Chaos Esports Club’s South American Dota 2 experiment seems to have ended in failure.
The organization announced that it is leaving the region and has released Brazilian players Otávio “Tavo” Gabriel and Danylo “Kingrd” Nascimento. This comes just two days after the team’s early elimination from the MDL Disneyland Paris Major.
“Following disappointing results at the MDL Paris Major, we are releasing Kingrd and tavo as the first step of our roster rebuild…Unfortunately, the team is at an impasse in terms of results and a change is required,” the organization said in a statement. “We still love our South American fans, but the logistics of operating in Brazil were more difficult than we anticipated, regardless of the situation within the squad.”
Alongside the statement on its website was a short video posted on Twitter from Chaos general manager Jared Fletcher. He discusses the team’s struggles in competition alongside the organization’s issues operating in Brazil. Though he claims Chaos was always serious in its commitment to getting established in the South American region, the customs and immigration hurdles of maintaining a business in Brazil were apparently too onerous.
Chaos Esports Club has been a steady presence at majors in the 2018-2019 Dota Pro Circuit season, competing in all four thus far. Despite that, the team is yet to place higher than 12th. According to Fletcher this has grated on the team and has left each of the players open to the idea of starting over.
Though Tavo and Kingrd are now free agents, the team still retains one of its Brazilian talents in William “hFn” Medeiros. It is also keeping its European players Rasmus “MISERY” Filipsen and Aliwi “w33” Omar.
What the future holds for Chaos is unclear, though it has a number of options.
Chaos Esports Club was originally known as Digital Chaos, a North American Dota 2 team founded by Dota Cinema co-founder Shannon “SUNSfan” Scotten. The team famously reached the grand finals of The International 2016 and had a generally successful season after that, but saw its roster later split off to become Planet Odd. Digital Chaos struggled to hold down a team from there, signing various short-lived squads before leaving Dota 2 entirely in early 2018.
With a pair of star European players on its roster and a Swedish Counter-Strike: Global Offensive squad under its umbrella, transitioning to Europe would make sense for Chaos. Its roots in North America and the more open nature of that region might make that a more appealing option for the organization, however.
Answers are likely to come soon. The open qualifiers to the Epicenter Major start in just a few days and the organization is likely to want to participate.
