Team Aster - China — Dota 2 team

Team Aster: Dota 2 is still a newcomer in the eSports industry (the roster was created in 2018), but newcomers who raise serious expectations and are ready to challenge even solid teams with many years of experience. The boys, whose earnings have already exceeded 3 million US dollars, are paying attention not only to potential opponents, but also to sponsors. This is also another confirmation of the team's good prospects.

The Chinese team Team Aster, created to participate in Dota 2 tournaments, is mainly young players (the average age of participants is 25 years old), who have proven themselves well in local and regional tournaments. By the way, fans of the team sometimes call it "Tea Master". In such a specific way, they pay tribute to the traditional Chinese drink and at the same time emphasize the importance of Team Aster to modern Chinese culture.

The founder of the team and its first coach was Xu BurNIng Zhilei - a true legend of Chinese eSports. He devoted a lot of time to selecting the best players with experience from several thousand days of play, ready to boldly go to victory, and he was not mistaken: according to the results of 600 played matches, Team Aster was able to win 52%, and another 10% were draws.

Team Aster: Dota 2 - history and modernity

The team's first task was to win the TI9 tournament held in Shanghai, and the guys did a great job with it. But this was only the beginning - quite quickly the roster took part in several more prestigious events - The Kuala Lumpur Major and ESL One Hamburg 2018. And although it was not possible to enter even the top three teams then, it was able to declare itself as an ambitious and ready to the last fight for the victory of the team.

In the years 2018-2022, the team underwent frequent changes in the gamer composition, with the roster management not only inviting new members for permanent cooperation, but also renting gamers known for their unique strategy, as was the case with Gao "loveyouloveme" Yuan. As a result, the team confidently took the first place in the second-tier leagues, but victories in major tournaments still remain only a dream: according to the results of recent tournaments, Team Aster has never entered the top three teams.

Strategy

In fact, the roster has several game strategies at once, which the guys adapt very flexibly to the opponent's style. When choosing heroes, they are betting on strong ones in the current metagame who can be flexibly used in different positions. In the mid-game, the focus is on protecting key farming players and setting the stage for the main battle. And finally, in the finals, they bet on a team fight, while making every effort to avoid risky collisions. Also, the Aster game is distinguished by a significant emphasis on synergy between heroes.

At the start, Aster players act quite aggressively, which is generally characteristic of the Asian approach to eSports, and seek to secure a significant advantage for their core heroes.

Team level

The team's dream of significant victories came true only during The International 2022 , where the team managed to take 4th place and receive 1.1 million US dollars as a prize.

Aster is currently mediocre. By 2023, matches won accounted for 59% of the competitions in which the team participated during the year. The team's overall win rate for the entire history of its existence is 52%. The biggest victories of the boys during the last year were the second place at the Dota Pro Circuit 2023: Season 1 tournament (First Division, China), for which the team members received 28 thousand US dollars, as well as the second place at ESL One Malaysia 2022 (the prize was $ 85,000 in prize money) and first place at the Intel World Open Beijing with an impressive $135,000 in prize money.