With each iteration of the Dota Pro Circuit, fans are left wondering what tactics Dendi and B8 Esports will go to in order to secure a spot and compete despite consistently underperforming. And for the 2023 season, the legendary player has reached deeper into his bag of tricks than ever before—confirming that B8 will be competing in North America rather than Eastern Europe for the first time.
According to a few eagle-eyed fans who caught a change in ownership, Dendi and his organization apparently acquired Wildcard Gaming’s Division I slot in the NA DPC for the upcoming season and will set up shop in the region to compete.
The majority of this new B8 roster is made up of Ukrainian players who will make the trip over with Dendi—along with a single South American veteran, MoOz. That’s right, the new NA team doesn’t have a single player from NA.
Dendi’s former NAVI teammate Glib “Funn1k” Lipatnikov will join him on this new venture, alongside former Nemiga Gaming support Oleg “Lodine” Kvasha and ex-Team DogChamp carry Denis “StoneBank” Korzh. StoneBank and MoOz actually do have recent experience in NA despite not frequenting the region.
This is the first time Dendi and B8 have actually swapped regions, though it isn’t the first time the org’s roster has been made up of mostly players from another region—throwing it back to the Midas Club lineup in January 2021. It also isn’t the first time the org has opted to merge with another roster after falling out of contention or being relegated in the DPC.
B8’s rebuilds are infamous for being quick and frequent, with players rotating in and out multiple times per season. Moving over to NA, however, gives Dendi a real chance to solidify a roster—but it was also partially done in an effort to bring support back to Ukraine amidst the ongoing war with Russia.
“There is a full scale war in Ukraine. Russia shooting missiles, killing people, terrorizing our homes and critical infrastructure,” Dendi said. “Insane amounts of people don’t have light/heat in their homes due to these terror attacks. To keep my team going and do what I dedicated a huge part of my life [to], I decide to try to participate in a different region, which I believe, will help me to involve more people in supporting Ukraine”
Since disbanding the last roster in June, he had also been “getting hungrier” to compete when this opportunity opened up. And, after scouting more than 100 players, he selected this lineup and will move forward with pursuing a new challenge alongside them.
With only three real rosters to contend with in NA as of now—TSM, the ex-Evil Geniunses lineup, and nouns—B8 might actually be able to turn around its poor luck and make some noise in a DPC season while also drawing attention to his cause.
