Dota 2 Roster Changes: SVG Retires, Madara Joins Alliance

The conclusion of DreamLeague Season 11 marks the end of another Major, which means Dota 2 teams need to prepare for two more Majors before the Qualifiers for this year's The International begins.

Player.One had reported that while Flying Penguins disbanded after three players left, the remaining two members were able to reform the team. However, that appears to have been short-lived as Ilya “Lil” Ilyuk has apparently already left the team. A recent tweet from Jacky "EternaLEnVy" Mao did not help.

Alliance also announced a change, as Michael "miCKe" Vu will take a one month break as a result of an arm injury and will temporarily be replaced with Omar "Madara" Dabachach.

Vega Squadron dropped the organization's entire roster last month and recently signed the entire roster of Marlerino eSports. According to CEO Alexey Kondakov, there were no other promising choices in both CIS and Europe and that Merlerino already had the talent. The team is now composed of Arslan "xannii" Shadjanov, Danil "gpk" Skutin, Yaroslav "gurin" Gurin, Anton "antoha" Marchenko, and Danis "spacy" Ibragimov.

In China, Newbee will take a much needed change as Zeng "Faith" Hongda left to join Mr Game Boy. However, Wen "awen" Lipeng from Mr Game Boy joined Newbee. A surprise addition is Wang "SanSheng" Zhaohui, who retired from active play back in 2015 and has served as coach. SanSheng was part of Newbee with the team won TI4.

EHOME is also facing some player issues with Zhang "Faith_bian" Ruida still recovering from his injury. Jiang An and Li "ASD" Zhiwen have both decided to be inactive as well.

In Southeast Asia, Sivatheeban "1437" Sivanathapillai continues to have a rollercoaster ride with his Tigers. Chai Yee "Mushi" Fung had initially joined the team before leaving for Team Aster in February. While Danil "Dendi" Ishutin joining the team as a player on loan from Natus Vincere has excited fans in the region, it was recently announced David "Moonmeander" Tan had left the team.

Despite a good start in the recently concluded Major, Mineski fell to PSG.LGD 0-2 and then got eliminated by J.Storm 0-2. Both Kim "Febby" Yong-min and Johan "pieliedie" Åström has since left the team and there is no word yet on their replacements.

TNC, meanwhile, had to deal with Michael "ninjaboogie" Ross Jr. and Carlo "Kuku" Palad unable to play in the Chongqing Major and the WESG 2018 as they were banned in Chongqing. It has since been confirmed Nico "eyyou" Barcelon has officially joined the team and will take over Captain duties from Kuku.

Newly-formed SEA team Lotac has released the team's entire roster.

Finally there is North American Dota 2 team Forward Gaming. The team finished last in the Group Stage during the DreamLeague Major and was eliminated by Ninjas in Pyjamas. Roman "Resolut1on" Fominok is still part of the team, but has decided to be inactive for the next tournament. Avery "SVG" Silverman has decided to retire from competitive Dota 2 and Saahil "UNiVeRsE" Arora has decided to take a break. With this, Forward Gaming revealed that its new team members are Quinn "CCnC" Callaha, Jingjun "Sneyking" Wu, and Kartik "Kitrak" Rathi.