For those who might have missed the most important news from the past week in the competitive Dota2 scene, here is a short recap.
The Boston Major updates
iG.V and LGD.FY fall to the visa plague
The two teams who won the Chinese regional qualifiers, LGD.FY and iG.V, have had their US visa application rejected recently. The visas for part of the LGD.FY squad and the entire IG.V squad were rejected, supposedly due to unfortunate interviewer assignments, and the players' young age and limited education.
The 2016 Fall Battle Pass Treasure III has arrived
Fall 2016 Treasure III is the penultimate offering from Valve, and it’s available for level 13 and above Boston Major Battle Pass owners. The chest includes five Mythical item sets for Ember Spirit, Templar Assassin, Lich, Bloodseeker and Winter Wyvern and escalating odds for a very rare Undying set, plus an extremely rare Shadow Fiend - three piece set.
Team shuffles
A few days ago Vega Squadron announced their decision to release both Artsiom 'Fng' Barshak and Bogdan 'Iceberg' Vasylenko from the roster in their attempt to make their Dota 2 team regain the success they once had. Akbar 'SoNNeikO' Butaev, The International 5 and 6 attendee with Natus Vincere, was released from the Ukrainian squad a week ago. With two of their members let go as well, Vega Squadron didn’t waste too much time before securing the 9K MMR support for themselves. SoNNeikO will replace Fng at Vega; however, it’s not yet decided if he will also take the team’s leadership.
Vega Squadron current roster:
Rostislav 'Fn' Lozovoi
empty
Andrey 'MAg-' Chipenko
Syoma 'CeMaTheSlayeR' Krivulya
Akbar 'SoNNeikO' Butaev
Mikasa replaces Ghost on VG's main roster
Tong 'Mikasa' Junjie - a former VG.R substitute who played at TI6 in place of Yang 'Yang' Zhou Hai - will be renouncing his role as VG's coach and substitute in order to replace mid player Zheng 'Ghost' Jie after two months of poor performances by the team. According to a post by VG on Facebook, Ghost will be taking Mikasa's position as substitute to "relieve the pressure put on him and adjust".
Statement on VG's Facebook:
Power Rangers disbands their Dota 2 team
After a long trail of disappointing results and continuous struggles in maintaining a stable roster, Power Rangers have announced that they will be disbanding. The Belarusian team has been around since 2013, and although they have never been a real threat among the tier one squads, Power Rangers was a strong provider of talented players and a real contender in lower tier events. Players like Akbar 'SoNNeikO' Butaev, Artsiom 'fng' Barshack and Dmitry 'Ditya Ra' Minenkov started their career at Power Rangers before getting recruited by top CIS organizations.
Tournament news
Virtus Pro Redeemed: VP claim Summit 6 title over OG 3-0
Last year, Virtus Pro were the subject of great scrutiny after they admitted to a rule violation in the grand finals of the Summit 5 qualifiers against Ad Finem. Tainted with the incident, the former VP squad then went to ESL One Frankfurt 2016 where they placed last and then team disbanded. The new roster however, has redeemed the organization as Virtus Pro is back with a vengeance, given their titanic showing at the Summit 6. With a strong 3-0 over the guys in green, Virtus Pro become the Summit 6 champions, with OG in second and EG in third.
Newbee takes the final WCA 2016 qualifiers
Newbee's road to qualification was a long one as their journey started in the very first Chinese qualifiers in the first quarter of 2016. Dropping out of the tournament in the group stage after losing a tie-breaker against eventual winner Wings, Newbee were re-invited for the second round of qualifiers where they made it to the grand finals but lost the series against IG. Vitality. However, due to their second place finish, the team was re-invited to the third Chinese qualifiers.
With their last chance to attend the WCA LAN finals at stake, Newbee cleared the group stage with a two point lead over third place team EHOME.K and managed to take down LGD in the grand finals, despite losing to them 0-2 in the group stage.
Talents and bracket for DreamLeague Season 6 released
The Dota2 LAN event for DreamLeague Season 6 is a two day event that will be taking place on the 25th and 26th of November. Across the two days, the double elimination bracket will be played out, with the winner bracket finals played on the first day, and the loser bracket finals and grand finals played on the second.
