G2.iG is one of the only three Chinese teams heading to The International 2024.
The Dota 2 player pool in China is getting smaller every year. While mobile games take over the region, the Chinese organizations are finding it harder than ever to build a new generation of players, and as varsity teams are a thing of the past, Dota 2 veterans are being swapped left and right in search of the perfect roster composition.
Even some of the most successful Chinese organizations are facing true challenges to stay afloat, let alone be at the top of the competitive Dota 2 scene. Invictus Gaming is one of the oldest Chinese organizations, competing since the very first The International in 2011, proudly boasting an Aegis of Champions won in 2012 and plenty of other championship titles gathered throughout their rich history in the scene.
But despite their legacy, even iG had to look outside of China when the big post TI shuffle hit last year. iG were after a disappointing 2023 competitive season in which they missed TI12. In the event aftermath, when all the teams entered the shuffle window, iG went on signing three Malaysian players to team up with the Chinese stars Monet and BoBoKa.
Soon after the roster was assembled, Invictus Gaming made another surprising move and announced a joint partnership with the German organization G2 Esports. The two giants shook hands and on December 8, 2023, the Dota 2 division of Invictus Gaming became G2.iG.
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G2 x iG roster
G2 x iG
Du “Monet” Peng
Cheng “NothingToSay” Jin XiangJun Wen “JT-” ThiayZhibiao “BoBoKa” YeJian Wei “xNova-” Yap
This marked G2’s first adventure in the Dota 2 space and by the end of the same 2023 year, the joint partnership would already make its competitive debut with a top 6 finish at ESL One Kuala Lumpur.
While the result itself wasn’t bad for a first tournament together for the new G2.iG roster, a top 6 finish in front of a home crowd for JT, xNova and NothingToSay, it wasn’t a perfect start either.
Unfortunately, through the rest of the competitive season, the best results came only when playing against domestic teams through Chinese qualifiers. A top four finish this year in May at PGL Wallachia Season 1 is G2.iG’s best performance this year and that was not enough to grant them a direct invite at The International 2024. They claimed their spot at the pinnacle event of the season through the Chinese closed qualifiers where they came in second place after Team Zero.
Their lack of trophies this year can’t be attributed to communication issues or lack of synergy. Although they have three Malaysians, everyone on the team is fluent in Chinese and there are no communication issues even in clutch moments. Inside and outside the game, all the players are getting along very well and have built strong bonds. Perhaps what kept them a tad behind this year was their incapacity to adapt on the fly to new patches and shifting metas.
They had two tournaments this year where a new patch was deployed during the competition. ESL One Kula Lumpur had the 7.35 update that introduced a ton of new items released mid event. The recently concluded Clavision: Snow Ruyi tournament had the 7.37 patch coming overnight at the end of the group stage, while a few lettered patches came days before a tournament would start.
Through all the patches and metas, some heroes remained the same for G2.iG.
Monet’s staple carries are more likely to make it to the G2.iG drafts even though they might not be hot meta picks. JT, although he is a flashy type of player, also tends to resort to a comfort pick when the situation is dire, and through the past couple of months, when for instance his signature Magnus was completely out of the meta, that hurt the team.
Those who bring hero diversity to the G2.iG drafts are NothingToSay and BoBoKa. Both are extremely versatile and capable of playing heroes that are unorthodox for their roles and that’s where the surprise factor can happen. There is a lot of flexibility between all the G2.iG players, which is what kept them in the top 8, top 6 throughout the year. Heroes such as Weaver, Earthshaker, Dazzle, Tiny, Clinkz, and Sand King, to name a few, could go either as cores or supports when picked by the Chinese team. On top of that, the trio core shares quite a few heroes too, making the drafting stage rather complicated for their opponents.
NothingToSay won’t shy away from bringing a Slardar, a Doom or even a Faceless Void to the mid lane. Most of the flex between the cores relies on picks such as Primal Beast, Razor and Templar Assassin.
G2.iG most successful hero pairings before TI13
Among the most picked heroes by G2.iG in the 2024 season are Monet’s Luna, with 25 games and an impressive 72% win rate, Enchantress with 39 games and a 59% win rate, and Lion with 37 games and a 65% win rate. While Enchantress is a top pick hero for the majority of the teams that are heading to TI, the G2.iG supports have Lion, Tiny, Batrider and Weaver as picks that set them apart from the rest.
Since the 7.37 gameplay update, Tinker, one of NothingtoSay’s staple heroes, has become one of the best position 5 heroes. So, it will be interesting to see if NTS still finds the hero good enough for the mid lane or it will be xNova to play it on the TI stage despite the nerfs applied in the 7.37b patch.
Speaking of heroes who might make an appearance in unusual roles, about two weeks before The International 2024 some of the professional carry players have started to practice Dragon Knight with the Fire Dragon facet and Lina with the Thermal Runaway facet.
Monet is one of the players to have tested both heroes in pubs, and as weird as it might sound, a carry Lina, the current meta is suited for very fast paced games, and Lina can only benefit from a constant aggression type of game where the entire team forces extremely early team fights and seeks total annihilation. Both DK and Lina are currently some of the fastest farming heroes in the game, which makes them appealing for carry players, but only time will tell if they will really make a splash on the TI stage from position one.
With that said, it is worth mentioning that G2.iG broke a record this year by playing the longest series in Dota 2 history. They defeated Azure Ray 3-2 in the ESL One Birmingham Chinese qualifiers grand finals at the end of a total of 5:34:40 (five hours, thirty-four minutes, and forty seconds) game time. The first game of that series went on for 1.5 hours, while the fourth had a 1:47:50 of playtime.
However, overall, G2.iG tends to start the aggression around the 11-12 minute mark when they take the first tower down. Usually, it’s the enemy offlane tier 1 tower that goes down fast, freeing JT entirely and allowing him to constantly move around the map. JT is one of the players who likes the hyper mobile heroes. Magnus, Timbersaw, Primal Beast, or Pangolier are his favourite picks. As he expressed in an interview at PGL Wallachia Season 1, the aura stacking meta where he had to play Centaur Warruner or Doom, was not something that he enjoyed.
He would rather go for an exotic offlane Meepo than play Centaur, so don’t be surprised if he goes for the mega Meepo on the TI stage. He’s done it a few times already this year and if there will be no more patches until The International 2024, G2.iG have all the time needed to figure out a few pocket strats.
They have the veterans, they have the versatility, they have the synergy. On a good day, G2.iG can take down any team, the question is how many good days will they have in Copenhagen at The International 2024?
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