Cover-Credits:
After nearly two years of ups and downs with Team SMG, Malaysian Dota 2 midlaner Kam "Moon" Boon Seng has parted ways with the organization. Through its social media channels, SMG also revealed that in addition to Moon, it is releasing support player Wilson "poloson" Koh, who was loaned from Invictus Gaming. The lineup change comes after an impressive showing in Tour 2 of the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) 2023, but a failure to reproduce any of those results in the ESL One Berlin Major 2023 where the team finished 15th-16th. SMG did not immediately name the replacements for the two departing players.
Team SMG parts ways with Moon and poloson
“For the last 2 years MooN has been a staple in our roster, while Poloson has been a recent addition for this DPC,” wrote SMG as it bid the two players farewell and wished them luck in their future endeavors.
With the recent roster change, SMG is down to three players.
Lee “CDR” Jia He
TBD
Yeik “MidOne” Nai Zheng
Tue “ah fu” Soon Chuan
TBD
After a two-year stint with Fnatic in the Southeast Asian (SEA) Dota 2 pro scene, Moon joined SMG in June 2021. At the time, SMG was just starting to build its Dota 2 roster, and Moon was eventually joined by a number of players in the quest for better results.
Despite its best efforts, there was never a combination or playstyle that enabled the team to be among the best in SEA. Even though SMG competed in a number of tournaments over the next two years, its only victory was at the OB.Moon Asian Arena where it took home $4,000 USD.
SMG finally found its groove with poloson returning just before Tour 2 of the DPC 2023 after a change in playstyle and finished third in the league to qualify for its first-ever Dota 2 Major.
This proved short-lived as the team only managed four wins out of 16 games at Berlin Major, leaving without any prize money or DPC points.
With only a few instances of success in the past two years, the Malaysian organization has struggled despite trying some of the region's most experienced players. As it heads into the final Tour of the year, the team will be looking to rebuild.
It is unknown if any more changes will be made, but it is likely that the team will be restructured around captain MidOne. Furthermore, whether MidOne returns to playing in the midlane with Moon out of the picture remains to be seen.
