T1 Disband Dota 2 Roster Ahead Of 2023 Season

T1 announced that it is disbanding its Dota 2 roster ahead of the 2023 season. The South Korean esports organization announced the news on Wednesday, November 16, just over a month following the team’s failed run through The International 2022 Las Chance Qualifiers.

T1 officially confirmed its Dota 2 roster has disbanded on Wednesday, following The International 2022. The news follows rumors of T1 wanting to exit the competitive scene due to the team’s lack of success throughout the season.

And it seems like it took the South Korean esports organization just under one month to make the decision and announce it publicly. This marks the continuation of the roster disbanding process, which began on October 24, with the departure of coach Park “March” Tae-won and Carlo “Kuku” Palad.

The disbandment was, until recently, anything but confirmed, considering Matthew “Whitemon” Filemon’s and Kenny “Xepher” Deo’s contracts expired, and neither announced their plans to extend their stay with the organization. So even though there was room for negotiations between the players and T1, it seems like they fell through, ushering the team’s decision to pull the plug on its Dota 2 division.

The situation sees Xepeher, Whitemoon, Kuku, Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen, and Anathan “ana” Pham all enter free agency. With that, ana will return to the market after spending just three months with T1, who he joined in August 2022, following a 14-month break from competitive Dota 2.

Of the departees, Topson, was technically not a member of T1, but only served as a stand-in since he joined the team ahead of The International 2022 qualifiers. With T1 disbanding its roster and releasing all of its members, Topson’s contract will now revert to OG’s inactive roster, granted there are some positives to that.

As said, OG plan to bring back Topson to the squad in some capacity, suggesting that the Finnish Dota 2 star has a contract waiting for him. However, it remains to be seen what role he will play within the organization heading into the 2023 season.

T1 entered the competitive Dota 2 scene in August 2019, with its inaugural roster consisting of Lee “Forev” Sang-don, Dominik “Black^” Reitmeier, Tri “Jhocam” Kuncoro, Yixuan “xuan” Guo, and Muhammad “inYourdreaM” Rizky. But despite forming a solid lineup, T1 would go through many roster changes in its first year in the scene.

By the end of the year, T1 had replaced all of its members, including the coaching personnel, with the addition of March in October 2020. And yet, despite struggling to find any form of roster stability, T1 had achieved some success in the 2020 season, winning Hephaestus Cup and SEA Dota Invitational Season 1, and with a bronze medal from BTS Pro Series Season 4: Southeast Asia.

T1 headed into the 2021 season with an entirely different roster, which helped the organization leave a mark in the Asian Dota 2 scene. T1 kicked off the year with a bronze medal from Dota Pro Circuit 2021: S1 – Southeast Asia Upper Division and added a title from the Upper Division in May.

T1 continued with strong showings, with a third-place finish at WePlay AniMajor and winning its first big event in ESL One Summer 2021. Even though T1 failed to add another trophy to their resume by the end of the year, they placed fourth at ESL One Fall 2021 and OGA Dota PIT Invitational and finished The International 2021 in seventh-eighth place.

Throughout 2022, T1 didn’t win a single event, but they have placed inside the top three in four of the six tournaments they’ve attended. But despite showing some promise, T1’s road ended with a disappointing performance in the Last Chance Qualifier, where they placed fifth-sixth and missed out on The International 2022.