Dota 2 team J.Storm announced that it has signed on Leon "Nine" Kirilin and Jimmy "DeMon" Ho to be part of the team on a trial basis. This move is clearly in preparation of the upcoming The International 2019, Dota 2's biggest event.
Back in May, J.Storm let go of Lee "FoREv" Sang-don, citing communication issues. While the reason may be unusual, this was later confirmed by none other than FoREv himself. According to FoREv, he always had trouble communicating in English and this was one of the main issues that he continued to face while on different teams.
With FoREv out of the team, J.Storm signed on Roman "Resolut1ion" Fominok, resulting in David "Moo" Hull moving to the offlane from the carry position.
In terms of Dota 2 experience, Nine started with German team PENTA Sports before moving on to Team Spirit. However, when Artsiom "fng" Barshak left the team, Spirit made the decision to drop the entire roster. Since then, Spirit has signed on the members of Old But Gold. In the Dota 2 community, Nine is known as the first German player to reach 9000 MMR.
DeMoN, on the other hand, has had a rather "lively" career. He was part of Meet Your Makers, which took fourth place during The International 2011. DeMoN later became part of a number of Dota 2 teams including, among many others, Team Liquid, Evil Geniuses, and Digital Chaos.
One of DeMoN's biggest impacts was when he joined TNC in 2016. Back then, TNC already made a name for itself in Southeast Asia but would not yet have worldwide recognition. That came with The International 2016. With DeMoN as team captain, TNC ended the Group Stage with a 7-7 standing and moved to the Lower Bracket. The team defeated VG.Reborn in the first round and met OG in the next one. That time, OG had been dominating the scene and was expected to win the tournament. However, OG lost to MVP Phoenix in the Upper Bracket. In the match, many people predicted OG to run over TNC. In a surprising turn of events however, TNC swept OG and eliminated the powerhouse from the tournament.
It is possible that J.Storm is hoping DeMoN will bring that needed guidance to the team as he is expected to serve the role of team captain. Prior to his new role, DeMoN served as the team’s coach.
With Nine and DeMoN becoming part of the roster, Jonathan "bryle" De Guia and Park "March" Tae-won have been moved to inactive status.
