STARK disbands after inconsistent results over the last 18 months. The organization has decided to dissolve the entire team less than one month after replacing Niklas ‘okcya’ Koskinen with Miska ‘mlwhisper’ Koistinen and making some role changes within the roster.
A journey ends – STARK @DOTA2 disbands. https://t.co/jewNgAGokH @TrixiDota @Buugidota @nemphyDotA @VaalixDota @LagedDota @mlwhisper
— STARK (@STARKeSports) March 2, 2016
STARK announced that their Dota 2 squad has chosen to disband after approximately 18 months.
The dissolution appears to be very amicable and based on struggles finding consistent and rewarding results. Earlier in February, the team replaced Niklas ‘okcya’ Koskinen with Miska ‘mlwhisper’ Koistinen and changing some roles within the roster. Since then, the team has not experienced any improvement in their results.
The last couple of months have been tough for our team. We have been trying our best to improve, to get back to our former level. However, our efforts have been in vain – we haven’t been able to achieve the improvements we wanted. The decision we have made as a team is to disband and take some time off. The players need a fresh start after having spent an enormous amount of time and effort together growing as a team. I would like to thank all of our followers and especially STARK for the support so far. I hope that our journey during the past year has served as an example of how sticking together and overcoming obstacles is possible in the shaky world of eSports, even as a bunch of Finns.
-Matti ‘Laged’ Parkkila, the Manager of former 4ASC/STARK Dota2
STARK
STARK is formerly known as 4 Anchors and Sea Captain, a Finnish team formed in September 2014, consisting of Kalle “Trixi” Saarinen (formerly of Fnatic), Lasse “MATUMBAMAN” Urpalainen, Riku “Buugi” Fält, Mikko “Vaalix” Ristimäki and Jesse “JerAx” Vainikka (formerly of QPad). JerAx left in January 2015 to Team Tinker, before he switched to SEA team MVP.Hot6ix and moved to Korea.
At the end of August, Lasse “MATUMBAMAN” Urpalainen left the team for 5Jungz (Team Liquid) and was replaced by Niklas “okcya” Koskinen. STARK picked up the Finnish team at the end of September.
The team first took third at the WCA 2015 qualifiers, then took higher placements in PGL Dota 2 Pro-AM, StarLadder i-League qualifiers, MDL Winter 2015 qualifiers and BTS EU series 1.
The team was able to then make some progress and took second place in the ProDota EU cup, after being swept by Team Spirit.
However, they then took 9-12th place in UCC, 3-4th in Shanghai Major European Open Qualifiers and 7-8th place in both Captains Draft and ProDota Cup EU #2.
STARK former roster:
Miska “mlwhisper” Koistinen
Sampsa “nemphy” Kutvonen
Kalle “Trixi” Saarinen
Mikko “Vaalix” Ristimäki
Riku “Buugi” Fält
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