Free agent squad – players who will miss the first season of the DPC in the CIS

Roman RAMZES666 Kushnarev

The previous year started for RAMZES666 very promising. The star esportsman gradually mastered offlane, and his team Evil Geniuses took second place in DreamLeague Leipzig Major, practically guaranteeing a ticket to The International 10. But, unfortunately for Kushnarev and his fans, the coronavirus inflicted a last hit on LAN tournaments, including the anniversary TI in Stockholm. Kushnarev was forced to return to his homeland, played a couple of online tournaments with EG, and in November the American organization transferred the Russian to an inactive. Immediately after that, the cybersportsman gave an interview in which he said that he actually missed his native first position very much, and in North America experienced difficulties with motivation.

After the transfer of RAMZES666 to the EG reserve, something happened that, perhaps, all the fans of the legendary Virtus.pro roster were waiting for. Kushnarev teamed up with former teammates No.[o]ne and Solo and assembled a new Just Error team to participate in EPIC League Season 2 Division 1… Unfortunately, the roster did not make it to the league playoffs, and a couple of days later RAMZES666 announced the team’s disband. According to him, the roster had a lucrative offer from a “large European organization”, but the players rejected it so as not to “sit down on the salary.” After that, caring fans came up with many theories about the future of the esportsman, but so far none of them has been confirmed – the Russian is sitting without a team and is missing the first DPC season.

Vladimir No[o]ne Minenko

Another superstar left without a team in the new season was Vladimir No[o]ne Minenko… In the first half of the past year, the mid lane Virtus.pro along with Solo. At DreamLeague Leipzig Major, the roster took 13-16 place, after which they translated epileptick1d (now – Nightfall) and Save- in stock. Later, the Ukrainian himself will tell that that lineup of players simply did not have enough “internal chemistry”. Then VP made more than one substitution, but none of them ever helped the team regain the level of play that it showed in its golden years. Due to unsatisfactory results, the roster has exhausted the credibility of the organization, and No[o]ne was transferred to the reserve and finally left the club in November.

At the EPIC League, Minenko played with Just Error with RAMZES666 and Solo. In the new team, the Ukrainian left the central corridor for the first time in his career, losing SumaiL, and went to interfere with the enemy carries on the offlane. No.[o]ne has repeatedly stated in interviews that he gets a lot of pleasure from the new position, but there was little love for change, and as a result, the team did not make it to the playoffs. A couple of days later, a disband followed, and Minenko was forced to look for a team for the second time in several months. Many fans were convinced that No[o]ne and Solo is indestructible, but it turned out to be not so. Berezin put together NoTechies, with whom he already managed to qualify for the first division of DPC 2023. Minenko, in turn, could not find a team and already expressed his dissatisfaction with the late announcement of the league from Valve.

Pavel 9pasha Khvastunov

The past year can hardly be called successful for 9pasha… For the first major of 2023 Natus Vincere arrived with two debutants in the line-up. The lack of experience of playing on the big stage affected illias (now – Kingslayer) and Zayac, and the team lost both games in the playoffs, finishing in 9th-12th place. After the trip to Germany, Khvastunov’s roster was in for a not very pleasant story with Emilzhanov’s transfer to Virtus.pro, which finally crippled NAVI’s morale. In the era of online, the team was content only with the second place in Gamers Without Borders 2023, and in September Khvastunov was transferred to the reserve, where he is to this day.

At the moment, the fate of the most titled offlaner in the CIS is still unknown. Early January CEO HellRaisers Alexei Magician Slabukhin said that last fall, 9pasha agreed to join the Ukrainian organization, but then changed his mind. It was rumored that Khvastunov did not want to play with Ilya lil me alone Ilyuk, but later the support himself denied them, saying that there was no conflict with the former teammate. At the moment, it is not known whether Khvastunov is going to continue his career. In 2023, he will turn 29, and the number of prize money he earned has long passed the $ 1.5 million mark, so it may be difficult to find motivation. 9pasha has been streaming a lot lately, playing Dota 2. Hopefully, the Russian is in good shape to announce his return to the scene soon.

Fedor velheor Rusikhin

The support market in the CIS traditionally does not indulge in abundance, especially when it comes to the “fours”: all the star players of this position have already found teams for the next season – Save-, RodjER and Zayac will compete in the first division, and lil me alone with HellRaisers will play in the second. Of the notable position 4 supports that are worth mentioning, there are not so many eminent players left, including velheor…

More than two years have passed since Rusikhin left Natus Vincere, and so far the Russian has not been able to return to the shooting range-1 stage. Velheor spent the last year in the EXTREMUMwhere he had the opportunity to work together with the most experienced Sergey God Bragin… The team showed quality Dota and even won one tournament during the online era – Arena of Blood Season 2 (3: 1 in the grand final against Team empire). At the end of December, Rusikhin unexpectedly left the Russian team and even admitted that he was thinking about changing his occupation. However, on the day of the announcement of the new DPC season, Rusikhin changed his mind and announced the search for a team, which, however, ended in vain.

Mikhail Misha Agatov

In the first half of 2023, Agatov performed as part of Team Spirit… At that time, the Dota 2 scene in the CIS was going through hard times – there was not a single tier-1 team in the region. Structure Misha looked promising on paper, but in April Virtus.pro took iLTW, and with it the roster’s hopes for a brighter future. The last tournament for the team was Epic Prime League Season 1, in which the team finished fourth.

In the second half of the year, Agatov followed Artyom’s example Fng Barshak and Akbara SoNNeikO Butaeva and went to conquer Europe. From September to December, Misha performed with Ninjas in Pajamas, with which he took several prizes in online tournaments. However, in the end, the same fate awaited him as Butaeva: the cyber sportsman left the former NiP (the organization abandoned the Dota 2 team, now the players are playing under the tag Chicken Fighters). In the new year, information appeared that Misha had an agreement with HellRaisers, but Agatov refused the deal for personal reasons. Support did not manage to find a new team before the start of the first DPC season and will watch the league as a spectator.