WEC Preview: The First LAN Since The International 2014

Sit back and enjoy this preview concocted by Sovann 'Skim' Kim and Mervyn 'ISB' Tan to introduce to you the teams attending the first major LAN since The International 2014. The LAN will take place from 5 to 7 September 2014, to be held in Hangzhou, China, together with a long repetoire of other eSports titles. To begin, we take you through the 8 teams that have made it to the LAN tournament - beginning with the 3 Western teams that were invited after the Western qualifiers were scrapped. 

 

Evil Geniuses 

Evil Geniuses was the Western hope that was supposed to withstand the Chinese juggernauts this year. The team has proven throughout The International 2014, that while they are capable of being on par with the best of the best, they are just humans as well. There were moments like game 3 against Vici Gaming that showed that this team is still somewhat new on the block with players on their team whose professional Dota vitae doesn't date back much farther than 2013.

But that's where the old man comes in. Clinton 'Fear' Loomis is the team's former coach and captain/player. He built the team and was out due an injury but has now returned to the active competitive circuit. He will replace Mason 'Mason' Venne, who the team dropped after the disappointing TI4 finish. Fear will be looking to be the calming factor of the team, his experience ranges back to the days when prizepools consisted of gaming gear tops.

The team has not played many officials as of yet - only two matches for StarLadder Season X, one of which looked a bit shaky on EG's end - unlike other teams, such as Na'Vi, that have played multiple tournament games already. However, the team has barely made roster changes and should thus not face communication or synergy issues. We can expect a strong EG.
 

Team Roster	Notable/Signature Heroes	Team Achievements in 2014	GosuRanking
Peter 'PPD' Dager (C)		3rd - The International 2014	3rd in World
Artour 'Arteezy' Babaev		1st - D2L Western Challenge	Common Picks in 6.81
Ludwig 'zai' Wahlberg		1st - The Summit
Sahil 'Universe' Arora		3rd - StarLadder Season 9	Overall Winrate in 6.81
Clint 'Fear' Loomis		1st - Monster Energy Invitational	71 - 27 (72%)

 

 

Natus Vincere 

Natus Vincere is one of the biggest brands not only in Dota 2, but in all of eSports. The Ukrainian organization has been present since the dawn of Dota 2, fielding strong rosters to every TI and reaching the Grand Finals of each until this year. This year the team was not able to pull it all together, the squad could not make up with just raw individual skill and experience. 

All of this has changed though. Puppey and Kuroky left the team and were replaced by Ivan 'Vanskor' Skorokhod and Artem 'fng' Barshak. The two supports seem like the ideal addition to the team. Na'Vi is currently 7-1 in StarLadder Season X and impresses with multiple playstyles. While it is not always about the aggression, the new team has showed that if they want to, they can be.

The Ukrainian powerhouse will be looking to lockdown an early tournament win as a statement. The team and its playstyle certainly scream "We are back and here to stay".  In the current form, Na'Vi is a top contender for the tournament and will be tough to beat.  
 

Team Roster	Notable/Signature Heroes	Team Achievements in 2014	GosuRanking
Artem 'fng' Barshak (C)		1st - StarLadder Season 8	8th in World
Danil 'Dendi' Ishutin		1st - Dota 2 Champions League	Common Picks in 6.81
Gleb 'Funn1k' Lipatnikov		2nd - DotaCinema Captain's         Draft Invitational
Alexander 'XBOCT' Dashkevich		7th/8th - The International 4	Overall Winrate in 6.81
Ivan 'Vanskor' Skorokhod			38 - 37 (50%)

 

 

Cloud 9 

Cloud 9 was one of the Western fan favorites during TI4. The team has always been able to impress with innovative playstyles, picks and strategies, such as Courier camp blocking, support Bounty Hunter or their MLG artillery tactics. However the team's weakness is a lot of inconsistency, being able to dominate an enemy on a good day and failing miserably the other. 

With the acquisition of Adrian 'FATA-' Trinks, the team has found a new leader personaliy that may help them provide the much needed consistency, although FATA- himself has not been in many consistent teams. It will be interesting to see how the team fares with him, as he certainly plays differently than SingSing.

In the post-TI matches, Cloud9 has once again shown mixed results and performances. The team started out badly, but eventually found their form again. If they can keep this momentum, Cloud 9 could definitely have a shot at WEC.
 

Team Roster	Notable/Signature Heroes	Team Achievements in 2014	GosuRanking
Adrian 'FATA-' Trinks (C)		2nd - D2CL Season 2	10th in world
Kurtis 'Aui_2000' Ling		2nd - Dreamhack Bucharest	Common Picks in 6.81
Pittner 'bOne7' Armand		2nd - Dreamleague Season 1
Jacky 'EternalEnvy' Mao		5th/6th - The International 4	Overall Winrate in 6.81
Johan 'pieliedie' Aström			35 - 39 (47%)

 

 

LGD.cn

The LGD of 2013 - Only Yao (far right) and Sylar (second from left) remain on the team.

LGD is the team that has undergone the greatest change in the post-season. They have essentially done a DK of 2014, with all their players being shown the door, except for captain Zheng Zheng 'Yao' Yao. With that, they have acquired an All-Star team roster, with the likes of MMY, Sylar and Faith all joining the LGD squad. InJuly, their new offlane, has impressed over the past year while playing for DT.ngc, and will definitely look to cement his impact on the scene now with LGD.

Having done better than expected at TI4, this new-look LGD look scarier than their previous installment. The stability of Sylar, the flair of Yao, and the immense playmaking ability of both Faith and MMY suggest that they are definitely a team to be feared in the upcoming tournaments.On paper, LGD.cn looks like they are perhaps the strongest team in China now that NewBee have lost their captain Xiao8. But only time will tell if they will be able to take the lion's share of honours in the upcoming year of tournaments. 

 

Team Roster	Notable/Signature Heroes	Team Achievements in 2014	GosuRanking
Zheng Zheng 'Yao' Yao (C)		1st - Dota 2 League Season 4	6th in World
Jia Jun 'Sylar' Liu		2nd - MarsTV Dota 2 League	Common Picks in 6.81
Xiao Dong 'InJuly' Yang		2nd - Netolic Pro League #5 East
Zeng Rong 'MMY' Lei		5th/6th - The International 4	Overall Winrate in 6.81
Hongda 'Faith' Zeng			56 - 49 (53%)

 

 

NewBee

The TI4 Champions have made one roster change since TI4, which was the 800k RMB transfer of Xiaotuji from LGD following Ning 'xiao8' Zhang's retirement. Given that Xiaotuji has impressed with his versatile yet solid play over the year, he has been ranked extremely highly as the best carry player in China at the moment. However, he will be taking up the Offlane role vacated by Xiao8, which will test his versatility to the limit. 

It also remains to be seen how strong NewBee is now that they have lost their talismanic captain and drafter. Of course, it would be extremely premature to count out the rest of the team - Hao is by far the most successful aggressive carry in China, while Mu is the exceptionally talented mid player who has always been overshadowed by Ferrari_430. At the same time, the tried-and-tested support duo of Banana and Sansheng have won Newbee a fair share of their matches, and they will continue to provide in the upcoming matches. 

 

Team Roster	Notable/Signature Heroes	Team Achievements in 2014	GosuRanking
Pan 'Mu' Zhang (C)		1st - The International 4	1st in World
Zhi Hao 'Hao' Chen		1st - MarsTV Dota 2 League	Common Picks in 6.81
Jiao 'banana' Wang		2nd - ECL 2014
Zhao Hui 'Sansheng' Wang		2nd - WVW Nest June	Overall Winrate in 6.81
Wang 'Xiaotuji' Wang		3rd - WPC-ACE Season 2	75 - 33 (69%)

 

 

HyperGloryTeam (HGT)

HGT is one of the underrated teams in China - boasting a team of second string players and led by Jian 'ZSMJ' Gong, HGT has actually done quite well in the past year despite not taking many podium places in China. For the uninitiated, ZSMJ is one of the tripartite of legendary carries in the Chinese scene, dating back to the Warcraft III era. Back then, the Chinese farming meta was unquestionably the best in the world, and with it were the three legendary carries: ZSMJ, BurNIng, and Zhou. 

However, while Zhou went on to win The International 2012 with iG and BurNIng heading Team DK, ZSMJ had been team hopping, and positioning hopping as well. With HGT, he has finally found a home where he can put his legendary carry skills back to great use, and has shown his immense skills carrying HGT to many victories.

With the entire Chinese scene in flux at the moment, it is certain that HGT have identified that this is the most opportune time for them to exhibit themselves as a contender for the rest of the year. Look forward to their upset victories over the largest teams in China.

 

Team Roster	Notable/Signature Heroes	Team Achievements in 2014	GosuRanking
Jian 'ZSMJ' Gong (C)		1st - WVW NEST April	31st in World
Peng 'Icy' Wang			Common Picks in 6.81
Liangzhi 'Kaka' Hu
Jiabin 'Prettyhaw' Zhao			Overall Winrate in 6.81
Sida 'Cys-S' Guo			35 - 39 (47%)

 

 

Vici Gaming

VG at TI4. With Sylar's (first on left) departure and rOtk's (second from right) retirement, VG looks very different now.

VG will be replacing Titan at the WEC LAN finals, after Titan announced that they would be unable to attend due to visa issues. They will attend WEC despite not being the fourth placed team in the Bo1 qualifier bracket, although they had not been playing together with new carry Dominik 'Black^' Reitmeier, who was not in China yet. However, he will be attending this LAN event together with Vici, and will be looking forward to fill the shoes of his recently retired idol BurNIng as the top carry in China. 

Vici will be going into this LAN event without two of their most talismanic players that led them to their 2nd place finish at The International 2014. With Sylar leaving for LGD and rOtk retiring, VG have found replacements in Black^ and iceiceice. However, without their charismatic captain and staunch carry, their replacements will have very large shoes to fill to live up to their precedessors.

There are great expectations placed on VG in their post-formation period: many see them as the spiritual successors to the DK of TI4 given Super's history with DK, Black^'s close ties and emulation of BurNIng, and of course, crowd favourite iceiceice. Will they perform? It is too early to say since they have only trained for a single day as a full team before attending this event. 

 

Team Roster	Notable/Signature Heroes	Team Achievements in 2014	GosuRanking
Jun Hao 'Super!' Xie (C)		2nd - The International 4	2nd in World
Dominik 'Black^' Reitmeier		3rd - The Summit	Common Picks in 6.81
Daryl 'iceiceice' Koh		2nd - Sina Cup Season 3
Lin Sen 'Fy' Xu		2nd - WVW April	Overall Winrate in 6.81
Chao 'Fenrir' Lu		3rd - SUNT CDEC New Star	72 - 56 (56%)

 

 

LGD.CDEC

LGD.CDEC was birthed from the failure of Lu 'Maybe' Yao to fully integrate into the main LGD squad during his stint with the team. Unwilling to let him go, LGD decided to create a new, academy-based team centered around Maybe, which would be an effort to cultivate a new generation of players in China.

LGD.CDEC did not go very far in the TI4 qualifiers, not even making the playoffs after ending in a disappointing 5/6th place. However, inspite of this, LGD.CDEC have continued practicing hard, and have achieved results of late. They are currently unbeaten in the post-TI4 era, having taken games off Vici Gaming as well as Invictus Gaming.

More interestingly, it should also be noted that in the post-TI4 season, Maybe was given a chance to make roster changes to push his team further. He chose not to make any changes and believe in the skills of his teammates, which explains their current stability, as well as their current form in Chinese competitions. 

 

Team Roster	Notable/Signature Heroes	Team Achievements in 2014	GosuRanking
Lu 'Maybe' Yao (C)		N/A in professional play	17th in World
Yutian 'Seven-333' Wang			Common Picks in 6.81
Xinzhou 'Garder_' Liu
Yi 'Q-HHH' Zhang			Overall Winrate in 6.81
Zheng 'Xiaohong' Sun			13 - 10 (56%)

 

 

Schedule

September 5th, Friday

• 04:30 - NewBee vs HyperGloryTeam (Main Stage)
• 04:30 - Evil Geniuses vs Vici Gaming
• 07:30 - Cloud9 vs LGD
• 07:30 - LGD.CDEC vs NAVI
• 11:30 - WB Semi-final Match 1 
• 14:00 - WB Semi-final Match 2 (Main Stage)

September 6th, Saturday

• 04:30 - LB Round 1 Match (Main Stage)
• 04:30 - LB Round 1 Match 2 
• 07:30 - Winner Bracket Final
• 07:30 - LB Round 2 Match 1 
• 07:30 - LB Round 2 Match 2
• 10:30 - LB Round 3 
• 14:00 - Losers Final (Main Stage)

Septermber 7th, Sunday

10:30 - Grand Final (Main Stage)

All eight teams will compete in a Double Elimination format, with a Winners and a Losers bracket. Each match will be a Best of Three. The format of the Grand Final is slightly different from what the Dota 2 community is used to. Instead of the regular one game advantage, the winner of the Losers Final must win two Bo3 matches in the Grand Finals to become Champion whereas the team coming from Winner Bracket only needs to win one. The latest game version will be played for this tournament.

Prize Distribution:

1st: 600,000RMB (~$97600)
2nd: 200,000RMB (~$32530)
3rd: 100,000RMB (~$16270)
4th: 50,000RMB (~$8130)
5-8th: 20,000RMB (~$3250)