Cover-Credits:
Amidst the speculation of captain Clement "Puppey" Ivanov's stand-in stints at The International 12 (TI12), Team Secret has parted ways with offlaner Saieful "Fbz" Ilham. As part of a tweet announcing his departure, the squad expressed its gratitude to the player for his help over the past few months. Fbz, who had joined Secret in June 2023 on loan from BOOM Esports to replace Miroslav "BOOM" Bičan, returns to the Southeast Asian (SEA) squad. Despite the fact that the team appeared stronger with him on the roster, Secret was unable to muster enough momentum to make it all the way to TI12 during the regional qualifiers.
Team Secret parts ways with Fbz
“We couldn't make it all the way to Seattle however we still had an amazing time with him. Thank you for sharing this journey with us Fbz, we wish you the best ahead. And thank you BOOM Esports for making this possible,” Secret bid farewell to Fbz.
The Dota 2 roster of Team Secret is now down to four players.
Remco "Crystallis" Arets
Armel "Armel" Tabios
TBD
Daniyal "yamich" Lazebnyy
Clement "Puppey" Ivanov
As part of its final push to reach TI12, Secret brought in a natural offlaner in Fbz before DreamLeague Season 20. This made the roster consist of two SEA players, a rare sight in Europe. Although the team had some competitive performances in both DreamLeague Season 20 and Riyadh Masters 2023, it was not able to pull off some upsets due to a lack of synergy and register strong finishes.
In the Western Europe (WEU) qualifiers, the team, however, showed an improvement and looked well-positioned to secure one of two slots. Unfortunately, it could not capitalize on the chances it had to win the games, losing to Entity and then to Quest Esports to finish fourth.
Returning to SEA now, Fbz has his place back at BOOM Esports, which welcomed him back in a tweet. Should Secret have qualified, the player may have remained a member for a longer time, but failing to qualify forces the two parties to part ways.
Secret will most likely unveil its new offlaner in a while with TI12 around, and the team may also have additional roster adjustments to make before revealing its final lineup for the upcoming season. For the time being, all eyes are on whether the report of captain Puppey playing for Team SMG, where Ivan "MinD_ContRoL" Ivanov is also supposedly headed, turns out to be true which would keep Puppey's all-TI streak intact.
