Take a guess!
Boom Esports’ Dota 2 season in 2023 has been an unexpected one so far. They endured a devastating setback in the Dota 2 Pro Circuit SEA 2023, where they have been demoted twice this season, after enjoying an excellent season last year. And months after, rumors said that they are seeking for a new offlaner to replace their current one.
A month ago, Boom Esports abruptly released offlaner Saeiful “Fbz” Ilham near the end of the DPC SEA Tour 3 2023 to play in Europe with Team Secret as a loanee. Though Team Secret initially planned to employ Fbz until the end of the Dreamleague S20 tournament, they unexpectedly extended his loan period and registered him for the forthcoming Riyadh Masters 2023 tournament in Saudi Arabia.
Speculations regarding the offlaner position on the Boom Esports squad emerged. Most of their supporters believed Boom will move on to find replacement for Fbz before The International 12 Regional Qualifier, given that Fbz might extend with Team Secret for the same upcoming tournament. And a few days ago, a Dota 2 community account on social media mentioned DPC China players like Ye “Boboka” Zhibiao and Chung “Ws” Wei Shen as candidates of Boom Esports new recruits.
This rumors soon spread and drew a tremendous response from the Dota 2 community in Indonesia, who demanded an explanation from Boom Esports management regarding these two. Their request was heard by Isaac “Lane” Alfon, manager of the Dota 2 Boom Esports squad, who took it to social media to clarify on these news.
On a Twitter Space session recently, Lane admitted that Fbz will definitely stay with Team Secret for several months in order to advance to the TI 12 Regional Qualifiers in Europe. As a result, Boom Esports is now seeking for possible players to replace him in the near future in order to reach the same goal.
— BOOM Esports (@boomesportsid) July 14, 2023
“We loaned Fbz to Team Secret and he won’t come back to Indonesia for the next few months because he’ll play with them until they reach The International 12,” he said. “That’s why we are holding a tryout at the moment. We need to find a replacement for position three soon because we want to make it to The International 12.”
Lane said that he had heard rumors about the names of possible new players for his team before the news was widely talked about on social media. Although he confirmed that a new player may arrive and play for his team soon, he refused to give an exact answer, instead leaving fans to take a wild guess for the time being.
“Actually, I’ve heard these rumors before anyone else on social media. You see, rumors are easily out in the Dota community because most of the time players talk to other players during scrim. We talk a lot in and outside the game, so it’s not really a surprise.” said Lane. “We definitely have some candidates, but I won’t tell you who the new player is. At the moment, our registered players are Yopaj, Natsumi, xNova, and Xepher. Have fun figuring it out!” he laughed.
Lane stated that his organisation intends to lock in this new squad before the start of the season next August. Furthermore, he added that his squad still maintains a composition of seasoned and young players in order to preserve dynamics within the team and retain a strong competitive spirit when facing heavyweight opponents. Nonetheless, the Filipino considered that Boom itself is their own biggest threat at the moment.
“We’ll set up our new replacement in the first week of August and prepare him for the qualifier. We definitely want to go higher than our last year’s run in Singapore, maybe, like, last 8 finishes. But we have to be realistic about our goals. We do keep an eye on our opponents, but right now the biggest threat is ourselves. We have to improve because everyone will give their best to reach TI 12.”
