Esports in SEA: May 2019 Dota 2 updates
Yahoo Singapore looks at some of the transfers news in professional Dota 2 teams in Southeast Asia in May.
Geek Fam refreshes its roster
On 3 May, Malaysian-based team Geek Fam announced that its entire roster would be dropped and refreshed.
Geek Fam’s previous roster included Malaysian players Vincent “AlaCrity” Hiew, Lee "kYxY" Kong Yang, Pang "BrayaNt" Jian Zhe, and Filippino players Justine Ryan Evangelista "Tino" Grimaldo as well as Mark "Shanks" Redira.
Over the next 5 days after Geek Fam announced its decision to refresh the roster, Geek Fam slowly revealed the new line-up with Filippino Prieme Ejay "PlayHard" Banquil first revealed on 4 May as the new Position 5 player.
Kenny “Xepher” Deo was revealed as the next Position 4 player while Rolen Andrei Gabriel "Skemberlu" Ong was revealed as the new Position 3 player.
Xepher was previously playing in another Malaysia-based team Tigers, and Skemberlu had been out of a team since Malaysia-based team LOTAC Gaming disbanded in March.
Malaysian legend Chai "Mushi" Yee Fung is finally back in Malaysia as it was revealed he would be the new Position 2 player for Geek Fam.
Mushi was previously in Tigers before playing for Team Aster in China.
The final reveal was Position 1 player Marc Polo Luis "Raven" Fausto on 8 May. Raven was also previously from the now-disbanded LOTAC Gaming. Raven and Mushi were most famously former teammates in Malaysia-based team Fnatic, and their interactions were recorded in the documentary series True Sight on the official Dota 2 Youtube channel.
New Southeast Asian teams
Singapore-based team Resurgence announced on 21 May that a new Dota 2 roster will be revealed soon. Singaporean Yang "Deth" Wu Heng was revealed to be now playing for Resurgence, and he was previously on trial in North American team compLexity Gaming as a Position 3 player.
Resurgence is currently looking for a Position 2 mid-lane player. The minimum requirement is to have a Matchmaking Rankings (MMR) of at least 7.7k.
Meanwhile, Power of MYSG+AU was recently formed to participate in the Southeast Asian qualifiers for the upcoming EPICENTER Major 2019.
The team consists of Australian Kim "Velo" Tae-sung, Singaporean Wilson "Poloson" Koh Chin Wei, as well as the Malaysians Cheng "vtFaded" Jia Hao, Chan "WinteR" Litt Binn, and Cheng “NothingToSay” Jin Xiang.
WinteR most notably was present in previous major Dota 2 events as an analyst and commentator, while Velo was previously playing in Tigers.
Power of MYSG+AU is currently looking for a sponsor or organisation in light of their decent results in the qualifiers for EPICENTER Major 2019 as well as StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor Season 2 in a short period of time.
