GAM Esports Kiaya, Levi, Dia1, EasyLove and Palette. Source: VETV Facebook

Many years ago, on a small All-Star tournament in Barcelona, a team of mysterious Vietnamese all-stars appeared on the stage that no one knew about. The player in question is indeed Levi, who had a great performance in that tournament and could develop many more memorable moments on his signature Lee Sin and Kha’Zix picks that many fans around the globe would love.

Would the next big star of Vietnam do the same, or would he falter?

While Levi is known by now for being the best player in Vietnam, the next biggest star in Vietnam is already on the menu; Dia1.

Who is Dia1?

Lê Phú Quý; better known as Dia1, is the mid laner for GAM Esports this season. He previously played for EVOS Esports, where he first started as substitute behind Warzone in 2018. After Warzone retired from professional play, Dia1 was able to share a spot with Petland to fight for the midlane position. As soon as the season unfolded, it became more and more evident that Dia1 was the better of the two players.

In summer Dia1 retained his spot on the middle position, whereas Petland left EVOS Esports. Little fact that isn’t known by many fans is that Dia1 used to be a jungler, before switching to midlane.

Dia1’s playstyle

Currently on GAM Esports, he is serviced as a roaming facilitator that first wins his lane and second roams to other lanes to impact sidelanes. With Levi on his side in the jungle, the duo first look to get priority in his lane and after that look for a dive in a different lane. You will see for instance that a wave either on botlane or toplane will get prepared before the dive happens, and while that is happening the mid wave is crashing at the same time, which doesn’t allow for the enemy midlaner to roam first. GAM Esports dives are overpowered!

Why did GAM Esports bring him over?

GAM Esports simply needed a midlane that could play mages. Their previous midlaner in Kiaya (who now plays toplane for GAM Esports) couldn’t play mages (apart from Ryze) and mostly played bruisers such as Renekton, Kled and Aatrox. It also allows Levi and Blazes to play more standard meta and not on mage duty. For example; Gragas, Elise, Sylas and Karthus were his most played champions in summer 2019, whereas in 2020 he is not restricted in champion pool and can play things like the Qiyana and Jarvan IV.

Also with aspirations for bigger events such as MSI and Worlds in 2020, GAM Esports will be less predictable in draft and can create more versatile drafts with even having multiple trump cards in Hieu3, EasyLove and Blazes who all can play multiple champions.

What makes Dia1 so unique in comparison to other Vietnamese mid laners?

When we talked about versatility, Dia1 is exactly what GAM Esports needed. In comparison to other Vietnamese mid laners such as Artifact, Pake, Naul and Yado, the young midlaner can play assassins as fine as mages and marksman on top of that. We can already see it this split with exciting picks like the Pantheon, Lucian and Tristana on the center. In previous splits on EVOS Esports we saw him on things like the Camille, Neeko and Sylas most prominently to solo carry his team to victory.

Following thoughts

I personally think Dia1 is an exciting talent to follow. With GAM Esports picking him up for the spring split of 2020, the growth that Dia1 will get is going to be immense. GAM Esports will be very happy that they could’ve picked him up, especially with Zeros leaving to China (?). If Levi and Zeros can make steps internationally, than I definitely think Dia1 could make the same steps that both of the players did in the past. Who knows where Dia1 might end up in two years from now on. The future is bright.

Want to watch Dia1? Watch the next VCS match first!

So you want to watch the next VCS match? Join us on the live broadcast on either the official Vietnamese broadcast or the English broadcast! Starting next Friday on 11AM CET, the first match that will be played is going to be FTV Esports versus. EVOS Esports.

You can also join our VCS English Discord to discuss even more about VCS.

I hope you had a wonderful read about the next big star from Vietnam, and on every Tuesday I will post an new article which features various things about the VCS as well. So stay tuned!