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Due to ongoing concerns with the coronavirus in China, which delayed the ESL One Los Angeles Dota 2 Major qualifiers, Royal Never Give Up announced they will not be able to compete at WePlay! Dota 2 Tug of War: Mad Moon.
The coronavirus, which originated in Wuhan, China, has caused chaos in esports, with many tournaments and leagues forced to reschedule or relocate including the Overwatch League which has been switched from China to Korea.
As their replacement, the organisers invited Danil “Dendi” Ishutin’s new team B8. WePlay! Dota 2 Tug of War: Mad Moon will mark B8’s first non-Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) event since the creation of the team back on January 27, 2020, when Dendi unveiled his new project and teammates who will help him build his legacy.
The newly formed Ukrainian Dota 2 team consists of Dendi, Alexandr “pio65” Zalivako, Andrey “Ghostik” Kadyk, Rinat “KingR” Abdullin and Nikola “LeBronDota” Popovic. Since B8 entered the Dota 2 competitive scene, the CIS Squad only participated at ESL One Los Angeles 2020 CIS Open Qualifiers, where they demolished HaliHydra in the round of 16, but failed to deliver in the next round, where Dendi and the company had to admit defeat to the eventual qualifiers champions Modus Unity.
Dendi has previously made an appearance at WePlay! Bukovel Minor 2020, where he participated in a Show Match as a part of Salo power team. That said, this will be the first time B8 will compete at a WePlay! tournament as a team.
WePlay! Already received a lot of positive feedback for their Dota 2 Minor event, which broke all viewing records and became the most-watched Dota 2 Minor tournament in DPC history.
B8 replacing Royal Never Give Up, is the second WePlay! Dota 2 Tug of War: Mad Moon lineup reshuffle, as Natus Vincere announced earlier this month they will skip the event to boot camp for the upcoming Major. The CIS juggernauts were replaced by Reshuffle Madness 2019 champions Aggressive Mode.
WePlay! Dota 2 Tug of War: Mad Moon is set to feature eight teams in Team Secret, Gambit Esports, Nigma, Ninjas in Pyjamas, B8, Infamous, Aggressive Mode and Virtus.pro.
The event will take off on Wednesday, February 19 at Concert Hall VDNG in Kyiv, Ukraine, and conclude four days later on February 23, with the grand finals, where the top two teams will compete for the largest slice of US $300,000.
