Chaos Esports Club has acquired inactive Team Liquid legend Lasse “MATUMBAMAN” Urpalainen, the organization announced today.
In a video on Twitter, Chaos revealed that it found the final piece to its recently-shuffled roster and hinted heavily at signing Matu from Liquid. And it was all based on a pair of shorts.
The signing was confirmed earlier today, which means Matu is joining Chaos to compete in the last leg of the Dota Pro Circuit this season. Joining other veterans like team captain Rasmus “MISERY” Filipsen and William “hFn” Medeiros, Matu will now start preparing for The International 2019 qualifiers.
“This time of the year is always chaotic and we are constantly in search of veteran talent to help guide and foster growth among the younger talent on our teams,” Chaos CEO Greg Laird said. “Matumbaman is a rare example of such talent, bringing with him a world-class record of achievement and a wealth of experience. Welcome to the team, Lasse, we are lucky to have you. I am excited to watch you #CreateChaos.”
Matu signing with this team isn’t that surprising since Chaos has a good track record in Dota 2 and is an established organization that will likely put a lot of power into his hands moving forward. Much like when Clement “Puppey” Ivanov left Natus Vincere for Team Secret all those years ago, this could be the start of another powerhouse.
This does raise some questions about the rest of the roster that haven’t been answered since Chaos failed to qualify for the EPICENTER Major. MISERY is probably safe and hFn could be a valuable player to keep in rotation, but the other three players still under contract are questionable.
Nico “Gunnar” Lopez, Maurice “KheZu” Gutmann, and Milan “MiLAN” Kozomara all joined the team to compete for that EPICENTER spot and failed. It’s clear that the organization doesn’t hate what it has since all three players are still on the roster.
Based on Laird’s comments, the team will most likely keep Gunnar since he’s the youngest player and they want to build up their own talent. The other three are up in the air, but Chaos may choose to just ride it out until the end of the 2018-19 season to try and keep what chemistry they have now.
This move comes just days after Liquid signed inactive Chaos player Aliwi “w33” Omar to its roster. These changes may raise a few eyebrows considering two star players were essentially just swapped for each other.
Chaos are ranked 16th in the DPC. They won’t be getting a direct invite to TI9, but they’ll likely get one to the closed regional qualifiers. They now play in the stacked European region rather than South America, however.
The open qualifiers for TI9 will run from July 3 to 7, while the closed qualifiers start right after that, going from July 8 to 15. Only six teams will make it into TI9 through the qualifiers, one from each of the six regions.
