Entity Gaming joins the post-International roster shuffling extravaganza despite an impressive season, with the organization bidding farewell to controversial star carry Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko.
Pure joined Entity at the start of the Summer Tour of the 2022 Dota Pro Circuit after losing his spot in Virtus.pro due to a controversy where he drew what appeared to be a Russian militarist symbol on the minimap during an official Valve tournament. And even with that baggage attached, the team performed well enough in a small sample size that a move like this wasn’t expected by most fans—but it does open the door for several rumors to be made a reality.
Despite storming the Western European Dota 2 scene in the months leading up to The International 11, Entity performed below their expectations at the championship event, finishing in ninth place while playing in some of the most memorable matches in the tournament. Despite this, rumors surrounding the team were fairly mild and there was even hope internally that everyone would stick together—something that did not hold up through the offseason.
With the EEU as a whole crumbling at TI11, rumors picked up speed as speculation around top talent and dropped rosters began swirling. One such rumor involved Team Spirit’s mid laner TORONTOTOKYO wanting to play with former Evil Geniuses offlaner Nightfall and former VP captain Save-.
That specific rumor dropped before TI11 had even ended and Spirit put up their own poor results, eventually resulting in TORONTOTOKYO parting ways with the squad. Separate reports also pointed to Pure potentially leaving Entity to join a roster helmed by VP’s former players, something that seems poised to happen following this move.
According to a number of recent reports, BetBoom Team is involved in this action, helping Save- and Nightfall acquire Mind Games’ DPC slot in EEU’s Division I for roughly $60,000 and potentially paying whatever the buyout was on Entity’s contract with Pure to field a new super team.
Going off of previous information, it would have been hard to fit Pure, TORONTOTOKYO, and gpk into the same lineup at their former positions. But with this BetBoom report, it appears TORONTOTOKYO may be swapping to a support role in some capacity.
Given the very early reporting surrounding the desire some of these players had to join forces, along with the timing in which the Mind Games slot was purchased in relation to the Save- rumors and Pure’s sudden free agency, a full announcement seems imminent.
While the new BetBoom is still in the process of finalizing, Entity announced that Alimzhan “watson” Islambekov would be taking his place in the upcoming season. The carry player was last seen in HellRaisers, winning the second division of EEU DPC Tour Three.
