Filipino caster Aldrin Paulo “Dunoo” Pangan died on the evening of Aug. 26 due to COVID-19 complications.
Dunoo’s passing has been felt deeply by several Dota 2 personalities on Twitter. While those in the English speaking scene did not know him as well, Dunoo’s impact as a caster reached many.
Extremely sad to hear the passing of Aldrin Paulo "Dunoo" Pangan. I don't understand Tagalog but his passion for PH Dota and the PH teams was unrivaled. Filled me with hype any time I listened to his snippets. My condolences to his friends and family in this difficult time. :((
— Wykrhm Reddy (@wykrhm) August 27, 2021
Who was Dunoo?
Dunoo was part of a popular casting duo with long-time partner Marlon “Lon” Marcelo. Together they casted some of the best Dota matches to a Filipino audience. One of the most famous examples includes Team Secret vs. Fnatic; Game 3 at the ESL One Katowice Major. Some of the lines said during the cast have been immortalized in the Dota client as voice lines in The International 2018 Battle Pass. Arguably, his most popular line is “Lakad matatag” — directly translated to “stand steady” — which he said as Team Secret sieged Fnatic’s base. The voice line was then popularized by OG Esports during their championship runs.
Others well-known lines include “You know whats cooking…BOOM!” and “the next level play.” The latter was a declaration of Fnatic’s incredible backdoor play to eventually win the game from the clutches of defeat.
Several community members on Twitter have asked for Valve to permanently immortalize Dunoo’s voice lines as a tribute to the work he has put in over the years. As of right now, players are unable to access his voice lines, as Valve revoked them after the end of the Battle Pass 2018.
Filipino-English caster John “Johnxfire” Nathan Fernandez paid tribute to Dunoo through a Twitter thread yesterday. “Dunoo’s voice and call outs will always ring true to Dota fans everywhere” Johnxfire said, “and his passing is a great loss for everyone.”
