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G\u00f6khan graduated as an industrial engineer in 2020 and has since been with Dot Esports. As a natural-born gamer, he honed his skills to a professional level in Dota 2. Upon giving up on the Aegis of Champions in 2019, G\u00f6khan started his writing career, covering all things gaming, while his heart remains a lifetime defender of the Ancients.","sameAs":["instagr.am\/gokhancakirson","linkedin.com\/in\/gokhancakirson","https:\/\/x.com\/gokhancakirson"],"url":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/author\/gokhancakir"}]}},"raw_content":"After a brief hiatus that left the\u00a0Dota 2\u00a0community in suspense, Lu \u201cSomnus\u201d Yao emerged from retirement and gathered his friends under Azure Ray\u2019s banner. Despite initial doubts stemming from his rustiness, Somnus' eternal love for\u00a0Dota 2\u00a0and hard work triumphed in the Chinese regional qualifiers, clinching the only qualifier seat available for the region at The International 2023. With only one team making it through TI 2023 through the\u00a0Dota\u00a0Pro Circuit, the Chinese qualifiers were expected to be a bloodbath. The fourth-place finishers of TI11, Team Aster, Azure Ray, Invictus Gaming, and Xtreme Gaming all found themselves in the qualifiers, with only enough room for one. Despite starting the season late, Azure Ray began the qualifiers with the second seed, which allowed them to cruise through the upper bracket. This journey was rocky at times, however, as Azure Ray found itself on the brink of elimination to the lower bracket twice. Xu \u201cfy\u201d Linsen, Yang \u201cChalice\u201d Shenyi, and Somnus were a part of the iconic PSG.LGD roster, which was OG\u2019s main rival during the European organization\u2019s two-time TI-winning stint. Since this roster fell one step short of glory one too many times, they eventually disbanded but still remained in\u00a0Dota 2\u00a0fans\u2019 hearts as crownless kings. Related:\u00a0Somnus bolsters new heavyweight\u00a0Dota 2\u00a0squad with legendary coach While the roster has been performing above expectations, a decent part of the credit also goes to the coach, Zhang \u201cLaNm\u201d Zhicheng. LaNm started the year at Xtreme Gaming where his impact was immediately noticed in results. It was the same story after he moved to Azure Ray in May 2023, as his vision of the game allowed the team to hit the ground running. The end of the Chinese qualifiers for TI12 also saw Azure Ray face Xtreme Gaming twice in a row. Though Xtreme was able to secure the first win against Somnus\u2019 team, they lost two back-to-back games in the upper bracket, causing them to face Team Zero, who gave them a run for their money. Xtreme bounced back to face Azure Ray again in the Grand Finals, but they weren\u2019t able to crack the late bloomers of the Chinese\u00a0Dota 2\u00a0season. Dota 2\u00a0TI12 Regional Qualifiers\u00a0are still live as more regions are yet to settle on their final representatives. Once the last attendees are settled,\u00a0Dota 2\u2019s\u00a0The International 2023\u00a0will take place in Seattle on Oct. 14.","apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/17151439\/PSG-LGD-TI10-3.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938997"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1802"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=938997"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":939036,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938997\/revisions\/939036"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=938997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=938997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=938997"},{"taxonomy":"invoiceable_action","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/invoiceable_action?post=938997"},{"taxonomy":"internal-label","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal-label?post=938997"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=938997"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=938997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

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G\u00f6khan graduated as an industrial engineer in 2020 and has since been with Dot Esports. As a natural-born gamer, he honed his skills to a professional level in Dota 2. Upon giving up on the Aegis of Champions in 2019, G\u00f6khan started his writing career, covering all things gaming, while his heart remains a lifetime defender of the Ancients.","sameAs":["instagr.am\/gokhancakirson","linkedin.com\/in\/gokhancakirson","https:\/\/x.com\/gokhancakirson"],"url":"https:\/\/dotesports.com\/author\/gokhancakir"}]}},"raw_content":"After a brief hiatus that left the\u00a0Dota 2\u00a0community in suspense, Lu \u201cSomnus\u201d Yao emerged from retirement and gathered his friends under Azure Ray\u2019s banner. Despite initial doubts stemming from his rustiness, Somnus' eternal love for\u00a0Dota 2\u00a0and hard work triumphed in the Chinese regional qualifiers, clinching the only qualifier seat available for the region at The International 2023. With only one team making it through TI 2023 through the\u00a0Dota\u00a0Pro Circuit, the Chinese qualifiers were expected to be a bloodbath. The fourth-place finishers of TI11, Team Aster, Azure Ray, Invictus Gaming, and Xtreme Gaming all found themselves in the qualifiers, with only enough room for one. Despite starting the season late, Azure Ray began the qualifiers with the second seed, which allowed them to cruise through the upper bracket. This journey was rocky at times, however, as Azure Ray found itself on the brink of elimination to the lower bracket twice. Xu \u201cfy\u201d Linsen, Yang \u201cChalice\u201d Shenyi, and Somnus were a part of the iconic PSG.LGD roster, which was OG\u2019s main rival during the European organization\u2019s two-time TI-winning stint. Since this roster fell one step short of glory one too many times, they eventually disbanded but still remained in\u00a0Dota 2\u00a0fans\u2019 hearts as crownless kings. 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Rokurou

The Chinese TI12 qualifiers bracket. Image via Liqupedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>

The end of the Chinese qualifiers for TI12 also saw Azure Ray face Xtreme Gaming twice in a row. Though Xtreme was able to secure the first win against Somnus\u2019 team, they lost two back-to-back games in the upper bracket, causing them to face Team Zero, who gave them a run for their money.<\/p>

Xtreme bounced back to face Azure Ray again in the Grand Finals, but they weren\u2019t able to crack the late bloomers of the Chinese Dota 2<\/em> season.<\/p>