We have no less than 5 interviews from G-League this week. In addition, we have two spectacularly insightful pieces recapping 2012, direct from insiders in the Chinese Dota scene. And in other news, iG’s reserve team event continues, and Tencent crowns iG.Dota the Best Esports Team of 2012. All this and more, below!

Jan 3

iG promo series in the process of selecting an iG reserve team

A nation-wide tour of universities sponsored by Lenovo, iG is holding an amateur tournament where the winners, hand-picked by iG players, will have a chance to compete for the ultimate glory of wearing the iG tag in future Dota competitions.

Jan 4

iG wins Tencent’s Esports Team of the Year

Tencent, no without recent controversies against Dota2, held an end of year esports vote. The best team award went to iG, while YYF took second in best esports player.

G-League semi-finals interview with LGD.DD/Sc and LGD.Nicholas

Read some of the thoughts of LGD.cn after their narrow victory over VG to advance into the G-League semi-finals.

G-League semi-finals interview with TongFu.Sansheng

TongFu’s Sansheng shares some thoughts after defeating ForLove to qualify for G-League semi-finals.

Jan 5

G-League interview with LGD.God.int

LGD.int’s God talks a bit after their win over TongFu in the G-League, and also pokes fun at Brax.

Jan 6

iG CEO Efeng recaps 2012

The CEO of iG, former manager of PanDa, and general Chinese esports insider shares his thoughts and reflections on the past year in Chinese esports. Very insightful read!

Jan 7

Top 10 Stories in 2012 Chinese Dota

A look back at the Chinese Dota scene of 2012. Quite well-written and covers a lot too.

Jan 7

G-League interview with iG.Faith — full of confidence against LGD.cn

Faith speaks about their prospects of making it to the G-League finals, and a bit more.

Jan 8

iG.ChuaN will not allow LGD.int to win G-League

The ChuaN has spoken. He also answers some questions on iG’s teamfights and stuff.

Perfect World internal document suggests March beta for Chinese servers?

It’s a leak! Or is it?

This was an action-packed week, as we started off with The Asia and towards the end of the week kicked off the highly-anticipated G-League offline event in Shanghai. LGD won the former, and ForLove have posted a huge upset in the first match of the latter. We’ve got interviews with players from both teams this week posted.

Perhaps just as interesting were a few other snippets that revealed no less than THREE NEW TEAMS potentially coming from the Chinese scene: iG to form a new squad, recruited and trained by iG’s current players themselves; TongFu possibly forming an international squad; and former WE captain xiaoluo, former TongFu player Kabu, and former EHOME powerhouse LaNm coming together as the core of another new team.

For all the goods, check below! Thanks for reading Dotaland and be sure to comment if you have anything to say.

Dec 19

LGD.cn lookin’ good

Bit of fluff: pictures of LGD.cn modeling their team uniforms

Dec 20

iG team interview reveals a new iG squad coming soon?

Additionally, iG players talk a bit about each other

Dec 20

The Asia venue pic in Kuala Lumpur

Looked quite the venue

Dec 21

Old pro ZhaoYun suggests that TongFu.int is on the way

And he also talks his return to Dota, and has some choice words for LoL

Dec 22

xiaoluo, LaNm, and Kabu returning together with a new team

The former WE captain, EHOME core player, and former TongFu player three of five in a new un-named team

Dec 24

The Asia interview with LGD.dd

Wherein he promises that LGD will bring the title back to China…

Dec 24

LGD.cn wins The Asia 2012, interview with xiao8

… and LGD delivers. Here, xiao8 talks about their win, with some analysis for us

Dec 25

Pre G-League interview with ForLove.Hanci

Relatively low-key interview; who would have thought that FL would go on to 2-0 DK in the opening match of G-League?!

Dec 25

G-League 2012 Dota2 Finals begin in Shanghai

Schedule, stream links, groups, etc