Dendi and B8 relegated from ESL CIS DPC League lower division

Steven Rondina Published 23/02/2021

Danil “Dendi” Ishutin’s experiment with a CIS-South American roster has proven to be a catastrophic failure.

B8 has been mathematically relegated out of the ESL One CIS Dota Pro Circuit League’s lower division after its February 22 loss to Winstrike Team. The team now has a 1-6 record, which guarantees a last-place finish in the league. With this 1-6 finish, B8 will be relegated out of the ESL One CIS DPC league’s next season and forced to regain its spot through open qualifiers.

The B8 roster is made up of the following players:

• Leonardo “RdO” Fernandes
• Danil “Dendi” Ishutin
• Diego “Sexyfat” Barini Santamaria
• Sergey “[T]SA” Timchenko
• Heitor “Duster” Pereira

Odds are that B8 will return to action following the ONE Esports Singapore Major with a heavily retooled roster.

Dendi and B8 continue to struggle with turnover, poor results

B8 went in a surprising direction ahead of the return of the Dota Pro Circuit. Despite normally surrounding himself with upstarts from the CIS region, Dendi added three former members of the 2020 Furia Esports team including veteran Duster and support player Enis “5up” Elfki, who played with B8 throughout 2020.

The mixed CIS-Brazil Dota 2 roster was a unique one, but the team quickly encountered difficulties. After failing to qualify for the ESL One DPC league’s upper division, the team lost 5up for unclear reasons and competed with a substitute at the start of the season. Though B8 was successful in its first game of the season, beating Dendi’s former Natus Vincere teammate Gleb “Funn1k” Lipatnikov’s XactJlepbI, things went off the rails from there. B8 lost every game of the season from that point, and now faces yet another major shakeup.

Though Dendi remains a beloved figure in Dota 2, B8’s existence has been defined by its inability to win. The team initially struggled due to a combination of frequent roster turnover and stiff competition, winning smaller events only to have established organizations poach players. This led to a record-breaking 24-match losing streak for the team.

The lower division seemed like a chance to address both B8’s roster instability and the persistent overmatching that defined the team’s early months. Instead, both of those troubles remained. The one constant throughout these struggles has been Dendi, and he has actually played relatively well even as his team has sunk around him.

The ONE Esports Singapore Major marks the end of the season and after the event passes, B8 will likely go through a hard reset with a new roster being built around the veteran.

Steven Rondina

About Steven Rondina

Steven Rondina is a true lifelong gamer. His earliest memories are of playing video games, and he has continued playing them throughout his life with no plans to stop any time soon. Steven’s favorite franchises in gaming include Pokemon, Dark Souls, and Counter-Strike. He has previously published with Bleacher Report and other gaming outlets.

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