Esports in SEA: January 2019 team updates (Dota 2, LoL)

Yahoo Singapore looks at some of the biggest moves that took place in professional Dota 2 and League of Legends teams in Southeast Asia in the month of January 2019.

Dota 2

2019 has barely started, but big changes have already been made across several professional Dota 2 teams across Southeast Asia.

Ahjit and inYourdreaM leave Tigers, Mushi joins

On 19 January, Tigers, formerly known as TNC Tigers and based in Malaysia, announced that Lai “Ahjit” Jay Son and Muhammad “inYourdreaM” Rizky had left the team.

Ahjit and inYourdreaM were previously the position 1 and 2 players for Tigers. Tigers posted a cryptic photo across their social media on 20 January, generating some hype for the incoming new addition.

The new addition turned out to be none other than the Malaysian legend Chai “Mushi” Yee Fung himself. Mushi had been out of a team ever since he left Mineski in November last year, and was finally unveiled as a Tigers player on 21 January.

NaVi’s Dendi joins Tigers as stand-in

In what is probably the biggest surprise of 2019 in Dota 2 so far, Tigers revealed on 23 January that Danil “Dendi” Ishutin had also joined their new roster.

Dendi, arguably the face of Dota 2, had spent almost all of his professional Dota 2 career with CIS-based team Natus Vincere (“NaVi”) and was part of the winning team of the very first The International 2011.

Dendi however revealed that he is still in a contract with NaVi, and joined Tigers as a stand-in. Highly-skilled Dota 2 players in the Southeast Asian server can now look forward to playing with or against Dendi in their games.

JT- leaves Mineski for China’s Newbee, Ahjit takes over

Meanwhile in the Philippines, Mineski announced on 23 January that Thiay “JT-” Jun Wen, their position 1 player had been loaned out to Chinese team Newbee.

Missing a position 1, it was then no surprise when it was subsequently revealed on 25 January that Ahjit, the former Tigers player, had joined their roster.

Mineski was the only Southeast Asian team that was directly invited to The International 2018 last year.

League of Legends

While professional Southeast Asian teams in Dota 2 have seen a lot of transfer action in January, the same cannot be really said for the Southeast Asian region for League of Legends.

C0ldenfeet departs MEGA, replaced by QaspieL

MEGA, a League of Legends team based in Thailand, announced on 4 January that their bottom laner Pongsatorn “C0ldenfeet” Kornrat had left the roster.

MEGA subsequently acquired jungler Eric “QaspieL” Sia Sze Pin from his previous team Kuala Lumpur Hunters on 15 January.