History of Competitive DotA

The Emergence of Organized Competitive Matches: TDA and IGS
The first league was Clan TDA (Team DotA Allstars) formed in April 2004. Its spread in popularity was helped in great part by the website DotA-Allstars.com founded on October 14th, 2004 by TDA member Pendragon.

IGS (International Gaming Syndicate) began hosting DotA competitions in 2004. The first season had 20 teams participating. The second season had 45 teams, so more and more people joined.

Happenings in the EU/NA scene
DotA's rapid popularization and balance improvements greatly increased DotA's competitiveness. Lots of teams began to emerge. Internationally renowned teams such as PluG (later known as coL or compLexity), Apex (later known as JMC or Jax Money Crew), Say Plz, Team Q, TeG (The Elder Gods) and BTo (Boomtown Odense, front-runner of JoY or Jukes on You and later, MYM or Meet Your Makers) were influential in competitions during this era. Some of these teams such as Apex had their beginnings in earlier leagues such as the IGS back in 2004-2005.

EU/NA competitions were mainly TDA and CAL, as well as Dota-League's Pick League. In the first season of Pick League taking place in November 2005, Team Q claimed victory, while BTo took first place in the next three seasons asserting their dominance.

Happenings in the Asian scene
Compared to these tournaments in EU/NA, DotA was still in an embryonic state in China. EU/NA competitions didn't have a big influence on the Chinese scene.

In China in the month of November 2005, some players famous on the U9 forum formed team GL under the leadership and organization of Xiaoxiongmao. Ever since they formed, GL has been one of China's strongest, mightiest and most low-profile teams. During the same period, Mage (not to be confused with later Russian team MaGe) and IFNT formed in succession.

The appearance of teams naturally led to contests. During the 6.2x era, there weren't many competitions. Everyone learned from each other by comparing their views on how to play the game. The records we have on matches back then doesn't amount to much. I've only noted down the influential competitions.

On February 7th 2006, a Taiwanese team was on the U9 forum challenging teams and met the recently-formed GL. Due to poor connections, the match wasn't very good. Nevertheless, the Taiwanese team used Keeper of the Light and Tinker's long-range nuke strategy which broadened the DotA worldview of GL, who had until then worked diligently on their AOE (area of effect) strategy. This also gave Chinese DotA players a taste of the fascination that exists in CW (clan wars). As the first CW match in China with some influence, it deserves mention in this history.

In March 2006, the first RDL DotA competition was hosted. Using 6.27 as the official version of the competition, the tournament originally planned to have 32 teams, but in the end only 23 teams participated. GL was too strong for the other teams and took the victory claiming the very first national Chinese title.

This tournament is something that can't be omitted from any Chinese DotA history. It could be argued that due to the experiment that was this tournament, more Chinese DotA experts switched from playing for amusement in pubs to having organized and competitive team games. This tournament also led to more people appreciating the competitive nature of DotA to break away from the preconception many people had of the game as a WC3 ladder map meant only for casual amusement.

This tournament spread the fame of first-generation Chinese teams such as GL, HUST, IFNT, Mage and EDU which declared the arrival of the strong teams. Following the popularization of replays, Chenlun, Huiyue, Xiaoxiongmao and mAroBoRo (Wanbaolu) and other players left a deep impression in people. They were the first generation Chinese DotA stars. They were also who DotA beginners tried to model themselves after.

During the 6.27 era, the mainstream strategy was AOE. For late-game, the 4-protect-1 strategy was also developed. The most famous strategy was the Divine Aegis (Divine Rapier, Aegis of the Immortal) Medusa. These strategies flourished through the 6.32 era until the 6.37 era.

Violent AOE: The 6.32 Era
The 6.3x versions yielded two stable competitive versions: 6.32 and 6.37. The changes in the mainstream playstyle that occurred between the two versions made two successive competitive versions into completely different eras. During the 6.32 era, the mainstream strategy still followed the previous 6.27 era's AOE strategy, but due to some gameplay and item changes, a fast push strategy became the most popular strategy in 6.37. The 6.3x versions played a large part in shaping later DotA.

Happenings in the EU/NA scene
During this era, influential teams included coL (compLexity), JMC (Jax Money Crew), tPD (Team Pandemic), vRG (veRGe), Say Plz, Team Q and BTo (Boomtown Odense). Even though EU (European) teams were also widely influential during this era, for brevity's sake, only the NA (North American) teams will be explained in this section, with more of an emphasis placed on EU teams during Part 3 of this history.

During this era, the most important NA competition was the CAL (Cyberathlete Amateur League). The first three seasons were contended over by the four teams coL, JMC, tPD and verGe with their skill levels being such that they could dethrone each other at any given time. coL dominated the scene for quite some time, before they were defeated in a 2-0 upset by JMC during the finals of the first CAL season. However, coL would get their revenge in the second season as they dethroned JMC to become champion.

The second season brought in hundreds of new NA teams, so for the third season, CAL expanded their DotA competition to four categories: Invite (I), Main (M), Intermediate (IM) and Open (O).

coL was the first NA powerhouse. Originally called clan PluG, coL was one of the first DotA teams to get sponsored. They were a team with strong individual skill and impressive results. Aside from their influential playstyle, coL players also became the first-generation of DotA stars who everyone tried to model their own play after. coL.Fear and coL.ezy were particularly influential.

Aside from coL, JMC was another NA powerhouse. Also originating from the days of the IGS league, the team was called FAG (Fang and Gang) named after JMC's captain. The name was changed to Apex to make the process of signing up for competitions smoother. Upon receiving JMC's sponsorship, the name was once again changed. Everyone on the team was of Chinese ethnicity.

tPD was the third team that caught people's attention. Originally called team ADA (Arrogant DotA Arseholes), the team received Team Pandemic's sponsorship. As coL's strongest rival, they often experimented with new strategies using unorthodox heroes. They continuously changed roles between teammates to try to get themselves used to hero combinations, thus playing with flair and originality. This got many people to notice them. Even their opponents could make no secret of enjoying watching them play. Merlini and p0c would both later profess that tPD was their favourite team.

Happenings in the Asian scene
During the period of time between 6.27 and 6.32, Chinese DotA developed quickly. It became the most popular map on college campuses. Not merely did it grow rapidly in numbers of players, but large amounts of EU/NA tournament replays and hero guides flooded intoChina. High quality forum posts and hero guides began to emerge in large numbers. The level of Chinese DotA began a speedy ascent.

During the 6.32 era, there were two major competitions in China. One was the first U9 DotA Invitational. The other was the CPL DotA Challenge Competition. In June and July 2006, The first U9 DotA Invitational was held with 30 teams participating. GL took first place, IFNT second place. In August, RN held a fierce competition from which IFNT emerged victorious.

In October 2006, the famous e-sport organization CPL (Cyberathlete Professional League) hosted a DotA tournament in China. It excited many DotA fans endlessly. This event's grand finals were the first LAN (local area network i.e. offline) event in China to have widespread influence. In the end, lzlqcl-led Nebula team returning from overseas took first place, HUST took second place and GL's two teams third and fourth places.

This LAN event provided an excellent stage for the leading Chinese DotA teams and players to interact with each other. I can't help but mention that GL saved up for a rainy day. After the tournament ended, they were vigorous keeping up relations with players who caught their eye in the tournament. So it was that PLU's Snoy, Nebula's Zilong (later known as Longdd), Zhanguotianxia's DC were all poached by GL later on. To say GL's manager was farsighted would be an understatement.

This tournament also encouraged two companies (now DotA-related) to take interest. One was OGame.net's DotA division that relied on fast-breaking news and replay releases to become the biggest replay download and DotA news site in China. In the beginning of year 2008, they made the strategic decision to transfer all DotA content to SGamer.com before shutting down. The other company was the VS gaming platform that relied on the simplicity and competitive nature of its point-based system, quickly becoming the most popular DotA gaming platform in China.

After being tested by several tournaments, a few teams stood out from the rest. For a considerably long period of time, they stood on the highest pedestal of Chinese DotA: GL, IFNT and HTML were the three most exceptional teams. After winning CPL, Nebula went through a period where no news was heard from them. After this period, they declared that they were going to disband.

If GL was a living person, this person could be said to have aristocratic blood running through their veins. Even just after they formed, they already were a top-tier team. After Tossgirl (not the female Starcraft progamer from Korea) who'd received abundant CW experience overseas returned to China on vacation, GL inherited the most advanced strategies of the time. When the playstyle of Chinese DotA wasn't yet mature, Tossgirl's strategic understanding and experience gave GL a firm seat on the throne of Chinese DotA for a considerably long period of time. At the same time, GL was under excellent management and were strict to the point of ruthlessness in their test for players interested in joining the team, thereby ensuring that every team member had top-notch individual skill. These factors combined to allow GL reign as the strongest team in China for a long time.

IFNT followed the model by letting overseas Chinese students onto the team in April 2006. Once the strong EU team Dcn's overseas students returned to China and joined IFNT in succession, IFNT received advanced strategy and the valuable tournament experience accumulated in EU DotA leagues. Afterwards, IFNT was filled with numerous talents and for a time held the moniker "When all the pieces are in place, IFNT is invincible." It's a shame one or two players weren't able to attend the competitions...

HTML was a team formed by ice_show (At the time DotA.cn's head admin. DotA.cn was the go-to forum in China if you wanted to improve) and Heintje (translated Chinese versions of DotA). The charisma of these two people drew players from all around China to their team. It was only that the skilled players were all in EU/NA and Chinese players were still weak (but were quickly improving) or else ice_show and Heintje would have enjoyed a greater degree of success.

Concurrently, DotA in SEA (South-east Asia) was also taking off rapidly. They adopted -AP (All Pick) mode favouring ganks. This playstyle was completely different from the EU/NA's preference of -LM (League Mode) for competitions where players would focus on lane-control. Originally, Chinese DotA players consisted of students who'd gone to EU/NA to study, so their playstyle and competitive mode (i.e. -AP) were modeled after EU/NA. SEA replays and forums weren't prevalent in China, which limited the influence the SEA playstyle had on Chinese DotA.

Nevertheless, teams such as Singapore's Zenith, the Philippines' Team Flow and Team 129 had some replays showing Chinese players the fierce and captivating nature of a frenzied gank playstyle. In particular, Zenith's novel playstyle and use of unorthodox heroes completely captivated the viewer's gaze.

Mainstream strategies and hero picks
AOE was mainstream during the 6.32 era. Whether it was 5 AOE spellcaster push strategy or AOE 4-protect-1, you didn't go without fierce AOE coordination. This is why the 6.32 era is often referred to as the "AOE era".

During the 6.32 era, the mainstream strategy still followed the previous 6.27 era's AOE strategy of emphasizing harassment against opponents in-lane, so roaming ganks weren’t a common sight. Upon acquiring a certain amount of superiority or after completing an essential item (Mekansm, for example), the team would gather to push.

The inspiration of this playstyle perhaps came out of traditional Western concepts of warfare such as forming into ranks and firing off volleys (of spells in the case of DotA). After an intense AOE spellcaster battle began, triple and ultra kills were not uncommon. Rampages also weren't rare. (Note: The sounds for "ultra kill" and "rampage" didn't exist back then. You could only hear a repeat of "triple kill") The AOE strategy required extremely good coordination from teammates. This is why early DotA teams from the AOE era endured a trial by fire and perhaps had better teamwork than later teams.

The 6.32 version's Mekansm heal could be stacked. Since Sentinel could not withstand the five spellcaster mass AOE push by the Scourge, a 4-protect-1 strategy protecting Silencer was developed, who was a good physical DPS (damage-per-second) hero as well as the bane of any AOE strategy. Thus this led to Scourge developing a 4-protect-1 strategy around Visage.

Late in the 6.32 era, nearly all Chinese teams were using the 4-protect-1 strategy. Despite being 4-protect-1, there was still an abundance of AOE. The ganking 4-protect-1 had also emerged, but it wasn't mainstream, because ganking hadn’t matured yet.

Aside from Silencer and Visage during the 6.32 era, Morphling and Clinkz were also common sights in CW. Morphling's “morph” ability and his ultimate "replicate" were good weapons to deal with Visage. The despicable Divine Aegis strategy used by Clinkz was an endless source of headache for Sentinel heroes.

Aside from these physical DPS heroes, AOE heroes including Enigma, Crystal Maiden, Rhasta and Krobelus were all popular during the 6.32 era. Furthermore, Lich's nearly 100% appearance rate in CW during the 6.32 era shows that he was the hottest hero during the era (cheesy pun, because if something gets cold enough, it will feel like getting burned by something hot). For many teams, the test for players interested in joining the team was facing Lich 1v1 solo-mid using Silencer.

Fast Push: The 6.37 Era
On September 10th 2006, DotA Allstars 6.37 was released. On December 6th, the Chinese version came out. The 6.37 version was the second stable competitive version in the 6.3x series. There were many big changes that finally brought an end to the AOE (area of effect) era and marking the beginning of the fast push with summons strategy.

Happenings in the EU/NA scene
The most important competition during the 6.37 era was the ESL DotA Nations Cup. Participating teams numbered 12 in total including NA powerhouses coL, JMC and tPD, as well as strong EU teams such as Team Q, Say Plz, TeG (The Elder Gods) and JoY (Jukes on You). Without a doubt, these were the top teams of the time. Since the competition stretched so long in duration, teams disbanded and players didn't always remain with original teams for the entirety of the competition. Nevertheless, this was the most high-skilled international tournament before the MYM Prime Defending series of competitions.

The most dominant team in the ESL was tPD. Early in the 6.37 era, tPD experimented with Pandaren Brewmaster, Syllabear and other heroes before finding the perfect meat shield for a fast push strategy: Bristleback. From that point onwards, the Bristleback, Enchantress, Twin Head Dragon, Beastmaster and Holy Knight lineup swept aside all teams at ESL who had no way to withstand their onslaught.

It was a shame that at a critical juncture in the tournament, the Bristleback God that was SwissBeatz became inactive having gotten into World of Warcraft (WoW). Then, Say Plz stole tPD's own strategy and used it against them sending them into the losers' bracket in the semi-final match. In the losers' bracket, Team Q followed Say Plz's initiative and eliminated the inventor of the fast push with summons strategy. It's lamentable that tPD fell into a downward spiral soon after.

In the finals of the ESL after Say Plz won Game 1 due to one of Team Q's players (CatQ) having internet issues and the team being forced to use a stand-in, they fought a bitter, hard-fought 2h 30m 46s match against Team Q. After a heaven-startling and earth-shaking comeback (no pun intended), they managed to claim victory. This was one of the most classic matches in the history of DotA.

On November 6th 2006, after hosting three small-scale DotA tournaments that didn't have much worldwide impact, e-sports organization MYM held the MYM PriDe Xtreme #1 Tournament (Prime Defending) filled with high-skilled players. From MYM PriDe #5 onwards, this tournament series would go on to become the most influential online DotA competition in the world. MYM PriDe Xtreme #1 was won by the old school Romanian team TeG who defeated coL and Team Q on their way to the finals. Second place was claimed by Say Plz

The famous EU DotA website DotA-League held the 6th season of its popular online tournament Pick League. Each team would accumulate points based on victories. In the end, the German team WE (World Eaters) won. WE|Kuroky had made his mark on the world of DotA for the first time.

During this tournament in a match between MYM and WE, the recently-joined MYM.Merlini used for the first time ever in a competitive match Boots of Travel (BoT) Tinker strategy of flying everywhere on the map to gank. So it was that a classic DotA strategy emerged. Later, in the 6.52 era, Indonesia's XcN (eXeCutioNer) would bring the BoT Tinker strategy to its pinnacle.

Surprisingly, this strategy was developed by a pub player called Virot2 who had been perfecting it since 6.27. He published an influential guide between the 6.32 and 6.37 versions that was the first to advocate such a build considered highly unorthodox at the time. If there was a case of a pub player revolutionizing the DotA world, this would be it.

On September 29th, the famous 6.32 era team JMC announced that it was disbanding.

On November 15th, 2006, e-sports organization MYM began sponsoring the recent winner of MYM Prime tournament, JoY, thus prompting them to change their name to the one we're all familiar with. The key members were Paccie, MaNia, Maelk, Akke and Loda (stands for Lord of Dol Amroth). Half a month later, they claimed victory in the DotA category of the renowned LAN (local area network, i.e. offline) tournament DreamHack. After winning the tournament, Loda and Akke left MYM to form a new team called T_T (Team_Team). After Loda left, MYM reached out to members from the disbanded JMC. The addition of Merlini, Fang and p0c boosted MYM's popularity and prestige making it one of the most followed teams.

During the 6.37 era, the most influential team was tPD without a doubt. Despite not being able to win ESL, their fast push strategy became 6.37's tempo. If it wasn't for SwissBeatz giving up DotA for WoW, we can rest assured that their exploits would have been even better.

The Russian giant Say Plz began their march towards DotA world’s limelight. In terms of popularity Say Plz, as one of the oldest teams in DotA, had already supplanted coL. They were considered one of the best teams in the world playing with maturity, having stable players and rarely committing mistakes.

After being defeated in the finals of the CEVO tournament by tPD, coL began to fall apart. throzz retired, DOGKaiser fell under team verGe's enchantment and warr1ck didn't know what to do. With Fear as leader of coL, they had been one of the strongest teams in the 6.32 era.

iMbaQ had served for a time on Say Plz and STFU (Skill The F Up). With STFU, iMbaQ an Englishman overcame historical rivalries to join forces with Frenchman and ex-tPD star SoyCD. Also on this legendary team were FocusIRE (also known as DoTa[expert]), Get-Lost (FocusIRE's brother, also known as DoTa[pro]) and CatQ who were extremely skilled players in their own right. The all-star team took MYM PriDe #2 by storm crushing the opposition.

SoyCD was a strong solo-mid player who many considered to be the best player in the world at the time. He was quite proficient in using every hero. The only other player who stood a chance to compete for the title of best player during this era would be FocusIRE. He was another strong solo-mid and had won Season 2 of Dota-League's SIG (Single Instant Game) Ladder.

After joining Team Q, iMbaQ played the role of a carry. With his individual ability, he served Team Q with distinction in the TFL (The Frozen League) and ESL contributing to Team Q's dominance during this period. Aside from iMbaQ, the JesseQ-led Team Q had elJefeQ, BarbaraQ, JesseQ and CatQ who were all high-skilled players and friends in this clan that has been around since the Starcraft times. PenguinQ, nRiQ, QOa and leppasQ were also in this team. iMbaQ didn't use spaces when he types, preferring the underscore instead. He had a considerable amount of personality. Some say he was the Einstein of the DotA world, so great was his influence at the time.

LighTofHeaven had become the representative of EU DotA during the 6.32 era. Following strong performances by Say Plz, he drew more and more attention due to his spectacular performances in the carry role. He combined exceptional farming capability with awe-inspiring abilities of reading the game and stability in his play. He was a pioneer of the Necronomicon Silencer item route and played a crucial role in the advancement of Silencer in terms of how he should be played.

Having joined MYM, Merlini showed a renewal of his 6.32 era prestige and influence, filling the skies with heat-seeking rockets and once again propelling himself to dazzling stardom. To say that he was the most influential DotA player in the world wouldn't be an overstatement. He became the first player after Fear to attain Legend status.

Loda, ARS-ART, M.Admiration, FocusIRE and Levent, these later stars began making their mark during this era.

Happenings in the Asian scene
IceFrog's 6.37 version lasted from September 1st, 2006 until February 2007, but its influence on the Chinese scene wasn't actually that extensive. It wasn't until December 2006 until the Chinese version came out and was quickly replaced by 6.41 two short months later. In between was also the Chinese version of 6.38 and the Chinese New Year. Also during the 6.37 era, there weren't any big tournaments aside from CDL-I. Compared to the EU/NA scene, the Chinese scene was quite small.

On December 7th 2006, OGame.net announced they were going to host a Chinese DotA Tournament called the CDL-I Tournament. This time, their announcement was sufficiently loud. In fact, their eye-catching advertisement was on the 6.37 Chinese version's loading screen which was just released on December 6th. This edition of the tournament stretched a very long time lasting over half a year. It strode across three competitive versions from 6.37 until 6.43.

There were 12 teams that participated. Almost all were the 12 strong teams invited by CPL (Cyberathlete Professional League) as mentioned in Part 2 of this history. In the end, IFNT defeated HTML to take the victory. This was the more carefully organized online DotA tournament. Advertisements giving advance notice, replay release after the tournament and live casting were all performed fairly satisfactorily.

It is interesting to note that the now infamous trilane (3-1-1 laning) emerged during the time between the 6.32 and 6.37 eras in the SEA scene. It is rumoured to have first been used by lesser known teams at WCG Malaysia 2006 in August. The first time it can definitely be proven to have been used in a competitive match was in the semi-final BO1 (best of one) match of WCG Asia 2006 by Singapore's MI2 (stylized way of writing MR) facing their dominant countrymen, Zenith. With Zenith's star-studded squad of GPS, Ant, ToFu, LuX and iceiceice on ten month long winning streak, MI2 needed a miracle.

Facing a gank-heavy lineup from Zenith with the possibility of a dual-stun lane, MI2 ingeniously trilaned an Enigma, Vengeful Spirit, Medusa bottom against a solo Sven. Threatened with complete lane domination, Zenith was forced to pull the dual jungling Sand King and Chen all the way from Scourge jungle to bottom lane for support, costing them experience and gold. Ultimately, with Medusa strong beyond imagining, MI2 was able to take three towers with their first push and force Zenith to "gg" with the next.

On September 24th 2006, in a showmatch between MI2 and coL, Asia's gank style met EU's lane-control style to determine which one was stronger. The match became the focal point of discussion for many and appealed to countless fans.

MI2 was the winner of the most recent WCG Asia 2006 (World Cyber Games). coL had just defeated tPD and become the winner of CAL (Cyberathlete Amateur League). The two teams met at their peaks and the match attracted worldwide attention. Due to poor internet connections, both sides fought well in one match each and the contest was split one apiece.

In the first match, coL dominated with their standard AOE 4-protect-1 Clinkz. (This was still early on in the 6.37 era) In the second match, MI2 dazzled with their offensive trilane (as opposed to their farming trilane vs. Zenith).These two matches were classic matches full of historical significance. From this point on, the gank and lane-control styles of play began to interact, both trying to borrow from the strengths of the other.

Soon after this showmatch, EU and NA teams led by MYM and coL began experimenting with trilanes as a situational strategy for offensive purposes or farming. Popular picks in the SEA scene such as Viper and Queen of Pain entered the competitive pool of EU and NA DotA.

Mainstream strategies and hero picks
As alluded to previously, there were many big changes since the 6.32 version that brought an end to the AOE era and begun the fast push with summons era. These changes included:

-Mekansm could no longer be stacked. -The items Vanguard and Bottle were introduced. -Tangoes were buffed to heal 75 more HP (health points). -Denied units gave off some experience instead of none. -A reward of 200 gold was now given to team members when an opposing tower was destroyed.

Changes to game mechanics to denies as well as the buff to tangoes allowed melee heroes such as Beastmaster and Bristleback to become viable for the first time.

6.37 wasn't actually a very balanced version. Under -LM mode in 6.37, the Sentinel fast push using summons strategy with Chen and Enchantress was almost unstoppable by Scourge. Even with the Spectre trilane strategy, Scourge lost more games. This is why players began to doubt the balance of competitive matches and to consider the possibility of using -AP mode over -LM. Thus began a shift in public opinion regarding the competitive mode.

Several versions that followed 6.37 were stable competitive versions, but these versions made some important changes with some looking like they'd been made in a rush.

6.38 introduced the new items Arcane Ring, Flying Courier, Mjollnir and Vladmir's Offering. As well, the siege unit was added as a creep type. The Bottle was buffed immensely by allowing runes to refill an empty bottle and a buff to the mana regeneration of each sip. A new hero Priestess of the Moon was introduced.

6.39 continued with the changes, the significant ones being: addition of -RD mode, addition of the OB (observer) stat table, and two new heroes, Geomancer and Dazzle.

DotA 6.3x was the era where DotA spread worldwide and continued its evolution as an e-sport. During this time, large-scale tournaments with influence worldwide were held providing the conditions for different DotA playstyles to interact (trilanes and Queen of Pain being two examples). The rationales behind different strategies blended and gained from the strengths of each other preparing for the arrival of a new era.

Trilane and the Global Strategy: The 6.41 Era
On February 7th 2007, DotA 6.41 was released. On February 28th, the Chinese version was released. 6.41 addressed balance problems to a large extent. It replaced 6.37 as the version used in competitive matches. 6.41 lasted a very short period as it was replaced by 6.43 a month later.

Nevertheless, 6.41 was a version with particular historical significance. In this version, -AP replaced -LM as the official competitive mode. Furthermore, there were many tournaments held using this version. For these reasons, version 6.41 was a good testing ground to pave the way for 6.43.

Happenings in the EU/NA scene
On February 28th 2007, the first large-scale -AP mode tournament was the Russian ASUS Winter Open 2007. Russia's team MaGe (Magic aGe) claimed victory. This was the first time Vigoss came into everyone's vision. Second and third place were claimed by Russian teams DoTa[] and Say Plz respectively.

On March 7th 2007, MYM PriDe #4 (Prime Defending) started. After experimenting with the first 3 editions, the MYM tournament has attracted the attention of the world with 137 teams participating. Compared with the first edition 3 months ago, you can see how rapidly DotA was growing. This MYM tournament had two rules that caught one's attention: firstly, Bristleback was auto-banned; secondly, every hero could only make one Aegis of the Immortal. These two rules became standard in competitions for the 6.41 version. It is also what began the legend of Bristleback's invincibility.

Soon after MYM PriDe #4 began, three Russian teams were banned from the competition: Say Plz, MaGe and a team not well known called SD. The reason was Say Plz and SD were both using a player called HoroN to play their games, but HoroN was actually MaGe's player. This led to the organizing committee banning all three teams (another rumour was that MaGe was actually banned for having used Bristleback). Say Plz's manager Matrix protested with great indignation. He claimed that even though Say Plz did break a rule, MYM's punishment was overly severe. He even went so far as to claim that kicking them out was the result of an inside plot and as may be imagined, his words caused much controversy.

This was the first significant claim of corruption in DotA tournament organizers. Following DotA's continuous development as an e-sport, everyone's standard of fair play had also increased. This is a natural development in a competitive game's path towards becoming a professional e-sport. Therefore, there's no ground for blame towards the MYM PriDe #4 tournament organizers. You can't let a team break rules just because they're famous. Without rules, nothing can be accomplished—this happened to be MYM tournament organizers' philosophy. Their decisions led to the MYM tournament series becoming famous and respected worldwide.

In MYM PriDe #4, dark horses burst onto the scene. Zenith, MYM and tPD these old-school teams got eliminated in the Round of 16 by teams no one had previously heard of. In the end, team DoTa[] led by core veterans FocusIRE (DoTa[expert]), Get-Lost (brother of FocusIRE, also known as DoTa[pro]) and ars-n00b (DoTa[gosu]) defeated Kuroky's upstart German team WE (World Eaters) to become champion. Worth noting is that also on this team were future stars ARS-ART and M.Admiration (DoTa[hasu]) who would go on to form the core of VP (Virtus Pro).

The disintegrating coL had to field an entirely new roster relying on ex-JMC and ex-tPD players. Their players were Fear, ezy, imMIKEJONES, Shroomz, Shaang and hit0mi with BarbaraQ, CatQ (also known as MoON, not the Korean WC3 progamer) from Team Q as stand-ins since their team wasn't participating in this MYM PriDe. Despite the lack of commitment, the team had very strong players and was very successful in the tournament making it all the way to the semi-finals where they forfeited the match to the dismay of their fans. They decided to forfeit the third-place match as well and the team disbanded soon afterwards.

On March 10th 2007, TFL (The Frozen League) began. This was the other influential competition during the 6.41 era. TFL was an invitational, but didn't invite Say Plz during their peak, so the tournament organizers were called into question. However aside from omitting Say Plz, all other strong teams participated, so it was an international-scale tournament. This competition was similar to the Chinese CDL-I tournament in that both lasted a very long time. While the tournament was running, teams dropped out one by one. Four months later, the team that began the tournament as T_T ended the tournament as SK and defeated MYM to claim victory.

There was a scandal in TFL too. During the match between TeG and VP, TeG-KANGA was caught maphacking. Soon after, TeG had another team member caught maphacking leaving no choice for TeG but to forfeit their remaining matches. TeG was an old-school Romanian powerhouse, winners of MYM PriDe Xtreme #1 (a tournament that took place between MYM PriDe #3 and #4). This scandal dragged their reputation through the mud and after the tournament, their playing ability was severely impacted. Later, they recombined with new players and while not attaining dominance, would remain a force teams needed to watch out for. So it was that TeG furthered its legacy as one of Europe's oldest teams.

On April 12th 2007, MYM PriDe #5 got off to a start. MYM PriDe #5 continued to use 6.41 as the competitive version. This was a very successful tournament as over 200 teams worldwide participated. This officially made the MYM tournament series the World Cup of the DotA world. Some even went so far as to claim that MYM PriDe #5 changed DotA, that it was the beginning of a new era by saying:"Of course it didn't add any new heroes or items. Of course it didn't rebalance any skills. But with truth as my witness, this tournament did more for DotA as an e-sport than any of IceFrog's patches!"

Even though these words might be a bit of an exaggeration, they do have some merit. MYM PriDe #5 broadened DotA's influence on the world. The tournament's level of organization and rules set the standard for future tournaments to follow, and a provided a great opportunity for international teams to interact. Many new, original strategies were explored in this tournament. These strategies yielded better understanding of how deep DotA truly was.

In MYM PriDe #5, Loda led team T_T to abandon the by-now popular trilane strategy. He came up with a spectacular global gank strategy defeating Say Plz, annihilating DoA (Dead or Alive), overthrowing TeG, braving MaGe before finally triumphing over MYM to become victor. In an interview, Loda says that he and Bogdan perfected the concept after seeing Kuroky's WE use something similar in a scrim against them.

The global strategy is a lineup involving the heroes Zeus, Furion and Spectre. The ultimates of all three heroes have global effect and the latter two can move to an engagement happening anywhere on the map bringing great impact to small-scale battles and ganks. Back then, the global strategy was limited to these three heroes. MYM would later add BoT Tinker to the global arsenal and it would be further expanded with the introduction of new heroes such as Clockwerk Goblin, Ancient Apparition and Gyrocopter.

By necessity, a global lineup requires the team to abandon the trilane strategy, because it would be impossible for three heroes on a team to reach Level 6 in a short amount of time due to the fact that at least one out of the three will be forced to split experience on the trilane. Furthermore, this strategy could be said to be a counter to the trilane strategy in the sense that with proper execution, a team can take advantage (by ganking) of the timing window where they have ultimates on their three key heroes while the other team might still have heroes stuck on Level 5.

Early ganking cannot usually be guaranteed to succeed without a hero first farming up a blink dagger or by using Nerubian Assassin (Storm Spirit wasn't added until 6.44), but T_T managed to chance upon a clever and efficient way of ganking with the only requirement being to reach Level 6 on their key heroes.

Regarding the two heroes completing the global strategy lineup, teamfight heroes with powerfuly ultimates such as Sand King, Shadow Fiend and Warlock would often be picked. This completes the synergy with the other three "global" heroes, because the ultimates of those three are quite useful in teamfights as well. The result was a lineup strong in mid-game ganks as well as late-game teamfights.

The 6.41 era was quite chaotic as teams tried to find the perfect hero combination since they were no longer restrained by the Sentinel-Scourge limitation in hero choices of -LM mode. Many teams had bright points in their play. Of these teams, the team with most influence was MYM. To begin with, MYM was already a worldwide famous e-sports organization. By adding an international DotA team filled with high-skilled players, they received much attention and gained massive popularity; their replays were studied by many. This led to the rapid popularization of heroes they unearthed.

Back in the 6.37 era, MYM.Merlini had demonstrated the global gank strategy based around Tinker. Drawing on his legendary abilities to dazzle the world once more, he demonstrated that his understanding of fog was simply incomparable.

MYM.LevenT went beyond godlike with Lina nearly every match. This led to people referring to him as the “Mouth of Lina” (as if he were her spokesman). This female hero became the most popular hero in the 6.4x versions.

MYM.Fang was indisputably a legendary player at using Sand King. He took Sand King from a traditional AOE (area of effect) hero to a roaming gank hero. Sand King played the role of the "man" in the famous "Dog, Man and Woman" gank combination of the 6.4x versions.

MYM.H4nn1's mastery of all aspects of the game and his refined individual abilities got him Star status. Together with Loda, he made the 6.41 era into Shadow Fiend's era.

Aside from team MYM, the play of the eventual winners of MYM PriDe #5 T_T were the most eye-catching. Developing the global gank strategy which directly inspired VP's later full pressure gank strategy, they greatly influenced later DotA.

T_T's core player Loda demonstrated to everyone for the first time how imbalanced the 6.41 Shadow Fiend could be. From 6.41 onwards, Loda officially attained Legend status. His abundant individual ability and the unique glamour of his play gave him the capability for quite a long time to carry his relatively mediocre teammates against MYM and VP, two star-studded teams.

In the 6.41 version, Team Q's original lineup of Keeper of the Light, Earthshaker, Silencer and Shadow Fiend showed profound influence.

The Russian team MaGe were victors of ASUS Winter 2007. The team's Vigoss and Jolie were on the brink of their meteoric rise to stardom.

Happenings in the Asian scene
In March 2007, the second edition of the U9 DotA Championship was held. This was the most influential competition in Chinese DotA during the 6.41 era. At the time aside from the incredibly long CDL-I, there weren't any other competitions. From growth between 6.32 and 6.41, Chinese DotA players were blowing up in numbers forming numerous teams. This led to many DotA fans in succession registering for the U9 DotA Championship. In the end, over 60 teams participated.

This event drew many college teams out of their normal school circles letting them attend a large-scale tournament. In particular, AVNC (led by a player called 2009) and HFUT were the most successful college teams during this era.

Newcomers such as EAST, AVNC, GOW and LOST.P were incredibly strong. In matches against the old guard GL, IFNT and Nebula, their play were extremely eye-catching. In particular, the LOST.P team formed by Danche (N3komatA) was the biggest underdog. In the winners' bracket finals, they sent GL down to the losers' bracket and emerged as the darkest of the dark horses. EAST and AVNC claimed 3rd and 4th places respectively laying down fine performances.

The new generation of players including GK, 2009, 830, Soulk and Dgc were all very capable players.

Overall, this edition of the U9 competition was the first event in China to test the skill levels of the different teams. The new generation of teams and players shined on-stage. They infused the Chinese scene with a newfound source of vitality and passion.

During this tournament, VS gaming platform's CW (clan war) room became the main place for teams wanting to learn from each other. In the forums, chat between new teams and posts to schedule CWs could be found. The Chinese scene was continuing its development.

Singapore's Zenith began taking part in online EU events starting from MYM PriDe #4. Since they'd been playing -AP mode from the beginning, people gave them good expectations of winning. However due to poor connections and at times playing not very maturely, they were eliminated from TFL and MYM PriDe #4.

Nevertheless, they were the first team from Asia to go do battle in EU/NA and some of their strategies have had worldwide influence. Rushing Eye of Skadi before Boots was particularly memorable. Their strategy of switching Queen of Pain from gank to DPS (damage-per-second) would become mainstream after 6.43. Another of their contributions was five heroes getting Blink Daggers in a competitive match. Blink Daggers would become standard in 6.4x versions.

Mainstream strategies and hero picks
6.41 was the first version to use -AP mode as the competitive mode instead of -LM. Earlier on in the new version, the playstyle carried remnants of the old -LM styles: AOE, fast push and gank were all being executed using the 3-1-1 laning system. Trilanes that were seen only as a novelty in 6.37 now became mainstream.

All the teams were trying out new heroes for use in CW. After a period of feeling their way around, small-scale gank 4-protect-1 became mainstream. High burst-damage heroes took centre-stage in CW. Heroes like Shadow Fiend, Zeus, Warlock, Tinker and Nerubian Assassin became popular during this era. The Leshrac and Lina stun combo was particularly deadly. In the Chinese scene, Alchemist and Spectre were popular late-game heroes.

Later in the era, the global strategy was discovered and used to devastating effect bringing T_T the title of MYM PriDe #5. This strategy was particularly effective against the experience-starved trilane heroes on the other team. Whether it was for this reason or some other that led to the disappearance of trilanes, it is unclear. What is clear however, is that soon afterwards, the trilane strategy lost favour in the European DotA competitive community as teams resorted to the familiar 2-1-2 and sometimes 2-2-1 laning. This would not be the last the DotA world saw of trilanes.

The dazzling power of a global strategy to gank a hero anywhere on the map was truly incredible. It is theorized that this strategy became the inspiration of VP's full pressure gank strategy later on.

Rise of the Blink Dagger: The 6.43 Era
6.43 was one of the golden eras in the history of DotA. Numerous strategies emerged and many unpopular heroes were introduced into CW. The game's seemingly infinite variation drew more players into the world of DotA.

6.43 fixed many bugs and balance issues that existed in 6.41. At the same time, several important changes were made. These changes made 6.43 into a stable competitive version with one of the most profound and far-reaching effects in the history of DotA.

Between 6.43 and 6.48, none of the versions were stable versions. Their individual influences can be ignored, so I'll put all mention of pre-6.48 competitions under the 6.43 heading.

Happenings in the EU/NA scene
On May 8th, VP (Virtus Pro) was formed from players out of MaGe and DoTa[]. In the ASUS Spring 2007 Tournament, the LighTofHeaven-led Say Plz defeated VP to become champion. Just like how Michael Jordan had to overcome many difficulties before dominating the NBA, after this defeat VP ruled the DotA world from 6.43 to the 6.48 era.

On June 8th, MYM hosted the MYM Prime Nations #1 tournament with players representing their countries that ran concurrent to MYM PriDe #6. In total, 18 countries attended. China's team was organized by ChinaPanda who took care of players who wanted sign up and play. GL ended up representing China, but due to the bad internet, they were eliminated after one win and one loss. In the final, Russia defeated Denmark to become victor.

Another important tournament in June was DreamHack Summer 2007. Using version 6.44, this was the first international-level competition that used -XL mode (three bans for each side). Carrying widespread influence, this tournament drew 33 participating teams. Ultimately, MYM defeated T_T with their own version of the devastating global strategy, swapping out Spectre for the famous MYM Tinker surprisingly not played by Merlini. This is because they introduced an innovation of their own—a jungling Beastmaster by Merlini together with a jungling Furion to quickly reach the all-important Level 6. Beastmaster synergized very well with the lineup providing excellent vision for ganks as well as a creep for a quick teleport from Tinker. T_T would go on to win SK Gaming's sponsorship, and become another powerful and influential team following the steps of MYM and VP.

MYM PriDe #6 turned out to be a cakewalk for the Russians with five Russian teams making the playoffs. The finals were between Say Plz and VP. After a bitter 84min contest, VP emerged victorious. They were on their way of creating their own legend of winning three consecutive MYM PriDe events.

After MYM PriDe #6, the long and drawn out TFL competition finally reached the playoffs. In the first round, SK fought three hard fought battles to defeat VP at their peak. VP got sent to the losers' bracket where they were eliminated by the previously unheard of South Korean dark horse team xDT (Extreme DotA Team). xDT commonly employed heroes that were extremely unpopular at the time like Anti-Mage, Terrorblade and Faceless Void often surprising the opponent. In the finals of the TFL, SK got their revenge for Dreamhack Summer by defeating MYM to claim victory. TFL was the only tournament during the 6.43 era that VP did not win.

On August 24th, ASUS Summer 2007 began. VP went undefeated to take the tournament while Say Plz took 3rd place.

On September 6th, MYM PriDe #7 began. Even though IceFrog had just released 6.48b the day before, this tournament still used 6.43b as the competitive version. MYM first defeated VP in the winners' bracket, but they were then defeated by VP slaughtering their way out of the losers' bracket. It was a fierce, seemingly preordained meeting that was hard to forget.

If MYM PriDe #6 was said to be Vigoss's mainstage, then MYM PriDe #7 was ARS-ART's. He seemed to be naturally endowed with instincts of an assassin and filled to the core with a desire for aggression. He attained an acme of perfection with heroes like Nerubian Assassin, Gondar and Pudge. Without a doubt, his and Vigoss's performances both deserved the title “King of Gankers”. At the time, VP's captain and strategic mastermind Jolie described ARS-ART and Vigoss as thus:"ARS-ART's (Virtus.Smile) playstyle is very unique, different from any other. His solo-killing ability is simply incomparable, often seizing an opportunity another player would have missed. Even though he is not as good a support player as NS, he can provide many Observer Wards.Vigoss is our other hero killer. Unlike ARS-ART, Vigoss prefers to gank with his teammates. His reaction speed is simply shocking and he has exceptional powers of prediction. These qualities make him DotA's best ganker. Another positive trait he has is that he never gives up and keeps fighting to the end."

On September 29th, the Garena gaming platform announced the Asian DotA Championships (ADC). This was a big online tournament held over the course of four months with 32 teams from 10 countries in Asia participating.The tournament began with 6.43b and ended with 6.48b. Together with PLU, a livestream was provided online. This was the first DotA competition that provided an online livestream to the Chinese audience.

During the 6.43 era, VP was dominant. Out of five important international competitions DreamHack Summer, ASUS Spring, ASUS Summer, MYM PriDe #6, MYM PriDe #7 and TFL, VP won three while MYM, Say Plz and SK took one apiece. At the time, Say Plz was reaching its twilight and trying to continue on despite its problems. SK had no star players aside from Loda. This led to contests between MYM and VP being the most eagerly anticipated. Their meetings in consecutive MYM Pride tournaments are considered classic matches in the history of DotA.

Later on in the group stages of MYM PriDe #7, this team made a huge comeback to defeat VP. Going without even Boots at 42min, Syllabear managed to farm up Radiance. 20min later, they had pushed into VP's base. This made the disconsolate VP type out after GG the two phrases "guis U SO COOL" and "FUCK U". This was the famous Profanity-Gate affair.

After group stages, VP, rB (French team Redbear) and MiZen (Singaporean team formed from Micronology and Zenith) were in a three-way tie, so tiebreakers were played. However, the tiebreaker results didn't solve anything, so they were forced to looking at stats from each game (hero kills/tower kills/barrack kills/number of Aegis). MiZen playing a conservative playstyle and often being in an inferior position was eliminated. It was very tragic, because if their luck was just a tiny bit better, VP's three consecutive MYM Pride wins would have been interrupted.

After the hit0mi-led NA team x6's (Check-Six) fine performance in MYM PriDe #6 that led them to a 3rd place finish, instability in team members cost them their sponsorship. Even though they left their mark on MYM PriDe #7 by claiming 3rd place, NA were no longer the dominant force they were in the 6.32 era.

hit0mi has been a core member of NA teams including JMC, x6, coL, tPD and later eMg. Aside from Fear and Merlini, he was the only player from NA to make the aforementioned GotFrag list of Top 10 DotA Players of All Time in 2007. (He is actually from Germany and came to NA for college, but he was awarded honorary NA status on the GotFrag list, so I will continue this tradition). With teams x6 and eMg, he attained 3rd place placings in consecutive MYM PriDes.

He was known for his game sense, grasp of the tempo and strategic mastery. As attested to by a former x6 teammate, he was also known for his leadership and was possessed that special ability of making good players around him even better. As we will see later on, players such as MYM's Maelk also possessed this rare quality. As a result, hit0mi is remembered as one of the famous leaders in the history of DotA.

During the 6.43 era, VP emerged with great splendor drawing the gaze of the whole world. Vigoss and ARS-ART became superstar-level players. One became the #1 DotA player in world between versions 6.43 and 6.48 inclusive; the other became known as the King of Gankers.

VP's popularity also brought acclaim to NS as the world's best support player. Just as how ezy's appearance in the 6.32 era showed DotA players—even the casual ones—the importance of good fundamentals, NS's exquisite ward placement showed everyone the importance of good map vision.

Behind Vigoss and ARS-ART, Jolie only had to worry about the grand strategy and tempo management, which led to him being referred to as VP's metronome. M.Admiration was VP's most stable player. Without a doubt, VP's players were the best even among top players. Together, they succeeded at making VP a legend.

It is often forgotten that VP had not a 5-player roster, but one with six players. The last member was Sahka. He usually played the role of support along with NS and contributed much to VP's dominance during this era.

At DreamHack Summer early in the 6.43 era, MYM.Merlini was brilliant in his jungling Beastmaster from Level 1 as part of MYM's take on the innovative global strategy. It was a shame that soon after this tournament, Merlini temporarily went back to Taiwan on vacation. After he returned, he wasn't in his old form.

As a replacement for Merlini's Tinker during his vacation, MYM found a new team member in slahser. His individual ability in all aspects of the game and flashy ganks were particularly memorable quickly reaching Star status.

Happenings in the Asian scene
The first important tournament was the Chinese qualifiers held in Beijing on May 15th for WCG Asia competition (ACG) in Singapore. The winner was team GL with Snoy, Stephy, DC, 820 and DiviDust (he changed his name from Tossgirl during the finals in Singapore). The runner-up was Nebula. Later on August 5th in Singapore, ACG Grand Finals, GL lived up to the highest expectations by defeating the Malaysian team Ct (Cybertime). This was a Chinese DotA team's first foray out of China and actually was able to achieve glory. GL's path to the finals received much news coverage in China.

This time, the Chinese qualification competition was organized very poorly. Before the competition, only 30min were allotted per match and hero and tower kills were used to determine the victor. This kind of match regulation caused much commotion. Furthermore, the grouping left people feeling very helpless. There were 4 groups. Group A had 8 teams of which 4 were leading teams of the time: AVNC, IFNT, HTML and GL. However, Group D had merely 2 teams. The omission of replay release after the tournament was also a source for further castigation.

In early June, CDL-I finally entered its late phase and playoffs began. 4 teams were left: GL, Zhanguotianxia, HTML and IFNT. Zhanguotianxia was GL's B-team. Rumour has it that it was a team led by an overseas student (I think it was Tossgirl, but I don't remember too clearly). CDL-I's rules were extremely stringent that even GL's A-team choked at a critical juncture. In the end, IFNT defeated HTML to become victor. IFNT was one of China's best teams at the time. Its talented players were numerous, but they hadn't won a major tournament since then.

After CDL on the evening of July 9th, IFNT and GL fought another fierce struggle between two mighty and evenly-matched teams. In a Bo3 on the line was WE's (World Elite) sponsorship to become China's first professional DotA team. The first match, IFNT won. The second had only gone some 20min when the computer of IFNT carry player 2046 playing Queen of Pain restarted, because they couldn't stop the cybercafé from shutting it off. IFNT was forced to play 4v5, eventually losing. The third match, GL relied on 820's incisive Silencer to defeat IFNT winning them WE's sponsorship.

At the time, everyone thought GL had won WE's sponsorship thereby becoming China's first professional DotA team. In ACG 2007 that followed, GL also used WE as their team name. However, Snoy later wrote in his blog that WE had not actually provided any funds to them. So it was that even though GL won the competition, they didn't actually become China's first professional team.

On September 26th in the finals of WGT China 2007 (World Gamemaster Tournament), Longdd's exceptional performance led HTML to defeat IFNT for the victory. PLU provided the livestream for this match. This was the first time that mass media was used to provide a livestream of a DotA event. At the time an advertisement said:"WGT and PLU are making history, and you as a DotA fan are also making history, because the ultimate goal of mass media's publicity and livestream is to attract you fans towards the e-sport. Your IP is the debrillator for the heart of future DotA."

The victory at ACG brought GL to the peak of their popularity and made them indisputably the best team in China. HTML was also very strong during this era. In the CW room in the VS gaming platform, a popular saying was "come try to beat us, GL and HTML players not welcome." In my recollections GL often played standard lineups and crushed teams with mainstream strategies. HTML used weird lineups with a graceful playstyle, which frustrated opponents to no end.

Playing against GL was like reading a Jin Yong novel (popular Hong Kong author who wrote novels about adventures of martial artists)—you felt there was a majestic atmosphere. Playing against HTML was like reading Gu Long (popular Mainland China author of same genre, but who liked to delve more into the psychology of his strange characters)—you felt befuddled by strange and peculiar sights. HTML's Nerubian Weaver and Tinker strategy had an awe-inspiringly illustrious reputation.

Actually during the 6.43 era, there was another powerful DotA clan in China that if you wanted to use the number of clan members as a metric, was the strongest in the world. MYW and Xiaobaitu these average teams had a large influence on the development of Chinese DotA by giving it exposure to large numbers of people. In the long run, DotA even without any competitive nature attached was very fun to play. Some teams had competition as their end goal, while others had entertainment as theirs; these are two completely different ideals. Both made enormous contributions to the development of DotA in China.

After Chinese qualifications for ACG, AVNC disbanded. At the time, when 820, Huati, 2046 and others did some interviews where they all expressed regret. After AVNC, HFUT, XJTU, SMTH and other college teams emerged during the 6.43 era. With excellent individual ability and excellent chemistry from sitting beside each other in real life, these college players were shockingly good.

In early July, the once magnificent CPL LAN tournament winners Nebula announced they were disbanding due to pressure for team members to go work and study. From these pressures and the fiasco with the sponsorship, IFNT, GL and HTML which formed the first generation Chinese teams after performing gloriously and inciting much excitement during the 6.43 era have all gradually lost their vitality. In succession, they walked off the center-stage of history.

On September 30th, a consolidation of Chinese experts formed the team SNM. On the eve of their formation, they gave people much hope for the future. It's a shame that nothing came of it. After making noise, the team disappeared. It's lamentable, because if these experts were really to have been gathered, it wouldn’t have been impossible for them to re-enact a second coming of GL.

In the 6.43 era, the playstyle mainly studied was VP's full pressure gank strategy. Individual brilliance was often overcome by good chemistry and teamwork. GL's five players who attended ACG were certainly deserved Star status. After Longdd left for HTML, his elegant playstyle and flamboyant ganking drew him much attention. HTML's GK also gradually became a star player.

Dgc, Soulk and 830 who played for both GOW and IFNT also flourished during this time. HTML's amei, Shuairen, IFNT's 2046, hanhan, and others also shined for a while.

To sum up, the 6.43 era was an explosive period in Chinese DotA with large amounts of new players joining the gaming community. Various teams and discussion forums emerged in large numbers like mushrooms in the rain. Livestreams began and tournaments happened more frequently than before. Sponsors began noticing DotA. A very good foundation was laid for Chinese DotA teams to move towards the professional direction.

The powerful and influential Singaporean team Zenith from SEA that had swept away all competition in 2006 was now facing growing troubles. First at ACG Singapore qualifications, they met an unexpected setback and didn't qualify. Being a leading team in Asia and not winning ACG for two consecutive years led people to begin questioning their strength. After ACG due to some team members not being stable, they combined with another top Singaporean team Micronology to form MiZen.

The South Korean dark horse xDT (the team who eliminated VP in TFL) had some memorable players. Even though it was the team that picked unorthodox heroes like Anti-Mage and a jungling Terrorblade, their main carry xD.Scout played no small part in ensuring that it worked. Even now, this player is still invigorating the DotA world. He was seen playing on team SuP (Sponsor us Please) in ADC 2009 and more recently on How.kr playing under the alias Tomato in ADC 2010. These teams were founded and led by ex-xDT player Heen to win all the Korean DotA tournaments during this period, earning them the right to represent Korea in international tournaments such as ADC and WCG Asia. His team would achieve a 4th place finish at WCG Asia 2009 ahead of the Chinese team led by Zhou, cD (Comme Dieu) and a 3rd place finish at WCG Asia 2010.

Team xDT was originally formed from two teams in NA, TreXoN (winners of CAL Open Season 3) and Tofu. Aside from Scout and Heen, other famous Korean players include Chu and March. Both represented Korea at WCG Asia 2008. March would go on to take part in WCG Asia 2009 and 2010 with Heen and Scout. Chu was famous for his Meepo play and would go on to join tPD. March would go on to become an active member of the NA DotA community and join the world class team Nirvana.Int (Nirvana International).

Mainstream strategies and hero picks
Early on in the 6.43 era during DreamHack Summer 2007, MYM.Merlini, the traveler from afar, demonstrated the jungling Beastmaster playstyle. In fashion for a while, it was 6.43 era's first mainstream strategy and its repercussions are felt even today.

After MYM PriDe #8 began, everyone's glance was drawn to VP. Nowadays when version 6.43 is mentioned, the terms "VP", "full pressure gank" and "Blink Dagger" will jump to mind. It's true, 6.43 was VP's era. The passionately fierce full pressure gank playstyle was emotionally stirring. VP also had great success in various tournaments. This led to nearly all players who watched the 6.43 era replays to become a fan quite involuntarily. VP's brilliance had illuminated the entire DotA world.

With 6.43 being VP's era, to say full pressure gank was the mainstream strategy would be correct. With gank-style being mainstream, the high burst-damage heroes developed during the 6.41 era found their time of popularity lengthened. In particular, Lina and Queen of Pain were especially popular. Others included Sand King, Zeus, Leshrac and Sven. VP often ran dual-stun lanes which led to kills in the early-game becoming a common occurrence. Each lane would have a semi-carry who had a lot of influence in early- to mid-game, and would be able to defeat a hard carry in late-game provided they managed to acquire superior items.

On the back of VP's usually dominant early-game, heroes from their dominant lanes would begin to roam around Level 6 or 7 and bring down Tier 1 towers in other lanes after killing the opposing heroes in-lane. To the team that lost the Tier 1 towers, this meant that their heroes trying to farm could farm fewer creepwaves than VP, because they were only safe near their Tier 2 towers where they are in range of TP support and because the fall of the Tier 1 tower in the short lane opens their jungle up to more ways a ganker can enter undetected.

During this mid-game phase, VP alternated between keeping all lanes pushed past the river and farming the other team's jungle. When the other team's heroes came out to farm the lanes, they would get ganked by VP heroes who due to their dominant early-game had a timing window in which they had Blink Daggers and the other team did not. These Blink Daggers meant that VP remained largely impervious to ganks themselves, because the only way to die would be to get chain-stunned to death. As the game went on, VP would amass an economic advantage based on being able to safely farm more creepwaves than their opponent and on their advantage in kills.

Even if the other team managed to get one carry farmed up, VP would have three farmed up semi-carries who would focus fire that one carry and blink out when they were focused themselves. This way, unless the one carry managed to farm to a point where he could two-shot the VP semi-carry, their side would lose. Looking at it this way, it was more inefficient to have one hard carry rather than three semi-carries even in late-game.