Heroic is Leaving Dota 2: Players and Staff Were Released

Heroic has decided to leave Dota 2 and has announced on their official Twitter (@heroicdota2) that players and staff were released to pursue new opportunities.

The tweet cites that the main reason for their change of plans is that the financial results of the Dota 2 team were not sustainable in the long term.

The First South American Champion

Heroic had a long year of slow progress until they finally conquered the post of first South American Champion after winning the PGL Wallachia Season 2 against Team Falcons.

This result is big considering that not even a year after this, Team Falcons would become The International Champions with the very same roster defeated by Heroic.

On the same edition of The International, Heroic also matched Thunder Awaken's performance on TI, placing 6th after losing to BetBoom Team in the Lower Bracket Quarterfinal.

They would go on to win their last tournament shortly after TI 2025, when they beat MOUZ 3-1 in FISSURE Universe: Episode 7. At the time, MOUZ had a new roster and was an ascending star among many in Europe.

Parker: South America's Problem Child

At the same time Heroic had their best moment, they also faced one of their biggest challenges. David "Parker" Nicho Flores did his thing and claimed Heroic had a lot of problems.

Parker's claims also came accompanied by griefing games and he was eventually replaced by Yuma "Yuma" Langlet. This destabilized Heroic in a crucial moment, and Parker would do it again in other rosters not long after leaving Heroic.

Lost to Parker Stack

Some believe the turning point where Heroic's performance started declining was this year's first round of qualifiers. Heroic got pushed out of both ESL tournaments by none other than Parker himself.

Parker's stack would eventually get signed by paiN Gaming, and his cycle would start anew, but Heroic's moment of weakness came with a high cost, missing the first round of ESL tournaments in 2026.

The problem was fixed later with Adrián "Wisper" Dobles jumping back to the offlane and Santiago "TaiLung" Agüero Gustavo coming in as a talented young midlaner, but the damage was done.

Heroic tried in vain to recover from this, but their former roster sits in 19th place in the ESL Pro Tour Leaderboard, with only 12 direct invites available for the Esports World Cup 2026.

Roster Will Stick Together

Despite getting released from Heroic, the announcement also gives South American fans a small hope. The roster will stay together and try to make a comeback in DreamLeague Season 29.

To be honest, the odds are not in their favor, but the South America Rejects have proven quite recently that even stacks with no organization can prevail with a lot of effort and teamwork.

Robin "Bumblebee" Nymann talked about their situation on Twitter and mentioned that on top of sticking together, they "...will be searching for a new home in which they have allowed for me to represent them."

Stacks tend to be a little chaotic on the management side of things, so getting the help of someone that was already working on it for Heroic should be a big help for them.

Dota 2 is Not Sustainable

We understand that managing Dota 2 as an eSport is a colossal task, but Valve has fumbled the bag on this front. After giving up on the Dota Pro Circuit, removing the funding from the Battle Pass completely made it hard for teams to make ends meet.

Not just Heroic, Furia also tried to dip their toes in South American Dota 2 and left citing the same reason: Dota 2 is not sustainable for smaller organizations.

A lot of the big organizations that were born in Dota made it to the top and secured their position exactly because The International prize money made things work.

If Valve kept the Battle Pass as it was and just toned down predatory microtransactions, everything would be fine. By giving up on the Battle Pass and the DPC almost at the same time, Valve might have inadvertently created a scenario where smaller teams are no longer viable in professional Dota.

Closing Thoughts

With the demise of Heroic, South American Dota has no big organizations with an active roster. paiN Gaming also had their shot at Dota and crossed paths with both Parker and the financial burden of keeping a team that needs too much to be viable.

Clinging to hope is a powerful force and can make miracles happen, but it's becoming clearer as time passes that Valve should find a way to make Dota 2 work starting from the ground up instead of looking from the top to the bottom.

If you want to stay informed on how former Heroic and the South America Rejects will perform in DreamLeague Season 29 and beyond, keep an eye on the news section of the Strafe website!

READ MORE: Vici Gaming Are the ESL Challenger China Season 3 Champions

Featured Image Source: Twitter (@heroicdota2)