MDL 2016 kicks off today with the group stage in the first of the international LAN events of the new season. The MDL 2016 preview gives viewers a chance to review the lineups and prepare for the event that is without a doubt drawing attention and excitement around the world. Eight of some of the biggest lineups from the post TI6 shuffle will be competing for the $250,000 prize pool in Xiamen, China. The day kicks off with the match between Newbee vs Team Secret and LGD Forever Young vs MVP.Phoenix at 04:00 CEST and ends at 11:00 CEST with winners match in Group B. The Group stage will then resume tomorrow at 04:00 CEST with Team Secret vs LGD Forever Young and conclude when Group B has finished. No teams are eliminated in the group stage.
MDL 2016 is the first international LAN event of the new season, following TI6. Eight teams from around the world will be competing for the $250,000 prize pool in Xiamen, China between September 28 – October 2.
OG, Evil Geniuses, MVP.Phoenix and Team Secret have been directly invited to participate. Newbee and ViCi Gaming qualified earlier in the year during Dota 2 Professional League (DPL) for their spots. Invictus Gaming.Vitality and LGD Forever Young qualified only days ago.
MDL is one of the most anticipated events as it not only will give the first glimpse into the competition for the new Fall Major 2016 season with teams debuting their new lineups but also could potentially impact the still unknown direct and regional invites for the first Major of the new Dota 2 year.
The group stage will pit all eight teams against each other to battle it out for their seeding into the playoff brackets and bragging rights for the first LAN victories of the season. No teams will be eliminated in the group stage which will span two days.
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MDL 2016 preview: teams
- 4 Direct Invites (Evil Geniuses, MVP.Phoenix, OG and Team Secret)
- 2 Chinese qualified teams from DPL (Newbee, ViCi Gaming)
- 2 Chinese qualified teams from regional qualifier (Invictus Gaming.Vitality, LGD Forever Young)
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MDL 2016 preview: groups
Group A
- Newbee
- Team Secret
- LGD Forever Young
- MVP
Group B
- Vici Gaming
- Evil Geniuses
- Invictus Gaming Vitality
- OG
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MDL 2016 preview: Format
- 2 Groups of four teams
- GSL group stage best-of-three series format
- playoffs set as best-of-three double elimination brackets
- Grand Finals best-of-five
MDL 2016 preview: team profiles
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OG
Following TI6, it was announced on OG’s facebook that the European organization bid farewell to Andreas Franck “Cr1t-” Nielsen, David “MoonMeander” Tan and Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi.
To help them accomplish their goals, OG recruited Gustav “s4” Magnusson – recently departed from Alliance and Jesse “JerAx” Vainikka who had just parted ways with Team Liquid earlier in the same day.
The most surprising addition to the team is Anathan “Ana” Pham, a relatively unknown face for Western fans. Ana is an Australian who has been spending time in China as part of Invitcus Gaming roster as substitute while Luo “Ferrari_430” Feichi was absent.
The player centered organization is the first team to win two Valve championship titles but slid into a disappointing 9-12th place finish at TI6.
OG roster
Johan “BigDaddy” Sundstein
Tal “Fly” Aizik
Gustav “s4” Magnusson
Jesse “JerAx” Vainikka
Anathan “Ana” Pham
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Evil Geniuses
Arteezy and Zai
The long time captain Peter “PPD” Dager transitioned out of the team into a business management position with the brand.
Andreas Franck “Cr1t-” Nielsen stepped into the rather large shoes left open with PPD’s departure. Hailing from one of the most successful teams of the 2015 -2016 year, OG – Cr1t- was part of history as the only team to claim two Valve sponsored championship titles – Frankfurt Major and Manila Major.
For the third time, Artour “Arteezy” Babaev dons the blue jersey for the organization. The famed Canadian player has had an on and off again relationship between Team Secret and Evil Geniuses since 2014.
Saahil “UNiVeRsE” Arora, Syed Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan and Ludwig “zai” Wåhlberg have remained with the team.
Evil Geniuses were close to getting their names written on the Aegis of Champions for the second time. Not close enough, though: they fell to Digital Chaos in the Lower Bracket Finals and placed third overall.
New Evil Geniuses roster:
Artour “Arteezy” Babaev
Andreas Franck “Cr1t-” Nielsen
Saahil “UNiVeRsE” Arora
Ludwig “zai” Wåhlberg
Syed Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan
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Team Secret
Clement “Puppey” Ivanov, Team Secret © Steffie Wunderl/ ESL
Secret were among the first to announce their roster for the upcoming 2016 Fall Major.
During the drop period, Artour “Arteezy” Babaev, Jacky “EternalEnVy” Mao and Sam “Bulba” Sosale parted ways with the team – eventually joining Evil Geniuses, Team NP and Team Liquid respectively.
The new lineup includes three SEA players – former MVP.Phoenix members MP and Forev, and ex-Fnatic player MidOne – as well as two European players and members of the team’s previous roster, Puppey and pieliedie.
Team Secret new roster:
Clement “Puppey” Ivanov
Johan “pieliedie” Åström
Pyo “MP” No-a
Lee “Forev” Sang-don
Yeik “MidOne” Nai Zheng
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MVP.Phoenix
The MVP Phoenix roster retains three of its longstanding, core members – Kim “QO” Seon-yeop, Kim “Febby” Yong-min and Kim “DuBu” Doo-young, as the organization heads into the Fall Major 2016 season.
Joining the three Koreans will be two known members of the organization – Kim “Velo” Tae-sung and Lee “Reisen” Jun-yeong from MVP.Hot6ix – taking the place of Lee “FoREV” Sang-don and Pyo “MP” No-a who both joined Team Secret for the new season.
Reisen is a Korean player who began his career in 2013 with a team called Eyes of Tiger Hammer. He joined the MVP organization in November 2013. Velo is an Australian player who started out with Spac_Creators following TI5. Only staying with the team for about one month, he was then picked up by MVP.Hot6ix, in December 2015.
MVP.Phoenix rounded out their successful year with a commendable 5th-6th place at TI6.
MVP Phoenix roster Fall Major 2016
Kim “Febby” Yong-min
Kim “QO” Seon-yeob
Lee “Reisen” Jun-yeong
Kim “Dubu” Dooyoung
Kim “Velo” Tae-sung
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Newbee
Faith
Big changes for Newbee were made for the Fall Major 2016 season as the team replaced three of its members – Zhang “Mu” Pan, Chen “Hao” Zhihao and Wong “ChuaN” Hock Chuan.
Mu retired less than a month after Newbee’s captain and carry Hao announced his break from competitive gaming for the upcoming Fall Major 2016 season or longer. ChuaN is also on a break, having not registered for any team for the season.
Veteran player Zeng “Faith” Hongda, along with Song “Sccc” Chun and Xu “uuu9” Han will be the official replacements for the Fall Major 2016 season.
Faith participated in the first five Internationals with various teams – taking the championship title at TI2 as part of the Invictus Gaming lineup. Playing professional Dota 2 since 2011, he is both highly decorated and experienced, bringing forth a great wealth of skill and talent. He started his career in 2011 on a team known as TyLoo – one of the teams invited to the first International based off of their reputation for being one of the best Chinese teams in DotA 1 in 2011.
uuu9 was teammates with Faith in TongFu, an organization that he had played with since starting his professional career in 2013 and Sccc transferred from the organization’s youth squad – a team which he joined and has been with since competing in April 2015.
Newbee took 9-12th place at TI6 after being eliminated by Team Liquid 2:1 in the second round of the lower brackets.
Newbee roster
Zeng “Faith” Hongda
Song “Sccc” Chun
Damien “kphoenii” Chok
Hu “Kaka” Liangzhi
Xu “uuu9” Han
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ViCi Gaming
Fy
ViCi Gaming.Reborn has been ‘promoted’ to ViCi Gaming – as the main squad. For the Fall Major 2016 season, the team has made only one change in the roster.
Wang “Nono” Xin has been replaced by Zheng “ghost” Jie from FTD.C who had begun his professional Dota 2 career in December 2015 playing for FTD Club.
Many fans are not surprised to see NoNo replaced. In the season leading up to TI6, NoNo did not participate in the SL i-League Invitational and TI6 Chinese Regional qualifiers due to visa and family issues, respectively. His absence in the lineup led to speculation that he was not an active member of the team. However, when Zhou “Yang” Haiyang’s TI6 visa was denied, coach Tong “Mikasa” Junjie was forced to stand in with the team in Yang’s stead and consequently required that NoNo participate in the event.
Then known as ViCi Gaming.Reborn – the team took 13-16th place after being eliminated by TnC Gaming in the first round of Lower Brackets.
ViCi Gaming roster
Yang “Zyf/End” Pu
Zheng “ghost” Jie
Zhou “Yang” Haiyang
Liang “DDC” Faming
Xu “fy” Linsen
Tong “mikasa” Junjie (coach)
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Invictus Gaming.Vitality
Yuno
IG.Vitality was created in March 2016 for the Manila Major/TI6 roster season.
As one of the few teams to not make any changes to the lineup in the post TI6 season, continuing to play with the same roster.
IG did not have any representation at TI6. The Vitality squad had a strong presence during the season, participating in various regional events and qualifiers.
Invictus Gaming.Vitality
Zhang “Yuno” Chengjun
Xu “Sakata” Zichen
Yang “InJuly” Xiaodong
Su “super” Peng
Gao “Dogf1ghts” Tianpeng
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LGD Forever Young
Xiao8
LGD Gaming has split the roster into two – one being built up around Lu “Maybe” Yao with the second one, LGD Forever Young – being spearheaded by famed talent Zhang “xiao8” Ning. The new squad features Yao “Yao” Zhengzheng and Xie “Super” Junhao.
The squad is completed by lesser known players, Luo “lpc” Puchao and Du “Monet” Peng.
Lpc began his professional career by joining TongFu.Wanzhou in spring of 2014 where he eventually joined the main squad after a year and assumed the captain position.
Monet most recently was playing for CDEC.Avenger, but started his career in 2015 with FTD club C.
LGD Gaming took 9-12th place at TI6 after being wiped out by Digital Chaos 2:0 in the Lower Bracket Round 2.
LGD Forever Young roster
Zhang “xiao8” Ning
Yao “Yao” Zhengzheng
Xie “Super” Junhao
Luo “lpc” Puchao
Du “Monet” Peng
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