Serbian esports organization Aurora entered the Dota 2 scene through SEA and snatched Talon Esports’ 2023 lineup with a twist in the process. Aurora revealed it’s 2024 today alongside Talon, who didn’t waste any time finding a new roster.
Aurora signed Talon’s entire 2023 lineup except Mikoto, as he’s rumored to be taking a break. Instead, Armel from Team Secret joined 23savage, Jabz, Q, and Oli to complete the roster.
While fans were surprised to see an Eastern European organization picking up a SEA Dota 2 roster, this is only the second time this year an organization decided to move its Dota 2 operations.
Yesterday, BOOM Esports signed former EG stars Pakazs and Matthew in a puzzling Dota 2 move, as the team has been operating in SEA since 2017.
Considering the power levels of the regions and the available rosters, Aurora’s move makes sense. 23savage and his friends were the best-performing SEA roster throughout 2023, making them the fourth most earning Dota 2 team in the last year.
At the time of writing, the open qualifiers for ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023 are taking place, and the Aurora roster is likely to enter the process via an invite for the closed qualifiers.
Talon Esports, on the other hand, immediately announced its new lineup, which was regarded by some fans as a “big downgrade.” Talon’s new roster features Akashi from Polaris, Ws from BOOM Esports, Jhocam from Army Geniuses, and ponyo from iG.Vitality. The organization is yet to find its fifth member and will play with a stand-in in ESL.
Though many fans expected the 2023 Talon roster to stick together, there were also rumors discussing whether the players could entertain international offers, as some of them have a history of receiving such invitations. During TI 2023, N0tail claimed 23savage could have joined OG instead of Ana for TI8 win.
