CIS Superstar RAMZES666 Leaves New Team Darkside

After just two months of collaboration with Darkside, star player Roman “RAMZES666” Kushnarev has announced his departure from the team. 

RAMZES666 was part of the formation of the potent lineup after exiting Virtus.pro (known as Outsiders for most of 2022) a second time, and Darkside was meant to be the start of a new era for him. The community was already buzzing with news of offers RAMZES666 received before he joined Darkside with old teammates Akbar “SoNNeikO” Butaev and Vladimir “RodjER” Nikogosian, but with most of the bigger teams already having established rosters, such offers may be thin on the ground.

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The new team made their debut with two back-to-back wins, but failed to gain victory in any other matches, and although they managed to steer clear of relegation in the Eastern Europe Dota Pro Circuit by a narrow margin, it wasn’t enough for the ambitious Carry. When asked about his departure by Escorenews.com, he was of the opinion that while the team started well, things fell apart quickly.

The Russian also said that Darkside’s demise stemmed from their inability to address various issues within the team that were apparent from the get-go. He went on to say that the team had it in them to both beat the best teams out there or be relegated from the DPC outright — depending on the mood of the team and other external factors. 

After the end of the EEU DPC Winter Tour, RAMZES666 officially informed fans of his departure via his channel on the messaging service Telegram. RAMZES666 began by reflecting on the event with his team while expressing that they kicked off the tour quite well, but because of chemistry issues, they could not give their best performance. 

The prolific 23-year-old also shared his future plans, stating that he was offered a spot by multiple teams from Eastern & Western Europe in the off-season period, but he decided to join Darkside. However, he stated that he would wait until after the Lima Major to reach a decision about any future endeavors.

With RAMZES666 being teamless right now, there has been a rumor going around in the community that he might be asked to band together with Nemiga Gaming’s Stanislav “Malr1ne” Potorak in a possible move to Team Secret, taking the place of Remco “Crystallis” Arets and Miroslav “BOOM” Bičan. Should these roster moves take place, Secret would become the only WEU team to not have a single WEU player, with Roman “Resolut1on” Fomynok and Baqyt “Zayac” Emiljanov coming from Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, respectively. 

Troels Lyngholt “syndereN” Nielsen speculated about the rumor on his We Say Things podcast with co-host Shannon “SUNSfan” Scotten, stating that it would be a return to roots for Clement “Puppey” Ivanov. The Estonian is well-versed in Russian, which no doubt helped during his days in Natus Vincere, and this would make the recruitment of two CIS players perfectly within Secret’s grasp.

Although we will have to wait a while to see if these rumors hold any weight, it is possible that Team Secret might go through some changes following its drop into Division II ahead of the Spring Tour.