China League officially opened the 2021 Dota Pro Circuit.
Lower Division games played on stage in a LAN setup opened the season with Phoenix Gaming and Dalanjing Gaming being the teams to kick off the competition, followed by Royal Never Give Up playing against Sparking Arrow Gaming.
First series went the distance, as Phoenix forced a game three after getting severely outmaneuvered in game one by a carry Riki and a mid lane Outworld Destroyer coming from DG. In the end, Phoenix made their DPC debut with a victory, taking the decisive game from DG on the back of a Terrorblade draft that allowed them to establish early dominance with highly mobile heroes, such Clockwerk and Ember Spirit, who created the space for TB the farm freely.
Given RNG’s rather surprising presence in the Lower Division, the second series of the day was the more anticipated one by the fans, who got to witness the first upset of the season.
The series pitted for the first time SAG against their former carry, Zhong ” God-King” Liushuai, who is now playing for RNG and most certainly the one year spent with him came in handy for SAG today as they were able to outdraft and outplay RNG to deliver the first upset of the season. In game one, they had the last pick in the first draft of the series and countered RNG’s Morphling game plan with a Troll Warlord paired with Oracle and Tusk, who managed to keep him alive through the entire match. At his first LAN ever, SAG’s new carry, Hou “idc” Xiaomeng continued to dominate the opposition in game two as well, going 12-0-14 on Wraith King to make his debut with a spotless performance.
SAG’s early victory in the China League puts them at the top of the Lower Division charts, but the competition is only starting. Top two teams will promote at the end of the League run to the Season 2 Upper Division and it will be interesting to follow the region for the next two months to see if RNG will redeem themselves or if two underdogs will rise to tier one status.
headline picture: Perfect World
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