
Dota 2 gains three powerhouses after the great Chinese Roster Shuffle
In the Dota 2 world, September marks the annual post-TI Chinese Roster Shuffle.
Every year as soon as TI finishes, Chinese Dota 2 powerhouses shuffle their roster for the upcoming season. The lack of TI this year did not stop the organizations from completely overhauling their rosters, and preparing for what is to be an exciting 2021 season in China.
Even two-time Internationals champion, Johan “N0tail” Sundstein gave his insight on what might emerge from the massive roster shuffle in China. Let’s take a look at what remains in the aftermath and who are going to be the top contenders coming out of China next season.
New LGD old EHOME
PSG.LGD are often proclaimed as one of the pillars in Chinese Dota 2 scene, released their TI8 roster. The news came as quite a surprise for both fans and the western Dota 2 community, as the TI8 roster has always been an iconic bunch.
Unfortunately, PSG.LGD hasn’t been performing like they used to. For a team of such calibre, PSG.LGD failed to qualify in two consecutive majors in this season, notably the Leipzig Major and ESL One Los Angeles 2020. Since then, they made minor roster changes, replacing their hard carry player, Wang “Ame” Chunyu to no avail.
Fast forward to September, PSG.LGD realized their mistake of removing Ame and brought him back to the active line-up. They paired him with what feels like the entire old EHOME lineup. In return EHOME gained Jian xNova, Chalice and xM from LGD.
4AM makes waves
The Four Angry Men recently become the talk of the town, however for all the wrong reasons. For starters, the roster consists of two former PSG.LGD players, Xu “fy” Linsen and Lu “Maybe” Yao. As legendary players themselves, they attracted another two world-class players to join the project. Liu “Sylar” Jiajun and Zhou “Yang” Haiyang were quickly added to the roster, with the final spot going to Sparking Arrow Gaming support player Ru “RedPanda” Zhihao.
While the all-star team hasn’t debuted yet, fans have high expectations for this team.
Unfortunately, team AM has garnered a negative reputation right after they announced their roster. Chinese Dota 2 caster, Jophy, took it to her Twitter to call out 4AM for bullying veteran player, Sylar.
In an unexpected turn of events, 4AM kicked Sylar off their line-up only a day after they initially announcing their roster. This came after the other four players players agreed to take a pay cut in order to cover the transfer fee Zhang “Eurus” Chengjun.
OGA PIT S3 and BigDaddy weighs in
OGA Dota 2 PIT S3 China is the first event to showcase the new strengths of these Chinese teams. PSG,LGD and EHOME are both performing well with their switched rosters. Sadly, 4AM’s super team is not present at the event so we cant judge how they match up against the former two. Additionally, Team Aster and ViCi Gaming are not looking too shabby either.
Based on what we’ve seen so far, there are at least five teams that are TI level contenders in China right now. Remember, Chinese teams have won three of the nine Internationals held to date, and made many appearances in the Internationals’ grand finals.
In the end, BigDaddy himself gave his thoughts on the most recent roster swap. In a recent OG tweet, N0tail stated that we can expect two or more worthy Chinese teams competing in The International 10. While he didn’t give any specific names, he did give a shout out to his long-time rival, xNova.
You can follow the re-shuffled Chinese contenders face off against each other this weekend by tuning into the OGA PIT’s Twitch channel.
Read next: Team Secret to be tested at ESL One Germany 2020