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Dota 2: Fata has been 'kicked' from Tundra Esports

Despite being the catalyst for Tundra Esports' success, German veteran Adrian
Despite being the catalyst for Tundra Esports' success, German veteran Adrian "Fata" Trinks has been kicked from the team. (Photo: Tundra Esports)

Tundra Esports announced on Thursday (17 February) that they have parted ways with team captain Adrian "Fata" Trinks shortly after their fourth place finish in the 2021-2022 Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) Winter Tour Regional Finals for Western Europe.

The news was first broken by Fata himself, who said in a post on his personal Twitter account that he was "kicked" from Tundra shortly before the organisation's official announcement.

Fata later added in a separate post that his departure from Tundra was a "player's decision" following his attempts to veto multiple decisions to have one of his now-former teammates replaced by the player who will now be replacing him.

"There has been previous attempts from [the other Tundra] players to kick a different player for the same player replacing me. I declined those. So I'm not sure what to take from this. I'm not perfect but I can honestly say I fought for the constant improvement of this team," said Fata.

Tundra said in its own statement that releasing Fata was "a difficult decision" but they wanted "to make sure our team has the best possible chemistry to improve our performance this year."

The organisation added that they will be announcing Fata's replacement as team captain soon.

Tundra's "kicking" of Fata has been met with disapproval from much of the Dota 2 community, who pointed out that Tundra's success and current position as one of the best teams in Western Europe was due in large part to Fata's leadership.

Members of the community further criticized the move in light of Tundra announcing they have extended their players' contracts through 2024 last November.

Former OG offlaner and two-time The International (TI) champion Sébastien "Ceb" Debs said the move "will be remembered as one of the worst in Dota 2 history."

Analyst Kyle Freedman speculated that Fata will be replaced by former OG support Martin "Saksa" Sazdov and expressed his doubt that Tundra kicking their team captain will produce good results.

With his departure from Tundra, Fata said that he will probably take a break from competitive play as he does not "have the energy to start from zero again."

Despite never placing higher than 7th-8th in The International, Fata remains one of the most decorated players in the history of Dota 2.

In his almost decade-long career, Fata's list of accolades include one Major championship, one Minor championship, three Major second place finishes, and three Major fourth place finishes, among others.

With almost US$1.4 million in tournament winnings over his career, Fata is also one of a handful of Dota 2 pro players whose total career winnings exceeded US$1 million without a Top 4 finish in The International.

Fata spent much of his career as a midlaner and played for some of the biggest organisations in the scene, including Team Liquid, Team Secret, Cloud9, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and mousesports, among others.

Fata moved to the position 5 support role in October 2019 when he joined Alliance. He was released from Alliance in March 2020 alongside offlaner Neta "33" Shapira, with whom he formed the mudgolems stack — which also included Oliver "skiter" Lepko, Leon "Nine" Kirilin, and Malthe "Biver" Winther — in September of that year.

Mudgolems were signed by Tundra Esports in January 2021, with Biver later retiring in March and being replaced by Jingjun "Sneyking" Wu in April. Under Fata's leadership, Tundra became one of the best teams in Western Europe.

Despite narrowly missing out on The International 10 (TI10), Tundra defeated the tournament's eventual finalists to score their first two championships as a team.

The squad outlasted TI10 runners-up PSG.LGD to win ESL One Fall 2021 then upset TI10 champions Team Spirit to win OGA Dota PIT EU/CIS Season 5.

Fata then led Tundra to a third place finish in the 2021-2022 DPC Winter Tour regional league for Western Europe before finishing fourth in the subsequent regional finals.

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