What does Chinese Dota look like after reshuffles?

This spring began with sad events for most people, but fans of the Chinese Dota 2 scene were excited. Tournaments ran one after another, top teams fought each other almost every day, the tier-2 scene revealed strong "newcomers" capable of fighting with tier-1 teams in the main tournaments. As a result, the tight schedule brought more positive results than negative ones. Such teams as ??RNG, ??IG, and ??PSG.LGD consistently ranked in the top-4, with ??EHOME, ??Aster, ??Vici Gaming, and ??SAG following.

After the last online tournament, the second season of the DPL-CDA league, the Celestial Empire's Esports scene became inactive, freeing up time to watch major events from other regions.

And so began the time of the great Chinese reshuffles.

Dream team and rosters' swap

During the Omega League, more and more rumors about Chinese teams' changes appeared on the Internet. So, it was found out that top players from different teams formed their own stack called "Four Angry Men." Currently, it includes ??Lu "Somnus`M" Yao, ??Xu "fy" Linsen, ??Zhou "Yang" Haiyang, ??Zhang "Eurus" Chengjun, and ??Ru "RedPanda" Zhihao.

Then there was a rumor that, in addition to ??Somnus`M and fy, Ren "ELeVeN" Yangwei would also leave ??PSG.LGD. He joined ??Vici Gaming, where the community already saw ??Nuengnara "23savage" Teeramahanon on the carry position. In addition to all this, a deal to transfer former The International 2014 champion, ??Song "Sccc" Chun, to ??PSG.LGD fell through. The player said that he could not agree on the transfer to ??PSG.LGD from ??Aster, which is why he was going to be inactive for a while. However, it soon became known that he would take the carry slot in ??EHOME.

As a result, the remaining two ??PSG.LGD players moved to ??EHOME, and the strong base of ??EHOME is playing under the ??PSG.LGD flag with Wang "Ame" Chunyu, who had played for the team earlier.

Current picture

Let's consider the current game situation using the first LAN tournament since the quarantine, which took place in China, as an example. Although it started online, it was possible to conclude that the players still had to achieve teamwork.

Thus, ??IG lost their first meeting to ??LBZS and then didn't advance to the playoffs at all. By the way, they played the entire tournament with the replacement for the mid position represented in the face of ??Ni "ButterflyEffect" Weijie, taken from ??IG.Vitality.

Although ??LBZS showed an ideal result in the groups (4 wins and 0 losses), it eliminated from the playoffs, losing ??Vici Gaming and ??EHOME.

??SAG, having lost their carry, recruited usual Chinese players, and it obviously brings nothing good. They haven't won any BO3 in the tournament.

Unexpectedly, the former players of ??EHOME.Immortal, ??Phoenix Gaming, have pleased their excellent play, having beaten ??Aster and ??IG, earning advancement to the playoffs' LAN stage.

As for the rest, the teams literally "messing" with each other, taking points from opponents. But something remained unchanged - the apparent dominance of ??PSG.LGD over other teams due to well-coordinated team play and top form of ??Ame, who showed an incredible performance on Monkey King. Their only defeat in the tournament was from ??LBZS with an experimental Alchemist on the first map and an unbelievable comeback from Sven on the second one.

The ??EHOME's play, which seemed to have led them to the final, definitely wasn't strong. On the one side, they showed unreal tenacity and a desire to turn over situations that can't turn over. On the other side, there was the final against ??PSG.LGD, where they failed to make a comeback on any of the three maps.

??Vici Gaming took third place in the tournament, despite the carry that seems weak, ??Yang "Erica" Shaohan, loaned from ??KG.Luminous, and the unstable play of the team's mid lane player, ??Zeng "Ori" Jiaoyang.

Results

It can definitely be said that in this whole situation with reshuffles ??PSG.LGD has saved the greatest advantage, letting go of its players to ??EHOME and ??4AM, is conquering more and more new peaks. The third season of the Chinese OGA Dota PIT is running, in the group stage of which the guys, led by ??Ame, go without a single defeat. As well as ??Aster, which, apparently, have finally started playing properly.

??Vici Gaming earned a lot of money on selling their key players, but remain very unstable. But what is stable is the ??SAG form. There are still no victories in BO3 with a new roster. But in June, this tag brought players and the organization a lot of money due to the first place in the Chinese Beyond Epic and frequent hits in the top 6 at other major tournaments.

The ??EHOME and ??RNG rosters seem to be working in theory but show not the best results. It is still very early to talk about stability in these teams. And ??IG, along with the mid lane ??ButterflyEffect, who plays for both the main and ??Vitality rosters, cannot find their game and start winning.

Hidden threat

Analyzing the current playing form of the Chinese teams, we can conclude that in some way, it reminds the situation in the CIS: there is one top team and contenders for its place, but still clearly below it.

Or not one? After all, we have never seen the games of those legends from 4AM. The problem was with ??Eurus's buyout from ??Vici Gaming, which has occurred despite all the obstacles, although reducing the rest of the team's players' salaries. Apparently, they saw only him on the carry position.

We can only guess whether this fantastic roster shoots and defeats the current Chinese leader ??PSG.LGD, or is it just a stack for one season, which will be disbanded six months later for lack of significant results.