Let me geek out and ramble a bit as a Dota 2 fan, as this has been a work in progress for me for a couple of years now! Just wanted to commemorate and share this small process, and somehow create an insightful “Behind the Work” kind of thing for people who would like to draw inspiration from the work I do.
I’ve always been excited by the things I love, and I’ve always had this somewhat stubborn belief that if I love something enough, I should eventually find a way to work with it! Being a designer somehow gives me that freedom to have my own ‘dream clients’ or industry preference. Maybe that’s the reason why I started my brand, LOVE ARMY. The idea was simple: do what you love, wear your passion, and build something around the things that genuinely matter to you.
As I lived in this creative industry, I’ve come to wear many hats. Mainly as a designer, sometimes as an art director, sometimes as a brand owner, sometimes simply as someone who likes making things. This year, all of those things somehow converged. I got to create merchandise for a game I’ve loved for most of my gaming life: Dota 2.
The Game before the Merchandise
I distinctly remember being introduced to Dota in college. I couldn’t figure out shit. Disclaimer: til now I still can’t and I honestly only recognized the importance of positions pre-pandemic. Naturally, I kept trying to play heroes that have lifesteal or heal up, starting with Abaddon and eventually Terrorblade (who back then was Anti-Mage’s evil cousin).
My friends and I loved the game so much that we installed it on practically every computer in the school computer labs. We played during free time, during classes, whenever we could. Eventually, the school caught on. They cleaned every PC and even installed mirrors at the back of the computer labs so they could see what we were doing. That lasted approximately five minutes, because we simply created a secret host accessible within the school’s network, which meant the game could be accessed from basically any computer again (thanks to friends who resided in the school dorm). Our quick alt+tab skills were simply too agile for our professors. Fun times.
2011 came, and Dota 2 Beta arrived. I was the first in my circle of friends to receive an invite, and I immediately started sending invitations around. It didn’t take long before we were all playing again.
Years passed. College ended. Life happened. Watching and talking about The International every year eventually became one of those strange little traditions that stayed with us. Like we could do what that pro did and stuff (we can’t).
Playing became Designing
After college life was a reality check. There came some tough times, when all I could really turn to was my wife, my work, and this game. You either do something, or you continue going down. So I tried to take on design work wherever I could find it, kept making things, and kept looking for opportunities.
I’d be sitting on a mattress on the floor with my laptop on a tiny foldable breakfast table we’d borrowed, hunched over either designing or playing games. It wasn’t glamorous, nor was it some perfectly planned entrepreneurial journey. It was simply what I had.
At some point I figured out through my friend that people get paid to design through the Workshop. It started looking like something we can make money from, while enjoying it. I didn’t succeed in it, but my friend, Ced (first recipient of my beta invite btw!), did through third parties. I just wanted to make things, so I started creating concepts of my own. This led to creating a 1 of 1 jacket for Topson, thanks to Mawar finding my Plushie Seat concept in the Dota 2 Workshop!
This era made me resourceful and taught me how being a designer isn’t only about making something look good. It’s also about figuring things out when there is no obvious answer: How do you turn an idea into a legitimate product? How can I make sure this is manufactured per my specification? What’s my pricing (this was scary!)? How do you keep going after this after repeatedly hearing “no”? Such questions eventually became just as important to me as the design itself.
From fan to licensed creator
I’ve only done LOVE ARMY work as a side quest. But this journey eventually led to utilizing the brand and giving it more focus, redefining it as a streetwear and lifestyle brand rooted in the things I genuinely care about like dance, music, gaming, anime, art, design, artists and culture. Eventually, that led to licensed collaborations, and then came Dota 2.
I’ve always found it surreal that something I originally experienced as a college student trying to figure out how to last-hit could eventually become something I was professionally designing around. There is a strange distance between being a fan and becoming a creator or collaborator of something this ‘holy’ to me.
I could have gone to TI 2022 Singapore
The International had already come to Singapore back in 2022, which was practically next door. It was the closest The International had ever been to me… and I couldn’t afford to simply go and watch. I had to choose between spending money to attend as a fan or finding a way to work. So instead of going to TI, I took a chance on the PGL Arlington Major.
The Major and TI was only a month apart. I had the option to work on a Dota 2 Major or I could attend the nearest TI. It was a heartbreaking no-brainer. I chose the work. But yeah, at the time, it didn’t feel like some grand strategic decision. It simply felt like the only way I could keep moving toward where I wanted to be. And maybe that’s something I’ve learned about creative careers: Sometimes you just have to trust the process and give it your best.
The International 2026 Shanghai
Years later, the road has led me to The International 2026 in Shanghai. This year began with conversations that eventually resulted in LOVE ARMY x Dota 2 merchandise being stocked at the Secret Shop.
For someone who had spent years watching TI from home, this was mindblowing to process. This was my first TI. My first Crimson Witness, first visit to China, first time experiencing an event of this scale. And suddenly, my work was physically there! Not in a concept post or a folder on my computer. It’s on the freakin’ shelves, at the Secret Shop, and people are wearing it!
It really hits differently.
More than a logo on a shirt
One of the things I have come to appreciate through this journey is that merchandising is its own creative discipline. Good merchandise isn’t simply a logo printed on apparel. It’s product design, fashion and trends, and art direction. It’s understanding the audience and what would appeal to them. Then it’s also understanding the IP to make something feel authentic rather than opportunistic. There’s also the decision-making on what belongs on a garment, what belongs on a tag, what belongs in the packaging, and what doesn’t need to be there at all. It’s balancing creative intent with manufacturing realities, quantities, costs, materials, timelines and commercial considerations.
And when you’re working with an established property like Dota 2, there’s another layer: respecting the world you’re entering.
The challenge isn’t to make something that simply says Dota 2. I hated that. Whenever I work on designs, I always make it a point to create something that feels like it belongs in the world of Dota 2 while still carrying the perspective of the designer and the brand making it.
That Venn diagram where IP, fashion, product design, merchandising and art direction meet is something I find incredibly fun. It’s like creating an IYKYK kind of thing where it should look 100% great to somebody who doesn’t even know the game, but hella 1000x better to somebody who gets it. After all, why should we, fans, be given just an overpriced lazy print on a blank shirt?
Love Army x Dota 2
If you told the younger version of me that one day I’d run a brand that worked with Dota 2, I’d probably call you delulu. That I’d eventually meet people who know “Love Army” and recognize the work and tell me they loved it, I’d probably be even more skeptical. And if you told me I’d receive a private tour during TI in another country, receive invitations to bring friends along, see hangtags that read @lovearmy x @dota2, and eventually hold the Aegis of Champions in my hands, I’d call you a lot of other things. And yet, here we are.
I’d like to say the individual moments don’t necessarily feel extraordinary while you’re living through them, because honestly when I got that tour during TI by Thad and Q of Valve, I really really felt my heart pound as I was inching closer to the Aegis. I’ve only seen this on posts and Twitch prior to this!
I guess what I’m trying to point at is how everything culminating into this thing you’ve always wanted, it kind of withers the hardships you’ve been through and say only now can I claim it was worth it. It’s only when you step back and connect them that you realize how far you’ve traveled, and go ‘hell yeah.’
A kid playing Dota in a computer lab. A designer making concepts. A person sending emails that rarely got answered. A brand trying to figure out how to exist. A license. A collaboration. A product. A Major. A Secret Shop. A flight to Shanghai. The Aegis.
It’s a wild, wild ride. It’s so lovely to come back to from where I am now.
Things can actually happen
I think we sometimes romanticize success by looking only at the final photograph. We see the finished product. We don’t see the years of failures and rejections that came before it. The moments where you genuinely wonder if you’re wasting your time.
I’ve experienced all of those. And I still do. But I’m beginning to understand that those things aren’t necessarily evidence that you’re failing. Sometimes they’re simply part of becoming the person capable of handling the opportunity when it finally arrives.
I didn’t have the resources to attend TI 2022, so I worked at the Arlington Major. There was no clear path into the industry, so I kept making things. I didn’t know who would notice, so I kept saying hello and introducing myself. There was no assurance of what LOVE ARMY would become, so I just kept building.
LOVE ARMY was never really about clothing. The clothing was simply the medium. The bigger idea has always been about giving people a way to physically express the things they care about.
If there’s something you desperately want to create but don’t know how to reach yet, start anyway. You don’t need to know the entire path. I certainly didn’t. You just need to take the next step. Then another… and another.
Eventually, you might look back and realize that the road you thought was taking you nowhere was actually building the exact person you needed to become.
What comes next
The International 2026 Shanghai is a milestone and just a beginning! It makes me more curious. To see more in what happens when design, fashion, gaming, art, culture and storytelling collide. It’s so fun to create products that resonate well with the community, that feel meaningful rather than disposable. It makes me want to keep moving forward with intellectual properties and brands that people genuinely care about, and get collaborations where the final product feels like something neither side could have created alone. And I’m interested in seeing how far this whole thing can go.
Today, I run a brand that has created Dota 2 merchandise for The International. That’s still sounds ridiculous to me, but it’s real! So many firsts, and what a great way to experience such a great roaring TI!
I’m truly humbled by the trust. At this point I’d like to take a moment to thank GabeN, Q, Thad, Jan, and the rest of my Valve family – I won’t let you down! To Silviu and Christian, and the rest of PGL, as well as Robin, Chunchun, and the Perfect World fam, big thank you! Thank you to my friends who shared the moments with me, both in Shanghai and digitally! And finally, to my wife, thanks for being the best hard support, my very own Immortal pos5 <3
If there’s anything I hope someone takes from this story, it’s this: Things can be done. If you care enough about something, and you’re willing to keep pursuing it, even when nobody seems to be paying attention, you might eventually find yourself living the thing you once thought was impossible.
Do what you love. Keep making things, saying hello, and finding ways in. And when the door finally opens, be ready.
Thank you, Shanghai! Thank you, Dota 2!
~ Ken
LOVE ARMY®
#dowhatyoulove #wearyourpassion #hearttheprocess
If you’re curious to see the LOVE ARMY x Dota 2 TI 2026 pieces, you can visit the LOVE ARMY Website or Instagram. Be sure to subscribe and follow, in order to get more of what we cook up in the future! Other than that, feel free to follow me on Instagram as well @kenoshtan.