One of the most popular Dota 2 teams from Southeast Asia was released from its organization, Geek Fam, earlier today.
The team consisting of Karl, Kuku, Xepher, and Whitemon was looking for replacements for position one player Raven, who left the squad in July to join Fnatic. The team’s future has drifted into the unknown, however, since Geek Fam said it was almost impossible to continue their partnership after the cancellation of the 2019-20 Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) and the indefinite postponement of the biggest tournament of each cycle, The International.
“With the canceling of Dota 2 Minor and Major tournaments of the season due to safety concerns, it is very difficult for us to continue with the indefinite delay for TI10 and Dota Pro Circuit,” Geek Fam said.
Considering the team looked solid before the COVID-19 outbreak, this news likely felt especially crushing for some fans. Just before Valve called off the DPC season, the team qualified for the ESL One Los Angeles tournament with a record of nine wins and a single loss through the SEA qualifiers.
The event was canceled after the whole Geek Fam squad secured their U.S. visas and flew to Los Angeles a week prior to the tournament to overcome jet lag and get some practice in for the tournament. The lockdown in the U.S. began 36 hours before the tournament was scheduled to start, which meant all the teams that were ready for the event had to fly home.
Each respective region had an online tournament to make up for the LAN’s cancellation, but the prize pool was noticeably smaller. The main event in Los Angeles had a prize pool of $787,500, while the online SEA tournament that took place instead offered $40,000. Despite dominating the competition during the qualifiers for the LAN event, Geek Fam placed last in the online tournament.
The release of this roster doesn’t mean a definitive end to the squad and the organization’s partnership, however. “Once there is a visible future for Dota 2 and the DPC, we will be back,” Geek Fam said. “But until then, we say goodbye to our geeks, Kuku, Karl, Xepher, and Whitemon.”
It’s unclear what the roster is planning to do during their free agency period, but it looks like they’ll have a home in Geek Fam when Valve announces its definitive plans regarding the DPC season and The International.
This also marks the second official dropping of a roster due to Valve’s management of the esports scene. Another SEA team, Reality Rift, also released its roster at the beginning of September since there were no clear goals in sight. Most current prime-time online tournaments are based in the European region, which even caused Evil Geniuses, an NA-based team, to move to the region until the DPC starts again.
