A recent exodus of Dota 2 players from the upstart Gambit roster has led the org to turn to some virtual unknowns once again.
The CIS organization announced its new roster today. Danial “XSvamp1Re” Alibaev is the last remaining player of the Gambit roster that started the season and will remain in the position four role. Albert “eine” Garayev, formerly of Virtus Pro Prodigy, takes over as the hard support.
The core slots are filled with young rookies who have barely broken out in the competitive scene. Anton “yy” Shkredov, who played under DyrachYO on Team Spirit and impressed during the short spell, takes on the hard carry position.
Seventeen-year-old Artem “Lorenof” Melnik will have big shoes to fill, replacing wunderkind gpk in the midlane. Andrey “meLes” Romanov will be in charge of the offlane as Gambit’s position three.
Talented core players Kiyalbek “dream” Tayirov and Danil “gpk” Skutin are still with the organization but are considered inactive. Experienced offlaner Maxim “Shachlo” Abramovskikh is now standing in for Team Empire, while former captain fng has moved on to Alliance.
Gambit disciplined gpk in February when the breakout star refused to take part in the roster’s boot camp for a tournament. The fractures have only grown since then. The main roster was technically still signed under Gambit, but the players routinely popped up as stand-ins for other teams throughout the season with no explanation from the CIS organization.
While dream and gpk remain in limbo, Gambit appears finally ready to move on. They’ll try to regain the fleeting success they had in the earlier part of the season when they threatened tier-one teams and managed to claim podium finishes at tournaments like ESL One Hamburg 2019 and ONE Esports Dota 2 World Pro Invitational Singapore.
