As one of the stronger teams in the CIS, NEXT.kz's fall stands as a tremendous loss in the competitive scene. Despite a string of decent performances in the previous weeks, NEXT.kz have officially decided to abandon their roster and drop sponsorship of the team.
The Kazakhstan team's most recent accomplishment was a second placing at joinDOTA's Masters I, where the team narrowly lost out to Evil Geniuses after overpowering CLG and Team Dignitas on their way to the finals.
'A loss in business interest' was cited as a reason for the dropping of the NEXT.kz squad, and while the team currently stands without a sponsor, stand-in Dominik "Black" Reitmeier has confirmed that he will henceforth be joining the team as a sixth member.
A full statement by Anepkot, the ex-manager of NEXT.kz can be found below:
Anepkot, Manager of NEXT.kz "Company NEXT, which we have played and achieved under has ceased funding to our team. The contract which agreed to pay for various expenses and salaries was terminated last week. This is due to the management decision that the team is not bringing any benefits to their gaming centers. I personally think that keeping the best Dota team in the country under their tag is a huge benefit. However, Next promised to provide our players free play-time in their gaming center and provide each players a computer so they can play from home. For that we thank Next.
However, we need sponsorship to continue playing at a high level. The situation is dire now as two of our players have started looking for work and this may reduce their play time and training which will lead to poor results. We have done a great job so far and came a long way to just stop playing. It is a pity because we have just stabilized and provide some high quality games. I really hope that we will find a new sponsorship soon and continue fighting.
Besides that, Black^ will also be an official part of our team as of now. During Ronin's absence, Black really stepped up as a replacement and played very well. We have long thought about him joining the team and after a talk with him, he offered himself to be part of the team. It is unsure if we will get a sponsor in the near future and who will leave the team and who will remain, all I know is Black^ will stay on.
A lot of people is sure to ask, why not keep the team an all-Kazakhs team for better communication? Honestly, we did not expect things to turn out like that. We did not plan for a roster change since we did not have a crisis. We played with Black^ in a few tournaments and the guys decided that he strengthens our team. We mostly communicate in English on Skype.
I will conclude my statement by saying the future of our Dota team will heavily depend on whether we will find a sponsor. Obviously, we dream of going to The International 2 and many other Dota 2 LAN tournaments. If you have any questions concerning sponsorship or any form of support, do not hesitate to e-mail me at [email protected]."
Roster:
Andrey 'eQual' Railyan Yernar 'Mantis' Urazbayev Daniyar 'LuCky' Kassenbayev Vitaliy 'R_O_N_I_N' Khan Roman 'StOrm' Khaziakhmetov
Dominik 'Black^' ReitmeierLinks
Prodota.ru - Original Article
joinDOTA - Announcement
