Frankfurt Major Team Breakdown #2 - CDEC

Hey guys, I'm back with another article, this time talking about the Cinderella Story of TI5, CDEC Gaming!
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**HISTORY**

CDEC Gaming’s origin can be found in the “Chinese Dota Elite Community,” or – you guessed it – CDEC for short. CDEC was an in-house league composed of some of the highest ranking players on the Chinese leaderboards, similar to FaceIt and NEL. The players had remarkable mechanical skill, as their MMR would vouch for, but had little competitive experience. That would change when LGD, one of the most respected organizations in China decided to form a second team, LGD.CDEC. The team was designed to be composed of the best players in the CDEC, led by rising mid player, Maybe, who was previously on LGD for a short period before the team deciding he didn’t fit.
LGD.CDEC had some mediocre results, placing last in i-League and WEC, before the team decided it wanted to leave the LGD organization, rebranding itself as CDEC – a newly independent organization. After leaving LGD, the team managed to achieve some decent results, with second place at both G-League and the National Esports Open and making it to the LAN finals for D2L. However, disaster struck the team after they placed in the bottom four of the Dota 2 Asian Championships, and in the ensuing Chinese Shuffle, star player Maybe returned to LGD. CDEC, left with no notable names on the team, appeared to be dead in the water.
Surprisingly, after picking up mid player Shiki and offlane player Xz, CDEC, despite having no players of any previous renown, started getting results. 2nd places in ECL, the following season of G-League, and most notably, the Chinese Qualifiers of WCA, beating out Chinese powerhouses IG and VG. The team also placed second in the TI5 Chinese Qualifiers, earning them a trip to Seattle.
Now, placing second in the regional qualifiers for TI earns you a spot in the Wildcard Bracket, where the second place teams compete against each other for the final two slots in the International. Teams that fight their way through the Wildcard typically do not do well in the actual tournament; the highest place one had achieved prior to 2015 was Liquid, and they only placed tenth at TI4. Their scrim partner, Evil Geniuses, even doubted their ability to make it through. CDEC proved them wrong however, and blitzed through the Wildcard teams to earn a TI slot. But as I said, Wildcard teams never do well at TI. Everyone thought CDEC would probably make bottom four of their group, and be one of the first teams eliminated: that’s what always happens to Wildcards.
We were dead wrong.
Immediately, CDEC began to blitz through every team in their group, ripping their enemies to shreds in the process. Many of the games weren’t even close, as CDEC made many of the best Dota 2 teams in the world look like noobs. CDEC placed at the top of their group, tied in points with Evil Geniuses, after decimating their competition. People still doubted them, believing that their performance in the group stage was a mere fluke. Teams will have time to study them, they’ll be figured out, and they’ll be promptly sent to the lower bracket and eliminated.
What happened instead was that CDEC sent their opponent Cloud 9 – a team people placed in the top six going into this tournament – straight to the fucking dumpster. The games were not even close, with CDEC totally outplaying their opponents. And yet, people still doubted CDEC, as Cloud 9 had a propensity to don rubber noses and oversized shoes, transforming themselves into the legendary Clown 9, turning throwing games into an art form. Surely their next opponents, LGD, the strongest Chinese team at the event and one of the favorites to win the entire tournament would put these upstarts in their place. CDEC decimated them as well. Even the North American Hope, Evil Geniuses, would fall in the Winners Bracket finals to the unstoppable freight train that was CDEC Dota. Though they would lose the Grand Finals to EG, CDEC had nonetheless done the unthinkable: this team of essential nobodies had gone from barely scraping into the Main Event, to placing 2nd in eSports’ biggest tournament. The most CDEC had ever earned from a tournament prior to TI5 was $26,000. They left with just shy of $3,000,000.
CDEC have changed the landscape of competitive Dota since their miracle run through the International. They, along with the young SumaiL, have changed the perception of the competitive scene towards pubstars, with teams such as Secret, Monkey Business, EHOME, and Cloud 9 picking up players with high MMR rather than going with more experienced options. As for CDEC themselves, while they have not won a LAN yet, they continue to place in the top four of tournaments, proving that their run was no fluke. CDEC belong with the best Dota teams in the worlds, and at Frankfurt, they will be looking to remind all the doubters of that fact.


**PLAYSTYLE**

CDEC is a highly functional machine, in that they play the same strategy with nearly the same heroes every game. This fact makes them highly predictable, but one thing CDEC is very good at is forcing teams to play their own game. It doesn’t matter if you know what they are going to do as long as they can force teams into playing by their rules regardless. CDEC have a strong preference for the Dire side, playing almost every game at the TI5 Group Stages & Main Event as Dire. Generally, the team will attempt to contest lanes to high degree, placing a lot of pressure on the enemy team. CDEC were also one of the first teams to highly prioritize deep jungle wards over safer warding options, something other teams have since caught onto. Eventually, CDEC will hit a breaking point and begin to play some of the most aggressive Dota known to man. They will relentlessly smoke gank the enemy jungle, find pick offs, and quickly translate those into tower kills. One weakness of CDEC is that because their fights and game plans are very meticulous, they are somewhat susceptible to heroes that can hinder their aggression, such as Treant Protector and Techies, or heroes that disrupt their teamfights, like Naga Siren.


**ACHIEVEMENTS**

First Place: N/A
Second Place: National Electronic Sports Open 2014, G-League 2014, ECL 2015 Spring, WCA 2015 China Pro Qualifiers, G-League 2015, The International 2015
Third Place: MSI Beat It 2014, MarsTV China Qualifier, ESL One New York 2015, MLG World Finals


**ROSTER**

Carry: Sun Zheng – “Agressif” – China
Former Teams: New Element
Signature Heroes: Gyrocopter, Phantom Lancer, Ember Spirit
Agressif is perhaps the most aptly name pro in the world because is, well, aggressive. Many carry players such as Arteezy started to begin to rotate earlier in order to secure kills, but Agressif takes that concept to a whole other level, relentlessly pursuing kills while managing to keep proactively farming. It is not unusual to see him rushing at his foes with very little health because he knows that he and his team can secure kills. Well known professionals such as EternalEnvy have begun to call him one of the best carry players in the world, and for good reason: the man is a monster.

Mid: Huang Jiwei – “Shiki” – China
Former Teams: New Element, Immortal Magneto Gaming
Signature Heroes: Queen of Pain, Lina, Dragon Knight
Shiki is one of the newest additions to the team, joining shortly after the Dota 2 Asian Championships. He does not farm as intensely as other top tier mids, preferring to put pressure on the enemy mid laner and other lanes as well. He excels at tempo control, and rotates early and often with his supports. His preferred hero type are ones with heavy burst damage, but he also plays a fearsome Dragon Knight.

Offlane: Chen Zezhi – “Xz” – China
Former Teams: New Element, Lai Gaming
Signature Heroes: Clockwerk, Dark Seer, Undying
Xz joined the team along with Shiki, and is one of their biggest playmakers. His Dark Seer was able to make insane combos at TI5 with the rest of his team, and provides his team with great utility. He specializes in offlaners that allow CDEC to take fights how they want to take them, and force their enemies into uncomfortable positions.

Support: Lin Xinzhou – “garder” – China
Former Teams: N/A
Signature Heroes: Tusk, Bounty Hunter, Lina
The eldest member of the team, garder had no competitive experience prior to joining CDEC, but you wouldn’t know it by the way he plays. One of the strongest roaming supports in competitive Dota 2, his Tusk is a known nightmare for teams to play against, saving his team from many a death in fights. His roaming is also what allows the team to plant their signature deep wards, facilitating their highly aggressive style.

Support: Bin Fu – “Q” – China
Former Teams: Vici Gaming
Signature Heroes: Visage, Winter Wyvern, Silencer
Q is the mastermind behind CDEC, being their captain and drafter. His ability to clearly outline his team’s battle plan and then execute on it was noted by esteemed captain ppd, who described Q as “a genius.” He also specializes in heroes that keep his team alive and can prevent the enemy from executing exactly how they would prefer to in fights. A great support and leader, Q is one of the reasons CDEC is such an elite team.


**Former Players**
Mid: Lu Yao – “Maybe” – China
Other Teams: Vici Gaming, LGD
Current Team: LGD
Maybe was one of the founding members of CDEC, and the team was originally built around him. A great playmaker, Maybe was the rock of the team while he played on it, providing clutch play after clutch play. After a disappointing performance for both LGD and CDEC at the Dota 2 Asian Championships, LGD extended the offer for Maybe to rejoin the team, to which he accepted. He played with them at TI5, achieving 3rd place, and remains on the team as of writing.
Honorable Mention: Tong Junjie – “mikasa” – China
Other Teams: Tyloo, Vici Gaming, Newbee (Coach)
Current Team: LGD (Coach)
One honorable mention that I would like to give to is mikasa, CDEC’s former coach. Mikasa played for teams such as Tyloo in Dota, and played for a short period with Vici Gaming in Dota 2, before the latter took off to become a dominant force in competitive Dota 2. He then became best known for his coaching ability, having coached Newbee to a TI4 victory. He joined CDEC because of Maybe, and left to LGD along with them. He still coaches LGD currently.

There is also a player named 333 that I know nothing about, and could find nothing about, unfortunately. :/

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Thanks for all the reception for the last article I wrote, both positive and negative! I will be doing my best to incorporate every piece of constructive criticism I can into these, as I want to make these pieces the best I possibly can. I hope you guys learned something or at least got hyped for the upcoming Major from this article. Be sure to leave comments for discussing the team or simply leaving constructive criticism so I can continue to make these as best as I possibly can! Tune in next time, where we will be talking about one of the juggernauts of the Chinese scene, LGD!