The popular Dota 2 coach returns to the scene after a six-month respite.
Elephant Esports Club had been expecting Bai “rotK” Fan to coach its team since October 2020, but rotK said he needed time off to think things through.
His decision to take a break from active competition stems from the controversy involving the Elephant-4AM partnership and Vici Gaming.
Vici Gaming originally charged that transfer fees for Zhang "Eurus" Chengjun’s were a 'known fact' accusing the Elephant investor of dragging their feet on the payment. Elephant were later forced to make the roughly $220,000USD (1,500,000 Yuan) payment after Vici Gaming refused to let Eurus compete with the roster in the China Dota2 Pro Cup Season 2. Eurus finally joined the team in mid November 2020.
The financial difficulties the partnership experienced prevented them from taking in rotK to coach its roster. After breaking into tears on a live stream, he spoke about feeling "exhausted" saying his ambition had "been drained out.
4AM back out of partnership
4AM later backed out from its partnership with Elephant. But even with Eurus playing in its roster, Elephant failed to qualify for the ONE Esports Singapore Major. They had a dismal run in the China 2021 DPC Season 1: Upper Division.
rOtk's break ended on March 31 as Elephant announced on Weibo, the popular Chinese social media platform, that rotK would fill the head coach position on its Dota 2 roster. Before his six-month lay-off from competitions, he had been serving as Vici Gaming’s coach since 2018. He had helped Vici Gaming win several tournaments including the DreamLeague Season 11, the EPICENTER Major 2019 and the ONE Esports Dota 2 World Pro Invitational Singapore.
He'll now be helping Elephant improve its performance, beginning April 13 at the kick-off of DPC’s second season.
Elephant Dota 2 roster now looks like;
- Zhang "Eurus" Chengjun
- Lu "Somnus丶M" Yao
- Zhou "Yang" Haiyang
- Xu "fy" Linsen
- Ru "RedPanda" Zhihao
- Bai "rOtK" Fan (head coach)
- Chen "Xz" Zezhi (Assistant coach)
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