Dota 2 world champions Evil Geniuses (EG) have kicked Kurtis ‘Aui’ Ling from their team, just one week after winning The International.
The team was awarded $6.6m last weekend for reaching first place in the annual Dota 2 tournament – and Ling has expressed his frustration at being let go.
“I have been kicked from EG after winning The International. I actually hate people,” he tweeted, before adding: “Can someone from EG just f*cking confirm so idiots stop tweeting me it’s fake.”
This prompted Evil Geniuses Dota 2 manager Charlie Yang to post the following note: “Rather than have people speculate or message players for answers, I’m going to go ahead and announce the new EG Dota 2 roster: Sumail, Universe, Fear, PPD, and [former Team Secret carry] Arteezy.
“Yes, Kurtis was removed from the roster. The rest of the players decided that the above roster was what they wanted to go forward with.
“Personally, I’m deeply affected by this and I’m very sad to see Kurtis go. I’ve known him the longest out of anyone on the team. He was the one that originally asked me to be the manager for Potm Bottom years ago, and I cannot state enough how depressed I am to see him go. I cannot imagine how much worse he feels.
“Professionally, I trust the judgment of the captain and the other players. I will not make roster decisions on their behalf and I will not force players to play on rosters they don’t want to play on. EG is deeply grateful to Kurtis for what he has helped contribute, and will continue to support him in whatever he decides to do and wherever he decides to go. I say this both for myself and on behalf of the organization.”
Peter Daga (PPD) from the Dota 2 EG team also tweeted: “Truly appreciate everything @Aui_2000 has done for this team. Best of luck with your next team. Never will forget this awesome year.
“We decided to make the decision sooner than later so he would have plenty of time to find a good roster which he deserves.
“I know most of you are upset, but what goes on in our team is our business and ours alone. We are doing what we think is best for us.”
Fans have messaged EG in their droves on Twitter to find out the reason Ling was replaced.
However, Yang later tweeted saying that Peter’s Twitter account had been ‘hacked’. “The tweets do not represent him or the team,” Yang added.
We feel for Ling – it’s like winning the football Champions League, the most prestigious title you can attain, then being released from the team as a free agent days later.
EG might have well told him: “Cheers for helping us win – now get lost.” We can’t imagine how that must have made Ling feel.
It’d be nice to see Evil Geniuses consider being a little more open with their communication and start giving honest reasons for their actions.
Their manager Charlie Yang later posted on Twitter: “If you message me on Skype about this immediately after the post asking for more information I’m going to remove you. Especially Greg [Laird, Vulcun eSports manager], if you text me again I’m going to punch you in the fucking face.”
Whether that’s the kind of behaviour you’d expect to see a manager writing on Twitter or not, it’s clear the team is in a fragile and agitated state right now.
Arteezy added in a statement: “I want to start off by saying thank you to all my fans at Team Secret, it has been a crazy year of Dota and although we unfortunately fell short at The International we were able to multiple victories across the world.
“Working with Puppey over this year has been a great experience, one I will value for the remainder of my career and I hope that s4 finds the team mates he is looking for that will channel his inner beast mode pushing him to his full potential.”
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
