NoPing E-sports Announce New Dota 2 Roster

South American Dota 2 team NoPing e-sports announced a new Dota 2 roster on Tuesday, February 22, revealing a new five-man lineup. The announcement follows the release of NoPing e-sports’ former roster on February 15.

NoPing e-sports announced a new Dota 2 roster on Tuesday, unveiling a new five-man lineup that will represent the Brazilian esports organization in 2022. The roster changes come just three months after NoPing rebuilt its Dota 2 division with four Brazilian and one American player, now moving to an all-Brazilian lineup.

From the former roster, Leonardo “RdO” Fernandes is the only player who has remained with the team, extending his stay at NoPing. Joining him are Leonardo “Mandy” Viana, Pedro “Sooths” Luiz, Diego “SexyFat” Barini Santamaria, and Heitor “Duster” Pereira to form a new lineup that will look to threaten the Nort American Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) crown.

The new roster features players who have previous experience playing together. Duster and SexyFat have spent years playing together across multiple South American Dota 2 teams.

They first teamed up in October 2020, when SexyFat joined Midas Club, where Duster has been playing since April. The duo later played together at B8 but parted ways in March 2021, when the Ukrainian esports team released the entire roster due to poor results.

Duster has since served as a substitute for Wolf Team. Meanwhile, SexyFat played for BINOMISTAS and has recently joined APU King of Kings.

Interestingly, RdO has also played with the duo at Midas Club, and most recently, at B8, before leaving for Level UP, Hokori, and NoPing e-sports.

Mandy and Sooths join the team, having spent some time together in the past as well. Mandy and Sooths have both spent the last year competing with various stacks but have previously played together at Interitus and Hokori.

NoPing e-sport’s decision to sign a new five-man roster isn’t that surprising. As a team that was consistently one of the top contenders in the division, NoPing struggled to find any traction early into 2022.

Last year, NoPing e-sports nearly qualified for The International 10, won BTS Pro Series Season 8: Americas and the second season of DPC, and claimed two silver medals from the BTS Pro Series Season 7 and Movistar Liga Pro Gaming Season 10.

Unfortunately, NoPing lost its entire roster during the post-TI10 roster shuffle, the core of which left for Thunder Predator. A roster rebuild followed, forming a new squad in November 2021.

With a new team, NoPing e-sports couldn’t find the same level of success as they did in 2021 and crashed out of the DPC South America in seventh place. As a result, NoPing lost its spot in the upper division, ushering in much-needed roster changes.

Although many free agents were available for NoPing to pick up, acquiring RdO, Mandy, Sooths, SexyFat, and Duster made the most sense. The quintet have previously played together under Furia Jovem and produced solid results.

The quintet did well in a couple of lesser tournaments from August to November 2021. Most notably, Furia Jovem won the OGA DPC open qualifiers and BTS Pro Series 7 closed qualifiers.

Although they got eliminated by NoPing in the BTS Pro Series Season 7: Americas, Furia Jovem made some serious elsewhere. They won a bronze medal from Movistar Liga Pro Gaming Season 10 and added another at Fallen Cup.

Having proven their worth, the squad have now secured contracts with NoPing e-sports, who hope that the new roster can help them bounce back from a terrible start to the season.