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LGD.Cn looking as dapper as ever.

Picture by Sgamer.

Achievements

The Players

xiao8

Sylar

Yao

DD

DDC

Strategy

Predictions for the International

How far do you think LGD will reach at this years International?

Previous Team Presentations

The core of the current LGD roster has been with LGD since 2010, when afterwent on a recruitment binge LGD lost no less than four of their roster, leavingGong ‘’ Jian to rebuild from scratch. For this purpose four young talented players were recruited who had formerly been together on the short-lived team, asZhang ‘’ Ning,Yao ‘’ Zhengzheng,Xie ‘’ Bin andLeong ‘’ Fatmeng, but who had since moved on to other short lived projects. Notably xiao8 and DDC both played for iG at The International 2011 during their time between Dream and LGD.ZSMJ ended up leaving the team in November of 2011 after a disappointing start as the new team failed to reclaim the dominant position the old LGD had held back in 2009-2010. In his place xiao8 took up the Captain's duties of the team and they recruited formerplayerLiu ‘’ Jiajun to play the carry position for the team. This is the roster which the team would eventually take third at the International 2012 with, and which will compete at this year’s International as well.However after winning G-1 League Season 4 LAN Finals nearly exactly a year after ZSMJ’s retirement, the first major championship for the new squad, they failed to retain their place on top of the Eastern scene, being overtaken not only once more by iG but also by their newly added international squad. Some malcontentment regarding their slipping form as well as the impending surgery of DD caused the team to make a player switch, as formerplayer andplayerXiang ‘’ Huang ended up joining the team while it was announced that DD would become a shoutcaster after returning from his operation.With LongDD the team looked once more re-invigorated and returned to winning form for a while, qualifying for the G-1 League Season 5 and earning their direct invite to this year’s International. Then, suddenly, less than four weeks after having been made official and 15 days after receiving their invites for the International, the team decided they had made a mistake, letting go of LongDD and instead trying out formerplayerJunjie '' Tong. As this did not work out and with the wrath of Valve upon them, LGD.Cn brought back DD to their roster, only to still lose their direct invite, which instead went to TongFu.Suddenly LGD.Cn were looking at having to play the Eastern Qualifiers in order to earn their spot at the biggest tournament of the year, even after having taken third place last year. And what’s more, the early results after the return of DD were not promising, prompting some to fear that LGD might underperform during the qualifiers or end up having to play the wildcard match due to the poor timing. In this time of need, LongDD returned to help the team out as a temporary coach, which seemed to work wonders as LGD arose from the ashes a new and stronger team, who swept through the Eastern Qualifiers with a new aggressive style of play which relied heavily on xiao8’s solo mid Kunkka.While it’s not been all sunshine and roses for LGD.cn ever since, as even in the middle of dominating the Eastern Qualifiers and looking to stake their claim as the strongest Chinese team around they were defeated handily in the finals of the G-1 League Season 5 byand later coming up short against DK in the Dota 2 Super League as well asin the, the team has still managed to consistently perform during the latter part of the competitive year and ended the pre-TI3 LAN season with a victory at, taking their second major LAN title.1st Place -- $3,0002nd Place -- $5003rd Place -@Seattle, United States of America - $150,0001st Place -@FuZhou, China - $28,5002nd Place -1st Place -@Kuala Lampur, Malaysia - $15,0003rd Place -@Shanghai, China - $1,6002nd Place -- $12,8001st Place -- Direct invite to The International 20133rd Place -- $16,2202nd Place -- $12,0001st Place -- $16,000Signature heroes: :d2_bm: The roots of the man who would come to be known as “Director 8” start with another game, Zhensan, a famour Warcraft 3 based RPG map which is highly popular in China. He transitioned over to Warcraft 3 DotA in September of 2010, when he joined Dream, where he played together with Yao and DD, before leaving forin early 2011. As CCM was subsequently acquired by iG, xiao8 came to play at the first International under their banner, before leaving in the iG re-organization which happened at the tail end of 2011, joining LGD where he has since become the Captain of the team.While xiao8 was formerly famous for his Weaver, his changing role in LGD and playing primarily second position these days has also affected his signature heroes, as one of the best known heroes associated with his name is now the Beastmaster as well as the Queen of Pain. At the tail end of this competitive season he has also made great strides in popularizing Kunkka as a solo mid hero capable of great aggression, being in particular well known for his masterful use of X Marks the Spot.Although his role has moved towards the solo mid, he still occasionally swaps around with Yao, returning to his former offlane position where we saw him most at the second International. At these times we may see him take up heroes such as Nature’s Prophet or Dark Seer, providing either a secondary damage source or teamfight utility.Signature heroes: :d2_ld: Sylar was first noticed by legendaryand LGD playerWu ‘’ Sheng who was spectating an online game between Sylar’s team and DK. After the match 2009, who by this point had retired from professional DotA and had instead taken on the role of manager for World Elite, asked Sylar and his teammates to come under the WE name. His stay in WE however was not for long, as when ZSMJ retired from LGD it was Sylar who was recruited to be his replacement.Sylar is still perhaps best known for his Lone Druid, but also farms up a storm on Anti-Mage and Morphling. More interesting has been the addition of active teamfight orientated carries such as Luna to his hero pool, which played a large part in LGD’s victory over iG at the G-1 League Season 4. Since then he has also embraced the new trends of Gyrocopter and Alchemist, making for a well-rounded hero pool covering most of the popular carries in Chinese Dota 2.Since joining LGD, Sylar has grown greatly as a player and as a carry, going beyond his previous tendencies for passive farming and instead showcasing consistent and solid decision making as he has become a more active and impactful player. While previously he may have paled in comparison to the likes ofZhilei ‘’ Xu andChen ‘’ Yao, he now stands next to them as an equal.player.Signature heroes: :d2_magnus: Yao got his start as so many others in LGD with the team Dream back in September of 2010, under the name of XiaoD. However after only months with the team, he left the scene again in order to focus on his studies in early 2011, only to return to competitive play withlater in 2011, spending a short period playing support or ganker for them. By September of the same year he had moved once more, joining the new LGD squad as their solo mid player.Yao’s strength as a midlaner was in his Invoker play, which was for a long time his main hero in LGD. As the metagame changed away from the Invoker first pick, so did Yao move on to the offlane, from where he departs mostly when LGD wants to play the solo mid Magnus, which during the heights of the heroes popularity was almost as synonymous with Yao as the Invoker had been at TI2.In recent times we’ve again seen more of Yao in the solo mid position, as both he and xiao8 take turns playing the Dragon Knight. When he is on his customary offlane, heroes such as Dark Seer and Bounty Hunter have joined the old favourite Windrunner, rounding out a solid range of utility, teamfight and initiation options available to LGD in their drafts.fs.Signature heroes: :d2_sd: DD is another one of the old Dream players of 2010, who made a pit stop inbut ended up leaving for LGD during the Chinese shuffle of 2011, at the time also changing from a semi-carry role into hard support, with a focus on heroes capable of good lane control and ganking.DD is an unselfish player who is better known for his contribution to the team than for his individual play. His role on the team has been more about his synergy with fellow support player DDC, which may explain why during his surgery and recovery the team ended up changing around their roles, looking to capture that same synergy with another pairing as DDC and LongDD had not been able to find it together. After his return to LGD.Cn, he has quickly re-established himself as a solid support player, finding again his connection with his brother in arms.DD tends towards heroes with strong ganking potential, favouring in particular Shadow Demon and Jakiro. During the heights of the heroes popularity, he was also the default Keeper of the Light player for his team, although it may not always have fitted him the best. In more recent times DD has started picking up heroes such as Chen and Enchantress, moving into the jungler role and the 4 position which has traditionally been the realm of DDC.Signature heroes: :d2_lesh: DDC was part of CCM alongside xiao8, also attending the first International under iG after the acquisition of CCM by iG. He chose to depart from iG together with xiao8 in order to play for LGD and the legendary ZSMJ back in 2011, in the process focusing down his role from a more eclectic past to now mostly playing support, generally taking up the farmed support role.While his most played hero continues to be Leshrac, he is also the teams Visage specialist as well as playing the Nyx Assassin when it is picked up. As LGD has begun to experiment with Bane in recent times this hero has also fallen to DDC, as he has moved more towards the hard support role when DD plays certain jungle heroes. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues, and which other hard support heroes he will start playing more in the near future.Many still hold an image of LGD in their minds as the passive team that ran only variations of one strategy through-out the entire second International, and who when they were confronted with something unexpected ended up coming up short, unable to react to the unexpected. This is no longer the case for the Chinese juggernaut. At least not entirely.LGD now has a far wider array of strategies at their disposal and have been seen developing new and effective counters to specific teams within a fairly confined timeframe, such as their G-1 League Season 4 counter of iG and more recently their change-up of playstyle againstin the RedBull ECL finals.They are also not nearly as passive as they once were, being quite capable of running aggressive group-up-and-push strategies as they tended to do late last year, or focusing heavily on winning lanes and early ganking as they did during their TI3 Qualifier run. The team has the options to play both active and passive, which means that when they still choose to play a more sedentary style they do so because they are confident that they can pull it off.And yet, at times when presented with something entirely outside of their comfort zone, we’ve seen them not only crumble, but disintegrate. In the midst of such a dominant run shortly after DD had rejoined and been re-integrated into the roster, they met the boys from Sweden, The Alliance, and they had no idea how to react. Suddenly it seemed that it was TI2 all over again, and all the same weaknesses had been exposed.LGD.Cn is a strong team, when they are comfortable. You can say this about many teams, but it rings especially true about LGD. Their strength then comes from expanding their comfort zone as they have been doing, and from their ability to research their opponents beforehand. LGD have nothing to fear from the known.LGD.Cn are certainly one of the favourites of the Asian scene to go far this year, perhaps even take it all. Their stability and LAN experience acquired over the past year will serve them well, and expanding their playstyle as they have at times to embrace aggression rather than just the passive playstyle so many recognize them for is a strength which they may be able to use when confronted by adversity, perhaps allowing them to come back where as last year they could not. The field this year is too close to call anything much beyond a likely top 3 finish, but LGD does have the potential to claim even the championship itself.