Roster changes are inevitable in any given sport; be it traditional sports or our beloved esports. In a bid to inch closer to their dreams both; players and team organizations strive hard to establish a stable team that can win accolades from across the globe. In the aftermath of The International 2018 qualifiers, teams that couldn't make the cut to the main event would have gone under the microscope to reevaluate their team's performance and to make changes, if deemed necessary.  

Farewell, friend, may your path be safe. Thanks for everything and best of luck! #GoodbyeGhostik #gg

Read more: https://t.co/FyT9Zy3GFt pic.twitter.com/g9cxDXfL3p — Team Empire (@team_empire) July 3, 2018

One such roster change has come into effect in the CIS region for Team Empire. Following the lackluster performances of the team in TI8 qualifiers, Team Empire and it's long time standing member, Andrey "Ghostik" Kadyk, have parted ways with each other. The Ukrainian has been a part of Team Empire roster for the past two years from 2016 to 2018 and has helped the organization achieve some notable results such as 7-8th place at The International 2017, 5-6th place at Dota 2 Asia Championships 2017, and achieved gold at ROG Masters 2017. Ghostik had the following to say:

I would like to say thanks to Team Empire for all that time we spent together. Although not everything went just as planned, I still consider it as a valuable experience. Now it is time to move on and I am optimistic about the future.

Meanwhile Alexander "StrangeR" Solomonov -- Team Empire -- esports director issued the following statement:

I want to say huge thanks to Andrey for all the contribution he made to the development of our Dota 2 team in the last few years. Although he was not a formal captain of our squad, Ghostik played huge role as an in-game leader. Andrey has chosen new path in his career and I wish him all the best. He will talk about his new team when time comes. As for us, we are going to test different off-lane players. It might be a long process, but I will personally do my best to make the optimal choice for our team.

Team Empire current roster:

1.  Rostislav fn Lozovoi
2.  Aybek Naive- Tokaev
3.  Evgeniy Chuvash Makarov
4.  Yaroslav Miposhka Naidenov

•  Arseniy ArsZeeqq Usov (Team coach)

Source: Team Empire Feature image credit: Team Empire