photo: PGL

For many years, the Chinese tier two scene has supplied the tier one squads with godlike talents. It’s in the Chinese organizations’ tradition to run multiple subsidiary teams as a place where they nourish the youngsters, where they polish their up and coming players only to unveil a new surprise with every TI.



Invictus Gaming is one of the big organizations that has been running a second team since 2015. Players like Zhang “Paparazi” Chengjun, now a Major winner with Vici Gaming, has started in the Vici Gaming house, Sun “Srf” Runfa who’s now playing for RNG comes from the same team, OG’s TI Champion Anathan “ana” Pham made his competitive debut from the IG house. So, even though IG are going through a cone of shadow this season with their main team, the organization is still active and so is their secondary team, Invictus Gaming Vitality.

IG.V played recently, in an online Chinese league, “China Future Cup” organized by Nanjing Mu Han Han Culture Communication Co., Ltd. The tournament featured 12 teams fighting across 10 days in a best-of-two Round-Robin group stage leading into a double elimination playoff bracket. The event had ¥ 80,000 CNY (≃ $11,500) on the line with the winner of the league taking home roughly $7,000. IG.V got knocked down in the lower bracket rounds by Sky Walker Club. However, they made to the grand final where they lost 1-2 to Future.Club.



In the aftermath of the event and after going through the replays, Invictus Gaming Vitality former support player and now a staff member on the team, Su “super” Peng found enough reasons to question the competition’s integrity. “Forgive me, but I have never seen such insane map awareness even after watching so many TIs,” he says in a lengthy Weibo post made on April 15.

Translation provided by Yuhui Zhu:



“IG.V participated in an online tournament ‘China Future Cup’ over the past few days. It is a rare opportunity for a tier 2 team to participate in such a tournament and it means a lot to these teams if they can achieve good results.. IG.V recently became the champion of an online tournament on the Varena platform and this means a lot too. Unfortunately for us, we only achieved 2nd place in the ‘China Future Cup’. If it was due to our lack of abilities, there’s nothing much we could say and we’d just continue to work harder. However, the entire process was shocking. When we were up against IamPoint Club, Sky Walker Club and even our Grand Final opponent’s Future Club, something felt off.

In our match against SWC, the opponent completely ignored their lanes during the first night, went around trying to get 10 kills before losing the game. As for the other two opponents, they had unbelievable map awareness displayed by a series of amazing dodged ganks and flawless team fight execution. Forgive me, but I have never seen such insane map awareness even after watching so many TIs. These unprofessional behaviours are not only a waste of time for viewers, fans and coaches, it also affects the morale and enthusiasm of the players. If not dealt with, it will destroy the entire CN Dota 2 ecosystem. In the past, we were proud of CN Dota. But now, everyone has their own agenda.

All these ‘fake’ matches are ruining the progression of our young and upcoming players. This tournament was organized by Nanjing Mu Zi Han Culture Communication Co., Ltd and sponsored by Zhijian esports internet cafe. All teams under the IG banner will not participate in any tournaments organized by these two organizations. This is the least we can do. I hope that someone can analyse these games in-depth and expose the dirty work of these teams. I also hope that the official organizers can take the initiative and make a statement on the whole situation.”



The China Future Cup organizers and the league sponsors have not released any official comment yet.

