Vici Gaming vs LBZS: The Sun will test the new VG line-up

The first DPC league of the 2021/22 season in China will continue on Tuesday, January 04. Vici Gaming and LBZS will meet in the first match in the elite division.

DPC CN 2021/22 Tour 1: Division I is an online Dota 2 tournament that will take place from January 03 to 21, 2022. The top eight teams from the China region will be competing for $205,000. On top of the cash prizes, the teams will also fight for four entries to the majors and the crucial DPC points needed to qualify for T11.

Last season was not a failure for Vici Gaming: participation in TI10 and 5-6th place in the tournament, two Chinese DPC bronzes and two i-League 2021 silver medals, and well VG showed themselves at the Kyiv major, where the guys came in fourth. Indeed, they didn’t win any titles in 2021. It seems likely that their bosses were influenced to change their line-up. The new squad of Vici Gaming was assembled around poyoyo, who is the only one left from the previous squad.

Newcomers have been added to the good old carry:

Xm is a second position carry who played in EHOME last season and never quite made it.

Irving is an interesting Chinese three. This Chinese player was an important cog in last year’s LBZS. Along with them, he tried out for the elite and triumphed in the second division.

Yds. is a four who played with CDEC, VG believed in him, so the new team is the most high-profile one he has played with before.

Victoria is another CDEC supporter. He had a lot of nicknames in his career but not cool teams. His arrival at VG is a test and a huge credit to his credibility.

It’s hard to predict how this squad will play. The winter championship will be more as a preparatory and previewing one. I don’t put these guys in the lead of China, but they shouldn’t be out either.

LBZS is a young Tier-3 team from China, formed in late 2020. They started last season in the elite of the Chinese DPC league but failed to win a single match there and went straight to the second division, where they were able to earn the right to reappear in the second DPC league in the season 2021 in front of the strongest teams in the region.

This team takes part in many tournaments and quite successfully, but the squad changes frequently. It changed again before the start of the new DPC cycle, with four new players at once: Kagome, Pyue, Molasses and detachment. Only the fourth position supporter CatYou, who has been with the team for over a year, or rather since its formation, remains unchanged.

LBZS actively plays online tournaments in December: the Intel World Open Beijing, Top Clans Winter Invitational and Moon Studio Snow League qualifiers. The latter, by the way, was won by the Suns in the Grand Final against Execration (3:2). The boys are in good form, so there’s a good chance of fraying the nerves of the unranked elite teams.

The bookmakers give odds based on the tag of the teams, and the VG brand looks much cooler than LBZS, but the start of the season in China promises a lot of randomness at the start, so we can safely take Handicap 2 (+1.5) on maps for 1.80. There’s not much faith in VG’s 2-0 win right at the start, after the substitutions.

I can’t imagine this game without three maps. Total Over 2.5 maps is available for 2.45.

The correct score of the meeting is 2-1 in favour of Vici Gaming; odds on that are 3.25.