The Dota Pro League is one of the most prestigious competitions of the Chinese region. The competition brings some of the best and most talented team of the region to fight for Supremacy. The group stage of the tournament has ended and now the participants are in the elimination phase of the tournament where the likes of IG, iG Vitality, EHome, Newbee, Vici Gaming, and PSG.LGD are competing.
The reason we have picked this match for you is that it is a battle of two sister teams. Meaning both teams are owned by the same organization so it will be an interesting option to pick the winner in the knockout round of the competition.
Invictus Gaming
Invictus Gaming was established in August 2011. At first, there were two compositions – iG.Zhou and iG.YYF. For a time, the compositions existed separately. In China, at that time, DotA tournaments were still actively held, although iG.Zhou took part in TI1, where they took 5-6 place. In September, the final merger took place. Soon iG became one of the strongest teams in China, securing its superiority with a victory at TI2. After that, the composition remained stable to TI3. iG could not keep the champion title, which led to reshuffles.
Invictus Falling short
The subsequent tag history depended heavily on the roster. Sometimes the team sank badly, sometimes it performed better, but only regained the title of one of the strongest in China by spring 2014. At the main tournament of the year, TI4 iG finished at the 7-8th place. In August 2016, a veteran of the Chinese scene Ferrari_430, who has been playing for iG since its inception, left the team. The team was able to regain form only by the spring of 2017 when the no less legendary player BurNIng played for it. On the Ti7, Invictus Gaming stopped at the 7-8th place.
Disastrous season
The previous year has been a complete disaster for the entire Chinese Pro Dota. The teams have little to no impact on the DPC as well as The International apart from the PSG.LGD. Even they choked in the grand finals. Let’s have a look at the team in question, Invictus Gaming.
The season of 2017–18 turned out to be unsuccessful for the tag. New reshuffles helped stabilize the game and iG were able to pass on TI8. The failure in the group stage of the tournament forced the organization to completely change the roster.
Much needed changes
In the biggest competition of the year, Invictus Gaming side had a disastrous run since they were eliminated in the first phase of the main event. Therefore, it was quite inevitable that the lineups will be going under a complete reshuffle and it did happen. The team terminated its association with its main roster that was wrecked in the TI8. They signed a completely new team but are still getting old dreadful results. The new lineup has failed to qualify for 2018 ESL One Hamburg and The Kuala Lumpur Major.
Will IG find the winning Formula?
The failure in the qualifiers led to the management making further changes to the team. Even though after the failure in the qualifiers, the team had fairly decent results like the 3rd place at the Asia Pro League. But the patience of the iG management grew thick since the team hadn’t gotten to any major or minor of the 2018-2019 season. Invictus Gaming let go off Zheng ghost Jie and Yang InJuly Xiaodong and signed two members of the 2015 lineup, Jian XuaN Weishan and Linh doodle Zikai, who competed with Echo Gaming before this move to Invictus Gaming. On paper, it seems like a good move by IG since the duo is aware of the team’s protocols.
After a series of roller coaster performance with the new duo, the side did show signs of improvement by finishing at 2nd place in the open qualifiers of Chongqing Major. However, in the following phase, they were comprehensively outplayed by other teams. They again failed to qualify for another major and the ESL Katowice 2019. Their management is really shooting in the dark by keeping such a little faith in the new recruits. The team needs time to fight the winning formula but it’s up to the management that they will give the current lineup enough time or will continue to make changes one after the other.
iG Vitality
Unlike the rich history that their opponents have, iG Vitality came into the competitive scene in 2015 and since then haven’t had much of an impact in the competitive world of Dota 2. The team holds only youngsters. Even with young blood, they haven’t had any stability or won anything big even in their own region. The team is like an incubator for the main organization, Invictus Gaming.
Even though Invictus Gaming has its fair share of problems these days, IG Vitality still can’t hold a candle against them. iG Vitality has lost five of their last six game. The current squad doesn’t hold any big name that could get the team some points on the board. None of the team players have played even in the qualifiers of the big tournaments. So the more we discuss the team, the fewer chances they have to secure a victory for themselves. In the current 2018-2019 DPC they no chance of earning a single point. Meanwhile, there stands a hope for their opponents Invictus Gaming who might be in a little bit of trouble but can always manage to turn the tables around for the main event. The International.
Final Verdict
IG Victory
Odds on bookmakers
| Bookmakers | Invictus Gaming Odds | iG.Vitality Odds | ||
| European | American | European | American | |
| GG.bet | 1.32 | -312 | 3.15 | +215.00 |
| Loot.bet | 1.30 | -333 | 3.45 | +245.00 |
| Bet365 | 1.25 | -400 | 3.75 | +275.00 |
| X-bet.co | 1.28 | -357 | 3.27 | +227.00 |
Shehryar is a professional eSports analyst with a particular affinity for CS:GO, LoL, and DOTA. He covers major eSports events across the world for WagerBop.
Leave a Reply