Fnatic has announced that they have parted ways with longtime support player Anucha “Jabz” Jirawong, with Nico “eyyou” Barcelon coming in as his replacement.

In a post on the official Fnatic Dota Facebook account, the team revealed that they came to a mutual agreement with Jabz to part ways in order to optimize the roster.

Fnatic explained that, following offlaner Daryl “iceiceice” Koh Pei Xiang’s decision to take a break from competitive play in August, they realized that they lacked a true leader. After a loss to Motivate.Trust early in the group stage of the ESL One Thailand Online Asian league, the team decided to assign leadership to star position 4 player Djardel “DJ” Mampusti after Jabz turned down the initial offer.

“We chose DJ to assume leadership roles and he agreed under the condition that he plays position 5, hence we switched him with Jabz. This move gave us decent results, as we finished third at the tournament despite a poor start during the group stage. Post-tournament, we discussed how should we move forward. It became clear to us that both Jabz and DJ perform better as position 4. Jabz also mentioned that he prefers playing position 4, therefore what we lack in our team is a true position 5,” said Fnatic.

The team then decided to mutually part ways with Jabz in order to “work with a player that excels at position 5” in eyyou, who was notably vouched for by DJ, carry player Marc Polo “Raven” Fausto, and coach Lee “SunBhie” Jeong-jae.

Jabz is a six-year veteran of the Southeast Asian Dota scene and has been with Fnatic since late 2019. He first joined the team as a carry player before moving to the position 5 support role in September last year to make way for Nuengnara “23savage” Teeramahanon, who was notably replaced by Raven at the end of July.

“We would like to thank Jabz for all his contributions in his 2 years with Fnatic, steering us towards numerous victories throughout his years under the black and orange banner. We wish him nothing but the best on his future steps and we hope to see him back in the servers soon,” Fnatic said of Jabz.

Eyyou will be coming in as the replacement for Jabz after a year-long break from competitive play following his latest stint with TNC Predator. He notably joined Fnatic back in 2016 alongside Raven after their breakout stint with TNC at The International 2016. He has since flourished as one of the premiere support players and captains in Southeast Asia.

“Now reunited, we are optimistic with what we can do together as we prepare for the planned return of the Dota Pro Circuit early next year,” Fnatic said of their new position 5 player.

Fnatic Dota 2 roster:

  1. Marc Polo “Raven” Fausto
  2. Kam “Moon” Boon Seng
  3. Daryl “iceiceice” Koh Pei Xiang
  4. Djardel “DJ” Mampusti
  5. Nico “eyyou” Barcelon

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