CDEC Gaming sign Ahjit after failing to qualify for the WePlay! Bukovel Minor

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Dota 2 pro Lai “Ahjit” Jay Son spent the last four months on the CDEC Avenger roster after parting ways with Mineski in the summer. Now, however, he is being brought onto the main CDEC Gaming roster to replace Guo “Eve” Yuhang.

CDEC came within a series of qualifying for the WePlay! Bukovel Minor but fell short after being swept by Royal Never Give Up in the finals of the Chinese qualifiers. 

Ahjit is joining the main roster as the new position one player while Eve is moving to the inactive roster. This move reportedly comes following Eve’s request for some time off from competitive Dota 2. The full CDEC Gaming roster is as follows:

1. Lai “Ahjit” Jay Son
2. Guo “Xm” Hongcheng
3. Shen “123” Chao
4. Zhou “James” Yifu
5. Chen “Victoria” Guanhong

This is a bit of an odd move for CDEC since the team is relatively known for fielding a roster of players with little experience playing for bigger teams. Ahjit was a big part of the pre-International 2019 Mineski roster and has spent time with Tigers and Fnatic in the past, which breaks the team’s typical mold. 

But considering the squad’s only losses in the second round of Dota Pro Circuit qualifiers came to more experienced rosters like RNG, Team Aster, and Invictus Gaming, bringing in a veteran like Ahjit might help them in the long run. Especially since he has a lot of experience in the DPC including the first Minor of the season, Dota Summit 11, where he played with Team Serenity.

It’s unclear how permanent this move will be for the main CDEC squad considering Eve is only being placed on the inactive roster and there are no signs that the organization is looking to move on from him. This could just be a temporary fix while Eve takes some time off, which means Ahjit could use this as an audition for other teams.