Dota 2 – The Most Shocking Roster Changes Ahead of DPC 2021 – 2022

As always, Dota 2 teams around the world have made important roster changes ahead of the start of the new Dota Pro Circuit. And many of these changes are likely to lead to completely different results for them in the new season. The problem, however, is that in most cases, the moves seem to have weakened them instead of increasing theirs odds of success.

OG Has a New Roster

As the famous chat-weel line goes, “lose together, win together, slay together”. But what happens when a roster built around friendship starts to lose key and irreplaceable members?

OG finished last season with a decent result at The International 10: 7^th – 8^th place. It wasn’t what they were aiming for, but it was still pretty good. However, after a number of years, people start losing focus and motivation. To excel at Dota 2, you need to put all your effort into it. And Ceb was no longer willing to do that to the detriment of his personal life. The rest of his team simply followed his decision until no one remained.

This left OG with a single option: bring in a new roster. But that decision has been carried out in such a way that by the end of 2022, the entire OG brand might be ruined. The new players who will represent the organization are relatively inexperienced and have had little success so far.

Of course, they will be led by N0tail and Ceb, two incredible people who can easily coach others. But let’s not forget that Alliance uses the same formula. And despite the fact that Loda is a TI champion, he hasn’t succeeded in transferring his knowledge of the game to his team. Or at least, he hasn’t managed to do it well enough to help Alliance be what it was when he was representing it.

This is OG’s new lineup:

• Yuragi
• Bzm
• ATF
• Taiga
• Misha

Not a single one of these players is even remotely close to Ceb, N0tail, or any of the former OG players in skill and dedication. At the same time, OG will be competing in one of the toughest regions in the world of Dota 2: Western Europe. This will likely lead to very poor results.

Invictus Gaming Lost kaka

Another team that will probably struggle in the next Dota Pro Circuit is Invictus Gaming. Even though the Chinese organization finished 4^th at The International 2021 and was the winner of the Singapore Major, without kaka’s leadership there is absolutely no chance for it to maintain its position in the region and in the world. This player, who brought Newbee to the Grand Final of TI 7, is almost irreplaceable.

To compensate for kaka’s departure, iG has signed Fade, a former Vici Gaming player who can certainly lead, but probably not as well as the man who left the organization.

Team Secret Lost zai and MATUMBAMAN

After Team Secret finished 3^rd at The International 10, people were hopeful that the roster would stick together and win in 2022. But two of the most important members of the lineup, the carry and the offlaner, have both decided to leave the organization in search of new opportunities. Strangely enough, both of them have joined Team Liquid, one of Secret’s main rivals in Western Europe.

Luckily for Puppey and his remaining crew, there were two amazing players available at the time. Both iceiceice and Sumail were searching for a new opportunity and were brought in to replace the legends that left. Chances are, they’ll do a pretty good job.

Virtus.pro Lost Nightfall and Save-

The CIS squad did quite well at The International 2021, finishing 5^th – 6^th. For VP, this is the standard TI result. The organization got the same result several times in the last 4 years, so nobody got upset when the team got eliminated. Although, to be fair, some people were probably pissed at the fact that the competitor who eliminated VP was a regional rival. After all, Save- and his team had defeated Spirit multiple times throughout the season. So why lose against it when it matters most?

That aside, it will be interesting to see what Virtus.pro can do with its new roster. The two players who left were replaced by Pure and yamich, two extremely young competitors who have yet to prove themselves. It’s not the first time when VP brings in completely new names to represent the organization. And so far, the method has worked quite well. It certainly seems that the scouts really know how to recognize talent when they see it, so we need to be careful before doubting their decisions.

The only real problem that can be seen from the outside has to do with the lack of a strong, proven captain. Save- did a pretty spectacular job, making the roster go from being VP’s academy team (VP.Prodigy) to becoming its main squad. So he’s quite difficult to replace.

VP’s main rivals in Eastern Europe for this upcoming season will be Team Spirit and Natus Vincere. It’s not yet clear who else will join the fight for the top 3 positions in the region but these two will certainly cause a lot of trouble. Let’s not forget that Na’Vi has brought in  Artstyle to coach the team, as well as Solo and No[o]ne. This lethal combination has worked before, although not for Na’Vi but VP.

 

Photo credit: Valve