Manila Major Team Preview: LGD
LGD are one of the Dota 2 Chinese powerhouses and are sponsored by large food company Guizhou Laogandie Food, being named after it.
The team came into existence in 2012 and their financial resources helped them to establish themselves quickly among the top Chinese teams in the emerging professional Dota scene.
LGD have been a regular participant in the Internationals, securing two third place finishes in 2012 and 2015. Following their great performance in TI 5, their 7-8th placing in the Frankfurt Major was below expectations and on home turf in Shanghai, LGD performed even worse, finishing 9-12th.
The team’s poor results led to a bad atmosphere inside the camp and Liu “Sylar” Jiajun left shortly afterwards after a conflict with the CEO. LGD were soon reconstructed with a couple of fresh names however, and were boosted by the return of captain xiao8. These moves saw them secure 3rd spot in the StarLadder i-League Invitational in mid-April.
Roster
Sun “Agressif” Zheng – position 1
Lu “Maybe” Yao – position 2
Zhang “xiao8” Ning (c) – position 3
Xue “September” Zhichuan – position 4
Lei “MMY!” Zengrong – position 5
2016 achievements:
StarLadder i-League Invitational – 3rd
MarsTV Dota 2 League Winter 2015 – 4th
Star Ladder Star Series Season 13 & i-League Season 4 – 3rd-4th
Current form:
May – 81.0% win rate (13 wins, 2 draws, 1 loss)
Top 5 most picked heroes (patch 6.87c)
| Hero | Matches | Win % |
| Lion | 12 | 66.67% |
| Invoker | 10 | 90.00% |
| Phoenix | 10 | 80.00% |
| Lifestealer | 7 | 86.71% |
| Bounty Hunter | 6 | 83.33% |
Top 5 most banned heroes (patch 6.87c)
| Hero | Matches | Win % |
| Bounty Hunter | 15 | 73.33% |
| Beastmaster | 15 | 60.00% |
| Slark | 8 | 75.00% |
| Tidehunter | 8 | 75.00% |
| Naga Siren | 8 | 75.00% |
xiao8 returned to the team after the Shanghai Major and he stabilized them immediately. He has a reputation of being one of the best captains and leaders in Dota 2 and his impact has been clearly visible.
The roster contains other notable stars as well. Agressif is one of the younger players and lives up to his name in terms of playstyle. He is known for his farming skills and last October he set a new Dota 2 record for Juggernaut GPM (889GPM). The team also have a strong Invoker player in the form of Maybe and this has often been advantageous for them.
LGD also have one of the most credited supports in the Dota 2 scene – MMY!. Lion is one of the heroes he favours, and he is also one of the most popular supports in the current meta. MMY! has mastered playing him, and he was one of the players who popularized the usage of the Blink Dagger on Lion. LGD make the most of the ganking potential and initiation here.
LGD’s picks are consistent with the current meta and they use some of the most popular heroes. Xiao8 has tried both late game compositions and early game lineups. In this patch, the team have had more success by playing early game carries alongside sustainability supports such as Phoenix. The Lifestealer has returned to the meta in this patch and LGD find him quite useful for early game fights.
The new roster changes have given LGD some momentum and the team will have high hopes of performing much better than in the previous two Majors.
Dafabet will be providing competitive odds on The Manila Major.
