The man, the legend, Carlos ‘Kuku’ Palad has broken his silence about where he is going to go for the next leg of his illustrious Dota 2 career.
Sorta anyway. In a live stream that he hosted, viewers asked him where he was going to next. Kuku announced that the contract with T1 was going to end and that he was open to joining new teams.
Speaking in English, he hinted that he was going to join an ‘international organisation, with Pinoys, maybe? I don’t know (Filipinos)”. When pressed, he said: “There are some rumours. Sometimes it’s true, sometimes it’s not.”
He continued to tease his viewers: “Maybe there’s a hint on my shirt. I’m wearing black.”
“Still not sure guys, where I’m going to go. Who’s going to be my teammaters, who is going to play with me, who the boss is. Maybe I’m the boss.”
You can watch the clip here on Twitter:
Kuku to join Blacklist?
There are many organisations that would love to have this decorated veteran of Dota in their lineup. His performance with T1 in 2022 was hardly anything to shout about but Kuku has been one of the more consistent players in the scene.
That combined with that fact that he is one of the most popular players in Philippines means that he has considerable marketing power for any team looking to boost their brand.
One team looking is Bleed Esports, a Singaporean-based esports team, that is rumoured to take over T1’s DPC slot in SEA. Another rumour floating is that he will join Evil Geniuses, after their offlaner Nightfall is said to want to team up with Team Spirit’s former midlaner TorontoTokyo. But given the news recently about EG disbanding their entire NA team, it is unlikely that Kuku, has mostly played in SEA, will have options over there.
Our bet: Kuku will join Blacklist, who are the new kids on the block. The CEO Tryke Gutierrez said in an interview that he wants to form a Dota 2 organisation made up of Filipinos.
Given that Kuku pointed to his shirt, which was black, and had word Champions (Blacklist has won several esports titles over the years) and is an international organisation with teams around the world, we could very well see Kuku headling a team of talent Filipino players, which will also likely include Raven, who just left Fnatic.
Truth or Troll? With Kuku, you never know
