Vici Gaming announces Eurus departure, reveals new roster

More changes have come to Vici Gaming’s Dota 2 roster.

The organization has revealed its new Dota 2 roster while also confirming the departure of longtime carry player Zhang “Eurus” Chengjun. The new roster retains three members of the 2019-2020 season’s roster while adding two somewhat surprising names.

The new Vici Gaming roster stands as follows:

1. Nuengnara “23savage” Teeramahanon
2. Zeng “Ori” Jiaoyang
3. Ren “eLeVeN” Yangwei
4. Xiong “Pyw”‘ Jiahan
5. Ding “Dy” Cong

The most intriguing name on Vici Gaming’s new roster is 23savage. The Thai player has wowed fans with his pub game exploits, notably becoming the first player ever to reach 11,000 MMR. He made a huge leap in his pro career earlier this year by competing with Fnatic. The reason split for his split from the team in July was unclear, but he is now headed to an even bigger name in the Dota 2 scene.

23savage will not be able to join the team for a short while as he awaits a visa to travel to China. He is estimated to be arriving in the winter, which prompted Vici Gaming to sign former Keen Gaming player Yang “Erica” Shaohan as a substitute until he arrives.

Vici Gaming also added old eLeVeN as its new off laner. Best known for his stints with EHOME, he has been loaned out to a slew of formidable teams over the last few years. He most recently helped PSG.LGD win both seasons of the DPL-CDA Dota 2 League.

Eurus’ departure a big hit for Vici Gaming

The new roster is a strong one, but it’s hard to make the case that it’s stronger than the 2019-2020 version of the team. 

Earlier this month, Vici Gaming confirmed the departure of Zhou “Yang” Haiyang. Yang had spent his entire professional career with Vici Gaming to that point, playing with all of the organization’s different sister teams including VGJ.Thunder, Vici Gaming Reborn, and Vici Gaming Potential.

Eurus, previously known as Paparazi, joined Vici Gaming in 2017 after two seasons with the Invictus Gaming organization. Though his time with iG was underwhelming, his time with Vici saw him make the case for being China’s best carry player.

Yang and Eurus helped Vici Gaming achieve elite status in the 2018-2019 season, winning three Dota Pro Circuit events. The 2019-2020 season also started off very strong for the team, placing top three in the first two majors and winning the ONE Esports Dota 2 World Pro Invitational Singapore.

It’s unclear what the future holds for either Yang or Eurus, but they find themselves free agents alongside a number of top Chinese players including former PSG.LGD players Lu “Somnus” Yao and Xu “fy” Linsen. Rumors had previously circulated that this move was in the pipeline, which came alongside rumors that PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds organization Four Angry Men was set to scoop them all up to form a new all-star Dota 2 team.