OB Esports x Neon has parted ways with Southeast Asian Games gold medalist carry John Anthony “Natsumi-‘ Vargas, Tuesday night.
“John ’Natsumi-’ Anthony joined us in November and immediately had an impact as we placed 3rd in the Huya Winter Invitational. Natsumi- played over 200 games and was a large reason for our success this season,” said OB Neon in a statement.
“It is now time for us to part ways and we wish Natsumi- all the best for his Dota2 career.”
Natsumi was originally part of the Adroit Esports squad that represented the Philippines in the 2019 SEA Games and struck gold, before being picked up by OB Neon in November last year for the 2020-2021 Dota Pro Circuit Season.
There, Natsumi- helped OB Neon finish second in Season One to punch its ticket to the ONE Esports Singapore Major.
However, disaster struck the all-Filipino squad as Natsumi- was deemed unfit to travel to Singapore which forced the organization to replace him with Rafael “Rapy” Palo.
Rapy was later replaced by Yang “Deth” Wu Heng in the midst of the tournament after the latter had close contact with an individual positive for COVID-19.
Without Natsumi, OB Neon was a revelation in the first-ever Dota Major of the year — taking down regional rival Fnatic and Chinese powerhouse Vici Gaming before falling to Team Secret — settling for a respectable 5th-6th place finish.
The Cebuano carry made his return to the squad in the DPC Season Two, but failed to replicate the success they had in the previous season. The team eventually placed fifth in the SEA region which caused them to miss the WePlay AniMajor — their ticket to The International 10.
OB Neon had one last chance to qualify for Dota 2’s most prestigious event, but the team bowed out of the Southeast Asia regional qualifiers against fellow Filipino squad Execration in the fourth round of the lower bracket.
Fnatic eventually took the lone ticket to TI10 after a reverse sweep of TNC Predator.
