The International 3 Western shuffle

Editor's note: The stars on the player's pictures represent how many The International tournaments the player has played in.

Mousesports

Germany

Mousesports has never been the most stable team and ever since KuroKy left the team for Na`Vi, they were missing a leader. Qojqva joined as an Offlaner and FATA- took the captain's seat. He explained on dotasource.de that there were some internal issues and therefore, Alex- had to leave the team. The Germans quickly found a replacement in the former captain of mTw, syndereN.

The following statements were giving regarding syndereN joining mousesports:

Empire

Russia

Also Team Empire was hit by Na`Vi's curse when Funn1k left the team. Even though the team added Vigoss only shortly after, Goblak and Silent decided to leave the team. With twiSta- and Mitch, Empire added two players which have not been seen in the competitive scene for a while. TwiSta- played for mousesports until one year ago; Mitch played in ArtStyle's team Darer around the same time. There were no reasons given why Vigoss went inactive, but his slot has now been taken by LighTofHeaveN after he himself was inactive for two months. Vigoss is, however, officially still a part of the team.

As Empire's roster change did not happen in one go, a lot of statements were made along the way:

Empire's managar AnahroniX on Goblak's and Silent's departure:

"Artur and Airat perfectly filled the spots in the team and made a huge impact on its' success. But unfortunately, the time when the concepts for the future of team has drastically diverged and continuing to play with the same roster would only degrade the team. Taking the players' will into account, the management has decided it is better for them to split ways. I want to thank the guys for their work and wish them the best in the future. It is time to move one and there is a lot of work to do - searchign new players and improving via training. Root for us and support the team, we need it now more than ever."

Artur 'Goblak' Kostenko on his departure: "Playing in this team gave me great experience and I have always felt the support of the organization. There is always a time when something needs to be changed and the time has now arrived. I want to thank the whole organization for their support and my teammates for our great work. Wish them good luck in their future!"

Visar 'twiSta-' Zymberi on him and Mitch joining:

"It's been a long time since i was involved in the competetive scene. But i am very happy and excited to announce that i have finally found the team and the players that i truely want to work with. I am very thankfull that Empire as an organisation but also the players have put so much trust and faith into me and i will make sure that we wont dissapoint. I wont sit and tell you guys that WE WILL BE THE BEST EVER, cause that would be a lie, but i can tell you that WE WILL WORK THE HARDEST and have a very strict training regime to become the best. Once again i would like to thank my team mates for such an opportunity and Empire and its sponsors. Keep supporting us!"

Damir 'Mitch' Škaricic on him and twiSta- joining:

"When I was contacted by Empire, I felt delighted to be offered a chance like this as this team consists of some of the best players not just in the Russia, but of the wholeDota 2 scene itself. Having a players like Scandal and Blowyourbrain in team is something that every Dota 2 player would prefer. We are full of enthusiasm and looking forward to complete the roster and training with the new team after a long time out of the competitive scene."

Dmitriy 'LightOfHeaven' Kupriyanov on him joining:

"Really happy to come on board of Team Empire. Going to explore new horizons."

Empire's managar AnahroniX on LighTofHeaveN joining: "I am glad to greet such a skilled player as Dima in our team. Together, we will move forward and try to show good results. Everything unsaid you will see through future showings of the team. Welcome to our team!"

Photo source: EMS One

dd.dota

France

Team dd's roster, built around the French players who used to play in mTw, has gone through so many changes that it is hard to keep track who is currently on it. To keep the list short, the biggest names who have played in dd so far were s4, L1NK, Ryze and qojqva. The roster with blr and BARBARRR was doing quite well and they qualified for the EMS LAN finals. Unfortunately, BARBARRR was not able to attend and the team took ComeWithMe as a stand-in. Since not being able to attend a LAN event is a major problem for The International, it was no surprise to see him swapped out. The team might have taken the chance to get both of the former Empire players at once and also removed blr.

Only a few words were shared among this roster change.

Evil Geniuses

United States of America

Unlike the other teams in this feature, EG has not been a team with many recent changes. In fact, only two players have switched - BuLba to Team Liquid, Universe to Dignitas. This roster change, for once, was not caused by internal conflicts or commitment issues. Maelk, after nine years of competitive play, decided to retire permanently and will now serve Evil Geniuses as a coach. SexyBamboe will replace him and join the team in their bootcamp on the West coast of the United States.

Here are the statements given by the team:

RoX.KIS

Russia

After 3D!Clan dropped two of their players, one of them being Sharfik, they aquired two players from RoX.KIS, STALIANER and Sedoy. Sharfik started to play as a stand-in for RoX and got eventually added to the roster. Just a few hours after this announcement, Dread also left 3D!Clan and joined RoX.KIS. Only one week later, Sharfik left the team again after a request to switch more players got denied.

Solo replaced him. Three weeks pass and another announcement is made - hardEEV is leaving the team due to real life commitments and gets replaced by VANSKOR.