Last week, the Dota 2 community saw a big change in two regions. In China, Keen Gaming saw a new roster formed within a month. However, the biggest news would have to be in Europe where Ninjas in Pyjamas took on an entirely new roster.
Roster changes are nothing new and every Dota 2 fan knows that. However, what happened with NiP wasn’t a simple roster change as it also marked the retirement of two players from the competitive scene.
Playmakers Retire
NiP have been showing good performances in the minors of the DPC Season, but the team has been having some issues when it came to the Majors. The team made some significant changes late last year and up to January of this year. However, the squad hasn’t been doing so well lately.
Thus it came a surprise to everyone when NiP made the decision to release Saahil “Universe” Arora. Universe was part of the EG that took home the Aegis during The International 2015. It was in this tournament when he executed what is now known as the $6 million Echo Slam. In a statement, NiP said that the move to regional competition has forced the team to with the “restructure our line-up in Dota 2 to ensure continued practice and competition.”
Later in the month, NiP team captain Peter “ppd” Dager announced that he will be retiring from the competitive scene. He was also part of the EG team that won TI5 and was the one who set up the now iconic play with Universe.
Days after announcing his retirement, Universe also announced that he was retiring as well. In a statement, Universe said that the past decade had been an incredible experience but “the time has come to pursue other interest and figure out what comes next.”
NiP, in the same week, released the remaining team members and signed on a completely new group, mainly members of Chicken Fighters. These are Charlie “CharlieDota” Arat, Ondrej “Supream^” Starha, Jonas “SabeRLight-“ Volek, Adrian “Era” Kryeziu, and Akbar “SoNNeikO” Butaeve.
KG Promotes Players
On the other side of the world, Keen Gaming in China also made roster changes. Early this month, KG made initial changes by promoting a player from KG.Luminous to be part of Keen Gaming.
However, last week some of the remaining players, and even the coach, left the team. This meant that the organization had to promote players from KG.Luminous to the main roster. Right now KG is composed of Yang “Erica” Shaohan, Xu “Blood” Ziliang, Zhuang “xiaofu” Yongfu, Zhao “Yds.” Jiayi, and Yu “Fantasy” Yajun.
Any thoughts on Universe and ppd retiring? What about Keen Gaming and their roster change? Let us know your analysis in the comments section below.
