Roughly one month after unveiling its new Dota 2 team, Fnatic is making another roster change.
With several of Southeast Asia’s most successful players on the squad, Fnatic has elected to add Lai “AhJit” Jay Son as its carry, in favor of Singaporean star Galvin “Meracle” Kang Jian Wen. Despite having several of the region’s strongest players, Fnatic were unable to accomplish any noteworthy results in the month since assembling its most recent roster—the team struggled in various online qualifiers throughout the period.
Having previously competed with the Malaysian WarriorsGaming Unity roster, AhJit reached international prominence after the team’s performance at the Boston Major on Dec. 10. Considered to be one of the worst teams in attendance, the roster went on to defeat the International 6 champions Wings Gaming in the group stage, and eliminated compLexity Gaming from the first round of the tournament’s playoffs.
Regarded as one of the top teams in the Southeast Asian region throughout 2016, the team has struggled for the past six months, with the roster unable to qualify for either of the two latest Valve Majors. Additionally, the team also failed to qualify for the upcoming Epicenter, Manila Masters, and MarsTV Dota 2 League events in the past month with Meracle.
This year has also been a rather dire for Meracle, who is currently still signed with Fnatic as a substitute. The Singaporean carry was removed from the Philippines’ most established Dota 2 team Mineski on March 23, after being only one game away from qualifying for the Kiev Major.
Heading into the final stretch before the International 7 in August, the expectations for Fnatic are certainly growing.
