Tundra leaves the scene, GLYPH’s cool patch, Save-1,000 maps: Dota 2 wild week

It’s no surprise that a team like the Tundra guys quickly found a new home, but the optics aren’t exactly great. We’ve already seen painN Gaming and HEROIC leave this year due to sustainability concerns, but those were mediocre organizations with mediocre teams.

Tundra was—and if we ignore the latter bias, it’s still like that – the best team in the world this year. If the organization is as successful as Tundra decides the property is no longer worth investing in, I wonder what that means for everyone.

I think we can all agree that Dota 2 esports isn’t in its best shape right now, and if Valve doesn’t step in, we’ll have to see for ourselves. Betting companies like 1win are becoming increasingly visible in the ecosystem, whether they fund teams through sponsorship or owning them.

Now, I’m not saying it’s a perfect solution, but it’s very likely that Dota 2 will have to rely more on gambling sponsors in the near future. I don’t think it’s the best view of the scene, but as orgs continue to drop like flies, that may be the reality we’re headed for.

Whether that’s a good thing is an entirely different discussion.

When we talk about betting platforms, Vitalie “Save-” Melnic recently hit the milestone of 1,000 maps played under the BetBoom Team banner. He has been around this team since the 2023 season, dealing with all the intensity of the names thrown at him.

It wasn’t always smooth sailing for BB Team, as they actually got off to a bad start. In the first year of Save-, the team could not get significant results, but he stuck to it through thick and thin.

Things started to click in 2024, with second place finishes in S-tier events before the team finally won their first Tier 1 trophy at BLAST Slam I in December 2024, which was also their first LAN trophy. Three more S-tier titles followed, including a recent win at PGL Wallachia Season 8 two months ago – bringing the BetBoom team to four trophies, all of which Save- was a part of.

In my opinion, Save- has always been one of the four most mechanically skilled players on the scene, and has been for a long time. This guy is a monster, and I can only say that he makes this team.

Only a handful of soft support players can compete with him, and we’re only talking about big veterans like Andreas “Cr1t-” Nielsen and Samuel “Boxi” Svahn. Save- easily eliminates all of his new blood teammates – except for Edgar “9class” Naltakian – in both mechanics and experience.

To commemorate his milestone and loyalty to the team, Save- was gifted a custom BetBoom 1,000 map jersey. He is definitely one of the most underrated players on the scene.

With growing concerns about the esports scene, it’s important for players to appreciate the opportunities and make the most of them – and that’s exactly what the former HEROIC guys did after LGD Gaming put their trust in them.

Despite entering BLAST Slam 7 as one of the middling teams, LGD Gaming played fearlessly and tore through the group stage. The South Americans have won 8 out of 11 matches, making them top of the entire bracket in this tournament. They have also earned a quick pass to the second round of the upper bracket.

Not only do they have to fly to Copenhagen until BLAST Slam 7 ends, but the guys from LGD Gaming are also grinding the Esports World Cup qualifiers. Since they are currently setting up a bootcamp in Europe for BLAST, they have instead registered players who qualify for Western Europe.

So, they play the qualifiers in the middle of the million dollar event, and they blow up the tournament. At the time of writing, LGD Gaming is in the upper bracket and will face NAVI in the first of two playoffs.

Should they lose, they still have another chance in the lower bracket finals against second-place Pipsqueak +4. And to be honest, they are very confident that they will get the job done.

While LGD Gaming thrived and headed for the playoffs at BLAST Slam, GLYPH unfortunately got the short end of the stick. They are the unsponsored Southeast Asian stack that has dug into their pockets to compete in this event.

As expected, GLYPH ended up being cannon fodder and was knocked out of last place with a 2-9 record. And even though they were sent packing earlier than we would have liked, at least they gave us one of the best clips of the year so far.

In the best of 1 against Tundra Esports, now 1-win, Tri “Jhocam” Kuncoro’s Rubick stole the Techies’ Proximity Mines and planted a field of mines around Twin Gate, which is a common thread.

Tundra was smoked for four, looking to take the gate to the other side of the map and look for a pickup. Bozhidar “bzm” Bogdanov’s puck was sent first, with the rest of the team behind him.

After finishing teleporting, bzm immediately heard the Mines go off and quickly reacted with Phase Shift to avoid a possible explosion. However, the whole group did not react in time, they were blown up by six mines, and they died instantly.

This is hands down one of the funniest games we’ve seen this year, and GLYPH will be remembered for at least that.

They are not famous David “Parker” Nicho Flores he came back with another group of brothers. This guy is well known for being one of the most talented players in the world, but he can’t gather enough experience to stay in the team for more than three months.

However, he is really good at building stacks and carrying them through the South American qualifiers for major events. He runs it back with Estar Backs, currently competing in the Esports World Cup – and his chances are as big as they can get.

South America has two major teams: LGD Gaming and PlayTime. As we mentioned earlier, the former is playing the qualifiers for Western Europe in this event, while the latter has already secured its place with a direct invitation.

So, Parker and the boys have to go through Team Nemesis as the only worthy opponent. And as good as Parker is for farm qualifiers, their chances look pretty good.

The list of Estar Backs is as follows:

Will we get another repeat of the South American Rejects story? Only time – or whether Parker has learned his lesson – will tell.