Blacklist Rivalry shakeups: DuBu in, Raven out

January 24 – Blacklist Rivalry (BLR), the Dota 2 competitive arm of global esports team Blacklist International, made big changes to its lineup in a bid to improve its performance on the global competitive Dota stage.

Blacklist International announced their hiring of Korean Dota veteran Kim “DuBu” Doo-young via their social media pages on January 24th.

Doo-young, who last played for Bleed Esports, will be Blacklist Rivalry’s new coach – the team’s third coaching hire in the span of over a year. This is also his first coaching stint in nearly four years. 

He has previously coached for Fnatic from 2018-2019, and for CR4ZY from March to April 2020. DuBu will fill the vacancy last left by Adam “343” Erwann Shah. 

Tier One Entertainment CEO and Blacklist International co-founder Tryke Gutierrez teased DuBu’s joining of the team via an Facebook story, saying he came from Vancouver, Canada to coach BLR.

The day before, Blacklist Rivalry let go of one of its original players, veteran Carry Polo “Raven” Fausto. 

“One of the original members of our redemption team, we can’t thank him enough for the hard work and dedication during his time with us,” Blacklist International said in its announcement of Raven’s departure.

Raven last played for BLR during the Asia Pacific Predator League 2024 held in Manila. This was Blacklist Rivalry’s first-ever championship since its inception.