On August 2nd, 18 teams will descend upon Seattle for the start of the The International 7's group stage. To get you prepared, I'll be previewing each of those teams. Next up is the first Chinese team in this feature, Invictus Gaming. Check back each day leading up to the tournament for more previews.

Invictus Gaming joins EG as another organization with an International championship attending TI7. However, the team making the trip to Seattle this year looks very different from the TI2-winning squad. All 5 of the players from the championship team have since moved on and the new team is hoping to recapture the glory of the early days for IG.

This new roster is headlined by the legendary Xu "BurNIng" Zhilei, who was once regarded as one of the best farming carries in the world. The other veteran on the squad is their captain, Fu "Q" Bin. Q is best known for leading CDEC Gaming through TI5's Open Qualifiers all the way to the Grand Final where they would fall just short of claiming the aegis. Their veteran leadership will be important as the rest of the squad are making their first appearances at The International. Ou "Op" Peng, Lin "Xxs" Jing, and Ye "BoBoKa" Zhibiao were all "promoted" from IG's youth squad, IG.Vitality.

After a disappointing 2016, IG made major strides early this year. They won the not-quite-a-major Dota 2 Asia Championships in April and entered the Kiev Major as one of the favorites. Led by strong play on Earth Spirit and Monkey King by BoBoKa, IG made their way to the semifinal in Kiev. That top 4 finish was enough to get IG a direct invite to TI. Like I discussed in OG's preview, IG has also been hit hard by the meta shifts since Kiev. Since patch 7.06, IG are just 6-17 in individual matches and winless in BO3 series against other TI teams. They were very fortunate to not have to play through the always-tough Chinese qualifier.

Roster