Road to Bucharest — Team Aster

The seventeenth series of the section «Road to Bucharest», as the three previous ones, are devoted to a team from the Chinese region. The fourth and last-but-one, but not the least.

Now it is time to meet Team Aster and their «Road to Bucharest». Enjoy reading.

Team’s Portfolio

The classic preliminary acquaintance is held in this paragraph. Aster is a young club, but it doesn’t make it less interesting.

• Date of foundation of the club: 10 September 2018
• Roaster at The International 10: «Monet», «White_Album», «Xxs», «Borax», «LaNm» (coach), «Mad» (coach).
• Region: China;
• How they made it to The International: ninth place of the DPC rating;
• Main achievements: victory at StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor Season 3, second place at China Dota2 Pro Cup Season 2, second place at Huya Winter Invitational, second place at Dota Pro Circuit 2021: S1 – China Upper Division, first place at Dota Pro Circuit 2021: S2 – China Upper Division, victory at i-League 2021 Season 1 and Season 2.

Aster has been introduced, and now let’s get down to a more detailed review.

First appearance

We heard about the creation of a new power in China on 10 September 2018 for the first time. The debut lineup of the newly-formed team was made of «Sylar», «Dstones», «Xxs», «BoBoKa» and «Fenrir».

Right after their foundation, Aster plunged into the slaughter of the international Dota. The first try was pretty successful — Team Aster took third place at the qualifiers for The Kuala Lumpur Major, after that they started to prepare for the first major in the club’s history.

Preparation is preparation, but in fact Aster turned out to be pretty crude. You can find the proof in their results – 13th-16th place.

After the end of the tournament, «Dstones» was replaced by «loveyouloveme». Team Aster set about to perform in the next season.

Season 2019

2019 started with an important event – The Chongqing Major. Experienced individuals, but having no balanced teamwork, Team Aster failed the second major in a row. The reshuffling period started and lasted for a year.

In season 2019, the team welcomed «Mushi», «Sccc», «Fade», «J», «Kamma» and others. Should we say that constant reshuffles in the roster influenced Team Aster’s results in a bad way?

In a year Aster performed at MDL ChengduMajor where they showed the best result in the history of the young organization. In Chengdu the team took 9th-12th place. Meanwhile, the reshuffle fun continued.

Pandemic season and first signs of Aster’s good gaming skills

Traditionally, a new competition year started with a performance at a major for Aster. DreamLeague Season 13 became the second tournament where the team managed to climb to Top-12. It was still a long way to go to the level of a Tier-1 team.

A glimpse in Aster’s game appeared after winning StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor Season 3 but it faded away when the pandemic started.

In the online period Aster went on testing different strategies and looking for an optimal roster.

Travelling through online tournaments, Aster got to Top-4 and took reputable places. The team managed to fit in Top of the Chinese division.

Season 2021 and a trip to The International 10

Even though the whole 2020 Aster worked on the roster fruitfully and performed at all possible online events, it did not suffice for getting to an elite division. The new DPC season started with closed qualifiers to the upper league.

Aster coped with the qualifiers, and later the players showed a high level in a regular season, We should say that they do it with a renewed roster which was represented by «Monet», «White_Album», «Xxs», «Borax», «LaNm», «Mad» (coach).

Their successful performance had to be followed by a fruitful game at the first major in the post-Covid era. Aster could not make it to the event with the full roster as «Borax», to put it mildly, got fined.

The place of the former player was taken by the coach «Mad» and, apparently, it did not contribute to the team. At the tournament Aster again took 9th-12th place, but again could not jump higher than their previous merits.

In the second season Aster played better in their region. The team took first place in the regular and traveled to a major in Kyiv.

Starting with the upper bracket, Team Aster again made the same mistake and left the event with 9th-12th place. However, it was not enough to proceed to TI 10 directly.

After getting the invitation, Team Aster played several local event in their home region. As before, in China Китая Aster tore their opponents apart — Aster won two seasons of i-League 2021 with confidence.

This is where we are coming close to The International 10 in Bucharest where all players representing Aster are likely to play in their hotel rooms due to the fact that they are all sick with COVID-19. Let’s see if the Chinese esportsmen are going to show worthy gaming or they will stop at Top-16.