Agressif and LGD Gaming part ways post TI6

Sun “Agressif” Zheng has parted ways with LGD Gaming after five months of playing with the Chinese giants. LGD Gaming took 9-12th at TI6 after a more shaky performance than hoped for due to the last minute roster changes with substitute player Wang “Banana” Jiao standing in for Xue “September” Zhichuan due to visa issues.

Sun “Agressif” Zheng announced on his weibo account that he and LGD Gaming have parted ways.

According to the translation of his post ” Life still goes on even you lose matches. I’m out”.

The info provided is vague as to which party had initiated the split, but many in the scene have voiced that the aggressive carry player’s style did not fit the patient and defensive approach of LGD Gaming.

LGD Gaming has not weighed in on the announcement, nor has Agressif indicated his future status.

For the team registrations this year, there is a two step or phase registration period including drop phase and add phase.

Teams have 17 days (now until September 4th) to release players from their current rosters for the upcoming season. This is an active process unlike previous seasons where the entire team was automatically dropped. Therefore players must leave the team or the management needs to remove any players that will not continue competing with the team. Any players that are still remaining on the team after September 4th are automatically locked in to the team.

New players can then be added to the roster between September 4-18th (two weeks) – locking on September 18th at 12:00AM PDT. This includes re-adding players that left or were dropped in the first phase.

Sun “Agressif” Zheng

LGD courtesy of StarLadder Flckr

Sun “Agressif” Zheng started his Dota 2 career in April 2014, playing for the LGD youth squad, alongside teammates Q and Garder. He transitioned with the squad when they left the organization to become CDEC, in October 2014.

During The International 5 he has had consistent, impressive performances on his Ember Spirit, Gyrocopter and Phantom Lancer. With incredibly fast farming ability and aggressive and well coordinated pick offs, he often topped the net-worth and kill charts in the games.

CDEC took an astonishing second place at TI5 and earned Agressif and company much prestige and fans. Following TI5 the team continued together, earning 3-6th place in various premier and major tournaments such as ESL One New York 2015, MLG World Finals, Nanyang Dota 2 Championships, The Frankfurt Major 2015, World Cyber Arena 2015 until a 13-16th place at The Shanghai Major 2016.

He was then picked up in March, following Shanghai Major by LGD Gaming where he went on to take third at StarLadder i-League Invitational #1, fourth at Manila Major, third at Nanyang Dota 2 Championships Season 2 and first at Dota2 Professional League Season 1.

LGD

LGD Gaming at the Manila Major © PGL

The once Chinese Dynasty ended their Shanghai Major run with a 9th-12th place finish. LGD was eliminated in the second round of the main event’s brutal best-of-one Lower Brackets by compLexity Gaming.

LGD Gaming announced their new roster for the upcoming Manila Major and TI6 season in mid-March. On the heels of the public departure of Liu “Sylar” Jiajun and Fan “rOtk” Bai, Zhang “xiao8” Ning returned from being inactive. CDEC’s famed Sun “Agressif” Zheng and CDEC.Avenger player Xue “September” Zhichuan joined at the same time, as well.

In the team’s first major LAN debut at StarLadder iLeague Dota Invitational, the team showed some spectacular performances and seized the third place finish. They were the Chinese team to qualify for ESL One Frankfurt 2016 LAN after overpowering ViCi Gaming.Reborn 3:1 for the spot, but in the end didn’t attend with a last minute cancellation.

After their fourth place rank at the Manila Major, they went on to take third at Nanyang Dota 2 Championships Season 2 and first at Dota2 Professional League Season 1.

The team was forced to play TI6 with their substitute Wang “Banana” Jiao in lieu of Xue “September” Zhichuan when multiple visa attempts were denied. LGD Gaming took 9-12th place, being eliminated early by Digital Gaming 2:0 in the second round of Lower Brackets.