Honestly, getting a high MMR is hard, especially with a team-oriented game like 'DOTA 2' wherein the matchmaking system teams you up with random players for a 5 versus 5 game. You don't know how your teammates will be like, some will cooperate (if you're lucky), and some will not (which happens most of the time, sadly). With this in mind, the games that you have played is being calculated by the system which we call the Matchmaking Rating. Basically, it is a value that determines the skill level of each player. Winning increases a player's MMR, while losing decreases it.
Professional players are the leaders of this new era
10k might be simple number, but in 'DOTA', some might consider it an eternity. As stated by gosugamers.net, currently there are only 2 professional players that have reached this milestone, these are 'Abed' Yusop from Digital Chaos and Nai Zheng 'MidOne' Yeik from Team Secret. Both are renowned Midlane players in the game, and are extremely good at it. It is no surprise that they have reached this, knowing their status and playing in the competitive scene.
Journey to 10k MMR
Gosugamers.net added that both players had a very hard time in reaching the said rank, and if you are playing in the Sea (South East Asian) server, you're in for a lot of problems.
'Dota 2' communities have cried that Abed struggled with his MMR due to the toxicity of the games from SEA. This can be confirmed because other pro players (playing on different servers) have reached 8k and 9k before he did. Nevertheless, Abed persevered, and after playing in NA servers, he reached a new world rank.
MidOne, on the other hand, took his time in adding numbers into his MMR.
With patience and perseverance, he bravely played in the SEA server to try and clinch the MMR milestone. To everyone's surprise, he actually did it. He even teased everyone with a tweet stating that, as long as he consistently plays 3 heroes, it won't be hard to land the rank.
Come August, in preparation for The International 7, we will have players with 10k medals with them and we will see if their numbers will bring their team's morale to a high for the biggest upcoming competitive event in 'DOTA 2'.
The said event, with assistance from crowd funding, have already passed the $20 million mark prize pool for the competition. This pool is also $1 million less than last year's The International 6, and with a few months left, many believe that $1 million will be surpassed in no time.
