Post-TI6 Roster Shuffle - The First Wave
The post-TI shuffle is in full swing and it may be the most chaotic shuffle yet. Almost every TI attendant seems to change their line-up to some degree or another, giving birth to a few new teams. And as new blood enters the scene, new possibilities emerge for established brands. Former rivals are now teammates and formerly unknown faces join established superstars.
OG
Formerly named Monkey Business, OG prided itself as a team based on friendship. The roster persevered throughout the entire season and was able to acquire two Major titles. The devastating loss at TI seemed to create doubt in some players’ minds and Cr1t and Miracle decided to leave the squad to pursue new adventures. Their teams are yet to be revealed, though there are rumors floating around regarding possible pickups from EG and Liquid.
Following their departure, Moon was kicked from the team, as the core of nouns.Fly and
OG.N0tail believed to be able to field a stronger team without him. They picked up former Liquid player
JerAx and former Alliance drafter
s4, as well as former Invictus Gaming player
ana. Ana is an Australian player that had not been able to succeed with iG, though his individual performances seemed promising. He’s expected to take on the midrole, with s4 apparently trying himself as offlaner.
Team Secret
The European fan favorite surrounding captain Secret.Puppey has failed to live up to expectations ever since their Shanghai Major title run. The squad even risked going through the open qualifier of TI6 to improve their roster’s quality, but Secret placed last at TI, a devastating finishing result for veterans and stars in their squad.
Secret has now parted ways with half of their roster as only Puppey and pieliedie remain. Joining the two supports will be three core players from South-East Asia.
Forev and
MP have left MVP.Phoenix after a successful year, going from a top 8 team at TI5 to now top6 at TI6. Their new adventure will draw them to Europe to take on a new scene. They’ll be accompanied by former Fnatic midplayer and playmaker
NO CARE, who’s been able to place 4th with his former teammates.
It’s a new adventure and a first for 3 SEA players to relocate to Europe and try their luck there. Similarly, there’s an argument to be made that this is no longer an all-star line-up anymore, though all of these players have proven on the big stage that they are top-class.
Ascent Esports
As a top 4 finisher, one could argue that Fnatic has only little to change in their line-up. The team drops parts ways with three players though as yet again only BOOM.Mushi and
Ohy` remain. The two will be joined by South-East Asian upstarters and former TnC players
Fnatic.Raven,
... and
DeMoN.
TnC had an admirable run through the lower bracket of TI and a top 8 finish is something they could tell their grandkids about still. And a large part of why the team got there is certainly to be attributed to the efforts of these three players. Demon proved to be a capable leader, while Raven has shown to be more than just a capable carry, while eyyou showcased strong positioning and playmaking capabilities in the support role.
Team Faceless
Team Faceless is anything but faceless. Fan favorites iceiceice and
Black^ reunite after their Vici Gaming adventure and have formed a South-East Asian team that should not be taken lightly. With former MVP player
NutZ--who was part of the incredible run at TI5 and who’s a long-term friend of iceiceice--as well as
xy, former Team Zenith player and thus also a former iceiceice teammate, the team has the experience to make it far. To add to that, Thai talent
Jabz, formerly of Signature.Trust, fits in perfectly with the team’s hunger for success.
There are legitimate concerns regarding the team and whether players like xy-, Jabz or even Nutz can (still) perform at a top level. SEA looks to be incredibly competitive this seasons, so it won’t be easy for Faceless.
Vega Squadron
Teams that don’t attend TI are more likely to change their roster--one could argue. Vega Squadron proved last year that they didn’t need to be such a team, that they believed in their roster. They certainly made a splash but failed to live up to expectations and aside from a title at ESL One New York, the roster achieved nothing to speak of.
A roster change earlier this year saw 9pasha replaced with fn, but following the conclusion of TI, the team has announced two further changes. They acquired CIS supertalent Iceberg and former Virtus.pro captain
VP.Fng.
The squad on paper looks promising with a lot of talent, experience and individual skill, but that has never been an issue with CIS. The issue has always been to make the team actually work and reaching that next step of quality, consistency and performance. This looks to be a promising attempt.
Virtus.pro
The CIS reshuffle began slightly earlier than expected as some teams formed before the conclusion of TI. Virtus.pro is such a team. The Russians announced their new roster in the middle of TI.
For the first time in over a year, this Virtus.pro line-up will not feature midplayer G. Instead, former Vega Squadron player No[o]ne- will take on that position. He’ll be joined by his teammate
9Pandas.Solo, who’ll play the support role alongside VP returnee
< blank >. To round out the line-up, former Empire player
9Pandas.RAMZES666 will play as carry, while former FantasticFive player
9pasha will occupy the offlane.
Digital Chaos
Digital Chaos was on nobody’s radar going into TI and many would argue that the team was likely to reshuffle after the event. After all, these players formed a team together out of necessity, as none of them had a team 2 days prior to the Manila Major roster lock.
Following a marvellous run of a 2nd place finish by the mostly European squad, DC has decided to stay together--for the most part. Offlaner Moo has been removed from the team and been replaced with former OG player TSM FTX.MoonMeander. There are questions whether Moo would’ve ever been kicked, had Moon never been removed from OG. Will this roster swap be an upgrade?
Team NP
A new team emerges in this year's shuffle as former Secret and Cloud 9 teammates EternaLEnVy and
Aui_2000 join forces yet again to form Team NP. What looks to be the beginning of a new organization and brand, similar to OG the year before, could be another strong contestant in the North-American scene. With the help of former Secret coach
1437 and former EG & DC coach
LoA, the team looks to be well equipped to handle their competition. Former Shazam and Cloud 9 player
QCY.MSS completes the line-up as the team's offlaner. Aui_2000 will resume the carry position, while EternaLEnVy will play mid, with svg taking on the 4 role.
South-East Asia Shuffle
There have been a variety of roster announcements in the SEA region, but many of them have warned that these rosters may only be temporary. As MPGL takes place this weekend, many teams may still choose to swap out some of their players, so it's not worth covering them just yet. That said, it's very much worth checking out the event and its competition, as it will debut all of the new SEA teams, including the above announced Fnatic.
Na'Vi, Escape Gaming & AD Finem
Not often do teams not change their teams after TI. As players become available, there's always a certain temptation to acquire the skills of an individual that wasn't available before. Wildcard winner and last place Escape Gaming however have decided to not change their roster at all. The team formerly known as No Diggity will try to stick it out and sees potential within each other to succeed in the upcoming season.
For the very same reason, fan favorite Natus Vincere will not change their roster either. The Ukrainians were speculated to partake in the shuffle, as a lot of CIS talent seemed to be available. The squad decided to build on the foundation they've set up the past several months.
Ad Finem decided directly after their failed qualification for TI that the greek squad would stay together and have not wavered since.
Just the first wave
Teams still have time until 17th September to add players to their roster. Especially China will be interesting to follow, as no team has officially announced any roster changes or a lack thereof yet, even Wings have only vaguely commented on the matter. Many more roster changes are to be expected, so stay tuned.
Image Sources:
interesting
ee mid we gonna see some 1v1 kills
(on envy)
Is this just meant to show the teams? I thought these articles were meant to talk about Dota (the game)? But maybe that's just me please don't flame me.
@dragonkiller:
we do both! we release blogposts every other day and most of them cover the game, ehroes and meta related things, but every now and then we also talk about the pro scene
"the mostly European squad", nice one...)
No word on chinese teams yet?
Navi for ti7
Navi no roster change
faith
Where's arteezy?
Seriously where is rtz?
he is attempting to form a 1 man team, and micro all the heroes
Miracle has also found a new team: "Miracle + 4" Kappa
Mirarteezy combo?
Miracle mid and Arteezy carry would actually be a very powerful core lineup but where are the good supports to go with them??But seriously that would be extremely awesome to see them both in one team...EGO CLASH..wew
Miracle- to Liquid. RTZ still a ?
Omg. I cant believe this. No 1st or 2nd or these shit. Thanks guys. Rly developing
1st Lol
Seventeenth!
NA'VI IS BACK!
Alliance?
Are the rules about liquid.Miracle- confirmed??, Is miracle in team liquid now
Rumours*
"Secret has now parted ways with half of their roster as only Puppey and Secret.pieliedieSecret.pieliedie remain. Joining the two supports will be three core players from South-East Asia"
A minor detail but still: please don't put South Korea under the "SEA" label. If you are unsure about what "SEA" means, here is a source: http://www.niu.edu/cseas/about/sea_countries/index.shtml
I also loved the "..mostly European [DC] team." The exact right amount of cheekiness to lick some American tears.
Ti7 the revenge of the fallen ^___ _^
south korea has always been labeled SEA in the dota scene.
I actually like Team Secret now.
@no handshake:
I agree, but I think it is widely accepted that South Korea has been part of the South-East Asian region at least in terms of competition. They qualify through the SEA qualifiers and the distinction btetween KR/SEA tournaments/region is gone. You're definitely right though
2nd 1st
@Skim:
Fair enough. Thank you for specifying this particular use of "SEA". Also this reminds me that this page: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/dota2/Portal:Teams#Korea_.26_Japan
should be updated to mirror the change you mentioned.
Good write up & summary, thanks, now I don't have to spend an hour on reddit :D
Just imagine the amount of space demanded if RTZ and Miracle- were on the same team.
Virtus Pro is going to be a team to look at. Their roster looks extremely promising
fEEd mid NotLikeThis
i really really hope Navi becomes like : Puppey , DEndi , XBOCT/ General(Good player general), Funnik and last one of old roster (forgot sry)
@Donna had it coming
Never more, Puppey will stay on Secret and Dendi on Navi and for me Xboct was a fail as carry pos 1 the last year playing for navi so i hope he never come back.
PS: Dendi is now the only player that stay in the same team since TI1.
MIRACLE- MID
ARTEEZY- CARRY
CRIT- SUPPORT/ROAMER
MOO- OFFLANE
"Similarly, there’s an argument to be made that this is no longer an all-star line-up anymore, though all of these players have proven on the big stage that they are top-class."
It seems like that argument was shut down pretty quick