With the deadline for the roster lock slowly approaching, the roster shuffle season has started to gain momentum in the Eastern Europe region.Team Spirit’s manager Dmitry “Korb3n” Belov recently talked about the possibility of a new team in the Eastern Europe (EEU) region led by Akbar "SoNNeikO" Butaev.
SoNNeiko spent the 2021/2022 season with BetBoom Team, as the team managed to achieve a decent top eight finish at the Stockholm Major and qualified for The International 2022 (TI11) from the regional qualifiers. However, the team’s performance dropped massively during the Group Stages of TI11 where it would exit the tournament as one of the bottom four teams.
On his livestream, Team Spirit’s manager Dmitry “Korb3n” Belov recently talked about the rumors of a new team being formed in the EEU region. According to the rumors, it was reported that Akbar "SoNNeikO" Butaev would be assembling a new team as he managed to retain his former team’s DPC slot for the upcoming season despite being released from BetBoom Team earlier in the month.
Additionally, it was rumored that Roman "RAMZES666" Kushnarev would be joining SoNNeikO’s team following his recent departure from Virtus.pro as its carry player. Following the rumors, Korb3n commented on the rumors surrounding SoNNeikO’s team by saying that the rumors are likely to be true.
“Rumor has it RAMZES and SoNNeikO might play together. What can I say? I heard this information. So, most likely, true.”
Furthermore, Korb3n stated the duo would be joined by former teammate Vladimir "RodjER" Nikogosian and current Hellraiser midlaner Maxim "re1bl" Afanasyev. However, he could not confirm the fifth player for the unannounced squad.
Should the rumored team come to fruition, this would be the official lineup for SoNNeikO’s newest team:-
Roman "RAMZES666" Kushnarev
Maxim "re1bl" Afanasyev
TBD
Vladimir "RodjER" Nicogosian
Akbar "SoNNeikO" Butaev
[transcriptions & translations via Escorenews.com]
The roster could theoretically be assembled, as rumors from the EEU region have stated that RAMZES666 have already found a new team in the region for the upcoming season. However, it is yet to be determined if he would continue playing as a carry or return to the offlane as he previously had experience playing the role with Evil Geniuses in 2020.