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Yes, the roles in the new Secret line-up work well - for now
Going into this tournament, Team Secret had not played any official match with their new roster. People questioned whether or not the new roles would work out - will the struggle between who goes mid and who has to safelane hurt them, can Ludwig 'zai' Wahlberg actually transition to the offlane? Early scrim results, as pointed out by NA commentator Tralf, did not indicate the stunning and dominating performance the European squad showed in the DAC.
Showing only a few moments of weakness, Secret was usually able to outplay most of their opponents, without using any wild strategies, their Techies pick aside. In fact, former Evil Geniuses player Artour 'Arteezy' Babaev has only played a total of four different heroes in 15 matches - Lycan, Shadow Fiend, Tiny and Razor, the last two of which were played only once each.
Secret certainly has played around Arteezy's strengths, thus rotating s4 to the safelane a lot, but still drafting him rather ganking orientated heroes. Swedish shootingstar zai has shown to be the playmaker and space creator in most games and has been rather impressive.
While both additions are working very well right now, it has to be considered that the groupstage was only bo1s and that many teams could not prepare properly for all 15 opponents. In a playoff bo3 situation, it can be a whole different story and a team's true strength is usually shown when they are put under pressure and stress. That situation might present itself in the playoffs.
Cloud 9 is unlikely to place 2nd
2014 was a year full of second places for Cloud 9. While it shows a certain level of consistency and quality, it also shows that the team lacked what it takes to pull through and grab the title. A roster change was set to change it, but so far it doesn't seem to have that effect. It is not that either Johan 'BigDaddy-N0tail' Sundstein or Rasmus 'MiSeRy' Filipsen are playing bad, but it seems like the whole team is lacking a plan, a strategy. In our interview with MiSeRy, the Dane confirms that the players aren't all on the same page yet, which results in indecisive movements throughout the midgame.
The team's drafts stick out of the rest, as they don't pick popular heroes as regularly as other teams, especially the currently popular Shadow Fiend is nowhere to be seen in C9's drafts. In addition, a lot of bans are targetted at offlaner Armand 'bOne7' Pittner, who has been struggling to find his form in this tournament.
Obviously, this is the team's first LAN of the year and it would have been too much to ask to see them already rise to the top again, but obviously it is the team's ambition to play better and achieve good results, even if it's just 2nd place again.
EHOME does not live up to its brand
Earlier today, EHOME Reborn, a press conference/ceremony, took place in which EHOME officially welcomed their new roster and their return to the competitive circuit. They thanked the investor and talked to former EHOME members to look at past achievements and current goals. EHOME has indeed a rich history and the name itself sends down shivers everyone's spines who was witness to their glory days. So when EHOME was announced to return, thousands of people across the world were excited at the prospect of seeing potentially a new powerhouse again.
It certainly looked like it could be that new powerhouse, as the former LV-Gaming squad won the D2L LAN, but the now EHOME roster has failed to impress during the course of the DAC groupstage. In fact, the team has played rather weak and only placed 10th. If it was any other team, expectations wouldn't be that high, just because the squad has only played together for roughly 1,5 months, but the brand comes with high expectations. So far though, EHOME was unable to even live up to the expectations of the LV-Gaming squad, as they performed very well prior to the event. They showed a first sign of weakness and instability throughout the qualifiers, but surely playing on LAN would be completely different - it is, but for the worse.
The squad is still young and definitely has the potential to improve a lot, but for now, it is not the EHOME fans had been hoping for.
It is unlikely to see any top tier Chinese team stay as it is right now
The DAC is the last event before Chinese New Year and that's usually the time when contracts expire or renegotiated - it's time for the Chinese shuffle. The Western scene hasn't really seen a big shuffle - not yet anyway, but the Chinese are expected to change a lot. Poor performances during the groupstage are not only going to be a factor in these changes, they are also caused because many teams already have changes planned. Invictus Gaming's Wong 'ChuaN' Hock announced a roster change back in December, which means that the team has been unhappy with the current roster for at least two months at this point.
There are plenty of serious rumors surrounding the top Chinese teams and potential roster changes, but which of them are going to be true is a tough call at this point. All of them have one thing in common though: Every top Chinese team is expected to make at least a change or two.
Legends never die
After TI4, many Chinese veterans stepped back from the competitive scene, but most of them stuck around still, just as friends playing together. The first squad of retirees was Oldboys, and following the squad's success at i-League Season 1, another team emerged, Big God. Old friends Xu 'BurNing' Zhi Lei and Bai 'rOtk' Fan gathered friends to play together, namely Zhang 'xiao8' Ning and Zhang 'LaNm' Zhi Cheng. As a fifth, xiao8 invited pubstar IceIce and thus a team for every fan of the Chinese scene was born. The team stated numerous times that they were just in it to have some fun, but still tried to compete in various tournaments, because what is fun without a bit of competition.
The squad has shown that most of these players were and still are considered legends, not only in their scene but worldwide. Despite having practiced only in roughly ten scrims, Big God has impressively reached 2nd place in the groupstage. Surely, the big test will follow now, but every player has proven that he could, if he wanted to, play competitively, again.
In fact, both xiao8 and BurNing are set to return to the scene, both of which seemed revitalized and possibly stronger than ever. Xiao8 certainly has improved a lot. The Chinese was never considered to be one of the best players based on raw mechanical skill; it was his decision making, his ability to read the game and strategize - which is why he was nicknamed director8.
Whether or not Big God will finish at the top of the DAC, the squad has already shown what each player is still capable of.
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