Post-TI6 Roster Shuffle: A Closer Look At The New Season’s Dota 2 Teams

Dejan Zalik Dejan Zalik

Published: Sep 20, 2016 - Last Updated: Jun 5, 2020

[toc]With The International 6, the height of the 2016 Dota 2 season, having ended on Aug. 13, fans around the world turn their eyes to the annual post-TI roster shuffle.

This period lasts a little less than a month, and it is always an exciting time, providing the community with information about team break-ups, new team formation, and other interesting developments.

Rosters are locked as of Sept. 18, and we’re here to sum up what’s happened with major teams during the post-TI6 roster shuffle period.

Current (new) rosters

Rosters formed during the post-TI6 period will stay locked for events until end of Fall Major 2016.

These are the current teams:

Wings Gaming (China) [TI6 final position: 1]

The winning TI6 team kept their roster that showed impressive performance during the TI event unchanged, and the lineup stayed the same:

Digital Chaos (USA) [TI6 final position: 2]

Digital Chaos had an amazing run during The International, managing to reach the grand final after fighting their way through the lower bracket.

The team has made two changes to the roster, removing David “Moo” Hull, and adding David “MoonMeander” Tan. They also recruited William “Blitz” Lee as their new coach.

The active roster includes the following players:

Evil Geniuses (USA) [TI6 final position: 3]

The team that won TI5 experienced a lot of changes during the reshuffle period.

First, Clinton “Fear” Loomis, a Dota 2 scene veteran, has decided to retire from competitive play due to health issues with his arm and has switched to the coaching position.

Second, Peter “ppd” Dager, the team’s captain, has moved to a management position within the Evil Geniuses organization, giving the drafting responsibilities to a new member of the team: Andreas “Cr1t-” Nielsen, the former OG support.

Another interesting addition is Artour “Arteezy” Babaev, a player who was added and removed from EG a couple of times in the past already. The new roster is:

Fnatic (Malaysia) [TI6 final position: 4]

Three players left the team after TI6, leaving Chai “Mushi” Yee Fung and Chong Xin “Ohaiyo” Khoo to form a new roster.

Jimmy “DeMoN” Ho, Nico “Eyyou” Barcelon, and Marc Polo Luis “Raven/polo” Fausto were recruited, all of whom competed for TNC at TI6.

The new lineup of Fnatic is:

MVP Phoenix (Korea) [TI6 final position: 5-6]

After Sang-Don “FoREv” Lee and Pyo “MentalProtector” Noa left the team, Taesung “Velo” Kim and Jun-Young “Reisen” Lee, two players from the organization’s B-team, were added to the current roster.

The team’s current roster is:

[show-table name=cta-alphadraft region=US] [show-table name=cta-betway region=ROW]

EHOME (China) [TI6 final position: 5-6]

With Daryl “iceiceice” Koh and Lu “Fenrir” Chao gone, Liu “garder” Xinzhou (previously with CDEC) and Liu “Sylar” Jiajun (previously with LGD) were picked up for the upcoming season.

The current roster includes:

Team Liquid (Europe) [TI6 final position: 7-8]

The European team had a good run last season, but slightly underperformed during this year’s TI, ending at a final position of 7th-8th place.

After Jesse “JerAx” Vainikka left the team to seek other opportunities, the team’s mid player Adrian “FATA-” Trinks decided to take a break from competitive Dota, leaving two spots open for potential new players.

What happened next was exciting: Team OG’s prodigy Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi was picked up after leaving OG, taking FATA-‘s mid position. The final addition was Sam “BuLba” Sosale, a player that was let go by his previous squad, Team Secret.

The current Team Liquid roster is:

TNC Pro Team (Philippines) [TI6 final position: 7-8]

With three players gone, Samson E. “Sam H” Hidalgo and Carlo “QQ/Kuku” Palad will play with an all-Filipino lineup in this season:

Newbee (China) [TI6 final position: 9-12]

Losing three big players, Zhang “Mu” Pan, Wong “ChuaN” Hock Chuan and Chen “Hao” Zhihao, the Chinese team recruited three new players from different teams: Xu “uuu9” Han, Zeng “Faith” Hongda, and Song “Sccc” Chun.

This creates the following roster:

The Alliance (Sweden) [TI6 final position: 9-12]

Although three signature players, Gustav “s4” Magnusson, Henrik “AdmiralBulldog” Ahnberg, and Joakim “Akke” Akterhall, left the team, The Alliance still hold its all-Swedish lineup by adding  Linus “Limmp” Blomdin, Jonas “jonassomfan” Lindholm, and Simon “Handsken” Haag.

Here’s the current lineup:

OG (World) [TI6 final position: 9-12]

Letting David “MoonMeander” Tan go, as well as seeing Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi and Andreas “Cr1t-” Nielsen leaving the team, only the two original players remain. That’d be Johan “BigDaddyN0tail” Sundstein and Tal “Fly” Aizik.

After that, OG picked up Jesse “JerAx” Vainikka (former Team Liquid player), Gustav “s4” Magnusson (former Alliance player) and Anathan “Ana” Pham (former Invictus Gaming player) to form a new strong team of very good players.

The current roster is:

Natus Vincere (Ukraine) [TI6 final position: 13-16]

Natus Vincere is one of the few teams that didn’t make any changes to its roster, leaving the previous team as is:

Team Secret (Europe) [TI6 final position: 13-16]

As one of the most promising teams before TI, Team Secret performed very poorly at TI.

After the tournament, Artour “Arteezy” Babaev, Sam “Bulba” Sosale, and Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao all left the team, leaving Clement “Puppey” Ivanov and Johan “pieliedie” Åström with the task to rebuild. Sang-Don “FoREv” Lee, Pyo “MentalProtector” Noa, and Yeik Nai “MidOne” Zheng joined the roster, forming a team that has yet to show how good they can play together.

The current roster is:

Team NP (North America) [Newly formed]

After leaving Team Secret, Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao formed a new team called Team NP with a previous teammate: Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling.

Adding some previous Cloud9 players, the current roster is:

Details about other team changes can be found on the Dota 2 registration page.

Dejan Zalik
Dejan Zalik

Since: September 12, 2015

Twitter

Dejan has been involved in gaming for over 10 years. Moving from classics like Diablo 2, Lineage 2, and Warcraft 3, he found his passion in Dota 2, which he’s been playing ever since. He also likes to keep up to date by reading and writing about whatever is happening in the industry.

See all articles from this author