Dota Pro Circuit 2021/22 is slowly drawing to a close. In less than a month, all the teams who directly qualified for the year's main event The International 11 will be revealed. Shortly afterwards, there will be regional qualifiers with six more teams fighting for TI. All squads are complete and ready to compete. However, some players missed this year's DPC cycle for some reason, even though they could have potentially become the main stars of the tournament. Some players lost their team at an inopportune moment, others took a break from the professional scene but were unable to return, and still, others were benched at that time. See who was left on the bench in Dota Pro Circuit 2021/22 and whether these players will somehow make it to The International 11 - in our material.
Vitaliy Save- Melnik
Vitaliy Save- Melnik has only recently appeared on the professional scene, but he has already made a name for himself as a first-class player. His career started at Virtus.pro when Alexey Solo Berezin was the captain of the team. It was this legendary player who introduced Vitaliy to the professional scene. However, after a while Virtus.pro found a replacement for Save-, and he was sent to the youth team of the organization called VP.Prodigy.
It was on this team that Vitaliy had the opportunity to realize his full playing potential. He was the team captain, guided the game during matches, and handled drafts. At the same time Save- stood out individually, especially on his signature heroes. Vitaliy is still considered one of the best players on fourth position, and not only in the CIS but also in the world.
Save- rather quickly led VP.Prodigy to success, after which this squad became the main in the club and was renamed Virtus.pro. The team played excellently in their home region, constantly winning first places, but their game didn't go that well on the international scene. Virtus.pro managed to fix most of their problems by The International 10. In the main tournament of the year, Vitali's squad finished in 5th-6th place, which can certainly be called a success for a young squad. And Save- has rightly been regarded as one of the best supports and captains in the CIS.
Unfortunately, the Virtus.pro players were not happy with their performance at The International 10. There was a conflict in the team because of this. The details are still unknown, but we do know that after that Save- was placed in reserve. In other words, he was placed on the bench. In this status, Vitaly spent the whole Dota Pro Circuit 2021/22 without playing a single game on the professional stage after TI10. Apparently, Virtus.pro is asking for a very big transfer fee for this player. At the same time Save- continues to play 10 public games a day, maintaining a good form.
Vitaly also can't assemble his own team for obvious reasons. Most likely his contract with the club is signed until the end of The International 11 or until the end of 2022. Only after that will we be able to see the return of Save-. Because of this contract, the player has lost a whole year of his Dota 2 career, and if it wasn't for the "bench", he would have definitely played in this DPC cycle for some distinguished team. And just like that, everyone was left at a disadvantage.
By the way, recently Arsenii ArsZeeqq Usov and Andrey Mag Chipenko shared the information that Team Secret invited Vitaliy Save- Melnyk to join their squad. As we know, Yazid YapzOr Zharadat left the team due to illness, and his place was taken by Bakyt Zayac Emilzhanov. It turns out that Save- could have become a substitute, but he turned down that offer. Most likely, Vitaliy simply doesn't want to waste his time on squads that have no future. And Team Secret now is exactly that kind of team. Having said that, at the beginning of the year Team Liquid also wanted to get Vitaliy. This shows just how highly this player is valued. So we look forward to Save-'s return to the professional scene, where he belongs.
Illias Illias Ganeev
Illias Illias Ganeev, like Vitaliy Save-Melnik, has made a name for himself in Virtus.pro, although he was previously a very good Natus Vincere player. However, he chose to leave his "born to win" camp to play in VP with his friends. After The International 10 Illias stayed with the team but his performance declined sharply. Because of this (and several other reasons), the "bears" had a poor start to the Dota Pro Circuit 2021/22 winter season.
As it turned out, Illias was in a tilt after The International 10 and had no way of getting out of it. A few weeks into the season, Illias resigned from Virtus.pro or rather was placed in the reserve. According to his teammates he had a significant health problem and Dota 2 burnout that required him to take a break from the professional scene. However, a place in the team was still open for him. The club representatives have promised that Illias will be back in the squad as soon as he recovers from his personal problems.
Illias' place was taken by a young player, Egor Xakoda Lipartiya. VP told him that if the team performs well, he can stay on the roster. And so he did. Virtus.pro improved their game and Xakoda stayed.
Since then nothing has been heard from Illias. He is not currently listed on the Virtus.pro website, not even as a substitute. It is obvious that he will never return to that club. That said, Illias has always played well. At least in the CIS he can easily perform at tier-1 level and qualify for places in the top teams. It is unknown whether Illias has recovered and whether he wants to return to the professional scene. However, there are likely no more options left for him this year.
Roman Resolut1on Fomynok
Roman Resolut1on Fomynok is one of the best Dota 2 players of the past generation in the CIS. His results speak for themselves. Roman has frequently taken the top places at big tournaments and has even been the vice-champion of The International. He is definitely a very strong player who is currently missed on the professional stage.
Resolut1on's last team was HellRaisers. He played with them for the whole of last year and gradually made progress. Eventually, HellRaisers made it to Division I by the end of the third season, but the team failed in qualifying for The International. The club then announced a complete disbanding of the squad due to unsatisfactory results. It hit Roman particularly hard, as he was the captain of the team and built and developed it with his own hands. Resolut1on has since announced that he is taking a break from Dota 2. Roman hasn't played a single game on Dota Pro Circuit 2021/22.
I won't be playing the next DPC season. I've decided I want to quit this crazy marathon of nine years of professional Dota 2 to take a fresh perspective, reboot, and learn to live each day without chasing the results. My professional burnout came from a string of unsatisfying results just a step away from... and now the first thing I want to do is to figure it out and see which direction to take next.
Roman hasn't played Dota 2 for almost a year but finally decided to make a comeback. On May 5, Resolut1on announced his intention to return to the professional scene. The player wrote on social media that he started looking for a team together with his former teammate Bakyt Zayac Emilzhanov. Unfortunately, Resolut1on couldn't find a team, but Zayac joined Team Secret. Now this team isn't playing at its best, and its main goal is to win the qualification for The International. It is quite possible that by that time some changes will have taken place in Team Secret and Resolut1on will have joined the squad.
There are three reasons for that speculation. First - the current Team Secret offlane player Daryl Koh iceiceice Pei Xiang plays very poorly, and Roman is the player on the third position. The second reason is that Team Secret has Zayac, who can speak for his friend. And third, Resolut1on will be joining Team Secret's squad to performe on the Gamers8 Riyadh Masters in Dota 2. If Roman does well at this tournament, he will join the team, as it would be the best decision for Team Secret.
Am I motivated to get into cyber sports after the rest? Of course, I am. I'm playing all day long.
Ilya Lil Ilyuk
Ilya Lil Ilyuk is a very well-known player who has played in the "golden line-up" of Virtus.pro and has become the champion of numerous high-profile international tournaments. Unfortunately, Ilya has not been playing on the professional stage recently. His last team was HellRaisers, where he played together with Resolut1on, and after the failure and disbandment, he also got tilted.
I don't know how long it'll take me to regain some form and also find a team. I was called to join a European Division II mix, but they didn't take me because I left Kyiv and didn't even have the opportunity to play Dota 2.That said, Lil had no intention of taking a break from Dota 2, but was unable to find a team by the start of Dota Pro Circuit 2021/22. In late spring, Ilya revealed that he didn't know when he would return to Dota 2. According to him, it might be closer to The International or even after that.
I don't know how long it'll take me to regain some form and also find a team. I was called to join a European Division II mix, but they didn't take me because I left Kyiv and didn't even have the opportunity to play Dota 2.
Lil has played as a substitute for Brame and KBUUS several times this year but he never officially joined any team, ultimately missing Dota Pro Circuit 2021/22 completely. The chances of Ilya playing as a substitute in the major or The International 11 are also extremely slim. So it's already safe to say he missed this year in Dota 2. It will be interesting to see if Lil can find a team next year.
Bogdan Iceberg Vasylenko
Other former Natus Vincere players shared the same fate with Bogdan Iceberg Vasylenko, including Andrey ALWAYSWANNAFLY Bondarenko, Viktor GeneRaL Nigrini, and Ilya ALOHADANCE Korobkin. First, they played in FlyToMoon, then the squad was signed by Natus Vincere, and now these players were left without a team. The only difference is that GeneRaL and ALOHADANCE at least made it through the beginning of the year and managed to play for the "born to win" in Dota Pro Circuit 2021/22. However, they were soon kicked out too.
ALWAYSWANNAFLY failed to play professional Dota 2 this whole year, while Iceberg was a member of Team Empire for a few weeks and played a couple of games in Division II before dropping out. According to him, it was too weak a team to win anything. After that, Bogdan returned to streaming and started waiting for more lucrative offers, which never came. After that Iceberg and ALWAYSWANNAFLY put together a mixed team for the CIS Division II qualifiers but failed to qualify. As a result, both players were left without a team.
If I can't get back into shape, I'll stream like Stray228. Seems to get people going when I play on 3k. There'll be a vid playing on the right side of the screen and I'll react the same way to donations by shouting " I condemn that!". You just haven't seen me faking. Now I'm saying whatever I'm thinking and there I'll pretend to be interested in playing that way.
ALOHADANCE has once again announced the end of his career, but Iceberg, ALWAYSWANNAFLY, and GeneRaL would obviously love to return to the professional scene, there's just no way for them to do it. So they'll have to wait for the next year and then either join someone or assemble the team from scratch.
