Shanghai Major Preview – Group C
In this group, the following four teams will do battle against each other: LGD (China), Newbee (China), OG (Europe) and Team Archon (NA).
LGD
Based on their recent record, LGD are very likely to end up 5-6th at least and could go further.
Finishing first in the Chinese qualifiers without losing a match, many considered LGD to be a team that deserved a direct invitation. The team surely wasn’t satisfied with their 7-8th in Frankfurt, but their form has improved significantly recently as evidenced by these strong performances:
- Star Ladder Star Series Season 13 & i-League Season 4 – 3-4th place
- World Cyber Arena 2015 – 2nd
While LGD haven’t played any official matches this month, their January record was more than impressive with a win rate of 62% from 13 wins, 4 draws and 4 losses.
LGD like to use the Night Stalker and his ganking potential – it is the most popular pick in this patch for them (18 picks, 9 bans, 48.2% pick-ban rate). This is followed by Witch Doctor (17 picks, 2 bans, 33.9% pick-ban rate) and Dark Seer (16 picks, 0 bans, 28.6% pick-ban rate). A particularly disliked hero for them is Chen, who has received 20 bans and not even one pick.
The team prefer hero lineups that make them strong for team fights and an important player in their roster is Sylar, who has been in the team since 2014. A renowned farmer (605GPM, 551XPM), he is relied upon to out-farm the enemy and is therefore watched over carefully by the supporting heroes.
The team haven’t changed since the Frankfurt Major, where they had a reasonably strong showing. LGD have plenty of experience of big events and tend to do well at them. They are particularly strong against CIS teams, but have beaten some of the top European teams as well.
Newbee
With three players who have been TI champions (Hao, Mu and Chuan), the team shouldn’t be in a position to be questioned as to whether they will make the top eight in Shanghai. However, their recent play hasn’t suggested that they deserve anything better than this prediction.
Newbee are the other team from China that qualified, but they weren’t particularly convincing. Since TI 4, when they surprised everyone by lifting the Aegis with their timed push strategies, the team have been going downhill and have never come close to emulating this achievement. This was evidenced by their dismal Frankfurt record, where they finished 13-16th, but recently they did manage to secure 5-6th spot at the MarsTV Dota 2 League Winter 2015.
Their January win rate reads 47% with 9 wins, 4 draws and 6 losses.
Newbee tend to play various heroes in different positions. The two most picked heroes are Vengeful Spirit (8 picks, 2 bans, 29.2% pick-ban rate) and Dark Seer (10 picks, 11 bans, 47.7% pick-ban rate). Typically for the Chinese scene, they recognize the power of the Earth Spirit and tend to ban him (6 picks, 17 bans, 52.3% pick-ban rate). Invoker and Nature’s Prophet are also heroes that Newbee avoid playing against with 15 and 12 bans respectively.
Currently, Hao (591GPM, 543XPM) is in good form and his drafts are good. He has been one of the main reasons behind the team’s relatively successful plays.
OG
Despite not being quite at their best now, OG are still a top European team and will battle for a top four placement while aiming to repeat their success from three months ago.
Their success at the Frankfurt Major was unexpected, but nevertheless completely deserved. Although now not as flawless as they were back then, they have managed to preserve their status as a top tier European team.
The team’s significant record since Frankfurt is:
- The Summit 4 – 4th place
- MarsTV Dota 2 League Winter 2015 – 3rd
OG’s win rate was 63% in January, with 5 wins, 0 draws and 3 losses.
Their key player is Miracle- (604GPM, 556XPM), who is considered by many to be the best mid player in the world. He is one of the most feared Invokers and if their opponents are wise, they should respect ban that hero.
OG managed to achieve their success in Frankfurt by combining aggressive play with consistently strong defensive supports in their line-up with heroes such as Io, Dazzle and Winter Wyvern. With the latter having fallen out of the current meta, Dazzle and Io are still quite popular and viable picks.
The team have played fewer games in the current patch, but unsurprisingly, Invoker is their most frequent choice with 7 picks (0 bans, 43.8% pick-ban rate), while Gyrocopter (6 picks, 4 bans, 62.5% pick-ban rate) and Earth Spirit (6 picks, 3 bans, 56.3% pick-ban rate) are other popular picks for the team. OG don’t like playing against Chen (8 bans, 3 picks, 68.8% pick-ban rate).
The team used to play almost flawlessly in tournaments without making any serious team errors or individual slip-ups.
Team Archon
Team Archon still have a lot of improvement to make and a Major is certainly not a place for practice. The team will likely end in the 13-16th ranking.
Team Archon advanced to the tournament as second qualifiers in the NA region.
They are another new team, with their roster being totally replaced in October. With the players still getting used to each other, another change followed as Eric ‘747’ Dong was removed and Jaron ‘Monkeys-Forever’ Clinton was added with the intention of obtaining better team chemistry. However, this didn’t help them qualify for the Frankfurt Major.
Their current win rate for February is 63% (5 wins, 0 draws, 3 losses), an improvement on January which saw them win just 42% of games (8 wins, 4 draws, 7 losses), largely against other NA teams.
A key player for the team is Moo (388GPM, 383XPM), who is a talented and consistent offlaner, capable of great moves in team fights. He demonstrated some spectacular play at the Summit 4, executing a rampage vs compLexity Gaming.
With the team still looking to find its identity, the drafts are various and include a wide pool of heroes. Their most favoured heroes are Invoker (10 picks, 1 ban, 31.4% pick-ban rate) and Tusk (10 picks, 0 bans, 28.6% pick-ban rate), while the team avoids playing against Gyrocopter (14 bans) and Beastmaster (11 bans).
