With three successful seasons of original Dota play behind them, G-1 league will be ramping it up and hosting their first season with Dota 2 in less than a day. The last spots were filled just one week ago, and starting tomorrow the power houses of China will compete alongside the teams from Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and America in the most prestigious event since The International in August.
The qualifiers showed that while the best of the best are still ahead of their European and SEA counterparts, the middle tier of Chinese competition has yet to truly gain their footing in the new engine. This healthy mix of young and old, new and long-standing, and a few team shuffles will start determining who be known as the best as 2012 comes to a close.
In the qualifiers for the G-1 League the three Chinese teams, For Love, NA, and mD, combined for an abysmal showing of 2-9. Even the sole two wins seemed rather pittances, having come from a re-gamed series as a result of the opposing team using stand-ins.
Days later the Chinese fans are still asking themselves, “What happened?”
The Chinese teams suffered from a trio of crippling weaknesses. First, none of the teams had solid carries or team organization as a result of recent roster shuffles and reorganizations.
主C是队伍最后的保障、最终兵器，一剑封喉或者折戟沉沙 The main Carry is the team’s final safeguard, the ultimate weapon. A sword that pierces the throat or the broken lance that sinks beneath the sands.
Without stable carries, the Chinese were unable to play their consistent and meticulous Dota, throwing away advantages and having no apparent game plan in many of their games. Without solid first positions to rotate and play around, the entire Chinese style of play seemed to fall apart rather quickly. The silliness of poor carries was epitomized by For.Love vs Dreamz, in which the awful decision to go straight radiance on Phantom Lancer in combination with getting caught multiple times threw away a decisive lead.
Second, almost all Chinese teams took a break from the end of ACE league (early September) to less than a week ago, with none of the teams having played much Dota 2 before then. Coming off of a two-week long national holiday (Chinese National day and the Lunar Festival) to practice a week on a fresh game is a surefire way to get demolished.
Third, having the games played online has always been the bane of the Chinese, the fact that teams such as For.Love get 200ms ping to China servers doesn't bode well for their hopes. Who can forget China's struggles prior to the International, with teams like iG and LGD routinely losing to easily outclassed opponents.
Nevertheless, this puts a pretty big dent in the aura of invincibility that China has taken on since the International. It showcases the fact that second tier Chinese teams are still quite a bit below top international teams at the moment.
Game of the Prelims
By:Kupon3ss
Most of the games suffered from poor execution and often resulted in one-sided stomps, with one particular exception in EG vs SQL. The series' first two games were fraught with the highest levels of questionable plays and the epitome of the throw. "Lag makes for terrible Dota, but terribly entertaining Dota" as one commentator put it. Of the two, EG vs SQL game two was the more captivating.
Chinese Commentator’s thoughts on EG vs SQL, while in-game: “…” “..” “…” “…” “…”
Excerpts from a Chinese Netizen:
60分钟：绝地翻盘，EG神级团队配合拯救自己，买活就送，SQL上演四号位敌法精髓 65分钟：圣剑一波，不拆超级兵，敌法买活，蜡笔克秀操作怒抢圣剑 68分钟：光芒只需要一次，黑洞只需要一回，全场暗淡最后时刻星光闪耀，谜团 IS HERO
60 Minutes: The ultimate comeback, EG’s godlike coordination rescue themselves. Buyback into feed, SQL showcases the essence of the 4th position Antimage. 65 Minutes: Rapier Push, no need for Mega Creeps. AntiMage buyback, the micro of the Rapier Rubrick. 68 Minutes: Radiance only needs to shine once, Black Hole only needs to rotate once. After the darkest hour comes the blazing starlight, Engima IS HERO.
This game is the quintessence of entertaining Dota 2, what follows an epic first game is this gem. Check your logic at the door and turn off all frontal lobe function for maximum compatibility. You won't see world class play, but you're guaranteed to enjoy.
iG is, without question, the best team in the world. Combining superlative individual skill, unparalleled flexibility, and sublime team coordination they form a seemingly invincible juggernaut. Hot on the heels of their international victory came a swift and decisive dismantling of LGD, the only team that's looked even close in strength, in the finals of the ACE league and with it they cemented their status at the pinnacle of both Dota and Dota 2.
LGD has always looked like the second best team in the world, and for good reason. Since the club's creation in 2009 under the title FTD (For the Dream), they've always been at the forefront, though rarely at the zenith, of the scene. Can their recent defeats during the International and Ace League, along with the influx of a fresh storm in the form of LGD.int, inspire their relatively young players to grasp the only rung left to climb?
If LGD are the proven youths seeking to take the final leap toward greatness, then DK are the old men hungering to regain the glories of the past. The reunification of Burning, Dai/X, and 357 after a somewhat disappointing International performance for both Ehome and DK seems to hearken back to the pinnacle of Ehome 2010. The facts seem to point to a last ditch effort by the players to rekindle an old spark. It's hard to argue that X and 357 are significant improvements over LongDD and Zippo, but the new .75b and a refocus of the team's internal organization might allow Burning to once again 1v9.
TongFu has historically been overshadowed by the premiere Chinese teams. Since the Fall of Ehome, TongFu's inconsistent but still respectable performance during the International, ACE league and other events have finally earned them a firm position among China's elite teams. The exchange of LongDD in place of Kabu adds a living fossil of the scene to anchor the squad. Being the youngest and most hot-blooded team among the elite echelon of Chinese Dota, only time will tell if they will be able to meld well with LongDD and temper the aggression with consistency, both on the battlefield and in team dynamics.
Orange and Zenith both fared reasonably well at the International. With Zenith (now 1v5) in a sorry state, Orange is the strongest representative of the SEA style of map-wide ganking and prioritizing blood over rice. Having taken the win at WCG SEA without Mushi (whose participation in G-1 is still up in the air), Orange is perhaps the strongest of the non-Chinese teams, with the ability to take games but perhaps not the solidity to win series against the top tier Chinese teams.
A short list of what EG has had to overcome to find itself here involves: Demon's insistence and personally contacting the organizers to fit themselves as the final slot of the qualifiers, going through the bracket with 70 minute games at 6AM, struggling through roster changes, and of course the 300+ ping of the SG servers. While the certainly have the individual talent to create upsets (they did almost take a series against iG at the International), there is perhaps not a single factor in their favor in G-1.
Due to a certain team-member losing his passport causing the team to miss The International, very little is known about MUFC's current skill level. Since The International, MUFC has reformed their roster with 2 members of AEON and defeated Orange at ESWC SEA qualifiers. Will the G-1 league will be their chance at redemption?
Flash showed some fairly sharp and unconventional play on the route to demolishing a pair of mediocre Chinese Teams. A strong team in its own scene, Flash has yet to prove itself against Asia's finest. Will they be a flash in the pan or a vision of the ultimate weapon? My money's on the former.
A far cry from the team once seen as "the second strongest team in the world" almost a year ago, N9's most recent splash was a middling performance in Seattle. Despite being fairly adept at playing with high latency, their currently sponser-less state pits them as underdogs against almost any team. Will they be the stone to slay a Goliath the way they first made their name defeating Na`Vi? Maybe the 2 Secret Standins will be able to realize visions of times past.
Sequential Gaming
Fumoffu's Throw's Fan Club
After being dropped by their sponsor midway during the qualifiers, SQL has not shown much besides engaging in a ‘game of throws’ against EG. While they seem to enjoy playing Dota, Fumoffu's Throws' Fan Club has much to be desired in both individual skill and propensity to not throw even if it somehow attains an advantage.
Group Schedule
Schedule information taken from 17173's announcement. all series best-of-2. All games will be cast by LD and GoDz in English.
First Half
October 22, 2012 1900 HKT[local]: iG vs MUFC October 22, 2012 2100 HKT: DK vs Orange October 23, 2012 1530 HKT: TongFu vs N9 October 23, 2012 2000 HKT: LGD vs SQL October 24, 2012 1530 HKT: iG vs LGD October 24, 2012 2000 HKT: DK vs TongFu October 25, 2012 1530 HKT: Flash vs N9 October 25, 2012 2000 HKT: EG vs SQL October 26, 2012 1530 HKT: MUFC vs EG October 26, 2012 2000 HKT: Orange vs Flash
Second Half
October 28, 2012 1530 HKT: Orange vs N9 October 28, 2012 2000 HKT: MUFC vs SQL October 29, 2012 1530 HKT: LGD vs EG October 29, 2012 2000 HKT: TongFu vs Flash October 30, 2012 1530 HKT: DK vs N9 October 30, 2012 2000 HKT: iG vs SQL October 31, 2012 1530 HKT: LGD vs MUFC October 31, 2012 2000 HKT: TongFu vs Orange November 1, 2012 1530 HKT: DK vs Flash November 1, 2012 2000 HKT: iG vs EG
The undoubtedly strongest team in the world against the International team who failed to show up. This will likely be a gauge more of the team's individual conditions rather than having any disputed results. Did iG get any weaker from playing DotA 1 and their month-long vacation? How High up the rung of International teams would MUFC have been had they been able to compete?
DK is the only Chinese Team Orange didn't face during the International. Having done fairly well against both TongFu and Ehome during the prelims and only narrowly losing to Ehome's Tiny/Wisp in the loser's bracket, Orange is perhaps on par with DK on a good day. The match will likely be determined by intangibles outside of the game such as the state of DK's new lineup in terms of coordination and organization and whether or not Mushi shows up.
Wow nice G-1 writeup. I've always been big fan of chinese Dota so I can't wait for this. Also pretty curious to see how DK and TongFu will perform since they've done roster changes but we'll see. Go iG!
Last edit: 2012-10-22 02:23:44
RIP 우정호 1988 - 2012
cecek Czech Republic. October 22 2012 02:24. Posts 4298
On October 22 2012 02:24 cecek wrote: EG won't come to LAN anyway, why would they even try to qualify?
They will likely come to LAN here because the prize pool is guaranteed (if they make it to LAN) to offset most of the costs and EG's had prior experiences and quite a few fans in China.
This is what people who are too lazy to think of a signature do ~壮哉我大酒神~
Hellspawn_ Croatia. October 22 2012 02:33. Posts 28
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