Sometime around August it seemed as though something stellar was about to happen in China’s Dota 2 community. Fans were excited and rumours were flying left and right as news about the new China’s all-star Dota 2 team under Four Angry Men (4AM), a Chinese esports organization, started to spread like fire.

But, to say everything went south fast is an understatement. Before they even entered the scene, Elephant.4AM (a merge between 4AM and a media company Elephant Bgoose) managed to annoy the fans. First of all, their new dream roster was rumoured to be composed out of the members of China’s Dota 2 giant teams such as Vici Gaming and PSG.LGD, which, although a seemingly exciting idea at first, also meant the dismemberment of some of the most beloved (and strongest) teams in the game. Secondly, as they’ve finally announced their roster on October 1^st, controversial things practically haven’t stopped happening. And even though it wasn’t so long ago, it seems like an age has passed, considering how many turns this story has taken.

How Everything Started Going Downhill For Elephant.4AM

So, on October 1^st Elephant.4AM announced, mostly as rumoured, that their roster will include big names: Somnus M aka Maybe and fy from PSG.LGD, Yang from Vici Gaming and Red Panda from Sparking Arrow Gaming. But, the most important position, carry role, was assigned to EHOME’s Sylar, although everything until then led fans to believe that Eurus from Vici Gaming will fill that spot. And it didn’t take long for that prophecy to fulfill, as just a day later, on October 2^nd, Elephant.4AM deleted their previous announcement, and Sylar himself said that he has been kicked out and is not joining the team after all.

As you would assume, the whole community went crazy. Nobody really knew what was happening, since no official statements were released, so fans were once again left to speculation. And speculate they did. There were theories including money and players’ disagreements with Sylar, but thankfully, some of them were laid to rest when Maybe decided to break the silence dew days later. He practically accused his new organization of not wanting to pay Eurus’ fee to Vici Gaming (around 220.000 dollars), but explained how they instead intended to use the loopholes in Eurus’ contract to pressure them to transfer him for free. He also claimed that that idea fell to pieces after Eurus refused to drag VG to court.

After Maybe’s claims, VG’s co-owner Chen Qing also decided to break the silence. He blamed everything on Elephant, 4AM’s partners, and he didn’t hold back. He said that everything in Eurus’ contract was transparent and that anyone who wanted to acquire him knew at what cost that would have to happen, but that Eurus wanted to play with Maybe, which ended up being the information Elephant.4AM used against him in the transfer period. Qing also accused the organization of exploiting other players too.

All of that drama, completely understandable, left a mark on the game also. Elephant.4AM team debuted at the CDA-FDC Professional Championship at the end of October, where they had a pretty rough start. They did eventually reach the final, but lost 2:3 from PSG.LGD.

The Final Blow

And now we finally come to the present moment, where all of the biggest teams are playing both CDA-FDC Season 2 and China Dota2 Pro Cup Season 2 (which you are free to play along also), and the drama just keeps on escalating for the Elephant.4AM who are not even Elephant.4AM anymore. What does that mean? Well, first of all, Vici Gaming decided to pull Eurus from the all-star lineup, because of, you’ve guessed it, unpaid transfer fees, so the team was forced to play with a substitute. That led to contrasting statements from two organizations, 4AM on one hand and Elephant Bgoose on the other, where they basically blamed each other for the way things were handled.

Finally, VG just announced they have released Eurus, which obviously means they got paid and he can become an official part of the problematic roster. But, that roster, as it’s painfully obvious by now, doesn’t have a bright future, especially since on top of all of this, 4AM and Elephant parted ways, with Elephant taking control over the project entirely. So there you go, the full story of, what is, at least for now, only Elephant team. A team which was at some point even projected to win TI. Well, that doesn’t seem so probable right now.

What are your thoughts on all of this drama? Did you already know about it because you are such a big fan? If you did, no better way to show it off than to play current Dota 2 fixtures on our site, and even if you didn’t, you know enough now to play and win. Hurry up and play our Pick6 today!