DOTA | A Pre-TI Roster Updates

With little over a month till The International 2019 in Shanghai, China, we announce today three changes to our starting Dota 2 lineup as we try to assure the best possible chance of doing Southeast Asia proud.

Our carry player for the 2018-19 DPC, Noa 'MP' Pyo will be leaving the active playing roster, whilst Anucha 'Jabz' Jirawong becomes his direct core replacement and Kim 'DuBu' Doo-young moves from coaching to complete our starting lineup.

MP has been a crucial part of securing our invite to The International 2019, having joined this iteration of Fnatic Dota last September. MP will still receive a salary as well as a portion of the prize money earned in Shanghai. While being understandably disappointed, he understood the decision.

“Together with MP, Fnatic Dota has had one of our most amazing seasons and we owe him endlessly for all the hard work he has put in,” said Fnatic Team Manager Eric Khor. “However, with lacklustre results towards the end, issues with our playstyle have surfaced and after a lengthy discussion with everyone, we feel that we needed a fresh change in our cores' synergy.”

Our support player, Anucha 'Jabz' Jirawong, will be moving to carry. Although he’s played in the support positions in the most recent seasons, Jabz has previously played the mid role professionally and believes he can do well in the carry role, something the team believes intoo.

“I am very confident in my ability to play the carry role in this team. I believe I am able to synergise well with Abed and my new lane partner DuBu. It has been a while since I have played core, but I will train hard to get acclimated to the role,” said Anucha 'Jabz' Jirawong.

Finally, our coach Kim 'DuBu' Doo-young will move into the active playing roster, taking over Jabz’ previous support role. DuBu has been with the team for the entire 2018/2019 season and was the best candidate given how well he knows the team.

“After working with this team for nine months as the coach, I believe that I understand each and every one of them very well. I am also happy that the team believes in my ability as a player and has given me this chance. I will prove them right,” said Kim ‘DuBu’ Doo-young.

As the players settle and prepare for their bootcamp period in Kuala Lumpur, we continue the process of finding a new head coach to take us into the first ever Asian The International.

FNATIC DOTA2 Roaster:

#1: Anucha ‘Jabz’ Jirawong
#2: Abed ‘Abed’ Yusop
#3: Daryl Koh ‘iceiceice’ Pei Xiang
#4: Djardel ‘DJ’ Mampusti
#5: Kim ‘DuBu’ Doo-young

A YEAR OF DPC

After a promising first half of the 2018/2019 DPC, which saw us secure our place at The International, the second half has seen us heading in the wrong direction. The team showed promise immediately after forming in September, taking Secret to 5 games in the final of PVP Esports, and while coming 7th-8th at the Kuala Lumpur Major was a little disappointing it was still an acceptable start for a newly formed team.

The Chongqing Major saw us improve to a 5th-6th finish and we believed we would continue to improve which each coming event. Things came together at the Stockholm Major where we achieved our season best result of 3rd place thanks to great preparation and a meta that really suited our team. Everyone played their natural style and, although we could of made the finals, everyone was pleased with the result.

After winning the Paris Major qualifiers the team took a short holiday while also taking care of necessities such as passport renewals and visas. Unfortunately this led to little time being available to prepare for the Major or properly adjust to the meta. The result was a first round exit and, while the lack of practice seemed to be the issue, it exposed some underlying problems that we had yet to address

Following the early exit at Paris we identified that our team was limited to certain playstyles and struggled to adjust. We decided to have an extended bootcamp for EPICENTER to be better prepared and saw some results in practice games but when the event arrived we stumbled again, finishing in the bottom four.

We immediately held a meeting after our loss to Forward Gaming to get everything out in the open. A lot of honest feelings were shared in the meeting and it was clear then that not everyone on the team was comfortable with each others playstyles. Conversations were had on how to improve the team cohesion but, in the end, we decided that we needed a change. It was at this time that we decided to bench MP.

Our attention then turned to the replacement. A few players were considered but, since the team had developed a close camaraderie, a final decision was made to not add any new player.

LOOKING FORWARD

Like all teams our attention is now 100% on preparing for The International. With just over six weeks until the event, our team will soon gather in Kuala Lumpur for their final bootcamp of the season. With plenty of preparation and a united squad, when The International comes, we’ll be ready.

“Changing roster this late into the season comes with an inherent risk, especially since we will be changing roles internally, but I am very confident that the new change will bring versatility as well as excitement for the fans,” said Eric Khor.