Well, what a couple of months it's been. On March 22nd (a date so fitting that even we had a hard time believing it), we lost a very good friend - one of our team's longest-tenured and favorite players, and just a genuinely good person. It was a very tough day for our entire organization in recent memory, but while we didn't agree with his decision, we respected it and wished him well.

By now, it's no Secret that plans didn't go quite as they were expected to. Sometimes, though, these things happen for a reason, and regardless of the path that took us here, we're very happy to announce Saahil “Universe” Arora's return to Evil Geniuses' Dota 2 division. Along with him comes another long-time friend of the team and organization: Ludwig “zai” Wålberg, who will be playing in the 4 position, with Clinton “Fear” Loomis taking the 1 position.

While we're very excited to welcome these two players back to the team, in doing so we also had to make the difficult decision to part ways with two other individuals we have great respect and appreciation for: Sam “BuLba” Sosale and Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling - both of whom played invaluable roles in our TI5 championship run, as coach and player, respectively. As has already been announced, BuLba will be joining Team Secret, but unfortunately as a result of these changes Aui's path is less straightforward.

This was without a doubt the hardest part of the decision to move forward with these changes. Kurtis is a great player and a great person, and he deserves better than to be removed from the same organization twice within a year. That's not how we like to do things around here, and it's not something we're at all proud of or take lightly. After discussing the situation with him extensively, we've come to a good resolution that will compensate him appropriately for the lost time and opportunities that this situation takes from him. It's about as happy an ending as you could hope for in a bad situation. We're parting ways on good terms, and we wish him the best.

Now, as far as TI6 goes, we're making these changes with the full understanding that in doing so, we will forfeit our direct invite to the tournament. In just a few days, zai will be joining us in the United States, and we will begin preparing to conquer the TI6 qualifiers and defend our title. This will undoubtedly be a difficult process, but we're excited for the challenge and we hope that you'll be there with us as we restart our journey back to the top - this time, on the long road, but with the right players and people in place.