Liu “Sylar” Jiajun - #1 - Carry

PLAYER STATISTICS

Sylar's teammates describe him as a "balanced carry player", an all-arounder who has been the most consistent carry of the past two years. While he is solid and spectacular in almost every area, Sylar also presents something of a contradiction; he's a fighting carry at heart, but performs best with farming heroes like Morphling and Anti-Mage. Instead of getting a Midas on heroes like Morphling, he will push aggressively, trying to bully the enemy team alone, or show up to fights early.



Sylar's play inspires trust, and both LGD and VG gave him leeway and responsibility that few other players are afforded. VG will frequently either reduce Sylar's farm to accelerate other players, or trust in Sylar to carry them to victory on his own. In both cases, he bears a difficult and unique burden that few carries are forced to shoulder.



Sylar’s play style is very safe, rarely farming in dangerous areas. He simply does not get ganked, as evidenced by his average of 2.4 deaths per game despite often playing fragile or combat heavy heroes like Clinkz and Lycan. This is less than even the mighty BurNing, who has an average of three deaths per game. He is also probably the most mechanically capable carry today, capable of making breathtaking plays and farming well under any circumstances.



On the other hand, this safe play style also contributes to his weakness; Sylar does not know how and when to be greedy. Seldom is this more apparent than it was during TI3. While Loda and XBOCT rushed to Midas, and BurNing picked up a quick Battlefury, Sylar’s freefarming Alchemist would refuse to put early points in Greevil’s Greed. His preference for early fighting over maximising farm did not pay off in the TI3 meta, and in several crucial games he lacked that bit of extra oomph necessary to carry his team in the late game. Recently however he has begun experimenting with purchasing an early Midas in games with a quieter beginning, with somewhat mixed results.



Sylar can be relied upon to deliver an excellent performance no matter what predicament he finds himself in. While it sometimes feels as though he loses hope too soon or lacks that little bit extra to carry his team over seemingly insurmountable barriers, these critiques often seem only to be relevant because of Sylar’s otherwise peerless skill.



There can be no doubt that Sylar is among the best of the best. The only question is whether he can clearly surpass BurNing and Hao, and bring his team victory in otherwise hopeless games.



SIGNATURE HEROES

Xie “Super” Juanhao - #2 - Core / Midlane

PLAYER STATISTICS

One of the youngest of China’s DotA 1 stars, Super is a quiet, underrated player currently considered to be in something of a slump. In the past, Super has shown consistent play that puts him at the otherwise unparalleled level of Mushi and Ferrari. During VG's brief but undisputed reign, Fy and Fenrir continuously dual-roamed and placed Super in a dominating position. Super evades ganks, subtly pressures the enemy, and snatches victory in chaotic fights he shouldn’t win thanks to his excellent teamfight decisionmaking.



With a few exceptions, Super does not normally drive his team forward by farm or movement like most of the best mids. Rather, he is an example of that rare kind of mid that serves as an anchor, a counterbalance to his longtime teammate Rotk's wild aggression. Super is almost never caught out of position, and is one of the few mid players who is always ready to back up his teammates when smoked on. On the other hand, if VG is losing a game, Super will rarely be the player to pull them back into it with rotations or ganking. Instead, it is his teamfight decisions and general movement on tricky heroes like Storm that set him apart.



Super has been possibly the most flexible mid player for the past year. He looks good on nearly any hero, frequently playing weaker laning heroes like Dragon Knight, Alchemist, or Magnus, yet almost never loses his lane. For example, we recently saw him win as Magnus over Arteezy’s Tinker despite PPD’s rotations at the Summit LAN.



Lately though, Super has experienced difficulty in transitioning his always solid laning phase into midgame dominance. In part, this is due to VG giving Super more subtle strategic roles, requiring more of him than simply winning his lane and carrying the game. Furthermore, he just isn’t drafted many of the heroes he excelled at previously, like Storm Spirit or Dragon Knight.



Unfortunately, Super also seems to have lost a bit of the extra spark that had carried DK and VG so far previously. Still, we would do well to remember that last year, before TI3, Super seemed to have plunged into mediocrity only to pick himself up and deliver some of the best performances of the tournament. Is a similar revival on the cards this year?



SIGNATURE HEROES

Bai “rOtk” Fan- #3 - Core / Offlane

PLAYER STATISTICS

Whereas the rest of VG is often undersold, Rotk always makes headlines. Whether it's telling Loda to "kiss his ass," crying after a crushing defeat, or making Chinese mainstream news for his high-level trashtalk, Rotk does not hold back. He is, without question, the face of VG. He is the team’s drafter, captain, and ingame leader. More than anyone else, it will be up to Rotk to redesign VG’s training program and put them on the right track once again.



As a player, he has reined in the rampant feeding that led to his harsh ejection from DK. Though he still gives up first blood alarmingly often, he at least avoids consecutive deaths. Rotk plays the offlane very similarly to Iceiceice, always trying to skirt the limit of how much pressure he can get away with and often dying for it. This style has its uses, though. Rotk gives Super an easy time middle, either by tying down enemy supports in his lane or revealing smokes prematurely with interesting positioning.



Rotk excels on two types of heroes, initiators and frontline bullies. His Clockwerk and Batrider are among the best, while his Bristleback dominated during VG's ascendancy. In the last year, his success has come more from farming offlaners than initiators. Lately, this has shown through an impressive 12-3 record on Doom, a clear must-pick hero for VG if not banned.



Overall, Rotk is an excellent, albeit volatile, leader. His performances can be erratic, but in general he excels at controlling the tempo of the game, as long as he’s not completely shut down early. His main weakness is playing from significantly behind, as he lacks the finesse of some other offlaners who might be able to eke out a living from the lane without the high death count.



SIGNATURE HEROES

Chao “Fy” Lu - #4 - Support

PLAYER STATISTICS

In a Chinese scene that relies almost exclusively on four year+ godlike veterans, Fy is an extreme anomaly. Arguably the best support, and certainly the top rookie of the past year, Fy is the flashy circus show in an otherwise solid VG squad. Whether it be sublime positioning and targeting, perfect initiations and spell steals, casual solo kills on carry heroes, or instantaneous reactions, he will make your jaw drop and carry his team to victory.



Since TI3, he's probably the only other support player who can really be compared with, or even seen as above, DK's inspiring Lanm/X!! duo. It's difficult to label Fy simply because he does everything so well; his ganking is peerless, he rarely feeds, and he has the impact of a core hero in teamfights. In terms of players, he possesses the farm of Aui_2000, the stability of X!!, and the ganking of Xiao8. Oh, and if that wasn’t enough, he’s also one of the best solo players in the world. As a support.



This individual skill and impact is clearly recognized and accelerated by his team. In many of their strategies, Fy regularly gets a higher farm allocation than any other support in the world. His support Nyx will get a Blink Dagger faster than an offlane Nyx. His Earthshaker, a hero that normally averages just over .80 creeps/minute, somehow finds 80 creeps at 30 minutes, or 2.8 cs/min. Occasionally VG will four-man in the early-midgame, forcing Sylar to fight and leaving Fy a free lane to farm.



If you're interested in seeing what sets the best supports apart, and don't want to jump on the DK bandwagon, look no further than Fy. His Rubick is in a different league from any other player’s, with the possible exception of X!!, while his ganking precision will fool you into thinking he’s a core hero. He may appear to be on a different page from the rest of his team or become cocky at times, but no support in the world has a larger reliable impact in teamfights than Fy.



SIGNATURE HEROES

Linsen “Fenrir” Xu - #5 - Support

PLAYER STATISTICS

Like Fy, Fenrir is a rare gem of emerging Chinese young talent. Fenrir is often eclipsed by his teammates, but he also has the most potential for growth within the team. Even though he rarely makes big plays on his own, he forms one of the very best support pairings in the scene. Fenrir and Fy have been longtime friends, and this shows in their wonderful dual-roam coordination. Even if he does get picked off more than VG would like, he still shares the low death stat that sets apart the Chinese top supports from those of the rest of the world, largely because he seems always to stay alive in fights.



As a learner, Fenrir has a drive and dedication that few others possess. At the D2L finals in Las Vegas, he declined opportunities that the rest of his team took for free buffet dinners or sleep so that he could study the games of potential opponents. There is little doubt that Fenrir will soon blossom into a consistently formidable, world-class player. Whether or not that that will occur in time for TI4 is anyone’s guess...



SIGNATURE HEROES