From left to right: Clement 'Puppey' Ivanov, Aliwi 'w33' Omar, Jacky 'EternalEnvy' Mao, Rasmus 'Misery' Filipsen, and Johan 'PieLieDie' Astrom.
With the departure of all previous Team Secret players except Puppey, one of this year's most successful teams has undergone drastic changes. Only time will tell whether the new squad can live up to its predecessor.
Team Secret will retain Puppey (possibly as captain), add the professionally inexperienced yet popular pubstar w33, and bring on three former Cloud 9 players: EternalEnvy, Misery, and PieLieDie (the latter attended TI4 with C9 but later moved on).
EternalEnvy will, as expected, take up the carry role (replacing Arteezy) , while w33 will be Secret's mid player (replacing S4). Misery (in Zai's stead) will go to the offlane, while Puppey and PieLieDie (replacing Kuroky) will form the support duo.
The Dota community will likely have mixed opinions of this new roster. EternalEnvy has often expressed that he no longer wants to captain a team, so a hypothetical situation in which Puppey fills those shoes may allow him to focus more on his carry play. Whether the egos of the two experienced captains will collide remains to be seen. However, most skepticism will be directed at w33, whose incredible mechanics are tempered by occasional attitude problems and inexperience. Additionally, Misery has not played offlane professionally in recent memory, though he has played as a mid and a carry previously.
Despite these possible issues, the new Team Secret has the potential to be one of the strongest squads this season, as all five players are exceptionally skilled individually. The team is certainly not lacking for leadership, and will be a lineup to look out for regardless of the community's misgivings.
