Dota 2: EHOME once again missed TI, eliminated in regional qualifiers

EHOME struggled for two years in a row as they failed to qualify for the TI8 Open Qualifiers. This is the second year in a row that EHOME has not been present at Valve’s annual event.

As one of the oldest organizations in the China region, EHOME’s participation in Dota 2 made an instant hit, finishing as runner-up at the very first TI, in 2011. After that, the team made it to the top 6. at TI2, TI5, and TI6 but the organization’s activities often clash with the esports association of China (ACE). They are one of the few organizations that have had trouble with ACE since the early days of Dota 2. In 2012, EHOME was kicked out of ACE for recruiting a player who was under contract with another team. That player was Zhang “LaNm” Zhicheng – he switched to TongFu as soon as TI1 ended, but broke his contract with them and returned to EHOME just a few months before TI2. As one of EHOME’s most iconic figures, LaNm has a very close relationship with the organization but his decision to leave the team in early 2017 showed EHOME’s inability to win at key moments.

At the beginning of 2017, EHOME had trouble with ACE again when they received two former Wings Gaming members, Zhang “Faith_bian” Ruida and Zhang “y`” Yiping. Once again banned by ACE, this meant the team couldn’t practice with the ACE members: the team wasn’t invited to some ACE-managed events and all you could do was bet on it. TI7. Unfortunately, the team was eliminated in the group stage in the qualifying round to close China.

Valve changed the game environment with the Dota Pro Circuit system that made ACE lose a lot of power in China and the majority of Dota 2 fans hope it will be a new beginning for EHOME. But things didn’t go as many hoped, and EHOME’s first DPC season was a disaster. They broke the roster lock rule by swapping two members in April and May. A few weeks before the TI8 open qualifiers, EHOME brought in Zhang “xiao8” Ning to coach the team.

Once the TI champion at Newbee in 2014, dubbed the “director of 8” by the Chinese community, xiao8 was tasked with creating a lineup that could reap success in just three weeks. Immediately after EHOME was eliminated in the second quick open qualifier, xiao8 took responsibility for the defeat on its part. He posted on Weibo: “My fault! I will still coach next year.”

Another Chinese legend who also gave up his competitive career to focus on coaching, Bai “rOtK” Fan was more open in his comments and pointed out that the fault lies with the organization and the players due to not Actively active and participated in competitions throughout the year. The rOtK post translates as follows: “Nowadays, the pro arena is more competitive than ever, we can’t take half a year off and then hope we can get into TI. You can’t change everything in a month or two of practice.” He also pointed out that the China region currently lacks good captains and drafters, “like Solo or PPD”.

xiao8 replied: “We practiced for 2 weeks and they couldn’t reach their full potential in the qualifiers, like they did in scrims. I still can’t figure out why that happened.”

EHOME has two teams participating in the TI8 Open Qualifiers this time around and their performance this time around was worse than last year, when EHOME and EHOME.Keen both made it to at least the closed qualifiers.

The following DPC season will not lock rosters and players will not keep DPC points to themselves. The organization will be the party receiving the points, which is a beneficial change from this year. Obviously, this change will reshape the professional scene once again. EHOME still has two players on loan at ViCi Gaming, LaNm and Ren “eLeVeN” yangwei. Will they return to EHOME after TI8 to write new history together with xiao8?

EHOME: the journey back to the golden age of Dota 1