Heroic Exits Dota 2, and It's Bad News for the Scene

Owen Harsono Published 05/05/2026

Norwegian esports organization Heroic has officially called it quits in Dota 2, dropping its roster after two years in the scene.

Despite finding relative success, the organization cited financial constraints as the primarily reason for their departure. If a budget-savvy team like Heroic couldn’t make it work, the Dota 2 scene is in big trouble.

Heroic Drops Dota 2 Roster Without Warning

On May 4, Heroic suddenly announced they’d be pulling the plug on their Dota 2 roster, shocking the entire community. The official announcement cited poor financial results that made it “unsustainable” for the team in the long run.

All Heroic players were released from their contacts and are now free agents, but it looks like the players and coach are sticking together.

According to the team’s coach, kaffs, the news caught the team off-guard. This suggests the players weren’t informed – or at least warned – of the sudden dropping.

Heroic leaves the Dota 2 scene. (Image via Heroic)

The timing of this move was also incredibly unexpected. The Heroic roster played extremely well throughout the 2026 season. They won a Tier 2 tournament and made multiple playoff appearances in S-tier events. The team was also clearly in the running to qualify for The International 2026, which starts in a few months.

It’s also surprising that Heroic, out of all teams, are the ones forced to make this decision. Judging by their Counter-Strike roster, this organization knows its way around business. The team reportedly made over $10 million from roster transfers in 2024, and even invested in a South American Dota 2 team, which requires lower salaries compared to European ones.

An Accomplished Tenure Still Wasn’t Enough

Throughout their two-year campaign in Dota 2, Heroic accomplished quite a bit. The team accumulated over $1.4 million in prize money, even winning South America’s first Tier 1 tournament at PGL Wallachia Season 2 in 2024.

Just last year, Heroic made it to the top six at The International 2025, showing they can really hang with the top Dota esports teams. This season, the team also won FISSURE Universe: Episode 7, an online tournament, taking home $125,000.

Image via Valve / The International

If a solid top ten team with these results still faced financial issues, it suggests the Dota 2 scene has some serious flaws.

This Spells Trouble for Smaller Regions

One of the main issues Heroic faced is simply being a South American team. Most tournaments in Dota 2 are held in Europe, forcing Heroic to constantly fly back and forth to events. This adds significant costs for organizations, as they need to fund flights, bootcamps, and daily expenses.

Results are also affected, as jetlag and exhaustion can prevent players from competing at their full potential. This issue applies to other regions too – North America and Southeast Asia face the same obstacles.

It’s clear Valve has to do something about this – either force tournament organizers to hold events elsewhere in the world, or provide more financial incentives for organizations to keep their rosters afloat.

Feature Credit: PGL

Owen Harsono

About Owen Harsono

Owen lives for competition, spending most of his gaming hours on Dota 2, CS2, and Valorant. A regular on the SEA Dota 2 leaderboards, he combines his first-hand experience with a deep passion for esports journalism, following the professional scenes of all three esports betting titles religiously. When he’s not writing, he’s most probably betting on esports and watching the latest events.

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