After finishing in (shared) last place at the still-ongoing EPICENTER Major, Fnatic has decided to shake things up, saying goodbye to Noa “MP” Pyo. Moving into the core position will be Anucha “Jabz” Jirawong, while coach Kim “DuBu”Doo-young will move into support to complete the roster.
Fnatic says farewell to MP ahead of The International 2019. (Image via EPICENTER)
The Southeast Asian roster has qualified for The International 2019 with 2880 points, in seventh place of the Dota 2 Pro Circuit rankings.The team peaked this season in third place at the DreamLeague Season 11 Major in Stockholm, Sweden. Even with the roster change, they’ll have enough points to stay in the top twelve.
In the press release, Fnatic’s Team Manager Eric Khor said, “with lacklustre results towards the end, issues with our playstyle have surfaced and after a lengthy discussion with everyone, we feel that we needed a fresh change in our cores’ synergy.” Fnatic was very open about the decision-making, citing a clash of playstyles and concerns about limited playstyles as an underlying factor.
MP will receive a salary and a portion of prize money from The International 2019. With only days until the roster lock, MP has limited opportunity to find a new stack to compete with for the qualifiers for The International 2019.
Moving ahead, Khor said, “Changing roster this late into the season comes with an inherent risk, especially since we will be changing roles internally, but I am very confident that the new change will bring versatility as well as excitement for the fans.”
Fnatic is the second TI-qualified team to change their roster. Earlier this month, Team Liquid saw Lasse “MATUMBAMAN” Urpalainen depart the squad, with Aliwi “W33” Omar replacing him. MATUMBAMAN landed on Chaos Esports Club.
