Dota 2 fans have seen many superteams crop up throughout the years. The previous iterations of Team Secret, Evil Geniuses, and Virtus.pro are examples that spring to mind. The newest, however, manifested itself at BetBoom—an organization nobody considered to be a threat last season, especially not at The International 11, where they ran last.
The team, which consists of Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko, Danil “gpk” Skutin, Egor “Nightfall” Grigorenko, Vitalie “Save-” Melnic, and TI winner Alexander “TORONTOTOKYO” Khertek, is shaping up to be an imposing force this season.
But how did they come to be? TORONTOTOKYO and his decision to switch from being a mid laner to a hard support player played a pivotal role in making it work. He saw something special in the budding Dota 2 lineup ahead of the 2023 season and was willing to do it. It was the masterstroke move that made everything possible.
“I moved to position five not because I didn’t like playing mid, but because I saw the opportunity in this particular lineup,” the role-swapped star said. “If I play this role, we’ll have a good chance to get high places at International events.”
TORONTOTOKYO said he doesn’t think there are many “really strong” players in that position, so it seemed like a good opportunity to fill that gap and become one, especially in this team.
Things haven’t started off as smoothly as they hoped, though. Pure, who is TORONTOTOKYO’s lane partner, said they didn’t gel right away because of his tendency to steal farm at times—presumably due to his previous role—but it’s getting there.
As a team, they said their goal is to develop and keep progressing. Positive results will be a byproduct of that. But they’re already considered one of the top contenders.
