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Shadow is our MVP of The International 6
It could have been anyone from Wings, but Shadow edges it as our MVP of TI6.
The curtains have closed on the best Dota 2 event in history. With a staggering prize pool of $20,770,460 (€18,598,283), The International 6 became the largest eSports event in history and it most definitely had the grandeur that it deserved. The production was seamless, the talent line-up perfect and most importantly the Dota phenomenal.
There were storylines aplenty with huge twists and shocks throughout a truly exceptional tournament. Few would have predicted that Team Secret and Natus Vincere would crash out in last place, whilst an inspired Filipino squad, TNC Gaming, led by Jimmy ‘DeMon’ Ho would knock out the favourites OG.
Even fewer would have predicted that Digital Chaos, a team formed just hours before the roster lock, would find themselves competing for just shy of $10m in the Grand Final. Their opponents, and now TI champions, Wings Gaming turned in performances far beyond the belief of many.
We could have picked anyone from the Wings roster for our MVP, but with performances such as his 20/0/16 Faceless Void in Game 3 of the Grand Finals, we decided that Chu ‘shadow’ Zeyu was thoroughly deserving of the award.
It’s extremely difficult to pick an MVP of a tournament which had so many storylines. DC’s entire squad deserve great credit for their run through the lower bracket and each and every one of Wings Gaming’s players were phenomenal in their execution.
Analysts simply gave up trying to predict what Wings would draft as they continued to pull new strategies out of the bag and execute them to perfection. Some analysts, such as WinteR and Black, went as far as to suggest that this Wings roster is the best Dota team in history and, although it may be premature to label them that, their performance in Seattle was up there with the best ever.
We all knew of Wings Gaming’s talent should they hit top form, having seen them dismantle teams at ESL One Manila and also at The Summit, but finally they managed to piece together the complete puzzle and looked simply unstoppable.
Their draft diversity and the amazing execution of their game plan in every match was simply superb. During the Main Event, the Chinese roster lost just two games in the entirety of their run to taking home the Aegis. Those two games were both against Digital Chaos and in both games they decided to draft a Pudge – and even had the audacity to draft Techies in the first of the two Pudge games.
Shadow himself went through the main event with a total KDA of 7.56, with 86 kills, 25 deaths and 109 assists as he rarely put a foot wrong. In the Grand Final, his performance on Faceless Void was a thing of beauty. His use of Chronosphere was always without fault and Digital Chaos simply found him too hot to handle.
Wings picked 13 different heroes of a potential 15 in the last three games, showing their outstanding versatility, and it was Shadow’s first game on Anti-Mage which ultimately sealed the series and with it his share of the $9m winners’ prize.
Recovering from two early deaths and an 8,500 gold deficit Shadow finished the game with 784 GPM in another outstanding performance.
Wings Gaming are an extremely young team comprised of some of the best new talent in the Dota scene. Although there are rumours that Zhang ‘Faith_bian’ Ruida is to head back to school following their victory, should they stay together we could see an era of dominance, with the Chinese team showing that they have the versatility and ability to compete at the very top.
With The International done and dusted, we expect the inevitable roster shuffle to get moving fairly quickly. As we know, the world of Dota 2 is wonderfully unpredictable so the community is in for an intriguing few months.
Underperforming rosters will seek to chop and change and we may be in for some big surprises in the top teams as well. With Underlord unveiled to complete the original Dota hero set and Valve teasing Sun Wukong – the first hero that isn’t a port from the original Dota – we can barely wait for another great year of Dota 2.
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