Burning’s Evolution:
After TI5, Vici Gaming changed their roster with the addition of Burning. Although they achieved fourth place at TI5, they’ve decided to remove Hao. The question that bids answering is what elements did Burning brought along with him to the VG squad?
The biggest criticism of Burning has always been his need for resources. Viewers always have the impression that the Burning today is still the player in 2010 who farms for 60 minutes and ends the game with ease with a dominating gold advantage. The truth is that Burning has been evolving as a player and his playstyle has altered from emphasizing on farm efficiency to aiming at participating earlier in team fights. This phenomenon is especially obvious after TI5. The most played heroes by Burning after TI5 are Gyrocopter, Queen of Pain, and Clinkz. All of these heroes are notoriously known as having huge impact in the mid-game. His convincing Clinkz performance in the grand finals of the Nanyang Championships showed the world that his transformation of playstyle proved to be a success.
The Limits of Super:
photo courtesy of Nanyang
For TI4 viewers back in 2014, the death ball meta still rolls vividly in our memories and the biggest winners of the death ball meta were Vici Gaming and Newbee. Vici Gaming’s success at TI4 can be largely credited to Super’s stellar performance on heroes like Brewmaster, Death Prophet, Dragon Knight, and Razor. Even long before TI4, Xie 'Super' Junhao has always been the fanatic supporter of high impact tank heroes in the mid lane. However, as IceFrog graced us with 6.84 and 6.85, heroes such as Lina, Windranger, Queen of Pain and Ember Spirit rose to popularity.
Although we have seen Lina, Queen of Pain and Ember Spirit in VG’s games, we have yet to see a Windranger game from them when Team Secret dominates this meta with w33’s Windranger. Super’s limits as a mid player thus became a plague for VG at Nanyang as they were unable to develop new strategies that revolve around the most popular heroes of the current meta. Moreover, as the knowledge of patch 6.85 matured, VG learned to understand the importance of farm on their fourth position heroes.
This became increasingly evidential in their games at Nanyang where Doom was picked for fy. What this meant for Super, was that he no longer had the constant back-up he needed from the supports in the early game. Super understands this as well. In his recent pub games, we can see that he has been actively practicing heroes like Windranger and Lina, hoping to familiarize himself with these heroes for the benefits of VG.
Super’s dotabuff stats
Vici Gaming’s recent struggle:
VG’s track record against Chinese teams has been outstanding after TI5. In three months of competition they have only dropped one series against EHOME in the ESL One New York China qualifiers. That being said, their performance against Western teams has been mediocre at best, having lost both series against Team Secret and breaking even with Virtus Pro at Nanyang.
The only Western team they managed to defeat was Team Liquid. The unstable performance against Western teams will be a huge problem for them at the Frankfurt Major as their group consists of three foreign teams - OG, Team Unknown, and Vega Squadron. While Team Unknown is slightly more inexperienced, OG and Vega Squadron are two of the biggest threats from the Western side of the DotA world. Before contesting Team Secret and Evil Geniuses, VG still has a long way to go at the Frankfurt Majors.
photo courtesy of Nanyang
VG: David or Goliath?
Although this article may sound harsh for the VG fans, I personally still think that they are one of the favorites walking into the Frankfurt Major. Even though they fell short in the Nanyang Championships against Team Secret, their performance there was still spectacular overall. Placing second in the first event they attended after TI5 is already proof that they have the substance to become the world’s best DotA team.
