The newcomer and position 2 player Veniamin "xn丶e" Smirnov is set to replace the experienced midlaner Ilya "Squad1x" Kuvaldin for the upcoming CCT Series 5 tournament. Veniamin has previously played in tier-3 teams and participated in the BetBoom streamers’ tournament. Currently, he ranks in the top 57 of the Dota 2 ladder. The team's coach shared his thoughts on the new midlaner and their performance in a recent tournament:
"We wrapped up our 1win tournament yesterday. The series against OG was relatively easy.
Against Spirit, we started strong but failed to capitalise on our map advantage and executed terrible teamfights, leading to a deserved loss (solo Satanic).
As for Pari, it was the Sand King curse: poor performance and possibly a bad draft for two games. In the first match, we didn’t manage a single good teamfight, while in the second, we were overrun by Storm Spirit (No[o]ne in solo).
Squad1x did well, gave his best, and looked strong. What do you all think?
The CCT Series 5 started. We'll be playing with Xne. Our priority is to find the ideal midlaner, so we need to evaluate all potential candidates."
1win Team was directly invited to the tournament's playoffs, which began yesterday. The CCT Series 5 runs from 16 to 25 November in an online format.
1win Team Roster:
- Nikita "Munkushi~" Chepurnykh
- Veniamin "xn丶e" Smirnov (stand-in for CCT Series 5)
- Alexander "Cloud" Zakharov
- Georgiy "swedenstrong" Zaynalabidov
- Egor "RESPECT" Prokurat