Jacky “EternalEnvy” Mao and JingJun “SneyKing” Wu have left their team less than two weeks before the StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor.
Fighting PandaS was a newly formed stack right after the conclusion of The International 2019. Initially announced by Jacky Mao, the team’s original name was Fighting Pepegas. The squad finished 9th-12th in the MDL Chengdu Major and 5th-6th in the WePlay! Bukovel Minor. Most recently, PandaS earned a spot in the upcoming StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor Season 3.
Naturally, it came a bit as a surprise that two members of the team have left it two weeks before the start of the Kiev Minor which is set to begin on March 5. EternalEnvy announced this Sunday that he already left the organization, but didn’t give a reason why.
I have left Fighting Pandas
— EternaLEnVy (@EternaLEnVy1991) February 23, 2020
A bit later Kurtis "Aui_2000" Ling shed some light on the situation during one of his streams and it became clear that Envy and Sneyking left to join a different team.
The rest of the roster decided to stick together.
Today we found out EternalEnvy and Sneyking has chosen to leave Fighting Pandas. We will look for standins for the Kiev Minor, thank you so much for your support. Me, bryle and Aui will be sticking together
— David Tan (@MoonMeanderated) February 23, 2020
The remaining three of PandaS were:
- Jonathan Bryle "Bryle" Santos De Guia
- Kurtis "Aui_2000" Ling
- David "MoonMeander" Tan
Swift replacements
Stand-ins for the upcoming event were found rather quickly and that came as no surprise. After all who wouldn’t want to directly join in and play in an official DPC tournament. The first to join in was Oliver "Skiter" Lepko who has played for Ninjas in Pyjamas in the past. We saw him in action during Tug of War: Mad Moon where he was part of Aggressive Mode. So far it appears that he left Aggressive Mode to join Fighting PandaS.
The fifth and final piece was Maurice "KheZu" Gutmann who last played for Godsent, but has been part of numerous other teams beforehand. With the two players joining, the roster of Fighting PandaS is back and running:
- Oliver "Skiter" Lepko
- Jonathan Bryle "Bryle" Santos De Guia
- Maurice "KheZu" Gutmann
- Kurtis "Aui_2000" Ling
- David "MoonMeander" Tan
Fighting PandaS had some trouble in the qualifiers for the StarLadder Minor, as they lost to business associates who’ll also be at the event. The full list of teams for the upcoming Dota 2 Minor is as follows:
- Alliance
- Team Aster
- BOOM Esports
- business associates
- Gambit Esports
- Fighting PandaS
- forZe eSports
- NoPing e-sports
The competition seems vicious but Fighting PandaS still have little over a week to find the synergy with their newly found teammates.
