EternalEnVy reveals new Dota 2 team for upcoming season

Jacky “EternalEnVy” Mao is back in action.

The controversial carry player has formed a new team for the 2019-2020 season, which was unveiled on Twitter. Joining him are a number of former teammates including offlaner David “MoonMeander” Tan and supports Jingjun “Sneyking” Wu and Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling. Playing in the mid lane is Jonathan Bryle “bryle” Santos De Guia.

The team is currently without a sponsor and has not revealed a name.

The lineup brings together a number of established North American talents who, in most cases, have struggled to find steady homes over the years.

MoonMeander is best known for place with the inaugural OG lineup, which captured two major titles. He split from the team following their poor performance at The International 2016, joining Digital Chaos the following season. In the two years since that run, he has landed with nine different teams and rarely spent more than a few months with any of them, with his most notable stint being his five months with Tigers.

Sneyking joins following an up-and-down 2018-2019 season. Though he firmly established himself as a formidable offlaner in 2018 with VGJ.Storm, he was booted from that team following The International 2018 in favor of Saahil “UNiVeRsE” Arora. He eventually reunited with the team under the Forward Gaming and Newbee banners and went on to compete at The International 2019.

Aui_2000 is returning to competition after a year and a half working as a coach, most recently for Newbee. Though he is best known for his ugly breakup with Evil Geniuses following victory  at The International 2015, a significant amount of his career has been spent playing alongside EternalEnVy in teams such as Cloud9 and Team NP.

Returning to action after being benched by J.Storm is Bryle. Though he enjoyed modest success with the team at the start of the season, he found himself deactivated in May.

EternalEnVy returns after ugly Dota 2 season

Though EternalEnVy is a well-credentialed player with nearly $1 million in career earnings, he has long been a controversial figure in the Dota 2 sphere. That hit new heights this season.

Despite being a strong talent, EternalEnVy was a journeyman during the 2018-2019 season. He had brief stints with established organizations including Complexity Gaming and Infamous, but also bounced from his own teams that would sometimes hold together for only a few days at a time.

While that inspired jeers from some, he attracted legitimate heat later in the season following his joining up with Team Team. After coming aboard and qualifying for the MDL Disneyland Paris Major, the squad kicked mid laner kicked Nico “Gunnar” Lopez in favor of Eric “Ryoya” Dong in the middle of the ESL One Mumbai event. Though it was a decision made by the rest of the team, EternalEnVy’s reputation for scuttling successful rosters and Gunnar’s discussions of his dealings with him saw EternalEnVy take the brunt of the criticism.

He ultimately left Team Team, which was later sponsored by Beastcoast, after it came in last place at the MDL Disneyland Paris Major. He didn’t play professionally again for the rest of the season.

That makes it feel like this team is doomed to suffer an ugly breakup before long, but the roster is skilled enough and the North American region is currently thin enough that there is a chance they could make some real noise.