Asian Games highlights reel from Asia’s top Dota 2 Player

Dota 2

October 3, 2023

Marcus Wong

Amidst the calm before the International 2023 (TI12), that is due in merely a week. The Asian Games 2022 (postponed to 2023) was all the rage this week.

While it features only Asian teams, the Asian Games is much fancier in the sense that it’s technically an Asian-exclusive Olympics. The International Olympic Committee recognizes it as the second largest multi-sport event after the Olympics, whereby national teams from every Asian country flew to Hangzhou, China.

Team China wins!

Team China won the Asian Games 2022. This doesn’t sound like a revelation, considering the roster is essentially the Chinese contender at TI12, Azure Ray’s roster. In addition, they have China’s best hard carry player in action, Wang “Ame” Chunyu.

Ame and Somnus together back in 2018-2019 PSG.LGD

Note that Ame hasn’t been active in the competitive scene and even missed out on TI12. Yet, here he is, competing with his former teammates, Lu “Somnus” Yao, Yang “Chalice” Shenyi and Zhao “XinQ” Zixing.

Now, considering these high-profile players, it’s no wonder China won indisputably. This is a roster capable of competing in TI12 with great expectations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1LbIXaOc2I

Malaysian rivals

Of course, these weren’t to disregard Team China’s success at Asian Games 2022 in any intent. If we wanted a fantasy team out of Chinese-only players, this is surely one of the best-performing teams to build.

That said, many other competing countries have decent rosters themselves. Surely, Team Malaysia garnered quite the attention as well, bolstering Malaysian players, who have had massive success in their Esports careers. Notably, Cheng “NothingToSay” Jin Xiang, Thiay “JT-” Jun Wen, Yap “xNova” Jian Wei and even coach Chai “Mushi” Yee Fung himself.

In fact, these players have at least, placed fourth place and beyond at TI Championships throughout their career. Team Malaysia placed third place, which is a shame because of the unusual playoff format. Team Malaysia lost to China during semifinals and never got to redeem themselves for second place.

Instead, Team Mongolia, which defeated Team Kyrgyzstan in the semifinals, got to advance to the Grand Final. This leaves Malaysia with only a third-place decider to win despite Malaysia potentially being a more fearsome team than Mongolia.

The Underdog Story

Nevertheless, enough with the fanatic rant for Team Malaysia, as Mongolia did go on to be one of the Grand Finalists versus China. A team of relatively mediocre players led the Mongolia Team, specifically, the complete IHC Esports roster. The only redeeming point, if anything, is that the team has a seasoned coach, Lee “Forev” Sang-don.

Despite the disheartening comments on Team Mongolia, they did snatch a match off Team China. This prompted us to review what truly occurred in that game, and it left us in awe. The first game was a showcase of Mongolia’s unorthodox method of dealing with China’s drafts, which revolved around Sven’s explosive damage. However, Mongolia rendered Sven obsolete with the proper use of Sprout, preventing Sven from dealing damage. Couple this with several strong disablers, such as Centaur and Dark Willow, which truly made China tremble to this combo.

Just when we thought the first game was a fluke, Mongolia certainly pushed China to the edge when they forced an hour-long match. Especially the decisive third game, which eventually came down to Ame’s overwhelming critical damage attacks on his Phantom Assassin. Considering how Mongolia emphasized heavily on many lockdown methods just for Ame’s PA, it was certainly a close match. At the time, IHC Esports is only competing in Division 2 bracket of Dota Pro Circuit 2023 (DPC 2023), so it would be interesting to see how far this team can go next season.

Many other national teams, which featured notable Dota 2 players, are present at Asian Games 2022 too, such as Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. This concludes the Asian Games 2022, and surely Ame’s return to competitive play was the spotlight of the event. While he won’t be at TI12, we can expect Azure Ray to be at their best during TI12.

Read next: Dota 2 The International 2023: Event Guide, Teams & History