It’s difficult to quantify how far Na’Vi, the Dota 2 team who won the inaugural International tournament, have fallen. The team that stole the hearts of Dota 2 fans worldwide with that momentous victory back in 2011 hasn’t been able to replicate that success, or even anywhere close to it in the years since.
This low level of performance was highlighted most in these first seven months of 2017, where Na’Vi failed to qualify for every major Dota 2 event, including The Kiev Major and the International 2017. Now, the ramifications of that poor performance are coming to light: Na’Vi has dropped Per Anders Olsson “Pajkatt” Lille and Malthe “Biver” Winther, who were the newest additions to the Na’Vi Dota 2 roster.
“Unfortunately, the past year saw the team struggling to find common ground on some of their game-related problems, which resulted in them being unable to qualify for The International 2017 and several other events,” the team announced, in a statement. Added the team manager: “Per and Malthe are great people and players […] “I am very sorry to part out ways, but I believe that the guys will achieve whatever they wan in the future.”
This is the first time Na’Vi has missed out on an International tournament, having at least qualified for the main event in every year of its run.
The International 2017 starts later this week, where the group stage will eliminate two of the 18 teams before the main event, which starts on August 7. GameRevolution will be reporting on the tournament, live from Seattle.
