YapzOr will take a break to recover from an undisclosed illness while Zayac steps up to a main roster role.
Yazied’” YapzOr” Jaradat has stepped down from Team Secret and will take an extended break from Dota 2 due to ongoing health issues. Team Secret revealed the news on their social media on July 4th.
As the post describes, the Team Secret support will step down for the foreseeable future, being replaced by Baqyt “Zayac” Emiljanov. Zayac had stepped in as a stand-in for Team Secret for the past four weeks, starting on June 11th, when it was initially announced that YapzOr would miss the match due to illness.
In the DPC, teams that use stand-ins or substitutes for repeated matches can be disqualified or penalized by deducting DPC points. According to Team Secret, Valve has allowed a mid-season roster change, something usually disallowed by DPC without forfeit.
Team Secret’s possible upswing
It’s no secret that Team Secret has had mixed results in the first part of the DPC WEU 2021/2022 Tour 3: Division I. After losing their opening match to OG, the team defeated Alliance with Zayac as a stand-in. Then the team dropped their next two games against Tundra and Entity in 1-2 losses. A win against Team Liquid on June 28th has set them firmly in the middle of the table.
The squad will have to secure victories tomorrow (July 5th) against Gaiming Gladiators and against Goon Squad on July 12th to have a chance to head to the Arlington Major. However, thanks to the four Major slots secured for WEU, their chances are far better than teams in similar positions in other regions.
A trip to the Major will be a welcome break for Team Secret, who narrowly missed out on a trip to the Major last season. The squad, which was one of the most dominant forces in Dota 2 during 2020, and, to a lesser extent, 2021, has fallen far from its previous form. However, a journey to Texas for the Major would do a lot to confirm this is still a strong contender in the WEU DPC.