Just days before the qualifiers for the Dota 2 ESL One Los Angeles 2020 begin, the Dota 2 team roster drama isn't slowing down. This time it's a the CIS Region. There's some conflict with a player departure from Natus Vincere and a surprise move from Gambit Esports. Some good news is that it appears that Danil "Dendi" Ishutin's team has a complete roster.
The Zayac Story
We initially reported that Na'Vi Team Captain Bakyt "Zayac" Emilzhanov made the decision to leave the team, with Na'Vi later deciding to have Semion "CemaTheSlayer" Krivulya as stand-in.
A day after that, Virtus.pro announced that it was putting Egor "epileptick1d" Grigorenko and Vitalie "Save-" Melnic on inactive status. Zaur "Cooman" Shakhmurzaev was then revealed to be standing in for epileptick1d. Here's the kicker, it appears that VP has signed on Zayac as a roaming support and this is where things get interesting.
Na'Vi CEO Yevhen Zolotarov confirmed in a video that while the organization did part ways with Zayac, they weren't accepting any transfer payment from VP. Zolotarov shared that Zayac's decision came as a surprise considering that the team was preparing for the upcoming qualifiers. It appears that Zayac made use of some loophole to exit the team.
According to Zolotarov, after The International 2019, Zayac had wanted to leave the team and join Gambit, but was convinced to stay. However there was a provision in the new contract that players had to inform the team of their decision in writing. As a result, Zolotarov revealed that when Zayac informed him that he was leaving the team, Zayac reasoned out that there was no written notice given so the contract was invalid.
Likely because of this, the Na'Vi CEO said that there is now a discussion of a possible meeting of all CIS CEOs to talk about transfers and contracts.
Gambit Benches gpk
In more surprising news, Gambit announced that it is benching Danil "gpk" Skutin, despite the fact that his contract is valid until 2021. In a tweet, Gambit said that the reason for the decision was due to the fact that gpk was "refusing to take part in our boot camp." Gambit went on to say that the team is sad that one of the region's best players won't be able to "prove himself in important matches and won't compete for a spot at the upcoming Major." However, the organization takes contractual obligations seriously and expects the same from players.
Replacing gpk is Rostislav "fn" Lozovoi.
It's A Complete Roster for B8
Last week, Dendi revealed that he was coming out with his own organization known as B8. The team has managed to get a full roster and could be able to join the Open Qualifiers. The complete roster is:
- Alexandr "pio65" Zalivako (Position 1)
- Danil "Dendi" Ishutin (Position 2)
- Andrey "Ghostik" Kadyk (Position 3)
- Rinat "KingR" Abdullin (Position 4)
- Nikola "LeBronDota" Popović (Position 5)
What about you? What team decisions do you like? Do you think there’s more roster drama coming? Let us know in the comments below!
