Shivendra Shukla
The Wings Gaming squad surprised a lot of people by winning the sixth iteration of the premier Dota 2 tournament, The International, in the Grand Finals held at the Key Arena in Seattle. The just-under 21 million dollar tournament came to an end on the 14th of August, with the Chinese team claiming a 3-1 victory from an in-form Digital Chaos.
The battle between the East and West ended in tears and PJSalt for the NA side, losing 3 games back to back after winning the first game in the best of 5.
The Chinese squad have left a strong impression at their first TI, having relied on a mix of early aggression, a diverse hero pool and completely unpredictable drafts. They placed third in Group A, and went on to knock Digital Chaos, MVP Phoenix and even EG out of the Upper Bracket.
The Grand Finals saw a rematch between them and Digital Chaos, who had just clinched a narrow base-race victory from EG, to advance into the Top 2.
At least Slacks’ name won’t be going on the Aegis of Champions this year round, which is a relief.
More interestingly, though, this continues a trend observed by many, the Aegis of the Champions seems to oscillate between teams from the East and the West so far.
For those not in the know, this is called the East-West cycle:
The International 2011: West over East > Natus Vincere beat eHome
The International 2012: East over West > Invictus Gaming beat Natus Vincere
The International 2013: West over West > Alliance beat Natus Vincere
The International 2014: East over East > Newbee beat Vici Gaming
The International 2015: West over East > Evil Geniuses beat CDEC
The International 2016: East over West > Wings Gaming beat Digital Chaos
At the end of the day, though, one can’t forget the incredible performance put out by DC. A team of rejects getting picked up by an eccentric memer and then getting into the TI grand finals?
This isn’t a shitpost. This is reality.
And we love it.
