seleri's last time appearing there.

Things gett a bit muddled after 2024. Seleri joined Mouz afer the first quarter of 2025, and while the team finds some success, it's nowhere near the heights of his days with Gaimin Gladiators. Gaimin as well goes through an unexpected withdrawel from The International 2025, which you can find more details about here.

For over four years, Seleri has been present in nearly every major Dota 2 tournament. And winning quite a lot of them as well. His performance allowed the rest of the squad to shine and his teamwork with Tofu enabled Gaimin to snowball their way to several Major championships. We wish him all every success in the future.

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Featured Image Source: ESL