Professional League of Legends Player Reaches Immortal With Less Than 800 Matches

Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi formerly pursued a professional League of Legends career and is known for his time playing for Cloud9. The 30-year-old began playing Dota 2 and reached the highest rank in the game, Immortal. 

Sneaky is among the most well-known League of Legends players in the North American scene. He began his career in Cloud9, joining the prestigious organization in 2023. He remained on the team until 2020, when he took a step back to become the team’s official streamer.

Sneaky’s Early Days In Dota 2

The streamer began playing Dota 2 in 2023, with his first calibration landing him on Crusader V, the average game rank.

After a hundred more hours, Sneaky eventually reached the Ancient I rank in under 300 games of Dota 2. This medal places him in the top 15% of players, meaning he had already overtaken most of the player base in such a short time.

Dota 2, a game with one of the steepest learning curves, is known to be unforgiving for new players, even ones with prior MOBA experience. Numerous League of Legends professionals have attempted to play Dota 2, but none have found as much success as Sneaky.

During his first few months, Sneaky mainly played the Carry role, but was playing with a party of Archon players. Playing with these Archon players meant the average skill level of the game was pulled down, which would make matches easier for Sneaky. However, he has abandoned party queue and started playing solo.

Sneaky Completes The Dota 2 Tutorial

On April 10, 2024, Sneaky finally reached the Immortal rank, joining the top 0.01% of players. The most impressive part is that he completed the achievement after playing 727 lifetime matches. 

In Dota 2 terms, 700 matches is nothing. High-ranking Immortal players who create Smurf accounts may not even be able to get their new profiles to reach the rank in less than 800 matches. Coming from an Immortal player, I must admit that Sneaky has done something remarkable. 

Judging from Sneaky’s Dotabuff page, he mostly plays in the Carry position, translating to his previous role, Bot Lane, in League of Legends. He was mainly playing Lifestealer and Drow Ranger to ascend to Immortal. These two heroes aren’t too popular in the meta, so his climb displays true skill. 

After ranking up, the streamer barely showed any reaction, as if he expected to make it this easily the entire time. 

Grubby vs. Sneaky – Comparison

Grubby is another influential streamer who tried climbing the ranks of Dota 2. He grabbed more attention in the community than Sneaky did and recently left the game. He peaked at 6,000 MMR, while Sneaky has just reached Immortal at 5,600 MMR. Both players were regarded highly in their previous esport titles and decided to try Dota 2 seriously. 

I don’t mean to compare these players in skill, as they come from different gaming backgrounds, but we thought it’d be fun to place these two personalities head-to-head since they had similar stories. 

• Sneaky calibrated at Crusader V, while Grubby calibrated at Herald V.
• Sneaky reached Immortal after 800 matches, while Grubby reached Immortal after 2,000 matches.

Most players require at least 4,000 matches to touch the Immortal medal, and many cannot maintain their position at the highest rank and eventually drop down. However, these two players have outdone the player base with insane improvement speeds.

Still, Grubby has reached a higher peak than Sneaky and is no longer actively playing Dota. Sneaky is still queuing for matches daily, so let’s wait and see if he can overtake Grubby in MMR!