The first major stint of Marcel “Ekki” Hołowienko as a Dota 2 active player appears to have been short lived as a report emerges of his departure from Team Secret. Milan “MiLAN” Kozomara, a former Level Up player, mentioned on Twitter that the player was out of Secret, asking users for predictions on who would replace him. Meanwhile, neither Ekki nor Team Secret has made any such announcements yet. This development comes just days after Secret was knocked out in group stage 1 of DreamLeague Season 22 in 11th-12th place.
MiLAN says Ekki is out of Team Secret
“Ekki out of Team Secret, any guesses who will be the replacement,” MiLAN wrote in a tweet on 2nd March 2024. While there has been no official confirmation on this, Ekki’s Twitter bio includes the initials “LFT” meaning Looking for Team. His cover image, however, still references Team Secret.
If the roster move is confirmed, Secret will be down to four players and will need a new position four player to complete the lineup.
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Remco “Crystallis” Arets
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Teng “Kordan” Tjin Yao
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Miroslav “BOOM” Bičan
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TBD
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Clement “Puppey” Ivanov
Secret’s average performance in DreamLeague Season 22 was well reflected by its final score, with six 1-1 draws and a solitary Bo2 series defeat against Shopify Rebellion. Although the team showed resilience with strong comebacks following initial losses in many of its series, the competitive nature of the group stage meant that it was not enough to move to the next stage.
Team Secret’s overall start to the competitive season in 2024 has been less than ideal. With the addition of two new players in January in the form of Ekki and Kordan, the team hoped to turn things around. However, it only qualified for the DreamLeague Season 22 and failed to book spots at either ESL One Birmingham 2024 or BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024.
Currently, Secret has two position four players on the bench: Yazied “YapzOr” Jaradat and Daniyal “yamich” Lazebny. While yamich was placed on the inactive roster at the start of the season, YapzOr has been away from professional Dota 2 since July 2022.
It now remains to be seen what direction Secret will take from here and the type of player it will seek to recruit. The current lineup is one of the rare times in recent years where Puppey opted for a lineup that did not include any major names besides himself.
There are currently no tier one tournaments scheduled until late May 2024, when DreamLeague returns for its 23rd season. To participate in the main tournament, Secret will have to make its way through the qualifiers.
