Just a day after veteran carry player, Liu “Sylar” Jiajun, was announced as a member of the Four Angry Men (4AM) Chinese superteam, he has been released and replaced with original first-choice, Zhang “Eurus” Chengjun.

During the final day of competition at China Dota 2 Pro Cup Season 1, Sylar sent a message to Xie “DD” Bin, a panelist during the event, live on stream that simply said “I’m gone” in Chinese.

The panel were expectedly taken aback by the news, with DD even asking, “What are 4AM doing? Are they trying to fool us?”

Sylar was an unexpected inclusion when 4AM officially announced its new Dota 2 roster on October 3, the long-rumored Chinese superteam included some of the biggest names in the Chinese scene: Lu “Somnus丶M” Yao, Zhou “Yang” Haiyang, Xu “fy” Linsen, and Ru “RedPanda” Zhihao.

Many were expecting to see Eurus, more commonly known as Paparazi灬, as the star-studded roster’s carry player after fy leaked the team’s members well before the official announcement.

Reports from the Chinese scene indicated that Sylar was only picked after 4AM’s initial deal to acquire Eurus from Vici Gaming (VG) fell through in the last minute. The team reportedly balked at having to pay for his transfer fee.

Before the deal fell through, it was widely believed that Eurus was already practically a member of 4AM and that only contractual issues were keeping it from being official. This is supported by the fact that VG has already signed Thai rising star Nuengnara “23savage” Teeramahanon to replace Eurus last month.

While 4AM has already deleted their roster’s announcement post on their official Weibo page and has since remained silent, Somnus confirmed on his stream that the organization has finally succeeded in acquiring Eurus.

Somnus revealed that the buyout fee for Eurus is 1.5 million RMB, or around US$220,000, and that 4AM never intended to pay for it.

Instead, the organization chose to take advantage of some loopholes in Eurus’ contract and take VG to court if they would not agree to transfer him for free. Somnus claimed that this plan backfired after Eurus refused to take the transfer dispute to court.

Once he learned that Eurus won’t be joining the team, Somnus claimed that he was the one who suggested that they sign Sylar instead. The impasse with Eurus’ transfer ultimately caused 4AM to have a verbal agreement with Sylar to have him on the roster for their official announcement.

However, Somnus added that the organization held a meeting without him on the night of the roster announcement. It was there that they decided to cut Sylar and cough up the transfer fee to finally acquire Eurus.

Expectations were sky-high for 4AM when the organization announced its entry into the Dota 2 scene in early August and were reportedly looking to assemble a star-studded roster. With the sheer amount of talent in the roster, many Chinese fans were hoping they will bring the country back to the forefront of the Dota world by winning The International 2020 (TI10).

With 4AM already off to a rocky start just a day after officially announcing its roster, such hopes may already be fading fast.

Superteams have historically never been a guarantee for success in Dota’s biggest stage at TI, where the overwhelming pressure can break even the most talented of teams. Chemistry and continuity go a long way in trying to raise the Aegis of Champions, and 4AM is already looking shaky before they can even take their first step towards it.

Four Angry Men Dota 2 roster:

Zhang “Eurus” Chengjun
Lu “Somnus丶M” Yao
Zhou “Yang” Haiyang
Xu “fy” Linsen
Ru “RedPanda” Zhihao

Eurus is joining the 4AM superteam after all