Dota 2 news week in review: August 22nd

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.

CSGOLounge & Dota2Lounge terminate all item betting

The future of virtual item betting and gambling platforms has been in jeopardy since July 20th, when Valve issued a cease-and-desist that was made public to 23 betting sites, 22 of which were CS:GO related and the last of which was dota2lounge.

The founder of Lounge, Borewik, released a statement today confirming the termination of betting services from both Lounge websites:

We are announcing that we are closing our virtual items betting functionality with immediate effect. Depositing virtual skins and items in order to place a bet is not possible anymore.”

Valve implements two steps process for the post TI shuffle

Starting after TI 6, until the 4th of September all teams are allowed to free any of their players. After that, any players who remain with the team cannot be removed. The second phase, “Invitation period” will last from the 4th to 18th of September, time, during which, team managers can invite any player that’s not locked with another roster to their squad. A new rule for this roster lock is also set for the substitutes.

Subs are no longer registered in the roster lock period. Teams that qualify for a Major event will be able to issue a Substitute Player invite to any player not participating in the Major once the qualifiers for that Major are done ”

Vega Squadron finalize their roster

Vega Squadron secured four out the five players for the Fall Shuffle since the beginning of August, yesterday they announced Bogdan 'Iceberg' Vasylenko joining them as well, plus the addition of a second manager for their Dota 2 squad.

Iceberg’s statement after joining Vega Squadron:

I'm very happy to join Vega Squadron. Being a part of Team Spirit I was practicing in "sharks" team house and I witnessed how friendly they were to each other and how united they looked. Now I can experience this myself, and the most pleasant part of it is that I'll finally get to play with fng and Mag, I've been looking for such an opportunity for quite a while.”

Vega Squadron roster from position 1 to 5:

Rostislav 'Fn' Lozovoi
Bogdan 'Iceberg' Vasylenko
Andrey 'MAg-' Chipenko
Artsiom 'Fng' Barshak (captain)
 Syoma 'CeMaTheSlayeR' Krivulya

Managers:

Georgy "drAmer" Faleev
Alexander "OneLuckyDay" Kazannikov

Hao retires: "I'll rest for half a year, or possibly, forever"

After a long history in Dota stretching back to the Dota 1 days, veteran Chinese player and former TI champion, Chen 'Hao' Zhi Hao, has announced he will take six months off before deciding on whether he will return to the professional Dota scene.

Hao's post translated:

After so many years in the professional scene, I am tired,  I will rest for half a year, or possibly forever. TI, I have won it, I have lost it, and it's all in the past now. This year, I have let the fans supporting me down, I am deeply sorry, hopefully you (fans) will get used to the tournaments without me, and I also hope you will continue to support me. Although I am not competing, you will frequently see me.”

Alliance,Team Liquid and Escape Gaming to battle in the WCA European Regional Qualifiers next week

With a $54,000 prize pool on the line and two spots up for grabs for the LAN finals, Season 2 of WCA 2016 will kick off the European Regional Qualifiers on the 23rd of August. Only the winners and runners up will qualify for the $600,000 WCA #2 LAN Finals, but all teams will take home a share of the $54,000 qualifiers prize pool. The double elimination bracket will feature three bo5 series to separate the top three teams that will take the larger portions of money.

Participating teams:

Alliance
Vega Squadron
Fantastic Five
Team Empire
Ad Finem
Team Liquid
Escape Gaming
Kaipi (winner of Closed Qualifiers)

WESG opens national qualifiers for all European and CIS countries

The exciting $1.5M prize pool Dota 2 tournament organized by StarLadder and ImbaTV opens its doors for European and CIS regional qualifiers where 20 national teams will qualify for Regional LAN finals, held in Kiev, Ukraine. While some of the European countries have their own qualifiers, others have been grouped together in several sub regions. You can find your country respective register link here.