China’s Dota 2 teams are eliminated from TI15, and even worse, they don’t seem to care

For the first time in Dota 2 history, zero Chinese teams have qualified for the top eight of The International, with Xtreme Gaming, Vici Gaming, and Team Resilience exiting TI15 in the group stage. This stings even more, as this year’s iteration is being hosted in Shanghai – their home turf.

And though China’s absence from the playoffs may shock the average Dota 2 fan, anyone who’s been following the professional scene throughout the season can tell you it’s not a surprising result – maybe even expected. The region has been on the decline over the past few years, and it has reached an all-time low in 2026. 

The most concerning part in all of this is that I don’t think the players are motivated anymore, and stakeholders in the scene have made questionable decisions, too. It might be time to have some uncomfortable conversations about what used to be the strongest region in Dota 2. 

As a Chinese Dota 2 fan myself, let’s not sugarcoat anything here: the country’s performance at TI15 was, frankly, not great.

Xtreme Gaming was directly invited to TI15, whereas the likes of Team Spirit and TEAM VISION weren’t. They were supposed to be the Chinese representatives securing a strong finish on home soil. But instead, they completely bombed out of the group stage with a 1-4 record. 

The worst part is, they lost to Team Spirit, GamerLegion, LGD Gaming (a team with a last-minute stand-in) and Team Resilience. Aside from Spirit, a superteam like Xtreme Gaming should never be losing to teams like GamerLegion and Team Resilience.

They really went from second place last year to bottom three. 

Xtreme Gaming had already been on the decline throughout the season, so Vici Gaming headed into TI15 as the highest-ranked Chinese team after their top four finish at the Esports World Cup. 

However, Vici Gaming went 2-3 and lost in the elimination stage. They were unable to really stand up against the top teams at the event. 

Vici Gaming and Xtreme Gaming were supposed to be the best China had to offer, but I’d argue it ended up being Team Resilience. Many people assumed this group of “Chinese Rejects” claimed the charity slot, with many fans putting them 0-4 in their TI15 predictions. Turns out – they ended up dealing the most damage.

Sure, Team Resilience also went out in the elimination stage, but they left a good impression. They dealt the final blow to eliminate Xtreme Gaming in the 1-3 pool, and even took maps off TEAM VISION, Team Yandex, and Team Spirit, which are three of the top teams in the entire event. 

It’s pretty wild that Team Resilience were putting in stronger performances than the two big-money orgs in the region. It should be the other way around. 

Results are one thing, and I don’t want to dig into those as much. What really worries me more is the attitude behind them. 

Let’s start with Xtreme Gaming and dig into a little bit of context. Throughout the regular season, we’ve seen Ame rage GG’ing out of games super early, and it wasn’t a one-time thing. Then, their legendary coach Zhang “xiao8” Ning left the team and went home in the middle of a tournament, forcing their assistant coach to take over the drafts. Later on, it was announced that xiao8 was, in fact, out of the team, forcing a coach change right before the biggest event of the year. 

Now, we head into TI15 itself. In Game 2 of Xtreme Gaming versus GamerLegion, Ame whipped out carry Io, which in all fairness, is an actual, viable pick. However, some of his decisions are up for question. He Relocated into the enemy base, without buyback, when all of the enemy heroes were missing, and just died for two minutes. This misplay quickly ballooned into his team losing the game shortly after. 

I know Ame isn’t the most expressive player out there, but I really find it sad that he doesn’t react to this death at all. There was no face palm, no slight look of regret – it just looks like he doesn’t care. 

It’s not just the players, either. After Vici Gaming was eliminated from the tournament by Team Falcons, the team’s owner literally disbanded the roster less than an hour after his boys were sent packing. He couldn’t even wait until the end of the tournament, or even the end of the day – he just up and posted “GG, disbanded” and didn’t elaborate further. 

Either the owner is trying to break a world record for the fastest disbandment, or he just seems to have given up on Chinese Dota. 

Maybe we can’t really blame the players, and that there’s a simpler explanation: they’re burned out. A lot of players on Xtreme Gaming and Vici Gaming have been carrying the region for close to a decade now. 

I mean, Vici Gaming’s Zhang “Faith_bian” Ruida and Zhang “y`” Yiping won China’s last Aegis at TI6, ten whole years ago, and they’re still competing today. Xu “fy” Linsen even unretired himself to play the season with Xtreme Gaming, and he’s been floating around since 2013. 

Then, there’s always Ame, who’s really been through it. He lost three TI grand finals, with all three in Game 5. I don’t know about you, but that would’ve made me mentally check out and never want to play Dota 2 again. But, he’s still out there trying to put his region back on the map. 

With how the Dota 2 scene is developing, the new gen is taking over. Alan “Satanic” Gallyamov has been wreaking havoc, and the last TI-winning team had the likes of Stanislav “Malr1ne” Potorak and Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf as their new blood. But if we take a look at China, they don’t have their own Satanic equivalent – it’s still the same 10 guys getting recycled over and over again. 

This is mainly because most zoomers in China are too fixated on Honor of Kings, the mobile MOBA game that is booming in the country. Dota 2 is now seen as an old man’s game there, and I don’t really blame them for it.

Honor of Kings is way more accessible and easier to learn. All you need is a mobile phone to play – you don’t need to buy a gaming PC as a teenager or spend your allowance to play in internet cafés. You’d also have to sink thousands of hours to finally get the hang of Dota 2, but you’d probably only need less than 50 to become a decent HoK player already. 

The point is, the people who were supposed to replace Ame, Faith_bian, and fy are probably playing Honor of Kings right now. After these guys eventually hang it up, I just don’t see anyone else good enough to fill their shoes. 

With the disappointment at this TI, held in their home country no less, many are already pushing for the “Chinese Dota is dead” narrative, and I’m sort of in agreement. But, I don’t think the region is dying right away. 

My stance is that the region isn’t going to die right away. I’m fairly sure some of the guys from the current Xtreme Gaming and Vici Gaming rosters might call it quits for good. But, there should still be enough guys left over to form at least two decent teams. We can mix in some Team Resilience players, maybe grab a Yakult’s Brother or two, and you have something workable at least.

But if you ask me, I do think the scene is going to slowly fizzle out over the next year or two. So if we’re talking functionally, it might be as good as dead unless a miracle happens next season.