Ekki

Marcel "Ekki" Hołowienko (born December 9, 2002) is a Polish professional Dota 2 support player currently playing for Pipsqueak + 4. Ekki is one of the more interesting support talents in the European scene — a player who went from grinding regional qualifiers with nobody watching to standing in for Team Liquid at tier-1 events, all in the space of a couple of years.

Early Career

Ekki started his professional journey in 2020 through smaller European tournaments like ESL Premiership, bouncing through Into The Breach and a string of lesser-known stacks before anyone gave him a real opportunity. The next couple of years were mostly qualifier runs and stand-in stints for Division II teams that went nowhere. He came close multiple times with Wisła Kraków but couldn't get through. By his own admission, there was a point where he genuinely questioned whether professional Dota was something he should keep chasing.

Rise to Tier-1

The first real break came in early 2024 when Team Secret invited him to join their roster. Western Europe was a tough qualifying region, but Secret made a lower-bracket run and got through — upsetting Entity along the way. The event itself was rough, going 0-6-1 in the group stage and getting eliminated, but Ekki had his foot in the door for the first time.

After a brief stint with 9Pandas that ended in a joint-last finish at Elite League Season 1, ikki joined AVULUS in August 2024 – a newly formed team built around SonneikO. That's where things started clicking. AVULUS reached PGL Wallachia Season 2 and finished 7th, and ekki settled into his role alongside players like Nisha and qojqva during what became the most competitive stretch of his career so far. In a 2025 interview, he talked openly about his friendship with qojqva and what it was like finally playing with names like Nisha's – honest, grounded stuff from a player who hadn't lost perspective despite the step up.

He left AVULUS in March 2025, had a stint with MOUZ that didn't produce results, came back to AVULUS in September, then watched the org disband its Dota 2 roster entirely in November 2025. In 2026 he stepped in as a stand-in for Team Liquid at PREMIER SERIES (5th-6th) and PGL Wallachia Season 8 (4th), showing he could hold his own at that level. He's currently with Pipsqueak+4 alongside Copy.

Playstyle and Reputation

Ekki plays the 4 position — the semi-support role that demands you win lanes, create space, and make your carry's life easy without disappearing from the map. He is aggressive by nature, the kind of support who looks for kill pressure rather than just stacking camps and warding. Teams that have played with him consistently point to his laning as a standout quality, which tracks – he hit 15,000 MMR in May 2025, a genuinely elite number for any position.

Fun Facts

One of his pub account names at some point was "YOUPLAYDOTAIPLAYSC2". Another was "PALANTIMOS THE FUCKER".