China Dota 2 Pro Cup S2: Elephant trample over Aster for first championship

After an unprecedented run through the lower bracket, Elephant are the champions of China Dota 2 Pro Cup Season 2. Led to victory by captain Xu “fy” Linsen, they’ll be taking home $30,405 of the $91,214 prize pool. Their path to the podium included victories over PSG.LGD and EHOME, ending in a dominant 3:0 victory in the grand final over rising stars Team Aster.

Game one of the best-of-five was a contest between Zhang "Eurus" Chengjun’s pre-11-minute Battle Fury Anti-Mage and Lin "Xxs" Jing’s snowballing Legion Commander. A wild fight for Dire’s bottom barracks led to Aster’s GG call. The second match featured a wild support Arc Warden from fy. Backed up by Lu "Somnus丶M" Yao’s physical damage Mirana, they took the series to match point. After reaching several crucial item timings at the 35-minute mark, Elephant’s deathball draft trampled over Du “Monet” Peng’s godlike Terrorblade.

This is the first victory for China’s biggest superteam. The roster started off strong with silver to LGD at CDA-FDC Pro Championship Season 1, but bombed out of playoffs at Season 2. Their victory here cements them as a squad of champions. Even Ru "RedPanda" Zhihao, Elephant’s least experienced player, had moments to shine on his signature Strength supports.

Pro Cup Season 2 ran concurrently with CDA-FDC Pro Championship S2, and both events featured the highest level of play possible in regionlocked China. Vici, LGD, Elephant, EHOME, and Royal Never Give Up were supposed to fight over the podium, but Team Aster managed to sneak two medals and around $48,000 in prizes. While their grand finals showing wasn’t impressive, remember that Aster knocked Elephant into the lower bracket in the very first round.

PSG.LGD can keep their spot as the flagship for now, partially because Vici did worse. Ding “Dy” Cong’s team landed consecutive 5th place finishes, losing to Invictus Gaming of all teams at CDA-FDC. The loss of Eurus was somewhat softened by Yang "Erica" Shaohan’s promising start, but Vici should be anxious to have Nuengnara "23savage" Teeramahanon join the starting roster. Royal Never Give Up is the silent victim of shuffle. Expectations were raised after their bronze finish at Season 1 of CDA-FDC, but Zhong "圣子华炼" Liushuai’s savviness for off-meta carries doesn’t fly as well in such a well-developed patch. With 7.28 all-but-confirmed for mid-December, expect RNG to take advantage of the shakeup.