This article is part of our Dota 2 series.
The first significant event in the fall major season has come to a close. At the MarsTV Autumn LAN finals, seven teams with new rosters plus iG.Vitality gathered for the first test of their new lineups. These new rosters featured a hearty mix of new talent, as well as some "legends" from the past.
The two teams that finished in last place are MVP Phoenix and iG.Vitality, the latter of which has kept the same roster since March of 2016. iG.Vitality were frankly not expected to place well in this event, despite doing quite well in the qualifiers. While iG.Vitality may perform well in Chinese leagues, competition on an international scale is on a different level. MVP Phoenix looked like a team without an identity at MarsTV. The loss of Pyo "MP" No-a and Lee "FoREV" Sang-don to Team Secret has hit them exceptionally hard. Kim "Febby" Yong-min has moved into the position one role, and the team clearly still has some work to do. They attempted to continue with the now-classic MVP style -- picking as many melee heroes as possible and running at people -- but Kim "QO" Seon-yeob hasn't been able to deliver the same performances without his partner in crime, MP. The individual skill is clearly there for all five players, but this is a team that desperately needs to find its identity.
The next two teams to be eliminated from MarsTV were Vici Gaming and LGD.Forever Young, finishing in 5th-6th place. The former Vici Gaming Reborn roster essentially morphed into Vici Gaming, save for their middle lane as Wang "Nono" Xin left the squad and Zheng "ghost" Jie took his place. Vici had a pretty rough tournament, only winning a single series over the course of the entire event. On the bright side, they did at least win a game in every best-of-three series except against OG. This was a rough first event for Vici, but it was also ghost's first time in the spotlight. LGD.Forever Young is Zhang "xiao8" Ning's latest attempt to form a successful team. Along with the legendary captain, veteran players Xie "Super" Junhao and Yao "Yao" Zhengzheng join two newcomers to the scene. This team clearly has work to do. They didn't win a single series, except against the 7th-8th place iG.Vitality team. Although their performance looked very weak, the team does have xiao8 in the captain's chair, so it's not fair to write them off this early. His LGD team at The International 6 shattered expectations, performing surprisingly well even with a substitute.
Team Secret finished in fourth place in their first event with the new roster after being eliminated by OG. Compared to their TI6 lineup, this is a massive improvement. Clement "Puppey" Ivanov seems to have worked out the new identity of his team, or at least partially. Gone are the ultra-greedy drafts where the game was lost at the pick screen. Without Artour "Arteezy" Babaev and Jacky "EternaLEnVy" Mao both competing for farm, Puppey's drafting has become much more diverse. The addition of MP, FoREV and Yeik "MidOne" Nai Zheng replaced Secret's entire core roster for the better. Those additions have vastly improved Secret's pool of viable strategies. We saw them win with Naga Siren, taking it into the late game, but we also saw them draft Storm Spirit and Bounty Hunter and win by fighting. The new Secret is the most improved roster so far, going from last place at TI6 to a serious contender.
OG finished in third place, but looked very inconsistent even in single games. The core of the old OG lineup is still there, and they have continued playing heavily around their middle and safe lane players. With Anathan "Ana" Pham in place of Amer "Miracle" Al-Barkawi, the raw skill is there but clearly needs refining. Ana absolutely dominated in games where he was able to gain an early lead, but the true test is learning how to win from behind. In games were OG took an early lead, they absolutely crushed the opposition, but playing from behind was a desperate struggle. The other major issue OG may have is in the off-lane. Gustav "s4" Magnusson still clearly has some learning to do playing his new role. He was consistently the weak link in OG, even when the team was winning. S4 looked pretty good on Batrider and Axe, but his performance outside of those heroes left a lot to be desired.
Despite finishing in second, Newbee put on an extremely dominant showing. They played the fewest matches of any team at the event, winning their group 2-0 and managed to not drop a series on the way to the grand finals. The new roster performed extremely well, especially the two newcomers to the international scene. Both Xu "uuu9" Han and Song "Sccc" Chun had a very impressive tournament, and Zeng "Faith" Hongda seems to be playing like his old self. Sccc's Invoker almost single-handedly decimated Evil Geniuses in the upper bracket finals, leading to one of the most impressive highlight reels of the event. This was an extremely strong first showing, and if they can keep it up this will be a more-than-worthy successor to the now legendary Newbee name.
The new Evil Geniuses roster looks stronger than ever, even after losing the leadership of Peter "ppd" Dager. The team is clearly playing a similar style, focusing heavily on making sure that Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan and Artour "Arteezy" Babaev have the space they need to succeed. Andreas "Cr1t" Nielsen seems to be doing well drafting for his teammates, and then playing around them. In true Evil Geniuses fashion, they dropped to the lower bracket after getting decimated in the upper bracket finals by Newbee. Even without ppd, the team still seems focused on learning from their mistakes. They made their way into the grand finals, eventually knocking out OG. In the grand finals, Evil Geniuses was in control virtually all series. They won 3-1 in a dominant fashion, securing Arteezy's first win on LAN since ESL One Frankfurt in 2015.
