What can you say about Dosia that hasn’t been said before?
His victories are numerous.
His feats made immortal.
And his fans are zealous.
But the story of the X God isn’t just one about his victory over enemies on the server.
It's also about his triumph over trolls outside the game.
In the early days of CS:GO, Dosia made a name for himself.
"Let's say about the first nine months to a year of CS:GO, he was a Top 5 player in the world.
He was very, very good. Even at the time when obviously NiP had GeT_RiGhT, he had f0rest,
and then they had other players who were doing very well. Dosia was just below that level."
HLTV gave the same clout as Thorin, ranking Dosia the fourth best player in the world in 2013.
But back then, he was still just Dosia. His prowess on the server was undeniable
but outside the game, some people may have thought less of him based on his appearance.
He wasn't handsome, or athletic, and it didn't even really look like he was trying to be.
"What I don't understand is, he only plays one best of three a day. Why is he always eating?
Why, he's always on camera he's eating."
But that doesn't really matter if you're a esports athlete. Not to your fans, or your foes.
(Casting)
It was only years after Dosia became a relevant force in the CS scene that he was the subject of an emerging meme.
On July 26, 2015,
Dosia's team HellRaisers was playing against LGB in the offline qualifier for the Cologne 2015 Major.
During a technical pause, the camera took a chance to pan across each of the players when it came across Dosia doing this...
(Casting)
It was a moment that didn't go unnoticed, by fans or casters.
"That's, that's, that's a, that's a disturbing angle of Dosia. I've got to be honest."
And with that, a meme was born. But every good meme needs a name, and on the HLTV page for that match,
one user called Dosia a "sex monster."
Three days after that, another HLTV user made a forum post asking the unsuspecting public if there was anyone more sexy than
"Sex god Dosia."
The thread only got five replies,
but from there the meme spread across the CS community. With the tinder for the meme laid out,
it only needed a spark to combust. But instead, it got a Molotov.
On October 24, 2015 caricature artist kn0nker posted to Twitter that he'd be livestreaming his next piece. His subject?
"Sex god Dosia." At this point in time, kn0nker had already made a name for himself on the
/r/GlobalOffensive CS:GO subreddit. And the final image of Dosia, in all his glory, was posted to Reddit the next day to the tune of
1.5 thousand upvotes. This effectively solidified the "sex god" moniker. As the meme steadily grew in popularity,
parallels were drawn to another, older CS meme:
JW the pig.
CS:GO viewers will often spam Twitch chat, and forums, and reddit with pig-related insults whenever JW comes up.
Both memes were meant to mock the physical appearances of their subjects. But while the "sex god" meme was on the rise
JW's meme was on the decline.
JW sort of took the fire out of his meme in two ways. Firstly, by embracing it.
"F***ing enjoy brother."
And secondly, by winning.
The rise of the meme also came at a difficult point in Dosia's career.
He had just missed his first ever CS:GO Major when he didn't qualify for the Cologne 2015 Major.
"Yeah throughout this tournament they have had their ups and downs and this most certainly is the biggest down of them all.
They're not gonna be heading over for the Major."
And he'd go on to miss the Cluj-Napoca Major when he left HellRaisers before the qualifier.
And during all this, you'd only see one thing being written about Dosia.
At this point, Dosia had never acknowledged the meme on social media.
But he had bigger things to worry about, he was forming a new CS:GO team HS.GG.
In late December HS.GG qualified for the CIS Minor for the Columbus Major and were quickly picked up by Gambit Esports.
Naturally, the news post was flooded with references to the "sex god" meme. The meme spiked in popularity again when Gambit won the CIS Minor.
And then spiked again when they qualified for the Major.
Dosia finally had a CS:GO career back on track.
But it didn't matter,
his social media feeds were still filled with references to the "sex god" meme. A meme that its heart, was meant to mock him.
From the gif to the caricature, and especially the term "sex god" itself,
the meme was designed to mock Dosia's less-than-sex-god appearance.
Regardless of how Dosia felt about the meme, it was out of his control.
At least until he revealed his signature sticker for the Columbus Major. He signed it "X God."
It was a variation of the original "sex god" meme, but it was different.
He was taking control of it on his own terms. Five days later, Gambit released a video featuring an attractive
Russian girl who is definitely Dosia's girlfriend,
featuring plenty of fan service and titillation. And two days later, Gambit released another video featuring an
"interviewer" asking "random people" if they knew who the "X God" was. Which, of course, featured more pretty Russian girls telling us they knew
exactly who he is.
"X God?"
"Dosia." "Dosia." "Dosia."
The videos were cheesy, exploitative and corny. And Dosia himself initially wasn't fond of them being filmed.
But both videos picked up over three million combined views on YouTube.
Dosia and Gambit took the meme and poured gasoline on it,
but they did it by making it their own. From there, as Dosia who became a bigger presence in CS:GO,
so too did the persona of the X God.
The meme spiked in popularity when Gambit competed in the Columbus Major. And when they achieved the Legend status at the Cologne 2016 Major.
And then again when they maintained their Legend status with a win over FaZe Clan at the Atlanta 2017 Major.
But the biggest ever spike came later when Dosia and company won the Krakow Major,
thanks in large part to Dosia's incredible, 200 IQ grenade.
(Casting)
Two months later, at the height of the X God meme's popularity
Dosia, betrayed the persona by marrying his actual real-life girlfriend.
2017 was probably the most important year of both Dosia's career and his life.
But it put a bit of a damper on his playboy alter-ego.
And then at the most recent Major in Boston, Gambit failed to defend their title and retain their Legend status.
(Casting)
"Fnatic 16 to destroy the defending Major champions and ends their run here, I don't know if you want to call it a run."
Gambit have yet to find a strong fifth player to fill the hole left by ex-captain Zeus, and they're a big question mark heading
into the upcoming London Major. Despite that Dosia's legacy remains strong.
He's the first, and only, russian CS:GO player to win a Major.
He's one of the biggest prize earners in CS:GO history.
And he's transformed a meme meant to mock him into a rallying cry for his true believers.
"That's what I'm talking about, look at that. That is beautiful, almost as beautiful as the man himself."