Vici Gaming
File:Vici Gaming Logo (Black Background).png | |
Founded | 2012 |
---|---|
Location | Shanghai, China |
Manager | Lu "HunTeR" Wenjun (CEO) |
Divisions | Dota 2 League of Legends real-time strategy FIFA Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft Counter-Strike: Global Offensive |
Website | http://www.vicigaming.com/ |
Vici Gaming (VG) is a professional eSports organization based in Shanghai, China. They have teams competing in Dota 2, League of Legends, StarCraft II, WarCraft III, FIFA, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Their Dota 2 team has been victorious and top contender in numerous tournaments, some of the most notable ones being 2nd place at The International 2014.
Dota 2 History
2012
Vici Gaming was founded on October 21, 2012[1] with the help of “Fengdidi”, who also had previously played in PanDarea Gaming under the name PanPan, handpicking highly skilled players that were highly ranked on the Chinese DotA ladder at the time.
The players had no previous professional experience at the time with the exception of sydm who had played under the banner of TyLoo. Their mid lane player Cty had shown promise by winning a 1v1 tournament organized by 2009, in which he beat famous players like Ferrari_430, Sylar, Hao, and other top Chinese players shortly before getting recruited.
The team qualified for the 2012 G-League Season 2 by beating Noah's Ark in the preliminaries.
2013
On January 28, Vici signed Greedy, captained by the famous YaphetS as their online/backup squad. The rest of the team consisted of xiaotuji, Maybe, nL_Ks, and CaptainGiveMeBall. They were focused on Dota, although they have since expanded to Dota 2.[2]
On March 1, Vici signed ZSMJ, who built a Dota 2 squad.[3] It was believed that ZSMJ brought some of his teammates from his project with Chisbug with him to Vici Gaming, of which one is definitely Sgua_Li. In the following weeks, Vici Gaming made some roster adjustments, dropping some players in private while sending out a public notice for interested players to contact them.
On March 28, it was announced that carry player ZSMJ replaced mid player sydm and that former carry Cty picked up the mid role.[4]
In June 2013, following elimination from The International 2013 qualifiers and a disappointing finish outside playoff places in DSL, Vici Gaming announced the departure of team executive, PandaPanPan, and team manager, Nada. Their replacement was mikasa, who had played as a substitute for VG.
On October 31 Sylar joins the teams as the new carry player, but would not be in the starting lineup for almost 2 months due to contract terms and TuTu remains to play on the ongoing 2013 WPC Ace Dota2 League.[5]
In December 2013, Vici Gaming traveled to Poland to compete in the Raidcall EMS Fall LAN finals, joining the ranks of teams like Alliance, Natus Vincere, and DK who were pioneers in east-west tournament participation.[6] Vici would go on to take first place at EMS One Fall. Following this, the team also traveled to the Kingston HyperX Dota 2 League in Las Vegas.,[7] but would subsequently fall from the top of Dota 2 due to a lack of direction and poor player performances. Despite placing at many events Vici would not achieve another title in the TI3 to TI4 season.
2014
On April 16 it was announced that former EHOME player QQQ will be joining VG as a coach.[8]
At the end of April 2014, Vici Gaming received an invitation to The International 2014, where they would go on to place first in the group stage and second overall. They lost to NewBee in the finals 3–1.
On August 17 rOtK announced his retirement.[9] August 26 - Sylar leaves the team, and Black^ and iceiceice join.[10] VG looked very strong with their new lineup for the rest of the year, certainly the best Chinese team.
In mid December they travelled to Los Angeles to compete in The Summit 2 and as strong favorites they defeated Cloud9 for the Championship 3-1.
2015
VG had a strong 2015 season. In February, they reached the finals of Dota 2 Asian Championships ("the biggest event outside of The International") with not too much effort, but they lost shockingly 0-3 to Evil Geniuses in the Grand Finals, especially since they defeated them 2-0 the day before. With the next International being months away, this definitely shook up things for VG and they must've started analyzing their future and possibilities. On March 11 Hao joined VG, replacing Black^ in the Carry position, after a month of speculation and rumors going on. On March 15 the team announced the creation of a youth squad, VG.P.[11] On April 27, Vici won Starladder XII after defeating Invictus Gaming 3-1.[12] They were one of the officially invited teams for The International 2015 with a complete prize pool of $18,377,817 and on July 2 they confirmed that they've obtained their USA visas, needed to participate in the event. They ended losing to LGD Gaming to finish 4th and securing $1,562,114. During the first day of The International 2015, VG became the first team outside of Europe to obtain the Verified Tag on Facebook, and third after only Fnatic and Gambit Gaming. After the annual post-TI break/shuffle period, Hao returned to Newbee and VG acquired Xu BurNIng Zhilei and Yang YJ Pu. They finished 2nd in the Nanyang Championships, falling 2-3 to Secret in the Grand Finals. They would proceed to participate in the first ever Major by Valve in Frankfurt, Germany. They finished in 5th place with $205,000 in winnings.
On December 1, VG signed League of Legends player Easyhoon [13] to be their Mid player with a reported salary[14] of $860,000.
Roster
Dota 2
- Zhou Yang Haiyang (Offlane)
- Leong DDC Fat-meng (Support)
- Xu fy Linsen (Support)
- Zheng ghost Jie (Mid)
- Yang YJ Pu (Carry)
League of Legends
- Wang HeTong Bin (Mid)
- Choi DanDy In-kyu (Jungle/Top)
- Cho Mata Se-hyoung (Support)
- Xu Endless Hao (ADC)
- Chen World6 Tianyu
- Peng Peng Yibo
- Li Vasilii Wei-Jun (ADC)
- Wang Carry Zujing (Top)
- Pi Xuan Xiao-Xuan (Mid)
- Liangyi YiL Wang (Team Leader)
- Yoon Homme Sung-young (Coach)
Dota 2 Academy/Youth
- Huo xll Xiaolei (Carry)
- Zhou Yang Haiyang (Mid)
- Zi Lin Yang (Offlane)
- High dogfight Tianpeng (Support)
- Zhou James Yifu (Support)
- BigHead (Team Leader)
Hearthstone
RTS
FIFA
Organisation
- Lu HunTeR Wenjun - General Manager & CEO
- Fei SweetRicky Wang - COO
- Stoyan IAmStaka Stoyanov - International Manager & Design
- Mengdie Melanie Wei - Business Development Assistant
- Gaojun - League of Legends Manager
- CR - League of Legends Manager
References
- ^ Meet Vici Gaming
- ^ Vici Gaming revives YaphetS January 28th, 2012. GosuGamers.net.
- ^ Vici Gaming picks up ZSMJ
- ^ ZSMJ promoted to Vici Gaming 1
- ^ "Tezzeret" (October 31, 2013). "Meracle to RisingStars, Sylar to Vici Gaming". joinDOTA. Retrieved October 31, 2013.
- ^ Vici Gaming replaces DK in EMS One Fall due to visa issues
- ^ Fnatic and VG to Sin City for D2L Finals
- ^ QQQ/357 of EHOME and DK fame Joins VG as Coach
- ^ VG.Rotk Retires
- ^ ACE Announces Chinese Transfers
- ^ [1]
- ^ Cerrudo, Aileen "Chaos" (April 28, 2015). "VG Bags Starladder XII Championship". Inquirer.net. Retrieved May 4, 2015.
- ^ [2]
- ^ [3]