The captain of Team Secret's Dota 2 roster, Clement "Puppey" Ivanov, has become a stand-in for NAVI for an upcoming tournament.
NAVI officially announced its temporary Dota 2 roster that will play in the upcoming DreamLeague Season 2024.
This will also be the one it uses in other tournaments in the near future. The team includes former team captain Puppey, who is temporarily coming back after a decade.
Puppey's NAVI Return
The announcement also revealed that Dmytro "nefrit" Tarasich and Arman "Malady Orazbayev will not be on the main roster for now. Instead, they will be replaced by Puppey and Miroslav "BOOM" Bičan for the upcoming qualifiers.
Puppey previously led the NAVI Dota 2 team to three The International finals and will be replacing Malady for now. Many fans of the team mark this as a special moment since it is a decade since the player went his separate way to form Team Secret, according to Esports.
Team Secret then went on to have a successful run with various successes in Valve's popular MOBA. Under Puppey's leadership, the Dota 2 team won multiple Majors and was able to get to the finals of The International 2022.
Puppey and Boom join the NAVI roster alongside Bakyt "W_Zayac" Emilzhanov, Artem "Yuragi" Golubiev, and Sukhbat "sanctity-" Otgondavaa. The team's coach position will be filled by Vitalii "Sword_Art" Petkin.
NAVI's announcement of its temporary new roster might also confirm that Team Secret will not be participating in the DreamLeague Tournament. The latter could also forgo joining other future events while Puppey is away, Esports News said.
The development comes as NAVI, similar to other Dota 2 teams, is scrambling to put together a team for various qualifiers and events over the next few weeks and months.
There are already three major tournaments that are scheduled to take place within a month from now.
Upcoming Dota 2 Tournaments
The three tournaments are DreamLeague 2024, BetBoom Dacha Belgrade 2024, and PGL Wallachia S2. The situation has forced many Dota 2 teams to fill their rosters with stand-ins, quick deals, and last-minute signings.
On the other hand, Team Secret said that its new roster is currently underway amid Puppey's absence. There is currently no information as to who could be joining the Dota 2 team's roster for now.
The team's entire roster, aside from Puppey, was previously dropped, despite reports revealing a big part of the ongoing The International 13 reshuffle.
The last time that the Team Secret Dota 2 captain played was with Tobi, Kyzko, Shad, and Adzantick in the qualifiers for PGL Wallachia S2 2024, according to Escore News.