The aegis is immortal, but no king rules forever.

It seems in the world of Dota2, the glory of the creator never favors a mortal twice.

We’ve witnessed 7 internationals, 7 champions, and 35 names engraved on the aegis.

Yet still not a single team or player can claim the aegis twice.

Icefrog thought all he did was to change the meta a little bit, but the community calls it the “TI curse”.

The champions always outclass the other teams when they are crowned.

They are on their peak, aggressive but solid at the same time.

No matter they are ahead or behind, everyone just knows they can always find a way to come back.

People would wonder: What kind of king slayer would be able to beat team like that?

Time is the answer.

Because eventually, their dominance will inevitably come to an end.

The dynasty will be overthrew

Falling out of relevance seems to be the only fate of every champion.

Since Dota2 was introduced, the biggest opponent of Chinese DOTA has been NAVI for the first three years and EG for the next three years. Could Liquid be next?

Na’vi is a miracle

3 – time grand-final list with 1 champion and 2 runner-up titles.

They would have been the first 2 – time TI winning team long ago if it were not for the million dollar dream coil from S4.

It’s an unprecedented record and will only get harder for latecomers to achieve.

So when did the Chinese teams stop to regard Na’vi as their toughest opponent?

Na’vi has always been good at coming back from lower bracket. 820, the legendary captain of Ehome, once said: As long as Na’vi is still in the tournament, you should never count them out.

Their road towards grand final at TI3 for Na’vi was not a plain sailing.

They beat Tongfu with fountain hook at the upper bracket semi-final,

They got clean swiped by Alliance with a score of 0:2 at the upper bracket final.

They were facing against Orange at the lower bracket final. In the deciding match, Orange had a firm control during the majority of the game, but the Aegis deny from Kyxy cost them the game, Na’vi was one to march forward.

“They got lucky” People thought.

But they did pull out one hell of a fight with Alliance at the grand final and presented arguably the best Grand Final ever to the community. They were one dream coil away from the aegis and despite failing to repeat their victory, they showed the world they were still a force to be reckon with.

Until TI 4, which was the year for Chinese team to take the revenge.

20 minuets in, Hao’s weaver and Mu’s Templar Assassin were already on Na’vi’s high ground.

Chinese caster screamed: This one is for the fountain hook!

The rise of a new force is always accompanied by the fall of the old king. After 3 years of dominance, Na’vi finally fell down from the altar.

Their first opponent in the main stage is C9.

EE’s Morphling with a score of 12-0-2 took the first game with ease

Game 2 Na’vi stoke back with their Faceless Void + Enigma duo, it all seemed the Na’vi that we were familiar with was back and even the casters were discussing the possibly for Na’vi to fight all the way back like what they always did.

But dreams are only dreams after all, in game 3 bOne7 on Clockwerk claimed kills after kills and the game ended with an Ultral Kill from Singing. Na’vi, for the first time, got eliminated from The International in the first round.

Na’vi never recovered ever since, and Chinese teams no longer regard them as their toughest enemy. As much as they are still able to compete in top-tier international events here and there, they are never favorites again.

The old king has lost his strength to defend his own dignity. Maybe Na’vi had long ago lost their dominance , but their amazing performance at the first 3 Internationals still gave fans a shred of hope. But the disastrous defeat in TI4 had become the last nail in the coffin : players left Na’vi one after another, and there’s only Dendi left, fighting alone to restore the past glories of Na’vi.

The end of IG dynasty

After claiming the TI2 champion title, IG’s dominance began. They were outclassing every other team at that moment and did not drop a single series in the second half of year 2012(They lost to LGD once at G1 League but the game was played in DOTA1). Iceiceice took one game from IG by using the no-ban strats and despite losing the series eventually, witnessing the dragon being slain once was exciting enough for the community.

IG seemed untouchable until the 22th of May, 2013 where they got 2:0ed by tongfu at DSL.

Game 1 was a 56-minute long bloodbath, the game deciding moment was when Nyx found Zhou’s Weaver, and instead of using BKB, Zhou tried to juke his way out with Shukuchi, but this decision cost him the game as he got implaed and burst down without buyback. “Zhou’s BKB” has since become a meme.

Game 2 only lasted for 18 minutes as tongfu just ran IG over with their 3 core pushing lineup. Everyone in panel was in shock: How did IG get 2:0ed?

After that series, IG’s dynasty just crumbled overnight. Tongfu showed other teams that IG was not untouchable after all. A few days later, LGD demolished IG with a score of 43:2. Orange also managed to take down IG and Sylar even claimed “It was like playing against BOTs” at the post-math interview.

Zhou likes to mention how he always underperforms when against Hao. Actually he’s not wrong, Tongfu has always been IG’s tough opponent even when IG was on their peak. IG and tongfu played against each twice at TI3 and in both series IG got clean swiped without winning a single game, Mu’s Weaver even got a double Rampage with six kills.

Alliance: Once you go rat, you never go back

Sweden powerhouse Alliance was one of the most dominant teams throughout Dota2 history.

There dominance started at G1 league where Alliance went through the group stage in a crushing fashion, not losing a single game. In the finals they defeated LGD Gaming 2-0, achieving a flawless 7-0 score in the tournament. At The International 2013, Alliance came out swinging and delivered one of the most dominant tournament runs seen in Dota to date. They went undefeated in their group and dropped only one game to DK all tournament before the grand finals. After TI3, several balance changes were introduced and all of bulldog’s signature heroes were hugely nerfed. But despite all the signs showing Alliance was not untouchable anymore, Chinese teams still struggled to take down this Swedish giant.

23rd of November, 2013 is a day to be remembered as at that day on MLG, DK finally proved to other Chinese teams that Alliance were not unbeatable.

At that time Alliance were no longer as dominant as they were a few months ago. They loved to rat during TI3 as well but that was only one of their strats. However gradually, ratting seemed to have become their only way to win the game and DK understood it: They focused on IO a lot as IO+CK/OD duo works wonders to catch Nature’s Prophet whenever he’s trying to push the lane.

DK’s victory over Alliance broke the mental barrier Chinese teams had when they were facing Alliance. At TI4, Alliance got eliminated during the group stage with a record of 6-9.

“Once you go rat,you never go back ” – AdmiralBulldog

Newbee: A sudden collapse

During the second half of year 2014, Chinese scene was still under the dominance of Newbee and VG, and Newbee still had the upper hand in most of tournaments. They lost to VG at WEC but took champion title of WCA and several other online tournaments later.

At that time Newbee started to decline invites and even stopped showing up in the tournaments they had qualified. The only international LAN they played was a national tournament held in Azerbaijan(Which they won), the last LAN in year 2014 was ECL which took place on 29th of December. Before the match Mu spent whole night in Internet cafe playing Warcraft 3 RPG, but Newbee still took the championship with ease.

The real challenge came to them in February 2015 at DAC, their first opponent was MVP.

MVP drafted and played really carefully as they knew they were facing the strongest team in the world and everyone just thought this one was already in Newbee’s bag, but the result was contrary to everyone’s expectations as it only took MVP 25 minutes to defeat the former TI champions.

Newbee didn’t manage to recover after this defeat and eventually got eliminated from DAC with a catastrophic 2-13 record. After DAC Hao left Newbee and June took the carry position. Newbee still got a direct invite to TI5 but the lack of synergy made their early exit inevitable.

Evil Geniuses: The Rising Force

EG is the new western force to compete with China after Na’vi. One TI championship and two third place during TI4 to TI6 is impressive enough but their consistent performance in every tournament is what makes them even scarier.

EG has been one of the most consistent teams in recent years and is still a tough opponent to Chinese teams. That said, it is also true that EG have lost their dominance long ago, but unlike Newbee or IG who just crumbled overnight, EG lost their dominance in a slow but noticeable manner, and if I really need to decide which match marks the end of EG era, it would be MDL in February 2017 where Ehome clean swiped EG with a score of 3:0. That match also marked the resurgence of CN Dota after a long, cold winter.

Wings: A shattered dream

Wings was the biggest surprise for the Chinese community in 2016. They came out of nowhere and had no noticeable names in the team what so ever, yet their amazing teamfights and coordination made their games so enjoyable to watch, As WinteR said in the TI6 Grand Finals, Wings are the team that has come closest to Dota perfection.

However, the perfection never lasts long, just like a shooting star, Wings streaked the sky and gave the Chinese Dota fans the most exciting summer, and then fell so quickly like they never existed.

Wings was not a consistent team. They could win TI and they could also get eliminated in the first round at a random tournament by some tier 2 teams. Before TI6, Wings were not the hottest favorites as they got eliminated in the first round at the Manila Major. At that time, OG, Liquid and Newbee were the big 3 but eventually Wing was the one to claim the Aegis.

After winning TI, Wings didn’t show any sign of dominance at all when they were playing in DPL, a Chinese Dota2 league. They lost to some tier 2/3 teams and almost got downgraded to DPLS. Audience didn’t care much because they thought that’s how Wings won TI : pick random heroes and make it work.

TS6 was the event where people finally accepted the cruel reality that Wings were just not good anymore. They got 2:0ed by VP in the upper bracket semi-final, the laning phase of Game 1 went OK for Wings, the score is 10:9 at 12 minutes, but soon the game had turned to a one-sided slaughter as Wings failed to claim any kill for the rest of the game.

December 2016 at Boston Major, Wings didn’t surprise anyone with their performance as they got knocked out by EG with a score of 0:2.

After that, Wings were struggling into the inner conflicts and the drama with ACE League. Soon, it became the first and only disbanded TI champion.

Liquid: Consistent but no longer dominant

It’s hard to describe Liquid’s post TI dominance. On the one hand, they are incredibly consistent as they never placed outside top 4 at any of the 8 Pro Circuit events they have competed in. But on the other hand, they have yet to win another Pro Circuit Major. Liquid have been pretty shaky during last 1 – 2 months and the most obvious sign is when they are ahead, they no longer give their opponent same kind of pressure like they usually did back to TI7.

A perfect example for this would be their BO1 matchup against EG at PGL Major, Liquid were ahead in kills but struggled to extend their lead and take objectives, eventually the game was dragged to 62-minute long and EG managed to comeback.

At ESL Genting, Newbee managed to take down Liquid, a team they have never won against, and EG also took one game from Liquid in the playoffs at PGL Major with a killing score of 27:0. It’s clear that Liquid do struggle from time to time even when face their most familiar opponents, but will Liquid be able to regain their dominance and even win a second TI, or will they just crumble like all the other TI champions did? This is a question that remains to be answered.