kiyotaka

Gleb "kiyotaka" Zyryanov (born August 19, 2004) is a professional Dota 2 player from Russia. He is known for his aggressive playstyle and exceptional mechanical skills, he built a reputation as one of the most promising midlaners in the Eastern European scene — and earned the nickname the CIS community uses for him, "booster," because he plays heroes on stage that most people can only make work by boosting accounts.

Early Career

Kiyotaka began his professional Dota 2 career in late 2020, initially playing under the nickname "depressed kid." He started with lesser-known teams and grinded through smaller tournaments, showcasing enough potential to catch the attention of more prominent organizations. Throughout 2021 and 2022, he played for Team Unique, Team Empire, CIS Rejects, and Pari Parni — gaining valuable experience and refining his mechanics against increasingly serious competition. He hit 11,000 MMR in January 2023 and 12,000 a month later. The individual ceiling was showing early.

In December 2022 he joined HellRaisers, and by April 2023 he became a key member of 9Pandas. With them he qualified for The International 2023 and had one of the strongest tournament runs of his career — DkPhobos called him "one of the best mids" during that TI. He also posted the highest average kills per game at the Lima Major 2023 and again in the EEU Upper Division that year. Those numbers aren't accidents — that's a player who plays to kill, not to farm.

The BetBoom and Aurora Years

In September 2024, BetBoom Team signed him. The stint was strong — 2nd at DreamLeague Season 24, 3rd at BetBoom Dacha Belgrade, 3rd at ESL One Bangkok 2024 — but he missed BLAST Slam I due to visa issues, gpk returned to the roster, and by January 2025 kiyotaka was out. Aurora Gaming picked him up in February 2025. Visa problems struck again — he missed PGL Wallachia Season 3, replaced by lorenof, who then went on his famous stand-in run. Aurora qualified for TI 2025 but couldn't escape the group stage, finishing 12th. kiyotaka left in October 2025 and joined Rune Eaters, a Kazakhstan-based org, qualifying for EWC 2026 and grinding the TI 2026 Europe qualifier.

Playstyle and Reputation

Kiyotaka is renowned for his aggressive, mechanically intensive play. He excels on the highest-execution mid heroes in the game — Invoker, Shadow Fiend, Queen of Pain, Tinker, Outworld Destroyer, Arc Warden, Broodmother — heroes that require constant micro, perfect positioning, and split-second decision-making, and he plays them at a level that makes them look easy. His whole game is built around dominating the mid lane and translating that lead into kills before the enemy team can stabilize. He doesn't sit back and farm. He hunts.

Fun Facts

In the CIS community he's known as "booster" — because he plays such unique, high-difficulty heroes on mid (Tinker, OD, Arc Warden, Broodmother) that it looks like the kind of thing people only pull off when they're paid to boost accounts.

His old nickname was "depressed kid," and he's played under aliases like "classic 100 rank mid," "joga bonito," and "vyebal igru."

Visa issues have cost him two tournaments with two different tier-1 orgs — BLAST Slam I with BetBoom and PGL Wallachia Season 3 with Aurora. In the second case, his replacement lorenof went on a legendary stand-in run that basically launched lorenof's career.