Of the five players on his team, Sumail "Suma1L" Hassan Syed is the youngest. And that's saying something in a sport where people "age out" before 30.
Syed is just 16 years old, yet he played a key role in winning the $7 million championship prize at this year's "The International," a gargantuan eSports tournament held annually by Valve for its game "DOTA 2."
Here he is with his teammates in a press photo for the event:
Even amongst a group of young men, Syed looks especially young. He's apparently been playing "DOTA" since he was eight years old; he only moved to the United States from Pakistan within the past year or so.
Syed's quickly ascended the ranks of pro "DOTA 2" players. He got picked up by his team, Evil Geniuses, after becoming the highest-rated player in "NA Elite," the North American in-house league of competitive "DOTA 2" players.
After he was scooped up by Evil Geniuses, Syed led his team to a $1.2 million victory in the DOTA Asian Championships this past February. He followed up that early victory with a massive win this past weekend — Evil Geniuses took first place in the $18 million tournament, which netted the team $6.6 million. It's not clear how much each player will take home individually, but there's certainly plenty to go around.
Given his team's huge win this past weekend at "The International" in Seattle, Wa., Syed and co. are on a much-needed vacation post-championship.
