B8 Esports, along with its permanent midfielder and captain Danil "Dendi" Ishutin, was just one step away from qualifying for the most important Dota 2 tournament of the year - The International 12. This result can be considered a major achievement for the club, which had previously been plagued by defeats and failures. And the current B8 Esports team showed a really nice, well-coordinated game and pleasantly surprised the fans. Unfortunately, there were very few such events in the history of the team. Read about the most important events in the history of B8 Esports in the material of Telecomasia.net.
Bet on eSports with 1xBetHow was B8 Esports founded?
The founder of B8 Esports is a famous cybersports player Danil "Dendi" Ishutin. In 2010 he became the champion of the first tournament of the International Series as a member of Natus Vincere. He represented the "Born to Win" until 2018, and then he left the organization.
After that, "Dendi" played for about two years for different tier-2 teams, including The Pango, Tigers, Vega Squadron and many others, but he never achieved success. Then Danil decided to follow the example of his former teammates - Clement "Puppey" Ivanov and Kuro "KuroKy" Salehi Takhasomi - and create his own cybersports organization. The big event happened at the beginning of 2020. The club was called B8 Esports.
After NaVi, I was called to different teams. But I was waiting for an invitation to a team that would be interesting for me, a team focused on results. People close to me have been encouraging me to start my own organization for a while. It was a thoughtful decision. I wanted to give fans from all over the world a permanent home and create a strong club that people would want to support and feel a part of.
"Dendi" made a loud announcement with a bright video and soon announced the first B8 Esports roster. It featured some pretty well-known players with rich cybersports backgrounds. The roster looked like this:
- Zaur "Cooman" Shakhmurzaev;
- Danil "Dendi" Ishutin;
- Andrey "Ghostik" Kadyk;
- Rinat "KingR" Abdullin;
- Nikola "LeBronDota" Popović.
However, at the very last moment "Cooman" refused to play in B8 Esports. He chose to join the new Virtus.pro team that was being created at the time. And "Dendi" had to look for a replacement. It was Alexandr "pio65" Zalivako. It was with this lineup that B8 Esports made its debut on the cybersports scene.
The team played worse than expected
Frankly speaking, "Dendi" was unlucky to start B8 Esports at that time, because just two months later, the Coronavirus pandemic started. Most Dota 2 tournaments were canceled and the era of online gaming began. And B8 Esports couldn't find its style in this situation.
Month after month passed, and B8 Esports continued to lose. From mid-April to mid-June 2020, the team lost 18 consecutive matches, almost breaking the world record for the number of winless streaks. The record belongs to the Chinese team Avalon - the team didn't win a single game out of 22 matches in 2016.
Bet on eSports with 1xBetThe road to success is never easy. You have to be persistent and motivated. It takes courage to face the challenges along the way and hold your head high no matter what. I wish you all the best and hope that you achieve your dreams and goals as soon as possible.
Due to poor play and lack of results, players began to leave B8 Esports. The team's roster changed frequently, making it even more difficult for the team to play and win. In the three and a half years of B8 Esports' existence, the team had more than 40 cybersports players, including some very famous ones. We will list some of them:
- Giorgos "SsaSpartan" Giannakopoulos;
- Daniyal "yamich" Lazebnyy;
- Dmitry "Fishman" Polishchuk;
- Aybek "TA2000" Tokayev;
- Aleksandr "Nofear" Churochkin;
- Alimzhan "Watson" Islambekov;
- Glib "Funn1k" Lipatnikov;
- Duško "BoraNija" Boranijašević;
- Alik "V-Tune" Vorobey.
There was even a time when three Brazilian players joined B8 Esports, but it did not bring success. No matter what lineup the team had, they always lost and their win rate was terrible. B8 Esports failed in every championship during those two years. Their best result was a third place finish in the Dota 2 Champions League Season 3 tournament.
However, this did not prevent the team from setting a new personal anti-record. From early November 2021 to February 1, 2022, B8 Esports lost 21 matches in a row. When their long-awaited victory finally came, the entire region celebrated. Unfortunately, there was nothing else for the fans of B8 Esports to be happy about.
Bet on eSports with 1xBetWell folks, the dam broke. We tried to rebuild it as best we could, we tried to hold it, we tried to keep it from breaking, but in the end it's ruined. So thanks to everyone who supported us. We got rid of our losing streak. Hopefully we won't have such long losing streaks from now on. Thanks again for your support.
The year 2022 for B8 Esports was as boring as it gets. In the first DPC season, the team dropped out of Division 2 of the CIS. They tried to get back through open qualifiers for the rest of the year, but failed. Then B8 Esports announced a complete disbandment and temporarily went offline.
Our results were really bad, so we decided to disband. We really tried to recruit the guys who fit each other in different parameters. It took a long time to select players. We had a very low starting point. It was so difficult. But we kept on working. We weren't looking for quick results and we put in a lot of effort and work. We practiced 10 hours a day as a team and individually. There was also the effect of accumulation. This is how it usually works when you lose more and more. We started to lose confidence, each of us made more mistakes. Breaks usually help in such cases, but we didn't have any breaks.
Moving to North America
Before the start of Dota Pro Circuit 2023, B8 Esports decided to make a move. The club's management thought that if the team couldn't succeed in the CIS, then maybe they could do it in another region. That region was North America, as the average level of play there is much lower than in Eastern Europe. The revamped B8 Esports roster looked like this:
- Denis "StoneBank" Korzh;
- Danil "Dendi" Ishutin;
- Glib "Funn1k" Lipatnikov;
- Oleg "Lodine" Kvasha;
- Joel Mori "MoOz" Ozambela.
I played a lot of Dota 2 and every day I got hungrier and hungrier to win, watching the championships where the strongest teams were fighting. I love this game with all my heart. I have dedicated a large part of my life to it. I love to compete and I'm always striving to win. This game made me who I am! I will forever be grateful to everyone I have met and who has supported me over the years. I want to make you happy in return and hopefully make you smile more often in the future. This time we took the opportunity to get a slot at the DPC for North America. I think I talked to over a hundred players from all regions. We ended up putting this lineup together and I'm ready for a new journey with new challenges.
According to Valve's rules, at least three team members must be territorially based in a region to represent it, at least during game periods. So B8 Esports had to move to North America. But it was extremely difficult for the players to travel to the US, so they set up a boot camp in Mexico.
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B8 Esports did not pursue Division 2 of the regional league through open qualifiers. The team decided to take the easier route and simply buy a spot in the North American Division 1. This allowed them to go straight into the battle for a spot in The International 12. But it wasn't as easy as you might think. At the end of the first DPC season, B8 Esports finished in sixth place. They were one step away from dropping straight into Division 2. Despite this, the players on the team kept a positive attitude.
It feels more like I never quit. I've always had an insane hunger to compete. Dota is my passion. It has been a huge part of my life that has led me to where I am now. I still feel that hunger to this day, even after failing to qualify for the DPC with my previous team. Even then, I knew that I would do everything in my power to build a strong team and find ways to compete in the next season. That's how things got to this point.
The second DPC season in North America went better for B8 Esports. This time, the 3:4 stats team managed to finish fifth in Division 1 and earn the first DPC points in the club's history (40 points). This happened three years after its establishment as a cybersports organization.
During the first two seasons, B8 Esports followed the same pattern: coming to Mexico for the tournament and then returning home to avoid spending extra money on expensive bootcamps and other things. However, before the start of the third DPC season, the Ukrainian players of the team had problems traveling abroad. Then Valve came to their aid and allowed them to play on North American servers while staying in Eastern Europe. Because of this decision, the players had to deal with a very high ping, but it was the only workable compromise.
Ping is a big problem. At least for me. The guys probably have it a little easier. I have a ping of 100 and I can tell you it's pretty hard to play some heroes. Also, the laning phase is often tough. We play CW on American servers to get in shape and get used to the ping. I get destroyed in the lane on every map, and I think playing in the lane is my strength. It makes me very sad, but we are adapting, reworking our draft picks. We're working hard to adjust to the ping and get comfortable, but it's still an issue.
High ping and other factors prevented B8 Esports from performing well in its third DPC season. It was one step away from relegation to Division 2 with a 1-6 record, but after three rounds of replay, it still managed to keep its place in Division 1, finishing in sixth place. It looked like B8 Esports' results had not improved at all since the beginning of the year. There was one last major tournament left - the regional qualifier for The International 12.
The International was closer than ever
Despite the weak play during the year, B8 Esports did very well at the regional qualifier for The International 12. They assembled a new squad (stronger than the previous one) and managed to defeat almost all competitors to reach the grand finals. There, B8 Esports lost to nouns 0-3 and was eliminated from the competition.
It was the best tournament in the history of this eSports organization. "Dendi" was so close to the main Dota 2 tournament of the year. However, it is unlikely that Danil will stop at this result. He will probably keep playing Dota 2 next year, because it's his passion.
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