Vici Gaming

Vici Gaming (VG) is a Chinese professional esports organization based in Shanghai. It has teams competing in Dota 2, League of Legends, StarCraft II, WarCraft III, FIFA, Hearthstone and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Vici Gaming's Dota 2 team has been a top contender in numerous tournaments, most notably as runners-up of The International 2014.

Vici Gaming
Short nameVG
DivisionsCounter-Strike: Global Offensive
Dota 2
FIFA
Hearthstone
League of Legends
Founded21 September 2012 (2012-09-21)
Based inShanghai, China
CEOLu "HunTeR" Wenjun[1]
PartnersHyperX, Biostar, HTC

Dota 2

History

2012

Vici Gaming was founded on 21 September 2012[2] with the help of "Fengdidi", who previously played in PanDarea Gaming under the name PanPan, handpicking skilled players that were highly ranked on the Chinese DotA ladder at the time.

The players had no previous professional experience at the time with the exception of sydm who had played under the banner of TyLoo. Their mid lane player Cty had shown promise by winning a 1v1 tournament organized by 2009, in which he beat famous players like Ferrari_430, Sylar, Hao, and other top Chinese players shortly before getting recruited.

The team qualified for the 2012 G-League Season 2 by beating Noah's Ark in the preliminaries.

2013

On 28 January, Vici signed Greedy, captained by the famous YaphetS as their online/backup squad. The rest of the team consisted of xiaotuji, Maybe, nL_Ks, and CaptainGiveMeBall. They were focused on Dota, although they have since expanded to Dota 2.[3]

On 1 March, Vici signed ZSMJ, the founder of Dota 2 squad.[4] It was believed that ZSMJ brought some of his teammates from his project with Chisbug to Vici Gaming, of which a member is Sgua_Li. In the following weeks, Vici Gaming made some roster adjustments, dropping some players in private while sending out a public notice for interested players to contact them.

On 28 March, it was announced that carry player ZSMJ replaced mid player sydm and that former carry Cty picked up the mid role.[5]

In June 2013, following elimination from The International 2013 qualifiers and a disappointing finish outside playoff places in DSL, Vici Gaming announced the departure of team executive, PandaPanPan, and team manager, Nada. Their replacement was mikasa, who had played as a substitute for VG.

On 31 October, Sylar joined the team as the new carry player, but would not be in the starting lineup for almost two months due to contract terms and TuTu remains to play on the ongoing 2013 WPC Ace Dota 2 League.[6]

In December 2013, Vici Gaming traveled to Poland to compete in the Raidcall EMS Fall LAN finals, joining the ranks of teams like Alliance, Natus Vincere, and DK who were pioneers in east-west tournament participation.[7] Vici would go on to take first place at EMS One Fall. Following this, the team also traveled to the Kingston HyperX Dota 2 League in Las Vegas.,[8] but would subsequently fall from the top of Dota 2 due to a lack of direction and poor player performances. Despite placing at many events Vici would not achieve another title in the TI3 to TI4 season.

2014

On 16 April, it was announced that former EHOME player QQQ will be joining VG as a coach.[9]

At the end of April 2014, Vici Gaming received an invitation to The International 2014, where they would go on to place first in the group stage and second overall. They lost to NewBee in the finals 3–1.

On 17 August, rOtK announced his retirement.[10] 26 August - Sylar leaves the team, and Black^ and iceiceice join.[11] VG looked very strong with their new lineup for the rest of the year, certainly the best Chinese team.

In mid December they travelled to Los Angeles to compete in The Summit 2 and as strong favorites they defeated Cloud9 for the Championship 3–1.

2015

VG had a strong 2015 season. In February, they reached the finals of Dota 2 Asian Championships ("the biggest event outside of The International") with not too much effort, but they lost shockingly 0–3 to Evil Geniuses in the Grand Finals, especially since they defeated them 2-0 the day before. With the next International being months away, this definitely shook up things for VG and they must've started analyzing their future and possibilities.

On 11 March, Hao joined VG, replacing Black^ in the Carry position, after a month of speculation and rumors going on.

On 15 March, the team announced the creation of a youth squad, VG.P.[12] On 27 April, Vici won Starladder XII after defeating Invictus Gaming 3–1.[13] They were one of the officially invited teams for The International 2015 with a complete prize pool of $18,377,817 and on 2 July they confirmed that they've obtained their USA visas, needed to participate in the event. They ended losing to LGD Gaming to finish 4th and securing $1,562,114. During the first day of The International 2015, VG became the first team outside of Europe to obtain the Verified Tag on Facebook, and third after only Fnatic and Gambit Gaming. After the annual post-TI break/shuffle period, Hao returned to Newbee and VG acquired Xu "BurNIng" Zhilei and Yang "YJ" Pu. They finished 2nd in the Nanyang Championships, falling 2-3 to Secret in the Grand Finals. They would proceed to participate in the first ever Major by Valve in Frankfurt, Germany. They finished in 5th place with $205,000 in winnings.

Roster
Vici Gaming's Dota 2 team at a press conference during The International 2014
ID Name Nationality
Eurus Zhang Chengjun  China
Ori Zeng Jiaoyang  China
Yang Zhou Haiyang  China
Pyw Xiong Jiahan  China
Dy Ding Cong  China

VGJ

In September 2016, Vici Gaming signed an agreement with American basketball player Jeremy Lin and investment group China Digital Group to form another Dota 2 team, called VGJ, meant to create a celebrity brand in esports.[14] The team later split into two branches in 2017: VGJ.Thunder, based in China, and VGJ.Storm, based in North America.[15] In May 2018, VGJ.Storm won the GESC Thailand Dota 2 Minor tournament, while VGJ.Thunder qualified for The International 2018 with a top eight finish in the Dota Pro Circuit, with VGJ.Storm winning in the North American regional qualifiers to also gain an invite.[16] In September 2018, the VGJ organization announced an ending to the Vici Gaming partnership due to new Dota Pro Circuit team ownership rules. As a result, it disbanded VGJ.Thunder and rebranded VGJ.Storm as J.Storm, with the team focusing on the North American esports scene.[17]

League of Legends

History

On 1 December 2015, VG signed former SKT T1 mid laner Lee "Easyhoon" Ji-hoon to their roster.[18]

Roster
Vici Gaming roster
PlayersCoaches
RoleHandleNameNationalityPrevious team
Top Cube  Dai Yi  China  VG Potential 
Jungle Aix  Li Yang  China  VG Potential 
Jungle Leyan  Lu Jue  China  Invictus Gaming 
Mid Forge  Deng Jie  China  iG Young 
Mid Zeka  Kim Geon-woo  South Korea  KT Rolster 
Bot iBoy  Hu Xianzhao  China  Edward Gaming 
Support Hang  Fu Minghang  China  VG Potential 
Support Maestro  Hu Jianxin  China  LNG Esports 
Head coach

Kim "kkOma" Jeong-gyun

Assistant coach(es)

Yang "Maokai" Jisong
Zhu "Loong" Xiaolong
Lee "PoohManDu" Jeong-hyeon

Legend
  • (2W) Two-way player
  • (I) Inactive
  • (S) Suspended
  • Substitute player
  • Injury/Illness

Latest roster transaction: 14 June 2020.

Other rosters

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Nat. ID Name Joined
zhokiNg Zhong Weijie 10 August 2018
aumaN Liu Zhihong 3 September 2018
advent (C) Liang Zhuo 3 September 2018
kaze Andrew Khong 3 September 2018
JamYoung (trial) Yi Yang September 2019

Hearthstone
  • Minyang "Ant" Wong
  • Anping "Season" Tan
  • Jingfan "ChinaYLD" Zhu
  • Yan "Rosicky" Zhongshu

FIFA
  • Zheng "Zola" Yang
gollark: Also edge computing, AI, serverless, machine learning, and web-scale.
gollark: No, not cryptocurrency, just regular fiat currency but with blockchain and cloud.
gollark: No, it will be stored in osmarksbank™ using advanced blockchain and cloud.
gollark: I will use my future vast wealth to set up a charity to promote potatOS use in schools.
gollark: Plus, contingency™.

References
  1. Moser, Kelsey (13 March 2017). "Vici Gaming CEO apologizes for insulting Bengi, then deletes his explanation". Yahoo Sports. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  2. "Meet Vici Gaming". 28 December 2012. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  3. Vici Gaming revives YaphetS 28 January 2012. GosuGamers.net.
  4. "GosuGamers". gosugamers.net. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  5. "GosuGamers". gosugamers.net. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  6. Tezzeret (31 October 2013). "Meracle to RisingStars, Sylar to Vici Gaming". joinDOTA. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
  7. "VG confirmed as eighth team for EMS One Fall". Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  8. freaks4u.com, Freaks 4U Gaming GmbH. "Fnatic and VG to Sin City for D2L Finals « News". joinDOTA.com. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  9. "QQQ/357 of EHOME and DK fame Joins VG as Coach". Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  10. "VG.Rotk Retires". www.liquiddota.com. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  11. "ACE Announces Chinese Transfers". www.liquiddota.com. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  12. "VG电子竞技俱乐部旗下Dota2青训队VG.P人员变动公告". p.t.qq.com. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
  13. Cerrudo, Aileen "Chaos" (28 April 2015). "VG Bags Starladder XII Championship". Inquirer.net. Retrieved 4 May 2015.
  14. "Jeremy Lin endorses new Dota 2 team VGJ". ESPN.com. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  15. "Vici Gaming splits VGJ into Chinese and NA teams". Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  16. Belandrial. "VGJ.Storm are the GESC: Thailand Dota 2 Minor Champions". vpesports.com. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  17. "J.Storm Dota Team". teamvgj.co. Retrieved 28 September 2018.
  18. "Easyhoon signs with Vici Gaming in deal reportedly worth $860,000". Retrieved 18 August 2017.
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