End of an era – EG releases its roster, says bye to Fly, Arteezy, BuLba, and Co.

EG has released its entire Dota 2 roster, saying goodbye and thank you in a post on their official Twitter. With the release, the North American org says goodbye to Artour “Arteezy” Babaev, Abed Yusop, Egor “Nightfall” Frigorenko, Andreas “Cr1t-” Nielsen, Tal “Fly” Aizik, and coach Kanishka “BuLba” Sosale

The release ends a seven year tenure for Arteezy and Cr1t- with the team, five almost-consistent years with Fly, five years for BuLba, and two for Abed. What feels like one of the most iconic lineups in Dota 2 has been released following a spell of disappointing results.

During this time, EG has gathered a host of accolades, from gaining podiums at multiple Majors, but always falling short of the big TI victory. The squad had an incredible 2021, and huge success during the regular season of 2022. But ultimately, once again, on the biggest stages EG failed to deliver. It’s unknown what lies in store for these players in the upcoming season.

In a video released shortly before the ‘Thank You’ post, EG CEO Nicole LaPointe Jameson all but confirmed the rumors of a new South American roster for EG.

In the video, the EG CEO described looking forward to showing of their new roster, and referenced South American fans.

Various sources have reported that Evil Geniuses were in communication with an adapted Thunder Awaken roster, that would include Crhistian "Pakazs" Casanova, Farith "Matthew" Huamancaja, and Jose "Pandaboo" Hernandez, with the edition of beastcoast alums Jean "Chris Luck" Salazar and Adrián "Wisper" Dobles. This aligns with the new beastcoast roster that saw Herrera "DarkMago" Gonzalo and Rafael "Sacred" Yonatan join, revealed earlier this month.

Overall, all signs point to EG departing North America after years of being its most dominant team. For many, this is the final writing on the wall that the NA region is “dead” as one of its most storied organizations would rather play in South America.

Regardless though, this is truly an end of an era. The EG we’ve known for half a decade feels like its done for good.