Team Spirit bench iLTW and part ways with nongrata
Team Spirit have announced the departure of Alexey “nongrata” Vasilyev and benching of Igor “iLTW” Filatov, who was moved to the team's inactive roster.
The announcement comes shortly after Team Spirit made a couple of roster changes to their Dota2 team earlier this month, then they signed Vasily "AfterLife" Shishkin and Anton "DyrachYO" Shkredov, who will replace ILTW and nongrata, with the former moved to a inactive roster and nongrata leaving the team for good.
The two veteran Dota2 players have been tied with Team Spirit for just under six months and although iLTW was benched at the end of March, it was not until this Saturday, that he was officially moved to the inactive roster, while nongrata had not officially left the team until this weekend as well. The official announcement came via Valve's Dota2 team registry.
iLTW, although benched from Spirit, has been playing as a stand-in for Virtus.pro at ESL One Los Angeles Online Europe & CIS as a replacement for Zaur “Cooman” Shakhmurzaev who was unable to join his team. Unlike nongrata, iLTW will remain tied with Spirit, as it was Spirit themselves who let him leave for VP for the time being.
“The decision to part with Igor was completely dictated by the crisis in which the team found itself,” said Spirit CEO Nikita Chukalin.
“Any team from our region, in which it will be this or next season, will receive serious reinforcement, but I am absolutely sure that we had no other choice. Igor is still in Team Spirit and we are open to an offer for his transfer. I hope he can realize his potential and his future career will be successful.”
Although nothing is confirmed as of yet, there is a chance Virtus.pro might offer iLTW a contract, if he proves himself throughout the tournament. So far, at ESL One LA, Virtus.pro already defeated HellRaisers in their opening fixture with a commanding reverse-sweep, led by no other than iLTW, who proved his worth and played a pivotal role for his team. The Russian Dota2 pro ended game two with 9/3/11 and game three with 4/0/3 record on Slark and Troll Warlord respectively.
If he will continue producing solid showings for Virtus.pro a transfer could be afoot, meaning iLTW would join his 11th team in his five-year-long career. He started his competitive Dota2 journey in August 2015 when he played for Enso and later teamed up with Comanche, Cyber Anji, Double Dimension, M19, Team Spirit, Effect, ESPADA, OG, Positive Guys and in October 2019 re-joined Team Spirit.
His career-best result came while he was playing as a stand-in for OG between January and March 2019. During that period, iLTW secured silver at WePlay! Dota 2 Winter Madness, bronze at ESL One Katowice 2019 and finished top-six at StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor Season 1 and The Bucharest Minor. In September (while playing under Positive Guys), iLTW also finished second at WePlay! Reshuffle Madness 2019 and earlier in January helped Team Spirit finish top-six at WePlay! Bukovel Minor 2020.
Team Spirit Dota2 team:
Anton "DyrachYO" Shkredov
Egor "Ergon" Kozlov
Vasily "AfterLife" Shishkin
Alexander "Immersion" Hmelevskoy
Mikhail "Misha" Agatov
Igor "iLTW" Filatov – inactive
