[GL] Rumours of War December 1st, 2012 01:31 GMT Text by riptide Graphics by shiroiusagi

Recap: joinDOTA Special Masters II Table of Contents



A Clash of Clans

Prelims Recap





The Celestial Way

Introducing LGD.int





More on Prelims RecapIntroducing LGD.intMore on Liquipedia

Rumours of War

Remember G-1, that Chinese league that provided all-day every day Dota for us? We're getting another one just like that, only bigger. G-League is upon us. The best teams in China are already seeded, with this week's preliminaries deciding who will face them in the league proper.



As usual, we have



Can you hear it, Dota fans? The cries may still be faint, and the sound may come from a distance, but make no mistake, there are rumours of war.



Remember G-1, that Chinese league that provided all-day every day Dota for us? We're getting another one just like that, only bigger. G-League is upon us. The best teams in China are already seeded, with this week's preliminaries deciding who will face them in the league proper.As usual, we have the preliminaries recapped for you by kupon3ss . Next, we look at the headliner, LGD.int, a team that has been waiting in the wings for a while. TL writer shostakovich reviews their games against LW and goes into what we can expect from their lineup in the coming weeks.Can you hear it, Dota fans? The cries may still be faint, and the sound may come from a distance, but make no mistake, there are rumours of war.



A Clash of Clans by kupon3ss

If the G-1 League was a small skirmish of teams recovering from the International, then the G-League prelims are rumours of war, war on a scale we have not yet seen. China's Dota monarchs will soon meet their challengers in the kingdom's most prestigious Esports competition, a championship that has just transitioned into Dota 2. While most of the groups at these preliminaries turned out more or less as expected, we still got a small taste of what's in store for us when the tournament proper gets under way.





G-League is upon us, friends.



Brackets: Brackets: G-League Prelims Brackets | VODs: Youtube , uploaded from YouKu by allen_ami



Group A:

VG 2:0 NA



VG crushed NA in this series. The first game was a fairly one-sided affair as the NS - QoP combo played by a pair of the best individual players in China annihilated NA. NA appears to be on its last legs after its poor results in the previous ACE league, failures in G-1, and an inability to transition effectively to Dota 2. The team also recently lost it's sponsor. The second game featured a very shaken NA in a desperate struggle, running Weaver mid and using a Juggernaut against a very standard lineup from VG. Needless to say, it did not end well.





Group B&C

For Love 2:1 Invasion.int

TongFu 2:1 Natural9



Both series were somewhat unimpressive, with a pair of now middling Chinese teams facing foreign foes. In both cases, reasonably convincing first game victories on the part of the Chinese were reversed easily in game two.



The third game of FL vs Invasion.int involved FL drafting the "facerush" lineup of NS, BH, and Sven and rolling over their opponents in a rather humdrum fashion. On the other hand, TongFu vs N9 developed into an hour-long slugfest between a pair of teamfight-oriented lineups anchored by Naix and Syllabear, respectively. The game was reasonably exciting and was continuously back and forth until TongFu found a series of good team fights which they then developed into a lead, and then a win.





Group D

LGD walked over Mineski due to scheduling problems and miscommunication.





Group E

MUFC 2:1 Orange



This series between two longtime rivals of the SEA scene gave us perhaps the best games of the G-League preliminaries so far. We saw yet another round of the familiar clash, albeit with unfamiliar results.



The first game featured an Orange Naga Engima combo thwarted by the unorthodox push lineup of Nyx - DP. Helped along by thethe teamfight staples of Magnus and Undying, the Nyx fulfilled a small part of Puppey's TI2 vision of him as a counter to Kotl, and MUFC rolled through game. A decent early game for Orange turned sour when they misplayed a teamfight in the mid game, leading to a breached base and an insurmountable advantage for MUFC.



The second game saw a 4-1 lineup reminiscent of the Chinese foes Orange had just campaigned of, with Mushi on the Faceless Void backed up by some fantastic QoP and Magnus play. MUFC's NS, CK, Clinkz, a variation of the facerush lineup, obtained a huge early game advantage, but a crucial teamfight and a farmed Void suddenly ended the fun for them. Orange won.



In Game 3, Orange surprisingly attempted something that they themselves had been soundly defeated with. An Axe mid sounded good when combined with the Void that had just been successful, but an early game smoke FB for TA allowed her to get a quick bottle, completely and utterly nullifying the lead that the Axe might have had. Gaining a significant advantage via a strong midgame lineup of TA, Panda, and Potm, with a Nyx once against proving surprisingly effective, MUFC rolled over Orange and earned their chance to challenge the Chinese Dota machine on LAN.





Group F

Though LGD.int is perhaps the biggest draw of the qualifiers, their entry into the scene after months of practice was against the Chinese team LW, a virtually unknown team who've somehow found themselves onto the SMM roster. Our very own





Who in the world is VG?!



People have always talked about how strong Chinese DotA is overall, or how "tryhard" the Asian ladder is, but have you ever wondered what would happen if you randomly took a bunch of high level Chinese pubs, threw them into a team, and then waited for them to pwn face?



Well, it turns out that if you do that, VG happens. Starring VG.Cty, a player who was able to best 430 in a recent solo mid competition, the team is composed of 5 of the strongest players from the Chinese Ladder. Debuting by absolutely crushing an established team and looking every bit as strong as the LGD.int team in their breakthrough performance, here's a chance to learn a bit more about these guys.







Gamefy: Hi, very excited that panpan accepted gamefy's interview, say hi to everybody?



panpan: Hi everybody, I am 熊猫盼盼 (pandapanpan)





Gamefy: First let's congratulate Team VG's victory over NA club as the first team to the round of 8!



panpan: Thank you!





Gamefy: I don't believe very netizens know about the members of Team VG, can panpan talk about the state of the team?



panpan: We officially formed on 10/21, but we didn' 't disclose it. The team is currently training in the Westlake district of Hanzhou (the same city as LGD).





Gamefy: can panpan introduce the members of the team?



panpan: Aside from VG.Xtt, who used to play for Tyloo, everybody is new to the scene. At the moment VG.Cty plays carry, Xtt plays solo, sydm as 3, and Yonna and fy play the 4th and 5th positions





Gamefy: Then Can I ask since VG's members are all new, why did you choose them to form the team?



panpan: I've talked to a lot of people inside the scene, and after a long time spent considering it and looking at my own observations, I found the 5 people I chose. They've temporarily trained together for a month and I'm, fairly satisfied.





Gamefy: Can I ask about VG's living conditions?



panpan: Living conditions are very ideal, both in terms of food and accommodation. Everybody has single rooms and the environment is quite good.





Gamefy: How are you planning your training? With how fast you've improved, can you spill some secrets?



panpan: I set a timetable in which we finish lunch at noon. Then, we start training as a team. If there's no team of 5 people, we just pub together, and after a month the results are comparatively good. Team members are also quite hard working, so I also do some 3v3 laning practice with them.





Gamefy: Apparently you also used to be a professional player, why did you become a manager?



panpan: I played for PANDA for a year and obtained a lot of experience after which I sat around for half a year. Then, my current boss contacted me and told me he wanted to form a team, and I started on those things. I don't play professionally anymore because I'm really noob and old right now.





Gamefy: Let's talk about today's match with NA, how did you feel the team did?



panpan: The team's performance was within my expectations. The team trained for a month. Before that, none of them knew how to play DOTA2. I spent the month training with them and explaining the things that they don't understand, so the fact that they can beat NA feels pretty natural to me, especially since NA hasn't been practicing DOTA2 recently.





Gamefy: Beating NA was also something I expected, can you predict tomorrow's match between TongFu and N9?



panpan: In terms of predictions, I obviously want tongfu to win. They have a lot of my ex-teammates, after all (note: tongfu's core is from the Panda team previously mentioned). I really want to see them in Shanghai. I will also pub with them in DOTA2 every night!





Gamefy: After beating NA, I believe that other teams will certainly start paying attention to you, what do you think your chances of advancing to the ro4 are?



panpan: Ro4 will depend on performance and luck, I can't really say if we'll go through!





Gamefy: Ok, thanks to panpan for accepting your interview! We will see you in Shanghai. We also hope that VG will obtain good results from this G-League.



+ Show Spoiler [source] + 新兴战队VG领队风弟弟专访:现在的队伍很理想

时间：2012-11-24 02:12:07 作者：Leesnow 来源：游戏风云 收藏



G联赛2012第二赛季DotA2的揭幕战中，DotA2新兴战队VG以2:0碾压NA，轻松晋级8强。之后我们采访到VG战队的领队风弟弟。



游戏风云：你好，很高兴风弟弟接受我们游戏风云的采访，给大家打个招呼吧？

风弟弟：大家好，我是熊猫盼盼

游戏风云：首先恭喜VG战队战胜NA俱乐部率先晋级8强！

风弟弟：谢谢！

游戏风云：对于VG战队的成员，相信很多的水友还不胜了解。风弟弟能够介绍一下队内的情况吗？

风弟弟：我们战队是在10月21日正式成立的，不过尚未对外公开，战队现在在杭州西湖区训练。

游戏风云：请风弟弟为我们介绍一下你们战队的队员吧？

风弟弟：队员除了以前天禄战队的小7以外，基本都是新人，暂时队里由CTY打C，战神7打SOLO，木耳打3，然后毁灭和队长打4 5打过职业

游戏风云：那请问一下VG战队的队员都是新人，你为什么会选择他们成立这支战队？

风弟弟：DOTA圈的人我找过很多，经过很长时间的考虑，和我自己对他们的一些观察，就找到了选择的5个人，他们集合试训了一个月，我还是比较满意的。

游戏风云：能问下VG队员的生活状况吗？

风弟弟：战队生活非常理想，吃的住的都比较理想。都是一人住一个房间。基地的环境也比较好。

游戏风云：那你们战队是怎么规划你们的训练的？现在进步这么快，能爆料点吗？

风弟弟：我给队员规定的都是12点吃完饭，然后就开始接队训练，如果没队都是5个人一起开黑，所以暂时一个月的效果还比较好。队员也比较努力。平常我也跟着他们3V3练对线。

游戏风云：听说风弟弟以前也是职业队员，现在为什么开始做领队了？

风弟弟：去年在PANDA打了一年，经历了比较多，今年在家待了半年，后来我现在的老板联系我说想组个战队，然后我就开始组建队伍的一些事情了。自己不打职业也是因为自己现在很菜，年龄也大了。

游戏风云：外谈一下今天和NA的比赛吧，感觉队员打的如何？

风弟弟：队员的表现在我的意料之内，战队集训一个月，之前他们都不会DOTA2，这一个月我都是陪着他们练，他们不懂的地方我也给他们讲，所以现在能战胜NA，我觉得是很正常的。而且NA最近也没练DOTA2。

游戏风云：战胜NA，也是我意料之中的事情，预测一下明天Tongfu和N9的比赛吧？

风弟弟：预测的话，我肯定希望tongfu赢，毕竟他们中有很多我以前的队友，我也很希望能够在上海见到他们。另外每天晚上我都会和他们开黑打DOTA2！

游戏风云：打败NA之后，相信其他的队伍一定会开始重视你们。你觉得你们晋级4强的概率有多少？

风弟弟：进4强要看发挥和运气吧，这个概率我也不好下结论！

游戏风云：好的，感谢风弟弟接受我们的采访！那我们就上海见吧。同时希望VG战队能在本届的G联赛中取得好成绩。

http://gleague.gamefy.cn/view_27027.html During the opening match of G-League 2012 Season 2, the new DotA2 team VG crushed NA 2:0, easily advancing to the round of 8. We interviewed team VG's manager VG.panpan after the game.panpan: Hi everybody, I am 熊猫盼盼 (pandapanpan)panpan: Thank you!panpan: We officially formed on 10/21, but we didn' 't disclose it. The team is currently training in the Westlake district of Hanzhou (the same city as LGD).panpan: Aside from VG.Xtt, who used to play for Tyloo, everybody is new to the scene. At the moment VG.Cty plays carry, Xtt plays solo, sydm as 3, and Yonna and fy play the 4th and 5th positionspanpan: I've talked to a lot of people inside the scene, and after a long time spent considering it and looking at my own observations, I found the 5 people I chose. They've temporarily trained together for a month and I'm, fairly satisfied.panpan: Living conditions are very ideal, both in terms of food and accommodation. Everybody has single rooms and the environment is quite good.panpan: I set a timetable in which we finish lunch at noon. Then, we start training as a team. If there's no team of 5 people, we just pub together, and after a month the results are comparatively good. Team members are also quite hard working, so I also do some 3v3 laning practice with them.panpan: I played for PANDA for a year and obtained a lot of experience after which I sat around for half a year. Then, my current boss contacted me and told me he wanted to form a team, and I started on those things. I don't play professionally anymore because I'm really noob and old right now.panpan: The team's performance was within my expectations. The team trained for a month. Before that, none of them knew how to play DOTA2. I spent the month training with them and explaining the things that they don't understand, so the fact that they can beat NA feels pretty natural to me, especially since NA hasn't been practicing DOTA2 recently.panpan: In terms of predictions, I obviously want tongfu to win. They have a lot of my ex-teammates, after all (note: tongfu's core is from the Panda team previously mentioned). I really want to see them in Shanghai. I will also pub with them in DOTA2 every night!panpan: Ro4 will depend on performance and luck, I can't really say if we'll go through!





Looking Forward



(More at (More at http://wiki.teamliquid.net/dota2/G-League_2012_Season_2)



Drawing for the G-League groups took place at the very end of qualifiers. Incumbent teams iG and DK were seeded at the top of two groups, and DK was drawn to be top of Group A. The six qualifiers were then drawn randomly into the six remaining slots. Group play is in round robin best-of-three format, and the group stage will run from Dec. 24th onwards. And yes, If the G-1 League was a small skirmish of teams recovering from the International, then the G-League prelims are rumours of war, war on a scale we have not yet seen. China's Dota monarchs will soon meet their challengers in the kingdom's most prestigious Esports competition, a championship that has just transitioned into Dota 2. While most of the groups at these preliminaries turned out more or less as expected, we still got a small taste of what's in store for us when the tournament proper gets under way.VG 2:0 NAVG crushed NA in this series. The first game was a fairly one-sided affair as the NS - QoP combo played by a pair of the best individual players in China annihilated NA. NA appears to be on its last legs after its poor results in the previous ACE league, failures in G-1, and an inability to transition effectively to Dota 2. The team also recently lost it's sponsor. The second game featured a very shaken NA in a desperate struggle, running Weaver mid and using a Juggernaut against a very standard lineup from VG. Needless to say, it did not end well.For Love 2:1 Invasion.intTongFu 2:1 Natural9Both series were somewhat unimpressive, with a pair of now middling Chinese teams facing foreign foes. In both cases, reasonably convincing first game victories on the part of the Chinese were reversed easily in game two.The third game of FL vs Invasion.int involved FL drafting the "facerush" lineup of NS, BH, and Sven and rolling over their opponents in a rather humdrum fashion. On the other hand, TongFu vs N9 developed into an hour-long slugfest between a pair of teamfight-oriented lineups anchored by Naix and Syllabear, respectively. The game was reasonably exciting and was continuously back and forth until TongFu found a series of good team fights which they then developed into a lead, and then a win.LGD walked over Mineski due to scheduling problems and miscommunication.MUFC 2:1 OrangeThis series between two longtime rivals of the SEA scene gave us perhaps the best games of the G-League preliminaries so far. We saw yet another round of the familiar clash, albeit with unfamiliar results.The first game featured an Orange Naga Engima combo thwarted by the unorthodox push lineup of Nyx - DP. Helped along by thethe teamfight staples of Magnus and Undying, the Nyx fulfilled a small part of Puppey's TI2 vision of him as a counter to Kotl, and MUFC rolled through game. A decent early game for Orange turned sour when they misplayed a teamfight in the mid game, leading to a breached base and an insurmountable advantage for MUFC.The second game saw a 4-1 lineup reminiscent of the Chinese foes Orange had just campaigned of, with Mushi on the Faceless Void backed up by some fantastic QoP and Magnus play. MUFC's NS, CK, Clinkz, a variation of the facerush lineup, obtained a huge early game advantage, but a crucial teamfight and a farmed Void suddenly ended the fun for them. Orange won.In Game 3, Orange surprisingly attempted something that they themselves had been soundly defeated with. An Axe mid sounded good when combined with the Void that had just been successful, but an early game smoke FB for TA allowed her to get a quick bottle, completely and utterly nullifying the lead that the Axe might have had. Gaining a significant advantage via a strong midgame lineup of TA, Panda, and Potm, with a Nyx once against proving surprisingly effective, MUFC rolled over Orange and earned their chance to challenge the Chinese Dota machine on LAN.Though LGD.int is perhaps the biggest draw of the qualifiers, their entry into the scene after months of practice was against the Chinese team LW, a virtually unknown team who've somehow found themselves onto the SMM roster. Our very own shostakovich talks more about the debut of most anticipated team in Asia People have always talked about how strong Chinese DotA is overall, or how "tryhard" the Asian ladder is, but have you ever wondered what would happen if you randomly took a bunch of high level Chinese pubs, threw them into a team, and then waited for them to pwn face?Well, it turns out that if you do that, VG happens. Starring VG.Cty, a player who was able to best 430 in a recent solo mid competition, the team is composed of 5 of the strongest players from the Chinese Ladder. Debuting by absolutely crushing an established team and looking every bit as strong as the LGD.int team in their breakthrough performance, here's a chance to learn a bit more about these guys.Drawing for the G-League groups took place at the very end of qualifiers. Incumbent teams iG and DK were seeded at the top of two groups, and DK was drawn to be top of Group A. The six qualifiers were then drawn randomly into the six remaining slots. Group play is in round robin best-of-three format, and the group stage will run from Dec. 24th onwards. And yes, there will be an English stream , so stay tuned!







The Celestial Way by shostakovich



LGD.int at practice. (Picture courtesy of LGD Dota)

Ancient Chinese mythology teaches that only he who possesses the celestial way (Tian Dao, 天道) deserves to be called a Son of Heaven (Tian zi, 天子), the one who brings celestial order (Tian Dao, 天道) to the world under heaven (Tian Xia, 天下). The Son of Heaven mimics the sun's movement and travels to the four corners of the empire, receiving recognition from the people, thus establishing the center of the empire. As such, he deserves to be called King (Wang, 王) because he possess the royal way (Wang Dao, 王道), being The Man through which Heaven, Humanity and Earth can communicate.



In the spirit of this epic journey, LGD.int starts their run to the top of the realm of Dota 2. With Pajkatt, MiSeRy, Brax, God and 1437, LGD.int has a powerful lineup. In fact, the first reaction from fans was to say that LGD.int lacked support players, since all of them but 1437 are known to play either carry or solo mid. Depending on the heroes fielded, we can expect to see God, Brax and MiSeRy often swapping positions.



LGD.int vs LW - GAME 1







LW



LGD.int

LWLGD.int



The way LGD.int distribute roles will decide how we project their future. Pajkatt is likely LGD.int's hard carry, and this in game he plays a Luna. Brax plays the solo mid, G plays Dark Seer on the hard lane; MiSeRy is jungles offensively with Enchantress and 1437 plays Rubick. LGD.int runs an aggressive trilane against the LW trilane on the bottom lane, creep-skipping with Dark Seer and quickly taking a lead. This lead only gets bigger as LGD.int continues to get kills and destroy towers, and they eventually take Game 1 with ease. Of course, at one point the game takes a turn for the weird when, after a successful gank on the top lane, the entire LGD.int team drops from the game and are teamwiped in the process.



LGD.int vs LW - GAME 2







LGD.int



LW

LGD.intLW



LGD.int swap some player roles for game 2: Pajkatt is still the main carry, MiSeRy and 1437 are still the support crew, but God and Brax have been swapped. Now Brax is soloing the hard lane with Clockwerk and God is soloing mid with Templar Assassin. While they don't get an early kill lead, LGD.int wins mid and bottom, getting a lot of farm on Chen, Templar Assassin and Luna. While the LW Nature's Prophet uses his treants very effectively to scout possible ganks and deny runes, LGD.int continually dive for their kills. As towers start to fall, the lead increases. While LW wins a big fight in the top lane, LGD.int pushes the LW base, destroying the tier three tower and threatening the barracks.



On the back of a very farmed Luna, LGD.int uses Clockwerk's immense initiation range to find ganks and bring about 5v4s, forcing numerous buybacks from LW. In the end, LGD.int claim the barracks on the bottom lane and get themselves a lead that they never concede again. Ancient Chinese mythology teaches that only he who possesses the celestial way (Tian Dao, 天道) deserves to be called a Son of Heaven (Tian zi, 天子), the one who brings celestial order (Tian Dao, 天道) to the world under heaven (Tian Xia, 天下). The Son of Heaven mimics the sun's movement and travels to the four corners of the empire, receiving recognition from the people, thus establishing the center of the empire. As such, he deserves to be called King (Wang, 王) because he possess the royal way (Wang Dao, 王道), being The Man through which Heaven, Humanity and Earth can communicate.In the spirit of this epic journey, LGD.int starts their run to the top of the realm of Dota 2. With Pajkatt, MiSeRy, Brax, God and 1437, LGD.int has a powerful lineup. In fact, the first reaction from fans was to say that LGD.int lacked support players, since all of them but 1437 are known to play either carry or solo mid. Depending on the heroes fielded, we can expect to see God, Brax and MiSeRy often swapping positions.The way LGD.int distribute roles will decide how we project their future. Pajkatt is likely LGD.int's hard carry, and this in game he plays a Luna. Brax plays the solo mid, G plays Dark Seer on the hard lane; MiSeRy is jungles offensively with Enchantress and 1437 plays Rubick. LGD.int runs an aggressive trilane against the LW trilane on the bottom lane, creep-skipping with Dark Seer and quickly taking a lead. This lead only gets bigger as LGD.int continues to get kills and destroy towers, and they eventually take Game 1 with ease. Of course, at one point the game takes a turn for the weird when, after a successful gank on the top lane, the entire LGD.int team drops from the game and are teamwiped in the process.LGD.int swap some player roles for game 2: Pajkatt is still the main carry, MiSeRy and 1437 are still the support crew, but God and Brax have been swapped. Now Brax is soloing the hard lane with Clockwerk and God is soloing mid with Templar Assassin. While they don't get an early kill lead, LGD.int wins mid and bottom, getting a lot of farm on Chen, Templar Assassin and Luna. While the LW Nature's Prophet uses his treants very effectively to scout possible ganks and deny runes, LGD.int continually dive for their kills. As towers start to fall, the lead increases. While LW wins a big fight in the top lane, LGD.int pushes the LW base, destroying the tier three tower and threatening the barracks.On the back of a very farmed Luna, LGD.int uses Clockwerk's immense initiation range to find ganks and bring about 5v4s, forcing numerous buybacks from LW. In the end, LGD.int claim the barracks on the bottom lane and get themselves a lead that they never concede again.



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