Invictus Gaming vs Royal Never Give Up: Should we expect a rematch from IG?

The first DPC league of the 2021/22 season in China will continue on Tuesday, January 04. Invictus Gaming and Royal Never Give Up will meet in the elite division's third match of the day.

DPC CN 2021/22 Tour 1: Division I is an online Dota 2 tournament that will take place from January 03 to 21, 2022. The top eight teams from the China region will be competing for $205,000. On top of the cash prizes, the teams will also fight for four entries to the majors and the crucial DPC points needed to qualify for T11.

The Invictus Gaming team had a successful year last year. They won the first DPC league title in 2021 in China, won the Singapore major, and went to the Kyiv major for a short time, most importantly, a Top 4 at TI10. It was an extremely important result for the organisation, confirming that there is a reason this team has continued to play in the same line-up for several years now, remaining the only one who has not made any changes to the massive September 2020 decider.

Before the start of the new DPC cycle in 2022, IG did make one replacement, signing a new four in the form of Chinese Fade from EHOME, who replaced Kaka, who ran out of contract and went on a free-float, still without a team.

Slightly renewed Invictus Gaming managed to play in the traditional December tournament Huya Winter Invitational and once again not too worried about the result. But IG jumped quite high, though they were not allowed into the tournament's grand final by their opponents from RNG.

In general, it isn't easy to evaluate Invictus Gaming. They can fool around in their first DPC season without worrying about the result, or they can start the year like in 2021 - trashing the whole Chinese and even the world dota-scene at once. Their squad is good if they start to take it seriously, and I have faith in them for the start of 2022, and then we'll see. These guys are bound to break into the top 3 in China.

The renewed RNG will be starting the new DPC cycle of 2022 in the elite division, only made possible by their lucky disbandment of the Elephant squad. On the whole, the RNG squad failed in 2021, which led to a major personnel reshuffle and the injection of new blood in the form of three players at once.

The team was left with Chinese carry God King and Malaysian four FelixCiaoBa, joined by Chinese midfielder Somnus丶M from the defunct Elephant, Chinese trio Chalice from EHOME a steep Malayan five xNova from the same EHOME squad.

The former squad won the Huya Winter Invitational in December 2020, and the new squad made it to the finals but couldn't stop Neon from going on a rampage. Or maybe the guys didn't want to stop so as not to blow the pages before the start of the DPC. This squad needs to get into shape, but one thing is certain. RNG will once again fight for the majors and not for survival, but for now, that's just on paper and based on the impression of the only preseason Chinese tournament. The first matches of the DPC will settle everything.

These teams won't just split up, and we are looking forward to a tight three map match and Total Over 2.5 maps for 1.93.

Invictus Gaming will win this game; odds on that are 1.72.

Fans of big odds should catch the 2-1 correct score option for Invictus Gaming for 3.20.