The International 10 is effectively locked. That means all the participating Dota 2 teams have been identified. A total of 12 teams had received direct invites with six others joined through the regional qualifiers.
It also means that teams unable to make it are now in the process of rebuilding their rosters. This is both expected and a surprise. Expected because that’s what usually happens in the esports scene. Surprise because some of the roster movements didn’t really give much of a reason.
Roster Released
Take the case of Vikin.gg in Western Europe. The team was relegated to the Lower Division after Season 1. At the end of Season 2 though, it managed to make it to the top spot. That meant it had the chance to go back to the Upper Division.
This also allowed Vikin.gg to get a good placement for the qualifiers. It faced OG in the first round and was dropped to the Lower Bracket. After that, it was eliminated by Chicken Fighters.
Last week, the entire roster was released on Twitter. The tweet had no other details except that the organization was “parting ways” with its roster.
Fans are hoping that the members would stick and form a new team or join a new organization.
Quick Departure
Another interesting news story is about Akbar “SoNNeikO” Butaev. Before joining Natus Vincere, he was part of AS Monaco Gambit and even served as the Team Captain.
Despite Gambit making it to the WePlay AniMajor, SoNNeikO made the decision to leave the team and sign up with Na’Vi. Back then, he said that he believed that Gambit would be able to get the needed points to receive a direct invite to TI10. While Gambit did not get the needed points, it was still ahead of Na’Vi.
At the qualifier for Eastern Europe, Na’Vi won its match but lost the next two matches and was promptly eliminated.
Similar to the Vikin.gg news, not much was revealed. SoNNeikO just tweeted that he was no longer part of Na’Vi.
Rebuilding the Team
Speaking of Gambit, the team is also on its way to rebuilding the team. When SoNNeikO left to join Na’Vi, he was replaced by Vladimir “No[o]ne” Minenko. This led the team to get stand-ins and replacements.
After failing to hurdle the qualifiers, Gambit made some roster changes. Kiyalbek “dream” Tayirov has been benched and put on inactive status. While Albert “eine” Garaev’s contract with the team has expired and has left the team.
So what did you think about these changes?
