Fnatic has made the choice to 'temporarily' remove pieliedie from the active lineup, replacing him with team coach Adam for StarLadder Invitational 5.
The SEA based team has had some ups and downs through the Pro Circuit 2017-2018 season. To address the issue and gain the competitive edge, they first replaced long-time offlaner Chong Xin "Ohaiyo" Khoo with Saahil "UNiVeRse" Arora in January just in time for the roster locks.
Fnatic has since taken 2nd at DreamLeague Season 9 and 4th at ESL One Katowice 2018 over the last few months and fans thought the team was on an upswing. However, it appears that there was still an issue behind the closed doors regarding 'cohesion' per the Fnatic facebook post.
According to Valve's Dota Pro Circuit substitution rules, the four registered players of Fnatic will receive 75% of any DPC points accrued at the event. "Adam/343" will receive only 50% and pieliedie will gain none.
Currently, Fnatic is sitting just below the TI8 threshold in 11th place with 884 points. They will need to gain almost 800 points to break into the top 8 assuming that the 8th place team —VGJ.T gain no more.
Fnatic current roster:
Jacky 'EternaLEnVy' Mao
Abed 'Abed' Yusop
Saahil ‘UNiVeRse’ Arora
Djardel 'DJ' Mampusti
Johan 'pieliedie' Åström (benched)
Adam 'Adam/343' Shah (coach and stand-in)
