Dota 2 Xiao 8 considering temporary retirement

Xiao 8 The captain of the winning team of the International 4 has announced that he would be taking  an elongated break from the competetive scene of Dota 2.

Speculations are rife that this is mainly due to his wife's pregnancy.

Xiao 8 was considering retiring after TI3 itself. However the Owner of Newbee decided to approach xiao 8 to form a new team built around him. it would be a dream team comprising star players who would be focused just on winning the international.

Newbee is a team that emerged in early 2014 during the Chinese reshuffle that happened prior to the fourthInternational tournament. Originally dubbed "Dream Team 2", the rumors started after captain xiao8 made a post on his QQ micro-blogging page after LGD Gaming's win in the Dota 2 League Season 4 in Las Vegas, saying "New start in 2014 after 3 years in LGD", forever Dream 5.".^[1] The rumors later placedTongFu and Invictus Gaming members Mu, Faith, Hao and ChuaN in the team together with xiao8.^[2] A few weeks later, the team was announced to be competing in the third season of the Sina Cup, but the roster was not yet revealed. As Invictus Gaming had announced that Faith would be staying with the team, rumors now placed ZSMJ and Banana in the team. After TongFu announced on the 20th of February that the team would step down from the competitive tier and focus on the amateur scene, and Banana was announced to be staying in iG as a backup player, many now saw the veterans ZSMJ and KingJ as the last two members of the new "Dream Team". On the 23rd of February 2014, the Chinese ACE Dota organization announced that the transfers were complete and the now dubbed team "Newbee" consisted of xiao8, Mu, Hao, KingJ and ZSMJ.^[3] Later team Newbee announced on its QQ micro blogging page that the club was officially established on the 28th of February, and that a transfer fee of 500,000 RMB (~81,000 USD) had been agreed upon between the new club and xiao8's old team LGD Gaming.

The organization later also announced that former RisingStars player Sydm was part of the team in the role of coach, and former Noah's Ark player Li was the teams leader. Li is a veteran WC3 DotA player who played with xiao8, Yao, DD and DDC on team Dream, which may or may not have been the origin of the teams first rumored name Dream Team.

Zhang 'xiao8' Ning's statement taken from his weibo:

"Even though I am reluctant, I have still decided to temporarily leave this stage. I am very lucky, I have accomplished my dream. I am very thankful for every teammate and opponent that has grown alongside me, along with the fans that have supported me all along. Because of all of you, my life has been more exciting."

With this team newbee should be playing with a replacement at least until we are clarified on Xiao8's role in the future Team Newbee

Sources : 

http://wiki.teamliquid.net/dota2/Newbee

Valve Announces The International 3

The update on 26th April 2013 has Announced the International 3.:)

Yes!!!

According to Valve, TI3 will be held at Seattle. It will be at the same place as TI2. TI3 promises to be bigger mightier and more fiercer. The winners of TI2 IG are the first team to be invited to TI3. IG is the only team invited as of till now. 

The winners of the East and West Qualifiers will join those 13 invited teams. Those qualifiers will be hosted by GDStudio from May 13 to 19 for the West division and by BeyondTheSummit from May 20 to 26 for the East division. A wild card match between the two runners-up of the East and West Qualifiers will determine which team scores the sixteenth and final spot.

Check out More links : 

Link 1

Link 2

News About The International 3 TI3

Russian shoutcaster, Vitali  Volochai a.k.a 'v1lat' announced on Twitter that he has been invited to The International 3, Dota 2's biggest annual event.

The reason for such an early invite may be due to last year's incident in which three other Russian casters could not get their visa in time when they were invited in May.

His dedication  can be exemplified when he lost his voice shouting at "The Play".



Cyborgmatt wrote on Reddit, "V1lat's dedication at TI2 was amazing, towards the end of the event he was literally dumping entire pots of honey in his morning tea before setting off for the venue".

However, Sgamer reported this morning that Chinese caster Wei Hua 'LaoDang' Dang has also been invited to cast The International 3. According to LaoDang's Weibo post, LaoDang stated Ming Yin 'Hippovic' Chen, Valve's Chinese Dota 2 representative invited him to the tournament yesterday after a short talk with Icefrog.

This indicates that Valve are already starting to send invites out to established and potential casters for their annual event in Seattle. Gosugamers also contacted Hippovic about LaoDang's Weibo post and was given the green light on the matter.

The Translated LaoDang Weibo post reads as :

In a brief conversation with IceFrog earlier, I have been invited as the official Chinese shoutcaster in The International 3. The day before yesterday when Seafall asked me about this, I told him I wouldn't even dare to think about it. As it turns out, Hippovic messaged me and talked to me about this on the same day. This is truly unbelievable.

My invite to TI3 as a live caster , this is the biggest surprise and my biggest challenge of the year. Enough of the nonsense, see you in TI3. Finally, a special thanks to Hippovic for his recommendation and for helping me in translation.


v1lat's stream

Source : GosuGamers