When it rains, it pours.
A day after Evil Geniuses announced they would be disbanding their entire Dota 2 roster, two more professional teams followed suit. This time in Southeast Asia.
T1 officially disbanded its Dota team last night via their Twitter account. This means that ana joins Xepher, Whitemon, and Kuku, who left earlier this November, as free agents. Topson is officially still with OG, having been loaned to T1 as it bid to qualify for the next TI.
The 2021/2022 season was a disaster for T1, mainly because they failed to qualify for TI 11 a few months ago. This was despite them picking up former TI champions ana and Topson to push for qualification. This is likely to be a major factor in T1’s management’s decision to disband the lineup.
There is currently no further information regarding ana and Topson’s future in the the competitive scene for the forthcoming season. Some claimed that Ana will return to retirement, while Topson is rumored to take another shot in Europe.
T1 also said that they are exiting Dota competition altogether. This means that a slot in the SEA DPC has been freed up. Rumours are swirling that Bleed Esports or Blacklist may step in to take up their spot.
In addition to T1, team Polaris also announced the disbandment of their Dota lineup. The announcement was made only a day prior to T1 news.
Given that Polaris just won the APAC Predator 2022 Tokyo in convincing fashion, the news of their disbandment is no less shocking. In addition, their performance in the DPC last season was actually rather good, considering they are still one of the youngest orgs in SEA to compete in DPC.
According to a statement from team management, Polaris opted to release the players since they could not compete with more lucrative contract offers from other teams. They stated, however, that they will immediately make a change and look for fresh players to compete in the 2022/2023 season.
