The Fall of the Dota Kings

Aegis is always there, But the victor is never repeated.

The professional Dota2 arena is full of competition and very fierce?? Or is it all just a curse??

When 7 TIs have passed with 7 different champions and 35 names engraved on the prestigious ageis.

No team has ever won the title twice, even if not in a row.

Icefrog thought all he did was change the meta a bit, but the community called it “the curse of TI”.

The champion always proves to be superior to the other teams.

They are at the top of their game, proving strong and hard to beat.

But then, at the next TI regardless of whether strong or weak is Na`Vi or Newbee… All will become former champions.

And everyone was wondering: Who can beat them, a team that is acting so strong?

Time is the answer.

Because in the end, their domination will inevitably come to an end.

The dynasty will be overthrown

Falling off the path of kings is the only fate of every champion.

Since Dota2 was introduced, the biggest rival of Chinese DOTA is NAVI for the first 3 years and EG for the next 3 years. Could Liquid be next?

1.Na’vi – The dyers

3 times in the total final with 1 championship and 2 second place.

They would be the first team to win TI twice if S4 hadn’t had Puck and his million dollar dream coil.

It is an unprecedented record and will be difficult for other teams to achieve.

So did the Chinese teams stop to see Na’vi as their toughest opponent?

Na’vi has always been good at coming back from the winning bracket. 820, the legendary captain of Ehome, once said: As long as the Na’vi are in the league, you should never put them out of the game.

The road to the finals at TI3 for Na’vi was not smooth.

They beat Tongfu with fountain hook in the win bracket semi-finals,

Destroyed by Alliance 2-0 in the final of the winning bracket.

They faced Orange in the losing bracket finals. In the deciding match, Orange had tight control for most of the match, but Kyxy and his gang paid the price for his deny ageis, with Na’vi overtaking Orange to advance to the grand final.

“They are lucky” People thought.

But they showed a completely different face to Alliance in the finals and made the best match for the community. Their dream was destroyed by a dream coil phase that everyone knows and although not able to get their hands on The Aegis for the second time, they are truly a force, a miracle of the Dota2 world.

Until TI4, the year of the Chinese for revenge.

In just 20 minutes, Hao’s Weaver and Templar Assassin pushed Na’vi’s high ground.

The Chinese caster shouted: This one is for the fountain hook!

The rise of a new force is always accompanied by the fall of the old king. After 3 years of domination, Na’vi began to decline.

Their first opponent on the main stage was C9.

Morphling of EE with a score of 12-0-2 easily won game 1.

Game 2 Na’vi makes a strong comeback with their Faceless Void + Enigma duo, the familiar Na’vi silhouette has returned and even those are discussing Na’vi’s ability to fight back. as if they always did.

But dreams are just dreams after all, game 3 quickly ended with an efficient Clockwerk from bone7 and an Ultral Kill from SingSing. Na’vi, for the first time, was eliminated from The International in the first round.

Na’vi fell apart since then, and the Chinese teams no longer see them as their biggest enemy. And while they were still able to compete in the top-tier international, they were never as awaited as before.

The old king was no longer strong enough to defend his glory. Perhaps Na’vi has long since lost their dominance, but their great performance at the first 3 Internationals still gives fans hope. But the disastrous defeat at TI4 became the final nail in the coffin: the players left Na’vi once again, and only Dendi remained, fighting alone to restore the glory of the past. past of Na’vi.

However, after all Na`vi deserves to be mentioned as a legend as the dyers have inspired so many dota2 players.

2.The end of IG

After winning the TI2 championship, IG’s dominance began. They beat them all, won all the big and small tournaments at that time and lost only 1 game to LGD in G1 league DoTA1. But it was only 1 game, IG soon returned in a destructive form. .

IG seemed invincible until being defeated by Tongfu 2 white on May 22, 2013.

Game 1 was tense with 56 minutes of competition. Everything was decided with a weaver BKB “sorry” in Zhou’s hand + Nyx assasin’s accurate stun, right after that he was pounded to death and had no buyback. Tongfu won game 1 and “Zhou’s BKB” became a meme.

Game 2 went by quickly, only 18 minutes with Tongfu sweeping through with their 3 core pushing lineup.
Defeat IG 2-0, no one believes their eyes.

But since that tournament, LGD and Orange respectively beat IG. And everyone knows that IG officially expires after Orange.Sylar said “It was like playing against BOTs”

3.Alliance: “Once you go rat, you never go back”

Domination begins at the G1 tournament, where Alliance keep the record of not losing 1 game. In the final they defeated LGD Gaming 2-0, achieving a perfect 7-0 score in the tournament. At The International 2013, Alliance debuted and put on one of the best tournaments seen in Dota to date. They were unbeaten in their group and lost only 1 game by DK before the finals. After TI3, a number of balance changes were introduced and all of the bulldog heroes received a lot of nerfs. However, despite all the signs that Alliance is not untouchable anymore, the Chinese teams are still struggling to take down the Swedish giant.

November 23, 2013 was a memorable day on that day at MLG, DK finally proved to other Chinese teams that Alliance wasn’t incomparable.

At that time Alliance was no longer as dominant as they were a few months ago. They also enjoyed rat doto during TI3 but that was just one of their highlights. Gradually, however, ratting seemed to have become the only way for them to win, and DK understood it: They focused on IO a lot because the IO + CK/OD duo worked extremely well to catch Nature’s Prophet whenever he tries to push lane.

DK’s victory broke the mental barrier that the Chinese teams had faced when facing Alliance. At TI4, Alliance was eliminated from the group stage with a score of 6-9.

“Once you go rat, you never go back” – AdmiralBulldog

4.Newbee: The Unexpected Fall

In the second half of 2014, Chinese Dota was still dominated by Newbee and VG, and Newbee proved to have the upper hand. They lost to VG at WEC but won the WCA title and several other online tournaments after that.

At that point, Newbee started declining invitations and even stopped appearing in tournaments they had already qualified for. The only international LAN tournament they played was a national tournament held in Azerbaijan (which they won), the last LAN tournament in 2014 was the ECL which took place on December 29. Before the match Mu played. all night at the Internet cafe playing Warcraft 3 RPG, but Newbee still won the championship with ease.

The real challenge came to them in February 2015 at DAC, their first opponent was MVP.

MVP banned picks and played very carefully knowing that they were facing the best team in the world and everyone just thought it would be 1-0 for Newbee, but the result was contrary to everyone’s expectations. because it only took 25 minutes MVP to beat the former TI champion.

Newbee failed to bounce back from this defeat and was eventually kicked out of the DAC with a disastrous score of 2-13. After DAC, Hao left Newbee and June took his place. Newbee still received a direct invite to TI5 but a lack of coordination made their early departure inevitable.

5.Evil Geniuses: New Force

EG is the new Western force to compete with China after Na’vi. A TI championship and two third places in TI4 to TI6 is impressive enough but their consistent performance in each tournament is what makes them even more intimidating.

EG has been one of the very stable teams in recent years and has always been a tough opponent for Chinese teams. EG has been slowly but noticeably losing dominance, and if it was really necessary to decide which match would mark the end of EG, it would be MDL in February 2017, where Ehome wiped out EG with score 3: 0. That combination also marks the revival of Chinese Dota after a long and cold winter.

6.Wings: Transient Phenomenon

Wings was the biggest surprise for the Chinese community in 2016. They came out with not a single notable name on the team, what they have is a great combination of positions that make games. their match becomes more interesting to watch, As WinteR said in TI6 Grand Final, Wings is the closest team to Dota perfection.

However, perfection never lasts, like a shooting star, Wings soars into the sky and gives Chinese Dota fans the most enjoyable summer and then falls as fast as they have never seen before. exist now.

Wings are not a consistent team. They can win TI and they can also be eliminated in the first round at a random tournament by some tier2 teams. Before TI6, Wings weren’t the favorites as they were eliminated in the first round at the Manila Major. At that time, OG, Liquid, and Newbee were considered the big three but in the end it was Wings that took the Aegis.

After winning TI, Wings were left with almost no trace of the ruler as they played in the DPL, a Chinese Dota2 tournament. They lost to some tier2/3 teams and have mostly downgraded to DPLS. Audiences don’t care much because they think that’s how Wings won TI: pick random heroes and make it work.

TI6 was the event where people finally accepted the cruel reality that Wings was no longer Wings TI. They lost 0:2 to VP in the win bracket semi-finals, the laning phase of game 1 was pretty good for Wings, the kill score was 10:9 in 12 minutes, but right after that, the match turned into a shambles. keep an eye on the side as Wings doesn’t get any extra lives for themselves for the rest of the game.

In December 2016 at the Boston Major, Wings didn’t surprise anyone with their performance when they were defeated by EG 2:0

After that, Wings struggled with internal conflicts and drama ACE League. Soon after, they became the first disbanded TI champion.

7.Liquid: Stability is not enough

It’s hard to describe Liquid’s TI dominance. On the one hand, they have always been consistent when it comes to competition and never broke out of the top 4 at any of the 8 Circuit Pro events they participated in. On the other hand, they have yet to win a championship. Liquid have been quite out of shape over the past 1-2 months and the clearest sign is that when they go ahead, they no longer give their opponents the same pressure they used to feel at TI7.

A perfect example of this was the BO1 match against EG at the PGL Major, where Liquid had an overwhelming advantage in terms of kills but were quite stuck in maximizing their advantage and taking the lead. objectives, the game eventually lasted to 62 minutes and EG flipped the bet.

At ESL Genting, Newbee took out Liquid, a team they had never won, and EG also got a win from Liquid in the PGL Major playoffs with a score of 27:0. It’s clear that Liquid meets often. tough even facing their most familiar opponents, but can Liquid regain their dominance and even win a second TI, or will they crumble like all champions? TI’s other enemies have been? This is a question still waiting to be answered.