TI 6 Team Preview: LGD
LGD are one of the stronger Chinese teams and have two 3rd place TI rankings under their belt. A regular attendee at The International since TI 2, LGD’s best performances came in that competition and TI 5.
After the Chinese teams crumbled in this year’s Shanghai Major, LGD underwent necessary roster changes. Zhang “xiao8” Ning (bearing the reputation of being the best captain in China) made a big return after a period of inactivity, while TI 5 second-place star Sun “Agressif” Zheng was signed from CDEC Gaming. Young Support Xue “September” Zhichuan from CDEC.Avenger completed the roster. Unfortunately, he was denied a US visa after four unsuccessful attempts and so will be replaced by coach Wang “Banana” Jiao for TI 6.
Roster:
Sun “Agressif” Zheng – position 1
Lu “Maybe” Yao – position 2
Zhang “xiao8” Ning (c) – position 3
Xue “September” Zhichuan – position 4
Lei “MMY!” Zengrong – position 5
Wang “Banana” Jiao – coach/sub
2016 achievements:
Dota2 Professional League Season 1 – 1st
Nanyang Dota 2 Championships Season 2 – 3rd
StarLadder i-League Invitational – 3rd
StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 1 – 3rd-4th
The Manila Major – 4th
MarsTV Dota 2 League Winter 2015 – 4th
Current form:
73% win rate (July) – 8 wins, 1 draw, 2 losses
Top 7 most picked heroes this month:
| Hero | Picks | Win % |
| Elder Titan | 7 | 85.71% |
| Crystal Maiden | 6 | 100.00% |
| Storm Spirit/Oracle | 5 | 80.00% |
| Slark/Invoker | 5 | 60.00% |
| Kunkka | 5 | 40.00% |
Top 5 most banned heroes this month:
| Hero | Bans | Win % |
| Lifestealer | 14 | 64.29% |
| Faceless Void | 9 | 77.78% |
| Death Prophet | 9 | 77.78% |
| Dark Seer | 8 | 75.00% |
| Batrider | 5 | 80.00% |
The March roster changes that LGD implemented have significantly improved the team, but September’s absence will certainly be a major blow. Banana’s role as a player will be interesting to see, especially since his inactivity, but his CV is impressive enough – he was a TI 4 winner with Newbee and is a former teammate of xiao8 from that roster.
LGD like to team fight and currently have a preference for long initiation set up heroes such as Kunkka and Elder Titan. Although Storm Spirit is not among the popular mid heroes at the moment, he is very successful in the hands of Maybe, who is the playmaker of the team. His individual performances were better than the rest of the team in Manila, where he topped the individual GPM/XPM and KDA charts and was a contender for the tournament MVP. In Nanyang he also proved himself as the main driving force of the outfit. Despite his lackluster performance in Manila, Agressif improved his form and performed well in Nanyang too.
xiao8’s off-game influence is well known, but his in-game influence is equally important. He is a very good Tidehunter and Beastmaster player and more recently Faceless Void and Mirana user. He can scrape farm against tough lane opponents and get decent amounts of farm.
LGD are one of the strongest Chinese teams, but in clashes with the best sides (both European and Chinese), they have been lacking. They are not the first team that come to mind when thinking about TI 6 winners, but their previous history at The International and their recent results show that anything less than a top six finish would be a disappointment.
