Vici Gaming’s performance has been overshadowed recently by the promising results of other Chinese teams. Prior to the Frankfurt Major last year, Vici Gaming was one of the strongest contenders of the tournament. But their performance did not live up to the crowd’s expectation as they exited the first major placing 5th-6th. With Chinese Dota underperforming last year, VG had to carry the burden of revitalizing the hopes of a Chinese tournament victory. They fell short again and again and finally in the most recent premier tournament Marstv Dota 2 League, EHOME completed this mission for them.
Vici Gaming Roster
Xu 'fy' Lin Sen
Chao 'Fenrir' Chao
Xie 'Super!' Jun Hao
Koh 'iceiceice' Pei Xiang Daryl
Xu 'Burning' Zhi Lei
Although VG have not won any tournaments for a long period of time, their performances in every competition they entered have been much more than mediocre. Placing third at The Summit 4 and 5th-6th with Newbee at the MDL, VG displayed an absurd trend of consistency since all the way back at TI4. Although the addition of Burning boasted a promise to dominate, the results demonstrated otherwise.
Vici Gaming’s achievements since Frankfurt Major:
3rd at The Summit 4
5th-6th at MarsTV Dota 2 League Winter 2015
Under the leadership of Xu ‘Fy’ Lin Sen, VG seemed to have adapted to every patch relatively well, and they’ve created quite a few original and impressive strategies in the last few patches as well. But the dictating factor of a successful team is the consistency of executing these new strategies and the constant expansion of hero pool. It seemed like VG’s struggle in drafts often led to their demise in tournaments.
VG’s playstyle is somewhat different from their Chinese counterparts. Comparing VG with teams like LGD and EHOME, it is evidential that VG often mimic the drafts of other teams for their own growth. For instance, the carry Vengeful Spirit was a twist of Virtus Pro’s and the Lone Druid pick for iceiceice was inspired by the popularity of the hero among other teams as they were unable to execute the latter hero smoothly. VG lacks signature heroes that requires special attention such as Bulldog’s Lone Druid, Miracle-’s Invoker, and Cty’s Queen of Pain from last patch. As a result the drafting phase often becomes extremely disadvantageous for VG.
Does the lack of drafting sophistication means that VG is a terrible team? Absolutely not. Although Super can have off-days often, his ability to abuse the early advantage of his hero pool is very impressive. Even if he does not dominate the mid-lane, he often recovers very quickly with strong mid-game team fights. Fenrir and Fy’s consistency in their cooperation and rotations is also a huge asset for VG. Their unexpected rotations and incredible team plays often help VG outplay their opponents in the mid-game. Burning’s transition into a tempo carry player is also a huge success for the team as it brought them a lot of variations in their drafts. Last but not least, iceiceice is always a player to look out for as he uses the space he is given efficiently and can often gain a huge edge on his laning opponent due to his unimaginable mechanical skills.
Vici Gaming's Most Frequent Picks in 6.86:
Burning:
Gyrocopter (8 games played, 62.5% win rate)
Vengeful Spirit (4 games played, 100% win rate)
Morphling (2 games played, 50% win rate)
Super!:
Dragon Knight (6 games played, 67% win rate)
Death Prophet (5 games played, 60% win rate)
Outworld Devourer (4 games played, 50% win rate)
iceiceice:
Lone Druid (4 games played, 50% win rate)
Phoenix (4 games played, 75% win rate)
Faceless Void (3 games played, 100% win rate)
fy:
Witch Doctor (2 games played, 67% win rate)
Night Stalker (3 games played, 100% win rate)
Mirana (3 games played, 67% win rate)
Pudge (3 games played, 67% win rate)
Fenrir:
Spirit Breaker (5 games played, 60% win rate)
Bane (3 games played, 67% win rate)
Vengeful Spirit (2 games played, 100% win rate)
In 6.86 VG has been having the most success with heroes like Faceless Void, Vengeful Spirit, and Phoenix. Other than Void, the other two heroes have been popular since last patch. Their performance on popular 6.86 heroes such as Lone Druid and Outworld Devourer have been mediocre with only a 50% winrate on each of them. A special brew for VG seemed to be the Night Stalker with a 100% win rate for the team. With slightly more time to experiment and practice, we can most likely expect them to create new strategies and lineups for the Shanghai Major.
The expectation of VG to do extremely well in the upcoming major is not incredibly high. But this Chinese squad never fails to surprise the audiences with a superb pocket strat. Hopefully they can adapt to this patch quickly like their Chinese rivalry EHOME and perform well at the Shanghai Major. With a week left until the winter major group stages, VG’s condition remains an enigma that we will soon clear up.
