Two large Chinese gaming sites, 17173 and SGamer, have put up summaries of Chinese fan analysis of the top players in their respective positions at The International 2. This is the 17173 version, I skipped a bit in the middle where it was joke rankings for random stuff. Sgamer’s version is very different and will be coming later.

17173 summary of top TI2 players — Original: http://dota2.17173.com/news/09052012/160755226_1.shtml

Best support:

FAITH

After thinking about this for a while, I still had to give this to Faith, not because Puppey and DD were bad, simply that Faith was that much better. In his decision making, Faith definitely deserves this recognition. Of course he wasn’t perfect, but overall Faith’s support was a major part in helping iG defeat DK and LGD.

Best support runners up:

DD

DD’s support has always been one of LGD’s strengths.  As the only player on LGD that never switches roles, DD showed viewers his value during LGD’s undefeated run. However, when facing NaVi, DD’s performance seemed a bit more ordinary, especially in the lower lane he failed to counter the creep-blocking wards, proving that DD perhaps still lacks big match experience, or simply didn’t do his homework on the opponent.

Puppey

Puppey actually isn’t strictly a support. He didn’t necessarily perform much worse than DD or Faith, but NaVi’s early struggles certainly had something to do with him.

Best 4 position:

ARS-ART

NaVi’s pace-setter isn’t necessarily Dendi, instead it is Puppey and ARS-ART. NaVi’s much improved performance later on had a lot to do with their pace-setters Puppey and ARS-ART finally performing, especially worth mentioning is ARS-ART’s Shadow Shaman and Leshrac. If viewers paid attention, they would have noticed that ARS-ART during teamfights could always find the correct positioning and timing. This was something that almost no other 4 position player could consistently do. The main reason for ARS-ART winning this category is because he and Puppey really set the rhythm for NaVi’s improvement.

Best 4 position runner up:

ChuaN

ChuaN did very well as well, including proving himself in the Grand Finals. The main reason he is below ARS-ART is because earlier Dendi’s Rubick completely controlled ChuaN’s play. In the Grand Finals ChuaN redeemed himself and his Tidehunter finally unlocked Dendi’s Rubick, and in fact, in the end ChuaN was the only player to actually win a matchup against Dendi overall.

Best 3 position:

YYF/LightofHeaven

This absolutely needed to be a tie, YYF and Light bro were both exceptionally consistent. Even though neither were perfect, but overall both players’ mistakes were far outweighed by their massive contributions to their teams. Especially worth noting are YYF’s Dark Seer and LightofHeaven’s Enigma and Broodmother, their ability to survive in the hard lane was amazing and they were unbelievably able to even farm up important items. These two players were literally born for this position.

Best 3 position runner up:

xiao8

Captain 8’s form this competition was a definite highlight. But unfortunately for xiao8, even though he did very well, YYF and LightofHeaven did even better, so he will have to be a runner up.

Best 2 position:

Dendi/430

Let’s talk about Dendi first. Dendi’s play was the most elegant of this year’s tournament. Even though he didn’t get to use his famous Pudge, Rubick instead became his calling card hero. Can you believe that, against the best players in the world, who are all trying their utmost to prevent him from stealing key abilities, that Dendi was still able to steal them at will? Tidehunter’s Ravage, Brewmaster’s Split, Enigma’s Black hole, he stole them all with confidence. Especially seeing him waiting outside the fight and blinking at the exact right time to steal an ultimate, and also his calm decision making in keeping an ultimate and letting it cooldown to use again, I couldn’t help but exclaim, Rubick’s name should simply be Dendi!

As for 430, I honestly don’t think I need say more, his Templar Assassin showed that even though the former top killer of the tournament ARS-ART was present, now the top killer title should belong to 430. Who else could go 26-1 in a high level tournament, only 430. Not to mention his iconic Invoker, and flamboyant Queen of Pain.

Best 2 position runner up:

Yao

Yao actually gave me the deepest impression this tournament. Seeing Yao’s Dragon Knight performance, and his flexibility in allowing LGD to play him in the 2 role meant that it added another dimension to LGD’s play. Even though Yao is not known for playing the 2, his performances were worthy of recognition.

Best 1 position:

Looks like a tie between XBOCT, Zhou, LanM, and Burning

XBOCT

From this tournament’s performance, XBOCT can be listed as on the same level as China’s big 3 carry players. However, he’s not better, he’s simply around the same level.

Zhou

Zhou’s results were really the weakest out of carries, but at the least he did his part and iG took the championship.

LanM

As EHOME’s core player, LanM definitely deserves this recognition, especially that amazing DPS build on Tiny, showing us such excitement.

Burning

Compared to Sylar, Burning wins because he was more patient and had better decision making. And that joke about Burning’s planned Radiance build on Chaos Knight scaring away M5 certainly shows that Burning’s top carry status of old still means something… (there was a joke that Burning was made fun of for wanting to go Radiance on CK, and then the next day M5 forfeited a match against DK)

Best captain:

Puppey

What else need I say? This couldn’t possibly go to anyone else. Just as they say, you can’t beat NaVi with bans, and you can’t outsmart them with picks either. This is exactly because of Puppey’s leadership. Under his lead, NaVi consecutively beat Chinese teams DK, iG, LGD, preserving the honor of Western Dota, and showed us all that really, there is no such thing as China>World in Dota.

Best captain runner up:

xiao8

Captain 8’s work in helping LGD go undefeated for so long cannot be missed. Under his leadership LGD only lost 4 games, all to iG and NaVi who eventually were the top 2 teams. NaVi had the best captain in the world, iG had the best lineup in the world.

Best team:

NaVi

Beating so many Chinese teams… for this point alone, NaVi deserves this recognition. Even though they ultimately lost, they still stood tall on the final battlefield. They defeated each of the Chinese teams they met at least once, impressive indeed.

Best team runners up:

iG/LGD

What else to say? One with the best overall record, one the Grand Finals Champion.