For those who might have missed the most important news from the past week in the competitive Dota 2 scene, here is a short recap.
Nahaz left out of The International 6 talent list
Despite the professionalism he displayed during all the events he attended, Valve seems to have decided to not include Alan 'Nahaz' Bester on the talent list this year to cover the grand event that will take place in August, from the 8th to 13th.
Having just arrived home after a rather disastrous performance at Nanyang Season 2, Team Empire made the first change to their relatively new roster by releasing Roman 'Scandal' Sadotenkov.
Team Empire current roster from position 1 to 5:
Roman 'RAMZES666' Kushnarev
empty
Vasily 'Afterlife' Shishkin
Yaroslav 'Miposhka' Naidenov
Rinat 'KingR' Abdullin
Valve to crack down on gambling websites
In a recent update Valve announced that it will be sending notices to gambling websites that abuse the Steam OpenID API, demanding a cease in operations. The news emerges following a plethora of gambling website exposés and negative headlines surrounding members of the CS:GO streaming community, with a number of legal cases on-going in the United States related to the accusations against streamers.
Ninjaboogie returns to Mineski
The new addition to Mineski’s team will create a few waves at Rave too, as Michael "ninjaboogie" Ross was their carry player for the past year. Quite a legend among the old guard of the South East Asian scene, ninjaboogie is famous for his versatility and this comes into play right away with the change of his role. From position one at Rave, he will now be playing a support at Mineski.
Mineski roster:
Ryan Jay 'Bimbo' Qui
Benhur 'Benhur' Lawis
Mark 'Cast' Pilar
Jun 'Bok' Kanehara
Julius 'Julz' De Leon
Michael 'ninjaboogie' Ross (sub)
Jessie Cristy 'JessieVash' Cuyco (coach/sub)
15,000 Dollars on the line at the first ever International Cosplay contest
The International 6 Cosplay competition will take place on the big stage of KeyArena in Seattle during the main event, on the 11th of August with no less than $15,000 prize pool distributed among the 15 finalists. Registrations can be done here until the 9th of August at 12 AM Pacific Time, but keep in mind that only persons above 18 years old are allowed to fill out the form.
StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 2 to be held in the BTS house this weekend
The event that will take place between the 21st and 24th of July, hosted in the Beyond the Summit House, will feature eight teams that will be embarking on a quest for a $300,000 prize pool. StarLadder and Imba TV consider this LAN-Final to be a "dress rehearsal" for TI6, allowing the teams to compete for more than a generous prize pool in a double elimination bracket.
Participants list:
Evil Geniuses
Team Secret
Natus Vincere
F.R.I.E.N.D.S (ex-Virtus.Pro)
Fnatic
Digital Chaos
compLexity
CDEC Youth
Wings Gaming double down, claim Summit 5 Title
OG’s reign atop the international rankings has taken a major hit courtesy of a young Wings Gaming team that sit upon their perch as champions of the Summit 5. The Grand Finals at the Summit 5 did not disappoint. The first three games were a tug of war for control of the series. Wings Gaming got underway with a slow start, dropping the first game, but bounced back and commanded the series from then on out.