With news of EDward Gaming withdrawing from all tournaments for the remainder of 2015, the up and coming Qiao Gu Reapers are now set to represent China at the Intel Extreme Masters competition in Cologne, Germany.
On Tuesday, November 24th, QG manager Li “Link0” Linke came forward to announce the powerhouse team would be stepping forth to replace EDG at the next IEM event. A translation of this screenshot confirms it below.
”QG is confirmed to attend IEM Cologne, as long as no external problems like Visa issues inhibit us. Thanks to all our fans for giving QG an opportunity to go overseas to compete and learn. Although we’ve been on break for the past few weeks, we will definitely cherish this opportunity and practice hard to learn from the best of the best!” —Link0, 2015
This will be the freshly made team’s first ever experience at an international event. Having only ever competed at a top level in this year’s LPL summer season, this team exploded on to the scene with unpresented force, getting 2nd place in both the regular season and summer playoffs. The team was denied the chance at attending 2015’s Worlds when they lost 3-0 to Invictus Gaming, losing them China’s 3rd seed.
Unlike many other top LPL teams, who look more for map control or wave manipulation, QG is widely known for their dominating teamfighting abilities. While sloppy during the laning phase, their ability to coordinate during a fight has allowed them to turn around games from 5-10k gold deficits. With a new fast paced meta that focuses more on early snowballing and shoving down objectives, it’s hard to say if QG’s methods will continue working. The team may need to adapt their style if they wish to stay relevant in season 6. On top of that, QG has had no professional practice since the LPL finished in August, leaving them out of touch compared to other teams.
China as a whole has been faltering on an international level ever since the Mid Season Invitational. With a team relatively unknown outside of their region like QG, this may be the opportunity to prove that China still has what it takes to compete with the rest of the world. Up against other teams such as Cloud9 and Team Liquid, QG is sure to give it their all.
