Chessie, KheZu, and TI winner EGM form new Dota 2 stack for DPC
The European Dota 2 scene will continue to be loaded in the 2019-2020 Dota Pro Circuit season.
Former The Final Tribe and Complexity Gaming player Rasmus “Chessie” Blomdin has unveiled a new, predominantly Swedish Dota 2 team in a post on Twitter. Fellow Final Tribe player Andreas “Xibbe” Ragnemalm joins him on the team alongside The International 2013 winner Jerry “EGM” Lundkvist, former Team Secret player Maurice “KheZu” Gutmann, and Charlie “CharlieDota” Arat.
It is unclear whether this is an update to the Godsent roster or another team entirely. Chessie and Xibbe played with The Final Tribe during the 2018-2019 season. The organization rebranded as Godsent earlier this month, with its Dota 2 team adopting the name as well.
Godsent has not officially acknowledged Chessie’s tweet and none of the players identify as playing for the organization on social media. However, shortly before Chessie’s announcement, Godsent sent out a tweet hyping up his play as a substitute in Midas Mode 2.0.
If Chessie and Xibbe have split off from Godsent, it functionally leaves the organization without a Dota 2 team. Adrian “Era” Kryeziu announced that he is taking a break from professional Dota 2 but added that he will remain under the Godsent umbrella for the time being as a streamer. That would leave Godsent with just Simon “Handsken” Haag and Pontus “Frost” Frost.
Will this new team stack up against other European Dota 2 teams in the DPC?
This new team is certainly an interesting one. EGM has reached the pinnacle of Dota 2, while Khezu and Chessie are proven veterans. Xibbe and CharlieDota are relatively new talents that have been brought into veteran rosters on multiple occasions.
It is possible that this new lineup could gel into a formidable one, but competition is going to be fierce in Europe.
The region proved to be the most competitive in professional Dota 2 last season. Team Secret dominated early, while Team Liquid and OG both came on strong late and made it to the grand finals of The International 2019. Alliance and Ninjas in Pyjamas were also competitive throughout the season, with Chaos Esports Club jumping into the region later on.
Many of those teams are returning intact next season, albeit under different organizations in some cases, while a number of other interesting organizations are also stepping in.
This new squad will face an uphill battle, but a number of teams are looking to take a break in the coming months. That should give the team a softer schedule in the near future and could set them up for success later on.