The CIS region is already looking to gain their competitive edge as teams begin to test the waters with new lineups in the online events leading up to TI8.
Team Empire, Vega Squadron, and Team Spirit have been actively shuffling around players in their rosters following their disappointing results in the DPC 2017-2018 season and missing out on participating in The International 8.
With players starting to move around teams and regions, these CIS teams are hoping to find their key to success in the days leading up to The International 8. It will be only a matter of weeks before the teams will need to officially register for the new season —the deadline being September 15th for teams hoping to compete in the first qualifiers for the kick off Major and Minor of the year.
Team Empire had already dropped to three earlier in the summer as Rostislav 'fn' Lozovoi Andrey 'Ghostik' Kadyk parted ways with the organization.
Team Spirit is also down to three with the departure of Alexander "DkPhobos" Kucherya followed by Ilya "Illidan" Pivcaev days later as officially confirmed by the organization after the roster change was leaked on stream.
Vega has been using stand-in players for most of the summer already, and has confirmed they will be testing players until September.
All three teams will be competing in the online tournament Rivalry.gg Rumble getting underway. Although Na'Vi has made official announcements via You-tube that the roster was going 'inactive' and there will be changes to the composition of the team. Since then, the organization has not participated in any events to test new players in the public eye.
The first DPC 2018-2019 important dates are as follows:
Sep 17-Sep 21: Major Qualifier
Sep 23-Sep 26: Minor Qualifiers
Oct 29-Nov 4: Minor Main Event
Nov 8-Nov 19: Major Main Event
There is also ESL One Hamburg 2018 set to take place October 23-28th in Hamburg Germany —not part of the Dota Pro Circuit this time around and it is expected there will be more LANs and as usual, online events for teams to start the season with a strong showing.
