Two out of six Chinese teams remain for DAC 2018
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In the past iterations of the Dota 2 Asia Championships, China has always been the most represented region. It stayed true up to this year’s Major tournament wherein six Chinese contenders, out of the total 16 participants, received the advantage of playing in front of their home crowd.
Two days after the conclusion of the Dota 2 Asia Championships 2018 group stages, however, the chance of the Radiance trophy to stay in the Chinese territory has been ultimately reduced due to the early exit of Newbee, VGJ Thunder, and defending DAC champion Invictus Gaming in the Breakout stage.
None of the eliminated Chinese contenders showed signs of life as all their western opponents, Evil Geniuses, Team Liquid, and OpTic Gaming, advanced to the playoffs without needing the deciding third game. If not for Vici Gaming’s dominant performance against Team Secret for the Breakout stage’s last match, fans of the fabled Chinese Dota will only be left with LGD Gaming to cheer for.
In a recorded interview done with PGL, Newbee’s support Hu “Kaka” Liangzhi, admitted that they are lagging behind other international Dota 2 teams in terms of draft and understanding about the meta despite being on the top four of the Dota Pro Circuit rankings.
Ex-CompLexity Gaming captain Kyle Freedman also called out Newbee’s rather mediocre draft against Evil Geniuses. For two games, the Chinese powerhouse refused to give respect to the North American squad’s Ancient Apparition and, according to Kyle, Newbee deserved to be punished for that.
Newbee also allowed Evil Geniuses to pair their Ancient Apparition with Clinton “Fear” Loomis’ Dragon Knight and Artour “Arteezy” Babaev’s Luna. Little did Newbee know, these are the boys in Blue’s most successful heroes during the group stages of the Dota 2 Asia Championships 2018—50% win rate in four games with Ancient Apparition, 80% win rate in five games with Dragon Knight, and 100% win rate in three games with Luna.
This was not the first time the Chinese contenders exhibited a horrible performance on their home turf. Two years ago, the infamous Shanghai Major also saw Chinese Dota crumbling before western giants. During that time, the Dota community pointed out multiple reasons behind China’s fall and it included the growth of the streaming business as well as the recently concluded Chinese New Year.
The consequences that time was minimal since China teams still went to win The International 2016 with Wings Gaming. This time, however, those reasons don’t seem to work primarily because of the Dota Pro Circuit. In case Chinese Dota failed to catch up with the continuously-evolving meta before the last three Major tournaments, there is a high chance that the Aegis of Champions bearer pattern will be broken this year.
LGD Gaming and Vici Gaming will try to keep the Chinese dream alive tomorrow as they enter the first round of the Dota 2 Asia Championships playoffs against Evil Geniuses and white-hot TNC Predator, respectively.
