Team Zero stepped out from the shadows in the Chinese qualifiers for The International 2024 and delivered the biggest upsets to book a ticket to Copenhagen.
Every year we keep asking ourselves how TI is different or why TI is special compared to other tournaments. For the Dota 2 fans watching the competition, the answer to that is almost always the same. Because that’s where the magic happens and that’s where we get to see the biggest stories unfolding.
Who is Team Zero?
Team Zero was created mid-2023 as a varsity team for Xtreme Gaming. However, after the main team secured a direct invite at The International 2024 and Team Zero delivered the upset in the closed qualifiers, the two split ways in July of this year.
At the start, the Team Zero lineup featured two of the TI6 Wings Gaming champions. Zhou “bLink” Yang in the coaching role and Li “iceice” Peng as an active player in position 4 support. The initial roster suffered a couple of changes, with iceice and the carry player leaving the team at the beginning of 2024. It wasn’t until March that Team Zero had a stable line-up again with the arrival of Yang “Erika” Shaohan and Remus “ponlo” Goh, who can be considered the veterans of the new Team Zero roster.
Team Zero roster
Shaohan “Erika” Yang
Heming “7e” Huang
Beyond
Remus “ponlo” Goh Zhi Xian
Zzq
Erika is the only player from the team to have attended a TI before, and along with Ponlo, they are also the only two to have played for bigger names in the professional scene .
Erika and Ponlo’s impact on Team Zero
With Erika and Ponlo settled in, Team Zero had slowly started to pose a threat in the Chinese qualifiers. From dropping out in open qualifier brackets at the start of the year, they began to constantly reach the closed qualifiers grand finals, where they would usually lose to Azure Ray or G2.iG.
The two new additions to the roster not only stabilized the side lanes for Team Zero, but also brought a huge improvement in how the team communicates in game. Erika is the most vocal player on the team, and the one responsible with the big shot calls in team fights.
Since their arrival, Team Zero began to play extremely aggressively, matching the Western European type of gameplay. They have a high-risk, high-reward type of mentality and they will not slow down their tempo even when they are on the back foot.
