Renown 'Dota 2' team fires 3 members over internal drama

Three players were released Monday from top-earning esports team Natus Vincere, a split caused by internal conflicts among the five-man squad after they failed to qualify for the upcoming $3 million Boston Major tournament.

And then there were two.

The only remaining players are Victor "GeneRaL" Nigrini and Danil "Dendi" Ishutin. Ex-NaVi players Dmitry "Ditya Ra" Minenkov, Ivan "ArtStyle" Antonov and team captain Akbar "SoNNeikO" Butaev were let go.

The rumor mill was churning long before this official announcement. One former NaVi player said on a Twitch stream that after their poor performance at The International 6, the players were having "a falling out."

This was confirmed along with a few other things in a new NaVi series called "Na'Vi Inside," which you can watch in Russian (with subtitles) below.

After asking NaVi manager Igor Sidorenko why they kept the TI6 roster even after preforming poorly he responded:

"First before the TI6 trip we had decided that regardless of the results we would keep the roster. The main problem, the reason of the failure wasn’t from gameplay but failure to communicate and psychological problems. The guys weren’t able to open up their communication and get rid of small conflicts. In the end it all snowballed to the point of no return. There was dissatisfaction, problems with the game style, and stuff like attitude. There were normal issues but they weren’t being discussed between the guys properly.

NaVi esports director Eugene Zolotarev added this about the conflict:

There are different psychological types, in the Dota 2 scene in general Doters are very introverted, they don’t like to share their concern and they snowball into serious problems.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Zolotarev also noted that they would be hiring a company in 2017 to take care of team chemistry. NaVi said they would be scouting for new members, not holding auditions, and all new players considered will have to undergo psychological training to see if they are fit to play under daunting conditions.