Among the field of familiar team names at FISSURE Universe Episode 5, one stands out as one rather unfamiliar to most Dota 2 fans: Team Yandex. This squad in particular, formed just over a week ago now, takes on a name that has never been seen or heard of before in the pro Dota scene, so any and all confusion about just who they are is totally understandable.
So, who are these guys, anyway?
The Old and the New in Team Yandex
Beneath the unique team name lies a roster that both new and old Dota 2 fans will recognize, at least to some degree depending on how much pro Dota they’ve consumed over the past three or so years. In position 5 and serving as the team captain is the legendary Alexey “Solo” Berezin, one of the greatest Russian Dota 2 players of all time and one with more than 10 years of professional experience under his belt. So that takes care of the old guard.
The rest of the lineup is composed of new blood, with Aybek “TA2000” Tokayev being the most familiar here. After cutting his teeth as a part of PSG Quest between 2022 and 2024, TA2000 has made his way up as one of the better carry players from Eastern Europe, just outside of the absolute top in his position.
There’s also Ilya “CHIRA_JUNIOR” Chirtsov, who most recently played mid for 1win Team. He was with the organization for their 9th-12th place run at The International last year, where they were eliminated by Team Falcons in the lower bracket of the playoffs.
Evgeniy “Noticed” Ignatenko and Alexey “prblms” Parshukov, meanwhile, are unfamiliar even to me. Noticed apparently played for BetBoom Team for several months in 2022, then moved on to Virtus.pro where he stayed for two and a half years. As for prblms, it seems that he was a fixture in the tier 2 EEU scene since starting his career in 2022, making Team Yandex his first sponsored squad.
The Goose is Loose
Actually, this roster is what remains of Cyber Goose, the very team that fell just short of qualifying for TI14 through the Eastern European regionals. Although they ended up beating Navi in the lower bracket final there, they ran into the much better Aurora Gaming in the grand finals, and got swept in three games.
The Yandex organization picked them up just over a week ago on June 23rd, as announced by the parent company on their website. Five-time Valve Major winner Roman “RAMZES666” Kushnarev was announced as an ambassador for the team just a day later.
What the heck is a Yandex?
I know I’m not the only one asking this very question as someone that doesn’t speak Russian, but apparently Yandex is a Russian tech firm based in Moscow. Founded in September of 1997, Yandex offers online products and services like a web browser, a search engine, streaming, online shopping, and more. The name Yandex is a play on the phrase “yet another indexer”, where the first three letters correspond to “yet another” while the last three are found in the middle of “indexer”.
The veteran experience of Solo will be absolutely invaluable to this lineup in that regard. The man has seen it all, from Valve Majors to multiple appearances at The International. He is no stranger to being the mentor to much younger teammates looking to get better as they get started on their Dota 2 careers, and I’m sure he’ll gladly step into that role for Team Yandex moving forward.
