Dota 2 news week in review: March 7th

For those who might have missed the most important news from the past week in competitive Dota 2 scene, here is a short recap.

Team Secret crowned Champions of the Shanghai Major

The past week has been dominated by the Shanghai Major action. The Main event kicked off on March 2nd and ended yesterday March, 6th with Team Secret facing Team Liquid in the best-of-five grand finals. If you somehow missed all the action and drama related to the event you can find it all in our Shanghai Major Coverage hub.

The Shanghai Major

Click here for results, VODs and all the other information
 

XBOCT no longer with Team Empire

After nearly three months with Team Empire, Alexander 'XBOCT' Dashkevich has been released from the roster. His replacement is still to be announced.

Team Empire current roster:

Ilya 'ALOHADANCE' Korobkin
Gleb 'Funn1k' Lipatnikov
Alexander 'NoFear' Churochkin
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PRIES signs a new European roster

The Russian e-Sports organization that once featured four of the Yellow Submarine members, and has always been the launching ramp for up and coming players like TpoH or fn, has now signed a full new European roster.

PRIES current roster from position one to five:

Jimmy 'supercell' Hoang
Ivailo 'Mastermind' Petkov (captain)
Max 'Mikey' Barkö
Ivan 'Bashruk' Valev
Kenny 'KyH' Hoang

STARK eSports Dota 2 Squad Disbands

STARK eSports official announcement:

The last couple of months have been tough for our team. We have been trying our best to improve, to get back to our former level. However, our efforts have been in vain – we haven’t been able to achieve the improvements we wanted. The decision we have made as a team is to disband and take some time off. The players need a fresh start after having spent an enormous amount of time and effort together growing as a team.”

Team Leviathan disbands

After a streak of losses, Team Leviathan decides to disband, leaving behind free agents for the upcoming Post Shanghai Major Shuffle.

rOtK hints the beginning of the Chinese reshuffle

LGD Gaming's captain Bai 'rOtK' Fan posted on his weibo hinting his possible departure from LGD.

Translation of the Weibo:

I will regroup with my old friends and return to where we started. In order to reach our goals we have to remember our promises at the beginning. I want to apologize to the fans of LGD for the disappointment we've shown in the past six months. Everyone is flaming me and telling me to retire, but I still really want to play professionally, which is why I'm going to continue my journey. Chinese Dota and my Dota is still alive. ”

Moscow, the Dota 2 Epicenter, this May with a $500,000 LAN event

Epic Esports Events presents Epicenter,a new tournament for the Dota 2 professional scene that features a $500, 000 prize pool for the first edition, and eight teams from around the world battling for the title at the LAN event held in Moscow, Russia at the beginning of May.

Let the shuffle begin! Team Spirit lets go of AFTERLIFE and RAMZES

With the Shanghai Major transfer period quickly approaching, Team Spirit has let go Roman 'RAMZES666' Kushnarev and Vasily 'AFTERLIFE' Shishkin.

Team Spirit's current roster:
Artur 'Goblak' Kostenko
Andrey 'ALWAYSWANNAFLY' Bondarenko
Bogdan 'Iceberg' Vasilenko
TBA
TBA