TI8 team preview: Invictus Gaming, a shell of its former self

This is the latest in a series of articles profiling the 18 teams attending The International 8, which kicks off on Aug. 15.

There was once a time (specifically, last year) when the name “Invictus Gaming” meant a lot in the competitive Dota 2 space.

The 2017 roster containing the legendary Xu “BurNing” Zhilei played well in important events in the previous season, which culminated in a first place finish at the Dota 2 Asia Championship. Through their innovation of the metagame, iG left their mark on the scene in more than a few ways—despite their campaign at The International ending on a somewhat disappointing note.

This year, however, they’ve been completely absent from the conversation of “best teams in the world.” After having to adjust to a new lineup following BurNing’s departure to form Big God 2.0, they were never able to get off the ground the way they did a season prior. In fact, they attended a mere two out of the 22 Pro Circuit events held this year—failing to score points in either one.

Running with runners-up

All in all, it’s looking rather bleak for iG at TI8—having just scraped by in the highly-competitive Chinese regional qualifier after dropping the first available slot to Team Serenity. They’re almost lucky to be in the running for the Aegis of Champions at all, despite the fact that three out of the five players that represented the squad at TI7 are still around.

But, none should forget that both Sun “Agressif” Zheng and Fu “Q” Bin—two players from the CDEC Gaming lineup that made it to the TI5 grand finals—play for iG. This gives the rest of the team some much needed veteran experience and leadership, which they will need to rely on heavily if they are to get past the much stronger teams in the field.

It’s no doubt going to be an uphill battle of the highest order for iG in Vancouver. Fans of the team will have to hope that they figure something out quick in their TI8 bootcamp, or for either Agressif or Lin “Xxs” Jing to go off in their respective core roles. The latter, however, might not even be enough.

Player to watch

As the offlaner for iG last year, Xxs had a reputation for pulling through in the most tense clutch moments, especially when he got his hands on Magnus. His decision making is up there with that of the best players in the world, and his ironclad will makes him hard to shake up.

Biggest challenge

Make no mistake about it: Invictus Gaming is a team for which missing out on the main event wouldn’t even be a surprise. They pale in comparison to even the squads that are expected to make top eight at best. We expect nothing special from them, but they do have two players who are no stranger to making miracle runs possible.

Team grade

A rather discouraging D goes to iG this time around. They were able to accomplish nothing noteworthy this year, and almost didn’t even qualify for the tournament to begin with.