Dota 2 esports talent Sheever stars in Gucci’s first episode of GG Legends. The episode shows how she overcomes adversity.
Gucci dropped the first episode in a new docuseries called the "GG Legends." It featured Dota 2 talent Jorien "Sheever" van der Heijden, and the episode highlighted Sheever's journey of becoming an iconic talent in the Dota 2 scene. It also showed how she overcame hate comments and fought cancer.
Gucci and FACEIT have an ongoing partnership in the form of the Gucci Gaming Academy, which creates a supportive environment for aspiring gamers and esports talents. This new documentary series is an extension of the partnership, which focuses on the journey of esports players and how they're overcoming adversity.
Sheever's early start as a Dota 2 player
In the beautifully-filmed documentary, Sheever told stories of growing up with three siblings in a rural town called Ermelo in the Netherlands. She enjoyed forest rides on horseback when she was little and often explored nature and the outside world. Unfortunately, she broke her leg while horseback riding when she was 12 or 13, causing her to stay inside. This was when she started gaming on her new computer.
Fast forward, she had a sales job before deciding to explore other careers. This was when Sheever got her first job in the esports scene. She got hired as a Dota 2 caster for GosuGamers in 2012.
Sheever described her experience back then as the "new kid on the block" where a lot of people seemed to watch her. Inevitably, the hate comments rolled in.
"The community, they did not like my voice. They didn't like my game knowledge. They did not like my pronunciation of things. They did not like the way I looked. They basically could find faults in anything I did."
She didn't let the hate comments get to her. Instead, she used them as fuel to improve herself. She acknowledged that to improve, she had to read the feedback. She asked her sister to help her read through the threads of criticism.
How Sheever dealt with breast cancer
"You can't control if you get sick,"Sheever said in the documentary. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017. Her parents were with her when she got the dreaded news. Sheever considered not going public about her condition, but with the support of her family, she shared her situation. The Dota 2 community rallied behind her. Valve also made a video highlighting Sheever's story and her journey of battling cancer.
Dealing with breast cancer was hard for her as she was used to being independent and not relying on help. Despite being sick, Sheever continued to be active and went on walks accompanied by her family. She even started working as soon as she could, going to events and going for chemotherapy the day after. For her, being on the microphone gave her a sense of normalcy.
"In the end, I just decided, you know what? I'm just going to continue giving it my best and fight this every step of the way."
Sheever's experience with cancer made her a stronger person. Her family described Sheever as more "balanced and not easily rattled anymore, especially by hateful comments on the internet." She was declared cancer-free in December 2019. The documentary closed with Sheever at the dining table with her loved ones cheering for "good health and family."
Gucci Gaming Academy's next GG Legends episode
The esports-focused docuseries is directed by Tom Newman, who also directed OG Esports' series "Road to The International" and BLAST Premier's documentary "Ready Up: A CS:GO Documentary."
As of now, there will be two more episodes in this docuseries. The next episode will be about CS:GO player Mathieu “Zywoo” Herbaut, who is the youngest player to be invited to the FACEIT Pro League at the age of 16. The last episode will be on Aerial Powers, who is the Minnesota Lynx basketball star and a Team Liquid brand ambassador.
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