Fnatic announced today that Daryl “iceiceice” Koh is leaving Fnatic's Dota 2 team. It appears that his contract had expired and he opted not to renew it. He has been part of the team since 2018 and helped Fnatic become the powerhouse SEA team that it is today.
In a statement, Fnatic said that iceiceice wanted to extend his break and apparently “gained an interest in playing for another region.” The idea of iceiceice going on an extended break may not be a surprise considering that despite Fnatic’s five-tournament winning streak, he made the decision back in August not to join any tournaments unless they were DPC-sponsored. His leaving the team may come as a bit of a shock to fans, though.
It’s not all iceiceice, as Fnatic also parted ways with Nico “eyyou” Barcelon. For his part, eyyou had been on a trial basis for the team and was let go with just a week as team captain.
Given that Fnatic is taking part in the BTS Pro Series 3 tournament, where does that leave them? Fans need not worry as Fnatic has stand-ins in Lee “Forev” Sang-don and Kenny “Xepher” Deo.
Fnatic revealed that when they made the decision to become part of the SEA region, their goal has always been “to become a truly competitive force on the international stage, winning tournaments and making a deep run at TI.” Fnatic was actually on track and working its way towards a TI qualification.
However, that all changed when events started getting cancelled due to the pandemic. Fnatic had been ranked 11 before the DPC season was cancelled. According to Fnatic, while they had a good start in 2020, “motivation and a difference in personal long term goals started to cause issues.” The different solutions implemented did not work as expected which was evident during their performance at ESL One Thailand and even the current BTS Pro Series.
Despite this roster shakeup, Fnatic assured fans that their future remains to be bright and their “mission to be a successful force on the international stage hasn’t changed.” One reason is because of the core of dedicated players composed of Kam “Moon” Boon Seng, Djardel “DJ” Mampusti, and Marco Polo Luis “Raven” Fausto.
Right now the team is undergoing a long-term rebuilding process and admits that they “are prepare to sacrifice our short term results to create the best possible Fnatic Dota 2 roster for the future.”
Indeed, it will be exciting to see how things unfold and how Fnatic is going to move forward.
