by Tundra Esports on Thursday announced the departure of Edgar “9Class” Naltakian, who leaves the European Dota 2 squad after nine months.
The 21-year-old joined Tundra in January as a part of a major roster rebuild which began with the departure of Enzo “Timado” Gianoli, Jonathan Bryle “Bryle” De Guia, Ilyas “kasane” Gainullin, and also coach Aleksandr “Immersion” Khmelevskoi, who rejoined the team less than a month later.
9Class was the first new face and kept his spot on the roster amid numerous player swaps that followed throughout the season.
While the Russian Dota 2 pro did not find much success with Tundra initially, he helped them place third at ESL One Birmingham 2024 in April and fourth at Riyadh Masters 2024 in July.
Yet despite his contributions, 9Class could not help Tundra Esports at The International 2024 due to visa issues.
Tundra have not specified the reason for 9Class’ departure, nor which team he has signed with.
Today we say farewell & thank you to 9Class as he is transferred to his new team
There are many young, talented and motivated players in the scene and 9Class is one of the players that impressed us with his unique playstyle and vision on how to play the game ??
All the best! ?? pic.twitter.com/ATvI58J14s
— TUNDRA (@TundraEsports) October 3, 2024
Nightfall fills vacant spot on Tundra roster
As a replacement, Tundra have signed Egor “Nightfall” Grigorenko, who has spent the last month as an inactive member of BetBoom Team.
Nightfall previously played for Virtus.pro and Evil Geniuses, yet his most notable accomplishments have come while playing for BetBoom.
With the Russian squad, he placed second at DreamLeague Season 22 and ESL One Birmingham 2024, and in July they reached the lower-bracket quarterfinals of the Esports World Cup 2024 tournament.
PGL Wallachia Season 2 is about to start soon!
We will play this tournament with two stand-ins.
Our roster:
1 – Shad
2 – MidOne
3 – 33
4 – Saksa
5 – WhitemonThank you, Midone and Shad for joining us for this tournament! ?? pic.twitter.com/W8ycqKoTWv
— TUNDRA (@TundraEsports) September 30, 2024
However, Nightfall will not accompany Tundra at PGL Wallachia Season 2, nor will Artem “lorenof” Melnick.
The two have been replaced by Indji “Shad” Lub and Yeik “MidOne” Nai Zheng as stand-ins.
Despite that, Tundra Esports enter the upcoming tournament as the second-favourites on the outright betting markets.
The best Dota 2 betting sites have them priced at +450, ahead of Natus Vincere at +1000 and behind Team Falcons, who are the clear favourites at even odds.
PGL Wallachia Season 2 kicks off on Friday, October 4, with the group stage running until Wednesday, October 9.
The tournament will culminate with a best-of-five grand final on Sunday, October 13.
