T1 CEO Talks About the Decision to Disband Its Dota 2 Roster

T1 CEO Joe Marsh recently talked about its decision to disband its Dota 2 roster after a rough season. While T1 had a great 2020/2021 Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) season by achieving a top eight finish in its first ever TI (The International), the 2021/2022 season saw the opposite for the team as they were unable to qualify for The International 2022 (TI11) despite having acquired the two-time TI winning duo of Anathan "ana" Pham and Topias "Topson" Taavitsainen.

Following its disappointing season, the organization announced its disbandment of the Dota 2 roster with key players now becoming free agents during the off-season.

T1 CEO noted that the organization will hopefully return to the Dota 2 scene in 2024

In a recent episode of Rivals Talk which was hosted by German vehicle manufacturer BMW, Joe Marsh, the CEO of the Korean organization T1, talked about the decision to disband its Dota 2 division after 3 years of being in the scene. BMW is well known for having sponsored some of the best teams in the esports industry such as T1, G2 Esports, Fnatic, and more.

Firstly, Joe Marsh stated that the decision to disband its Dota 2 division was strictly financial, as the organization wanted to scale down the number of games the organization is currently involved in going into next year. Additionally, he stated that the organization wanted to mainly focus on its League of Legends & Valorant roster.

“It was strictly financial, I think we’ve enjoyed our time in DOTA 2. But with the “esports winter” upon us, we wanted to scale down the number of games we’re in this year. So we’re going to be focusing more on League of Legends and Valorant in 2023.”

Joe Marsh also stated that the organization will be looking to hopefully return to the Dota 2 competitive scene in 2024. However, it will be looking to either expand into the European region or return to SEA (Southeast Asia).

“When we do go back to Dota 2, hopefully in 2024 we are going to take a hard look at the SEA region as well as the European region.”

As of now, T1’s disbandment means that there is a slot available in  Division I of the SEA DPC for the upcoming season. However, according to our sources Bleed Esports is looking to acquire the vacant spot left by T1.