He likes to jump into the fray. He battles all sorts of characters across the world. And he is skilled on this battlefield known as DOTA 2.

Out of all the video games out there, Thomas Yun, senior, enjoys playing DOTA 2, a game in the MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) genre. In this game, a player and four other people on the team face another team of five and use the 100s of heroes that are available to fight. The ultimate goal is to destroy the various structures leading up to the enemy’s base and once you destroy that, you win.

“It’s probably because I just spent so much time on it that I just know everything about it, I just got invested into it,” Yun said. “After every match, you just get this feeling of either frustration that you lose or satisfaction [from winning]. Just keep on playing for that one time where you get a really good match.”

Yun has been playing DOTA since 2016. He says that at first, he didn’t like the game because the matches were extremely long, preventing him from playing other games that he enjoyed at the time. Once he got into the gameplay of DOTA, though, he became the one who played it the most in their friend group which is “kind of sad” he said jokingly.

According to William Gilbert, senior, Yun does not “compete in high ranks, but he likes being skilled at the game and doing well”.

Yun says he can be competitive when he wants to be but he says that he will play in a suboptimal way if he thinks that it will be funny.

“When we are in a group we just go into like really stupid games,” Yun said.

These “stupid” games that they like to go into can range from just camping the enemy team, to walking up with a strategy that will blow them up, even though things don’t always go according to plan.

“Sometimes in the beginning of the match, I’ll be like, ‘Oh we already lost.’ But I’ll still play anyway because its fun” Yun said.

Yun’s desire to do well translated into other computer interests. He is not only a gamer who works hard to master the game, but he also does computer programming. He actually has created a mod for DOTA in his free time before.

“When he was applying for MIT he decided to make a mod for DOTA 2,” Phil Liang, senior, said.

According to Liang, a mod is like an addition to a game; an extra feature that is usually fan created.

“I just did a really simplified version of an alteration to the regular DOTA gameplay by just giving everyone one more ability. [The gameplay] was too complicated,” Yun said .

According to Yun he says that the reason that he got into computer programming is that he “always found it enjoyable to create things”. This is also the reason why he likes cooking. Although he ultimately chose to do computer programming because, in terms of money, “the only resource you really need to put in is time.”

Yun applied for MIT, and was accepted into U of I for computer engineering, but, in the end, he decided to go to the University of Minnesota.

“It’s more of a desire to branch out from the same friend group rather than anything about the schools themselves,” Yun said.

While he is says that he is excited to go to Minnesota, he isn’t looking for anything in particular.

“It isn’t a specific experience I’m looking for [and] I’m not expecting anything,” Yun said. “If I do gain something from experiences, then that would be an unexpected gain. In other words, I’m not actively seeking [things out].”