It's only been around two weeks since T1 officially announced its Dota 2 roster and it seems trouble is already brewing. It appears that the team has released two of its players.
Background
T1, as an esports organization, is known for its teams in a number of different games. They made their start as a Brood War team back in 2002. Eventually they became known for their StarCraft division. However, their biggest claim to fame is their League of Legends team, which has won three World Championships.
Last August, T1 announced that it was joining the Dota 2 scene in the SEA Region with a new team. By March 3 of this year, T1 revealed its official roster. The team is, at least currently, composed of:
- Dominik "Black^" Reitmeier
- Muhammad "inYourdreaM" Rizky
- Lee "Forev" Sang-don
- Tri "Jhocam" Kuncoro
- Yixaun "xuan" Guo
While that looks like a good roster, behind the scenes the support was just as good. Serving as head coach was Choi "cCarter" Byoung-hoon. Making their debut with T1 as coaches are Pyo "MP" No-a and Nicholas "xFreedom" Kelvin Ileto Lim. Finally T1 hired Hyunjin "Xyun" Choi as analyst.
Player Release
While T1 has yet to make any official announcement, it looks like it's going to release two of its players. Who, you ask? Well it appears to be Black^ and xuan. The two have been listed as "Remove" on the registration page for the Dota 2 2019/2020 DPC Season.
Even before the announcement of its official roster, the team had been having problems finding the right fit and its performance suffered. During the qualifiers for the ESL One Los Angeles 2020, T1 managed to reach the Round of 4 before falling to IO Dota 2 at 1-2. Meanwhile, during the ESL SEA Championship 2020 Open Qualifier, they also managed to reach the Round of 4 before being swept 0-2.
T1's move is not that surprising considering that with two majors already cancelled by Valve, it's going to be even more difficult to get a shot to join this year's The International. Of the teams listed in the Dota 2 DPC Ranking, only T1 has yet to have any points.
So why these two? For starters, Black^ has been somewhat bouncing around different teams. In 2016, he switched teams almost once a month from January to June. In the Dota 2 community, he has been called the "World Traveler," managing to play in five of the six regions.
Meanwhile, xuan has mainly been focused in the North America region before joining T1. So it's possible that he may be having a problem with the play style of the SEA region.
So what do you think? Is T1 making the right move?
