After the abrupt departures of Jacky “Eternal Envy” Mao and Jingjun “Sneyking” Wu, Fighting Pandas have recruited Maurice “KheZu” Gutmann and Oliver “skiter” Lepko to fill the vacant Position 1 and Position 3 roster spots.
The news comes in via Dota 2’s official Majors registration website where both KheZu and skiter have been added to the Fighting PandaS roster.
With StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor Season 3 set to begin on March 5, the team had to scramble quickly to pick up new players and begin their bootcamp right away.
KheZu is a veteran offlane player from the European region who has previously played for GODSENT, Chaos Esports Club, and Vega Squadron.
Meanwhile, skiter is a journeyman player who’s bounced around teams since the start of the 2019-2020 DPC season. Skiter started his season with Ninjas in Pyjamas but was abruptly dropped after the team failed to qualify for the DreamLeague Season 13: Leipzig Major.
Skiter then joined European squad Aggressive Mode and upset teams like Nigma and OG Seed during the Group Stage of the ESL One Los Angeles Major qualifer. But the team still failed to qualify for the Major and the StarLadder Kyiv Minor.
- Nigma reverse sweep Team Secret to win WePlay! Tug of War: Mad Moon
- MS Chonburi win the ONE Esports Jakarta Invitational Thailand Open Qualifiers
Fighting PandaS StarLadder Kyiv Minor roster:
- (1) Oliver “skiter” Lepko
- (2) Jonathan “Bryle” Santos De Guia
- (3) Maurice “KheZu” Gutmann
- (4) David “MoonMeander” Tan
- (5) Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling
It is still uncertain why both Eternal Envy and Sneyking left Fighting PandaS with the StarLadder set to take place a week away, but both players have yet to sign with a new Dota 2 team.
READ MORE: The 7 best plays from the WePlay! Tug of War: Mad Moon tournament