Speculation has apparently become reality and the Dota 2 scene could be shaken to its core. Evil Geniuses appears set to release its entire Dota 2 roster and move out of North America for the first time in its storied history with the game.
EG will finally be moving on from its immovable core of Arteezy and Cr1t- in preparation to swap over to South America for the 2023 Dota Pro Circuit, according to freelance journalist Kenny Utama.
The entire 2022 roster for EG will be released, including coach BuLba, while the organization will reportedly sign the new Thunder Awaken roster that is essentially swapping two players with beastcoast in one of SA’s biggest roster moves in years. That rumored roster includes Pakazs, Matthew, Pandaboo, Chris Luck, and Wisper.
Beastcoast will reportedly be getting both Darkmago and Sacred, while Wisper and Chris Luck will join the TA roster in its own rebuild—essentially exchanging core pieces from the two best SA squads.
Additionally, if the entire TA squad is leaving TA to sign with EG, that leaves another organization that will need to sign a different roster, thus giving more of the rising talent in SA a chance to shine with a strong org backing them heading into the next season.
For EG, it appears that The International 2022 and the previous season as a whole was the final test management was willing to go through with any iteration of the roster it has held since November 2016. Bringing back Fly after less than a year without the legendary captain was enough to stabilize the team heading into TI11’s group stage, but the eventual flameout still came with a 0-4 double elimination in the playoffs.
Related: ‘They looked really fragmented’: BSJ is disappointed in EG’s TI11 performance
Should this end up happening, it will also free up five high-level players from EG for other teams to pursue. Arteezy and Ct1t- haven’t been on the market since 2016, Abed could make the move back to Southeast Asia, Fly is a proven captain who can help steady teams, and Nightfall is already rumored to be forming a new stack in Europe with Pure and Save-.
Roster moves on TA’s side started happening almost immediately after the team finished its SA record-setting fifth-place run at TI11, according to Utama. This included acquiring Chris Luck and Wisper from beastcoast before engaging orgs for the next DPC season.
EG reportedly won the bid and reached a verbal agreement with the team earlier today, beating out TA’s offer to retain its core and reported offers from Alliance, Nigma, and Cloud9—the latter of which made an offer despite not having been active in Dota since 2020.
EG wants to keep that roster based in SA and compete in the region’s DPC for the 2023 season instead of NA. But it still has to purchase a slot in the SA DPC’s upper bracket if it wants to instantly compete for a spot at the first Major of the season.
There is no confirmation on if the team would be willing to play through the lower bracket of SA’s regional league or if EG will bring the team over to NA if an upper bracket spot isn’t up for purchase or should other complications arise. Regardless, this will be the biggest domino to fall for NA’s offseason and it will shape the entire region for the 2023 DPC.
