If you have played Dota 2 since The International 2011, then you will already be familiar with the slogan “Chinese doto best doto”.
But the slogan seems to be obsolete, seeing the decline in performance of Dota 2 teams from China. There are three reasons why the Chinese Dota 2 teams are now less dominating and no longer feared, including:
1. The Slow Generation of Successors
There are several reasons why China’s Dota 2 has decreased in recent years. From 2014-2015, China made the mistake of keeping the veteran star players too long. It was an era when all the best Chinese teams consisted mostly of Chinese veterans who had been playing for years. That was the time when the western team began to build the next generation of players.
This generation’s change is best for Cloud9 and Evil Geniuses. Cloud9 is led by Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao. He entered the professional scene as a beginner, the first time anyone heard of him on the Team Liquid forum where he announced his intention to become a professional.
Whereas Peter “ppd” Dager made a line-up of SADBOYS where he worked with experienced players like Clinton “Fear” Loomis and combined it with the beginner polarizing star players in Artour “Arteezy” Babaev and then Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan.
Contrary to the Chinese team, almost all of the top Chinese teams that entered The International 2014 or The International 2015 consisted of veteran star players (maybe the only exception was LGD). Every time a veteran will come, the opportunity to gain experience for the next generation of Chinese players is lost.
Finally, the Dota 2 China team became famous because more and more teams began copying PPD formulas, but it was one year late. An example is the success of Wings Gaming, which at the time became a dark horse and won The International 2016.
2. Language and Culture Barriers
The second problem is a problem that cannot be solved. That’s right, that is the language and cultural barriers that bound China. Consider all regions of the world for a moment like NA, EU, CIS, SEA.
An example is Team Secret who has players from NA, EU and SEA who created harmony and finally the formula matched and Team Secret appeared fierce. By doing this international line-up, the team gets two advantages. First they work with a much larger collection of talents.
Second, they get more information about Dota 2 as a game, which in turn helps their preparation and gives them an edge in the tournament. Unlike the Chinese team, they will find it difficult to import players because of differences in language and culture.
The Chinese team can only get players from the Southeast Asian region such as Malaysia or Singapore. It was only with players who could speak Chinese, like Jian Wei “xNova” Yap, Daryl Koh “iceiceice” Pei Xiang, or Tue “ah fu” Soon Chuan.
That’s the advantage that the West team has today compared to the Chinese team. Even if China is at the top, the first problem will haunt again.
3. There is no figure like Xiao8
Professional scene Dota 2 China lost the figure of Zhang “xiao8” Ning and until now no one has been able to motivate Chinese players like Xiao8. Almost all the team arrangements have one of the great leaders such as PPD, Ivanov’s “Puppey” Clement, Kuro “Kuroky” Salehi Takhasomi, Tal “Fly” Aizik, and Alexei “Solo” Berezin.
Xiao8 represents the role that is needed by the Chinese Dota 2 scene like a good game leader, has a high amount of information related to Dota 2 knowledge. If you look at OpTic and NiP, not all squads are filled with star players, but both perform better under the PPD guidelines.
When Xiao8 retired, it left a big gap in leadership that had not had time to regenerate. Zeng “Faith” Hongda did a good job with Newbee, but as a leader he was limited. As soon as the Newbee line is running, Faith becomes a player who doesn’t stand out on the team.
Whereas for PSG.LGD uses a democratic system that requires all five players to have extreme skill levels and have a natural synergistic style of play. It seems that Chinese teams must dare to change the current situation by revolutionizing the recruitment of teams. Chinese players also need to think about studying by playing outside of Chinese Team.
