How PSG.LGD players' fear keeps them from winning The International

PSG.LGD is the top Dota 2 team in China. A lot of achievements, titles, fans and huge amounts of earned prize money. At almost every The International they have been a favorite and have had no problem reaching the semifinals at the upper brackets. Of all the organizations at TI, LGD almost never let their fans down and showed consistently good results. But it wasn't enough, starting back in 2012, the organization consistently ranked 2-3 or 4 places, losing only to the champions. So what is the organization lacking and when will one of the world's most titled teams finally lift the main trophy over their head?

Even with a bronze medal at TI9, the organization decides to hold a series of reshuffles. Not surprisingly, PSG.LGD needed gold. That's why Ame leaves the squad in 2020, who had once again received tons of abuse from Chinese fans due to his defeat at The International. Later, the team changes Chalice as well. After which begins a bad streak for the organization. Pandemic and its consequences, the cancellation of DPC season and the departure of FY, Somnus and eleven. The results were not good, so in September the management decided to reassemble the roster. Realizing that the problem was far from the carry, they brought Ame back. They took two experienced players in the form of Y and Faith Bian. And get two young and promising players NothingtoSay and XINQ. This lineup sticks and doesn't change for a long time.

In their first DPC season, the team finished 4th in the region and earned a trip to the Wild Card stage, leaving the stellar Elephants at home. At the ONE Esports Singapore Major 2021, the team finished in third place.

Second place in the Upper Division of their region opens the way to the WePlay AniMajor, where PSG.LGD easily takes 1st place, without losing a single series and defeating Evil Geniuses in the final 3-0. After that, the team is preparing for TI, unlike Team Secret, the team did not skip tournaments, but rather took a chance to get more practice. First places OGA Dota PIT Season 5: China and OGA Dota PIT Invitational. And an unexpected second place at ESL One Fall 2021. Nevertheless, the Chinese machine is unstoppable. Clear and collected decisions, great drafts, discipline and incredible macro and micro skills. All of this combined gave Chinese fans hope for another taken Aegis.

The group stage was phenomenal for LGD. Seven wins and one draw against Secret. Had it not been for Puppey, PSG.LGD would have repeated Alliance's record at The International 2013 without losing a single card. A very confident run to the top of the PlayOff bracket. The main event for LGD did not start so smoothly, unexpectedly losing the second map to T1, who was able to jump over their heads and show results, they still managed to crush their opponent and take the series. After that comes a solid 2 series against Secret and VP, both 2-0. New strategy with Tiny, Lycan and total dominance on the map, against almost any team. At the time of reaching the finals, LGD had played 23 maps, losing only 2. It is also noteworthy that only 4 teams managed to seize the initiative in the match against LGD. These are T1, Team Secret, Elephant and Fnatic. 2 of them even managed to win. All other teams lost by one goal. And how was it possible to lose with such a result?

Chinese machine 23-2 against a CIS team that was predicted to top 8 at most. How could this be lost? To answer this question, let's go back a bit. 

2018, The International 2018 semifinals, against OG, map 1 and Huskar peak, who has 28% winrate at the tournament, Drow Ranger was picked to him to finish the game early. OG counters this with a split-push with Gyrocopter and Io and takes the first map. One way or another LGD knocks Evil Geniuses out of the bottom bracket and makes it to the finals. 2-1 on maps in the finals and overdraft, LGD were prevented from becoming champions by incredible play from Ceb and Ana and the Morphling bug. But here in the last map LGD faced their main problem, imposed by their opponent's game. Another academic Dota 7k advantage, aegis is so close, but no, at some point LGD stop playing like a machine and turn into public players. Fighting 4 against 5, trying to pick up Roshan without key abilities, wrong focus targeting. In short, chaos in which the opponent felt at home. Leading by 7k, LGD started to relax and underestimate their opponent, it cost them the aegis at The International 2018.

The International 2019 and the same scenario, semifinals with the same OG. A beautiful first map from LGD, no chance for OG. But then again picks, or more accurately, bans. After losing map 2 against Alchemist and Chen, LGD decide not to ban OG's combination, preferring to ban OG's signatures and the meta Enchantress. As a result, 1-2 and the bottom bracket. In the elimination match, LGD again take on the unstable Huskar, who was piked only 2 times in the tournament, with a 0 percent winrate. On the 3rd decisive map, LGD took Shadow Fiend, who was piked only 10 times and had a 50% win rate. While Team Liquid's pick consisted of almost all meta heroes. As a result, 3rd place.

The International 10, the scenario repeats PSG.LGD in the final, 1st map and midline Pangolier who has 35% win rate. 1-0 from Team Spirit. Spirit showed their strongest strategy in the 3rd map against Team Secret, which helped them take Puppey out of the tournament. Late core and Magnus, like OG in 2019 with carry Io, the strategy worked and LGD was not ready for it on the 2nd map, as a result, 2-0. But even in spite of this, the Chinese team was able to get together by winning the 3rd map at the expense of Tinker with an incredible 80% win rate in the tournament and ending Team Spirit strategy with Rubick. And after that, they won the 4th map due to a greedy Spirit pick. On map 5, LGD didn't risk the draft and pick their strongest strategy Tiny and Lycan, but with bans again was a failure, instead of depriving Spirit of their best strategy, they give Collapse to pick Magnus. Spirit immediately ban Rubik, so as not to repeat the mistakes of the map 4. LGD understands how this works, but they don't take Lion or a hero who needs to gather Eul's Scepter of Divinity or instant stun, and instead they get Enchantress pick. The pick is half-assed, both teams took their strategies of course, but 2 melee cores against Magnus was very dangerous to take. Even so PSG.LGD was able to seize the advantage, but passing and fearing to be taken to Skewer, just watched as Team Spirit took away their Aegis of Champions once again. The Magnus effect worked perfectly, LGD were afraid to do anything, knowing that Skewer had no safe or control. Xinq will write a series of posts later on why they lost to Spirit, all mentioning all the above points.

LGD is definitely a great team, and one of the greatest in DOTA 2 history. But they have 3 major problems that keep them from taking the Aegis of Champions for the 3rd year in a row. 

To sum it up, the Chinese machine works great and only fails in the finals due to the factors listed above. LGD before the finals and LGD in the finals are completely different teams. After all, as Ramzes666 said: "People are not robots", although PSG.LGD practically disproved it. We from the redaction sincerely wish LGD finally raise the coveted Aegis of Champions over their heads. After all, if they didn't deserve it, who did? Unless Team Secret, but that's another story.