 It's been a close race between the three Chinese top carries but in the end Lio 'Sylar' Jiajun became our pick for best carry this year. Belonging to the younger generation of professional Dota players in China, not many of his kind had a break-out in 2012 like him. Among the often picked Lone Druid, Morphling, Luna and Anti-Mage, it was Sylar's Morphling that stood out the most compared to his colleagues before it got nerfed in the weeks after The International. Runner up: DK.Burning for his restless efforts in leading his team to the very top. Despite the ups and downs DK underwent this year, they still were a fearsome opponent for LGD and iG. Community Poll Winner: DK.Burning Community Poll Runner up: LGD.Sylar |  Being the centre of the perfectly running machine that is iG, Ferrari's initiations with Templar Assasssin, Queen of Pain, Night Stalker or Tinker caused his opponents neverending headaches. His most famous and also most played hero Invoker, should not go unmentioned however, as it was mainly his versatile Invoker-play that contributed to his fame. Runner up: Na`Vi.Dendi for his no lesser ingenious plays, that let him become the arguable biggest star of western Dota. Community Poll Winner: Na`Vi.Dendi Community Poll Runner up: iG.Ferrari |
 Jiang 'YYF' Cen ended up succeeding in the battle of veterans that dominated this category in 2012. Both him and his runner up Dmitriy 'LightOfHeaven' Kupriyanov performed consistantly at the very top of the scene and have both been able to decide games on their own, utilitzing heroes that can survive the dangerous off lane. YYF adapted well to the new breed of heroes that are commonly used on third position, yet particularly excelled on Windrunner, Dark Seer, Night Stalker and lastly Bounty Hunter with whom he won ten out of eleven matches. Runner up: Na`Vi.LightofHeaven for his achievements within Na`Vi, where he is often looked at as the stable factor. Community Poll Winner: Na`Vi.LightofHeaven Community Poll Runner up: iG.YYF |  One of the most effective players this year had before undergone a role change from solo specialist in Warcraft DotA to secondary supporter in order provide what was needed to make iG strong. Despite having repeatedly proven his abilities as an allrounder, his plays on Sand King, Enchantress and Rubick have been the best in 2012 and outclassed the competition. What makes ChuaN stand out is his ability to read the game, his quick reactions and the fact that he very rarely makes a mistake. Runner up: Na`Vi.Puppey For his innovative style of play, which often circles around farming independently in the jungle with a variety of heroes, thus not limiting the potential of his carry. Community Poll Winner: Na`Vi.Puppey Community Poll Runner up: iG.ChuaN |
 Veteran in the DotA-scene, Sergey 'Ars-Art' Revin (also known as Smile) has been a major backbone of his team through-out the year, creating space and room for his teammates to play at a top-notch level aswell as providing map movements and lane play that made it hard for any player to face him. The vision on the map, the man behind the carry, Ars-Art fulfilled the tactical requirements of Natus Vincere at a top level in 2012. Watching Ars-Art play will tell you that he knows exactly what he is doing, he knows what needs to be done at what time and how to do it. He is a man of experience and deliverance, having a stable support in the team is one of the key-factors of having a stable team. Runner up: iG.Faith for his excellent and unselfish support play with spot-on positioning and timing, leading Invictus Gaming to a million dollars. Community Poll Winner: Na`Vi.AA Community Poll Runner up: iG.Faith |  Newcomer of the year is a split first place between Jacky 'Envy' Mao and Roman "Scandal" Sadotenkov. First mentioned went from basically nothing to a straight DreamHack championship pulling the strings in his team and surprising everybody with a deep tactical understanding of the game. For 2013, Envy confidently made his wishes clear: Winning TI with his current team. As for Scandal, his fame mostly comes from high solo performances, which let him rise to one of the best second position players in the world. Following competitive endeavours in HoN, Scandal first caught public attention ringing for VP in the TI qualifier, where he immediately became one of the most vaulable players. Since then his aggressive style brought Empire many victories and top three placings in tournaments. Community Poll Winner: Empire.Scandal Community Poll Runner up: nth.AdmiralBulldog |
 Stats guru Bruno 'Wicked' Carlucci was the unexpected, yet very entertaining surprise gues at the analysts deck of The International. As previous strategy article writer of this site and founding member of Dota portal dota-academy.com whose subdivision also runs the manager simulation fantasy league, Bruno's trained his knowledge of the game to insurmountable heights. What took everybody by surprise though, is the fun- (and also fashion-)factor he brought to the table, presenting Dota 2's dry sides in a way that makes everybody laugh and we can only hope that we will see him at more than one event in 2012. Runner up: 2GD for adding his abilities of hosting to Dota 2, anchoring streams for events such as TI, DreamHack and Thor. Community Poll Winner: Puppey Community Poll Runner up: 2GD |  Through his impassioned style of communicating professional Dota 2 games to us, David 'LD' Gorman managed to win our award for best commentator. Besides having set an example of how to step up tournament coverage during G1-Championsleague, his knowledgeable installments of "The Dota Show", as well as commentaries of matches itself make him one of the best in the business. LD is covering the best tournaments in the world and had the honor of commentating the TI2 grand final together with David 'Luminous' Zhang. Runner up: Draskyl, as his competitive insights mark a most welcome addition to the commentator scene, after having pursued a career as professional player in HoN. Community Poll Winner: TobiWan Community Poll Runner up: LD |
IG this year proved like no other team that Chinese Dota is not all about farming with a good carry in their lineup and showed everybody a different side of them. The aggression coming out of the most expensive esports club in the world is nearly unmatched and the manner in which the team rolled over opponents in a good chunk of this year's matches can only be described dominant. In 2012, IG took part in less tournaments than rivals LGD and DK and trained the longest for The International. Whatever event, they chose to compete in always ended in a first or second place finish.
iG have spent the first months of the year playing Warcraft Dota tournaments and ventured into Dota 2 around May competing online cups such as Gigabyte Masters, joinDOTA Masters, Prodota World League and BeyondTheSummit World Tour whilst training avidly for Valve's The International in August. As the three Chinese powerhouses iG, DK and LGD made it into the top four of the event, the awareness for Dota 2 in China rose and two of the most prestigious tournament series' G1-Champions League and G-League decided to switch for their next installments. While LGD proved too strong at G1, iG convincingly made it to the grand final of G-League to be held soon.
Runner up: Na´Vi/LGD as both performed on par with each other this year and achieved countless victories in tournaments held on and offline, displaying deep synergy in every action.
Community Poll Winner: Na`Vi
Community Poll Runner up: iG
Community Poll
Results
Results
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