The Dark Horses of The International 5

The article was written based on teams’ drafts only for the current 6.84 patch in collaboration with Jaishil “Drifter” Mistry and it highlights their current playstyle.

Newbee

Achievements:
4th WEC 2014
5 - 8th i-League 2014
1st World Cyber Arena 2014
13 - 16th DAC
4th i-League Season 3

After their amazing success at The International 4, Newbee's performance graph registered a sharp downwards trajectory and no other Aegis holding team faded as fast as they did in 2015. In all fairness, they did lose two of their key members, Hao and xiao8, and that left a clear mark on their record for this competitive year. It remains to be seen if their new roster is capable of defending the title and even though they aren't credited with many chances to do so, they have the last year's experience to draw from, when they got nearly eliminated in the group stage only to pull through with unbelievable performances in the main event.

In the recent 6.84 patch Newbee have poor results and they only showed up for three major tournaments. They got knocked out from G-league in the first round, at Mars TV they were eliminated in the group stages and their only notable achievement was registered in i-League where they defeated Invictus Gaming twice an Team Malaysia (Fnatic) once and finished on 4th position.

With Dragon Knight and Gyrocopter as the most picked heroes in these three tournaments, Newbee are adjusting to the latest patch trend which implies early map control by taking fast tier one towers, get easier access to the enemy jungle and create space for your carry to safe farm. Their priority is to ensure Mu’s dominance in the midlane, therefore, in the banning phase they target Viper, Lina and Queen of Pain, well known for their disruptive laning presence while they rely on very aggressive and ganking oriented supports like Lion and Earthsaker. 

Newbee Roster:

Wang 'Rabbit' Zhang      
Zhang 'Mu' Pan
Lin 'June' Shiyang            
Wang 'Banana' Jiao         
Wang 'SanSheng' Zhaohui

Fnatic

Achievements:
5 - 6th WCA 2014
3rd Red Bull Battle Grounds 2015
5 - 6th StarLadder Season 12
3rd i-League Season 3
3rd jD-MLG Pro League Season 2
5 - 8th ESL One Frankfurt 2015

Due to the role swap between Kecik Imba and Mushi right in the middle of the 6.84 patch, their first games with Mushi returning in his core mid position being played at i-League, Fnatic’s  drafting stats alone are a bit confusing and do not accurately reflect their playstyle.

Even so, one thing is sure; Fnatic are developing their drafts around Mushi’s staple heroes and they tend to use greedy, item dependent mid cores like Shadow Fiend, Dragon Knight while throwing in the mix odd picks for this patch like Outworld Devourer (ESL One 2015). They usually strengthen their lineups by grabbing offlane heroes with huge potential to turn into a late game carry, like Bristleback.

Their trilane is very often extremely aggressive with kYxY on Gyrocopter, Juggernaut or the omnipresent Leshrac, heroes that are the flavor of this patch due to their dominance capability in the early to midgame stage.  The dynamic duo Lina and Crystal Maiden, alongside Rubick, well known for their ability successfully rotate and ruin enemy lanes, are the usual choices for their supports. All in all, Fnatic fully embraced the 6.84 meta but they can easily swim against the current if need be and generate surprising drafts to tilt their opponents.

Fnatic Roster:

Yee Fung 'Mushi' Chai
Chong Xin 'Ohaiyo' Khoo
Kong Yang 'kYxY' Lee
Siong Tait 'JoHnNy' Lee
Fadil 'Kecik Imba' Raziff

Natus Vincere

Achivements:
4 - 8th WCA 2014
5 - 8th ESL One New York 2014
5 - 6th StarLadder Season 10
1st D2CL Season 4
5 - 6th StarLadder Season 11
9 - 12th DAC
2nd DreamLeague Season 3

Everyone knows that Na’Vi are three times TI finalists, a performance that no other team managed to achieve yet. Even so, TI4 marked the beginning of a cloudy season and their free falling into DotA’s purgatory. But Artsyle’s comeback coupled with the acquisition of SoNNeikO, an astonishing talented playmaking support from Power Rangers, proved to be the winning moves and the new Na’Vi roster seems to have finally found the good balance between raw talent and a leader who can command respect from his team mates and can make them work together to restore their former glory.

Na’Vi have always been the pure definition for the CIS aggressiveness and to see XBOCT with Gyrocopter as the most played hero in this patch doesn't  come as a surprise. In the few tournaments they played in 6.84, Na’Vi have shown that their drafts are still built around Dendi’s and XBOCT’s well known cores that are allowing for early high pressure and insane dives but at the same time scale quite good to become late game beasts.

Although Puck is not a popular hero these days, ArtStyle is not afraid to draft him along with his signature Night Stalker or Chen. SoNNeikO impressed the world with his Winter Wyvern, a hero that thrives in the current meta, by masterfully controlling teamfights or by pulling amazing saves and dazzling initiation moves.

Na'Vi Roster:

Daniil 'Dendi' Ishutin
Alexander 'XBOCT'Dashkevich
Akbar 'SoNNeikO' Butaev
Ivan 'ArtStyle'Antonov
Gleb 'Funn1k' Lipatnikov  

LGD Gaming

Achievements:
5 - 8th WEC 2014
4 - 8th WCA 2014
1st G-League 2014
1st i-League Season 2
9 - 12th DAC
4th The Summit 3
1st i-league Season 3
5 - 8th MDL
1st G-League 2015

LGD is a well established name in the Chinese scene but recently they underperformed in tournaments outside the Asian borders. Although they have great performances this year and more specific to this patch winning i-League and G-League, when they had to face Western teams like Empire and EG in MDL they couldn't keep up the pace. Their drafts are molded on the Chinese meta and their ability to adapt in time for the big event could be questioned if they didn't hold an ace in their sleeve, namely xiao8.

Ever since the TI4 Champion joined LGD earlier this year, he became their captain and their drafter. And if there's one guy who's sense of the game enables him to outdraft any team and emerge victorious, xiao8 is the one.

With Undying being the most banned hero while the main priority in picks are MMY’s Rubick (25 times picked in 6.84) and the Shadow Fiend, (20 picks) who can be played by both Sylar as a heavy spell damage carry and by Maybe as a mid laner, LGD is emphasizing the mid-game snowball potential. Gyrocopter and Juggernaut are also top picks for Sylar and they make perfect sense as LGD prefers to go all aggressive. These obsessively repeated drafts are either meant to hide a pocket strategy for this year’s International or to polish up to perfection a strategy that could cut through the opposition by outplaying them in the same way as it did last year in Key Arena when xiao8 won the most wanted trophy with games that ended around the 15 minute mark.

LGD Gaming Roster:

Liu 'Sylar' Jiajun
Lu 'Maybe' Yao
Yao 'Yao' Zhengzheng
Zhang 'xiao8' Ning
Lei 'MMY!' Zengrong

More content on GosuGamers