“It's too embarrassing,” Azure Ray enter a restructuring period

A long trail of disappointing results asks for major changes.

Riyadh Masters 2024 play-in stage ended disastrously for the Chinese Dota. Two of the three teams from China have placed at the very bottom of the groups. Azure Ray left the competition with a 1-9 overall game score. This comes after they also fell short in the regional qualifiers for The International 2024 (TI13), which leaves the organisation on the outside at the biggest two tournaments of the year.

Azure Ray entered the 2024 year with a massive shuffle. They closed 2023 on a high note by placing fourth at TI12 and winning ESL One Kuala Lumpur. However, immediately after the tournament in the Malaysian capital was over, three of their players left to join Wang "Ame" Chunyu at Xtreme Gaming. Azure Ray were forced into a restructuring that brought Zhang "Faith_bian" Ruida back from retirement.

Despite having two legends on their roster, Faith_bian and fy, Azure Ray’s performance was underwhelming. Besides being able to stay at the top in their region and claim qualifier slots to several LAN tournaments, in the international competition they struggled. Their only top 4 finishes through the year were at BetBoom Dacha Dubai where they finished in fourth place and at Elite League Season 1 where they finished third. Both tournaments took place in May.

What’s next for Azure Ray

“It's too embarrassing,” posted Azure Ray on their Weibo page after they were eliminated from Riyadh Masters 2024. “We can’t continue to lose far away from home,” the organisation noted, announcing a period of restructure.

While they won’t be at TI13, the season is not completely over for AR. The team received a direct invite to the $500,000 Snow Ruyi LAN event which will take place at the end of the month in the Chinese Olympic village Taizicheng. A total of 12 teams will compete from July 28 to August 4 and while for some this might be the last big test before TI, for some, the Snow Ruyi Invitational can turn into a true trial by fire event.

It’s not only Azure Ray who got invited to this tournament after a disappointing year. Team Secret, Nigma Galaxy and Virtus.pro will be there too, most likely, all looking at making major roster changes in the post-TI shuffle.