Dota 2 teams making changes to their roster is nothing new. However, the most recent move by Tundra Esports surprised a lot of people. That's because the team made the decision to remove Ivan "MinD_ContRoL" Ivanov from the main roster. What's surprising about it is that it was done in the middle of an ongoing tournament. In fact, the announcement was made just before Tundra's match against Shopify Rebellion in DreamLeague Season 22.
What exactly happened? According to Tundra, MinD_ContRoL was under indefinite suspension pending an internal disciplinary investigation. The team went on to say that it was MinD_ContRoL who told them that he won't be participating in the tournament unless demands were met which the team viewed as unreasonable.
Now that's the side of Tundra. What about for MinD_ContRoL? So far officially all he has said was through a post on X stating that he was looking for a team and that he had just been "kicked before the match." According to reports, during a stream by Janne "gorgc" Stefanovski, MinD_ContRoL sort of gave his side saying that he gave Tundra an ultimatum as a result of decisions made that he didn't agree with. This include removing his role as Team Captain and bringing on Ludwig "zai" Wåhlberg as General Manager and David "MoonMeander" Tan being brought on a Coach. Again, this is from the side of MinD_ContRoL and has not been confirmed or denied by Tundra.
There are those in the Dota 2 community who say that it could be his rather lackluster performance in the early stages of the tournament. Still, that wouldn't be enough reason to replace him considering that he was instrumental in Tundra qualifying not only for DreamLeague Season 22 but also for ESL One Birmingham 2024.
Roster Plans
In the match against Shopify Rebellion, Tundra had Vladislav "laise" Lais as stand-in for MinD_ContRoL. There's no word yet on whether laise is going to continue as stand-in for the remainder of the Group Stage. Tundra has three games left and is in danger of being eliminated from the tournament.
What do you think? Was this a good move by Tundra? What team should MinD_ContRoL join?
