Dendi's B8 drops two players after 26-game losing streak

Jared Wynne Published 29/05/2020

The last couple of months have not been kind to Danil “Dendi” Ishutin. Dota 2’s most popular player has had a hard time adjusting to life after Natus Vincere, with his B8 organization going on a record-breaking, 24-game losing streak earlier this year.

Due to the team’s consistently poor form, Swedish carry player Steve “Xcalibur” Ye and Serbian support Nikola “LeBronDota” Popovic have been released from the roster. Xcalibur addressed the various issues the team had encountered during his short stint with B8.

“I don’t think our results are because we had bad players, I think we just had unlucky circumstances. We were invited to lots of tournaments in a row against the best teams in the European and CIS regions without enough preparation. Once we started losing a lot of games it was hard to recover because of the lack of time to practice between tournaments,” Xcalibur said.

This is another roster shakeup for B8.

After a less-than-stellar start, B8’s original carry Alexandr “pio65” Zalivako was replaced by Xcalibur after only two months. Xcalibur was viewed as a strong addition to the struggling roster, playing for the likes of Fnatic, Team Tinker, and Team Singularity beforehand. Although promising on paper, Xcalibur failed to elevate the team’s performance. 

LeBronDota is a well-known name in the CIS Dota 2 scene, even playing together with Dendi in Natus Vincere on two different occasions. 

Dendi announced on his Twitter that this isn’t the end for B8, and that he will look to rebuild the team. With how badly the team struggled, even more drastic measures could be taken in the future to improve the team’s fortunes. 

Given the amount of free agent talent across both the European and CIS regions and B8 being a go-to favorite for tournament organizers, Dendi likely won’t have any trouble finding talent.

Jared Wynne

About Jared Wynne

Jared Wynne is the Editor-in-Chief at WIN.gg, overseeing its content. He has been working in digital media for over two decades, most often in and around the gaming industry. His all-time favorite games include Baldur’s Gate, Doom, and Counter-Strike, but he’ll play just about anything that seems interesting. His previous credits include The Daily Dot, The Esports Observer, GameLand, and more.

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