The 8 best hard support players at ESL One Birmingham 2026

ESL One Birmingham is now less than a day away, with the competition set to kick off its group stage in less than 24 hours.

We’ll be rounding out our look at each role’s best players heading into the tournament — with the last but certainly not the least of the five positions in Dota 2: the humble hard support. As always, fellow Dota writer Owen joined me in the making of this article, so the opinions presented in this piece are a result of our discussions.

#1 — Matthew “Whitemon” Filemon

If any of you disagree with Whitemon being the best position 5 player in the world right now, Owen and I are both here to tell you that you’re wrong. We’ve seen him make such impactful, momentum-shifting plays throughout his time in Tundra Esports, with heroes like Bane, Disruptor, and Jakiro. And he often doesn’t even need items in his inventory to make things happen; his laning prowess, uncanny sense of timing, and precise spell placement all make up for his lack of gold in most games.

#2 — Arman “Malady” Orazbayev

Malady has been on the rise this season alongside his teammates in Team Yandex, with his rapid improvement culminating in a trophy at DreamLeague Season 27 and most recently PGL Wallachia Season 7. He has always been a highly rated hard support player, who just needed the right environment in order to shine at the highest level. His Jakiro is unbelievable right now, with an unholy 83 percent win rate over 18 games in the past three months.

#3 — Oleh “kaori” Medvedok

You know how Phoenix has been rising in popularity lately because of their flex potential in the draft and because the Hotspot facet is so good? Aurora Gaming’s kaori is definitely enjoying Phoenix’s presence in the metagame,  as he currently has a 74 percent win rate over 38 games in the last three months. His Warlock is equally terrifying, and teams at ESL One Birmingham had better prepare for his insane impact with both of these heroes.

#4 — Wu “Sneyking” Jingjun

As one of the oldest and most experienced players still active at the highest level of competition, Sneyking knows how to make the most out of the fact that supports naturally get more gold now than ever before. Although Team Falcons have not done much this year to make their fans proud, Sneyking’s ability to understand the intricacies of any era of Dota give him a serious edge compared to others in his position to this day.

#5 — Melchior “Seleri” Hillenkamp

Seleri is one of the most successful captains in the modern era of Dota, having been at the helm when Gaimin Gladiators rampaged through the competitive scene between 2023 and 2024. He’s kind of like the cleric in MMORPGs, as he loves playing healer heroes like Enchantress, Pugna, and Chen. His leadership is extremely vital to MOUZ’ success, something that they haven’t had much of lately.

#6 — Andrei “skem” Ong

In terms of pure mechanical skill, skem is whom we’d consider to be the best at his position. His Chen is famous for being this high impact and very reliable pick, even when Chen (or his potential dominated creeps) isn’t the best choice in the meta. He was stuck on many, many mediocre teams over his career, but is now seeing some real results after signing with OG last year.

#7 — Yap “xNova” Jian Wei

We’d describe xNova as the budget Whitemon, in the sense that he also manages to have significant impact in his games despite playing poverty Dota. He’s really good at the vision game, with his warding being his biggest strength. Though he might not be flashy like Whitemon in terms of his plays, he just gets the job done on a regular basis.

#8 — Maroun “GH” Merhej

I know it seems weird for us to place GH high enough to make the cutoff on our list, but hear us out for a bit. Nigma Galaxy have not had a fun time in the competitive scene lately, but GH has been grinding an insane amount of games in the meantime. He was hovering around rank 300 in January this year, but since presumably recalibrating his MMR, he’s now up to rank 26 as of the time of writing. That’s in the same realm as someone like Janne “Gorgc” Stefanovski, and definitely high enough to turn more than a few heads heading into ESL One Birmingham.