Ray, Black^ and AhJit join LGD International
LGD International have announced the signing of three new players to their Dota2 squad in midlaner Dominik “Black^” Reitmeier, support Raymond “Ray” Then and safelaner Lai “Ahjit” Jay Son.
The announcement surfaced earlier this Friday when the prominent esports organisation took on Twitter to unveil their new quintet of players who will fight under LGD.Int banner.
LGD International first appeared in the competitive Dota2 scene in October 2012, when the organisation announced its first international squad, which consisted of Sivatheeban "1437" Sivanathapillai, Rasmus "MISERY" Filipsen, Per Anders Olsson "Pajkatt" Lille, Braxton "Brax" Paulson and Sergey Alexandrovich "G" Bragin. The international-mix saw great success in their competitive endeavours, winning GEST The Challenge #1, where they defeated the organisation's main roster, LGD Gaming.
The team continued putting up solid performances and won G-League Season 2, GEST The Challenge #2, as well as pocketed ninth-12th place finish at The International 2013. Shortly after TI, G announced his departure to Virtus.pro and later in September 1437 followed suit as he left for Digintas. LGD.Int tried to rebuild their team by signing Nicholas "xFreedom" Kelvin as their new support and Black as a carry, however, the project did not last for long. A streak of mediocre results from August onwards eventually resulted in the team's disbandment, which was announced by Black on his Twitter on December 26, 2013.
Since LGD.Int fell apart, the team was nowhere to be seen in the Dota2 scene up until earlier in February when the Chinese esports organisation unveiled a new roster, assembled from Malaysian and Filipino players. The new-look squad fielded Christian "Skadi" John Abasolo, Wang "Gy" Kok Guan, Rick Lee "darly" Ryc Kee, Yuri "Yowe" Dave Pacaña and Pang "BrayaNt" Jian Zhe.
The new Southeast Asian roster made a couple of appearances at ESL SEA Championship 2020 Open Qualifier #2, Hainan Master Spring Invitational – Southeast Asia Qualifier and played one game at China Dota2 Development League Season 3, but failed to see any notable success in any of their efforts. Yowe and co. finished both Hainan Masters and SEA Championship qualifiers in the top-eight and lost their sole match at China Development League against Ocean.
Now it seems like LGD opted to rebuild their roster in a bid to see more success, as LGD.Int results since their return were less-than-inspiring.
The new-look roster will see the return of Black, who played for LGD.Int in 2013, before the team disbanded. He is also the most talked about player of the new roster due to his experience both as a player and analyst. Of sorts, his signing is a homecoming for the German carry, who after leaving LGD.Int went on to have an illustrious career with ViCi, mousesports, Team Faceless and Fnatic. Although he never won The International, he has won numerous prestigious titles in his career, including i-League Season 1, ESL One New York 2014, The Summit 2, to which he added silver from Dota 2 Asia Championships 2015 and top-three finish at Dota Pit League Season 5.
Most recently, Black played for the newly-established T1 roster, where he stayed for less than two weeks, but decided to leave on January 16, after he realised the team was "just not the right fit for him," citing that he is looking for a team where he could become the best player in the world. Now it seems like he has found the right home to achieve that feat, as he teams up with one of the biggest and most successful Asian esports organisations.
Joining Black on his quest to become the best Dota2 player on the globe will be an unknown young prodigy Ray and Ahjit, who is mostly known for his success under WarriorsGaming.Unity, Fnatic, Fire Dragoon, Clutch Gamers, Tigers and Mineski. The Malaysian carry has most recently played for CDEC Gaming and in February got traded to PSG.LGD, who were at the time looking for a new carry player. He, however, got sidelined fairly quickly, as PSG.LGD opted to move Yang "Chalice" Shenyi to the carry position.
The trio will team up with Gy and captain BryaNt, who remained with the team, while Skadi, Yowe and darly all got shown the door this Friday.
The new LGD.Int Dota2 roster, which now fields four Malaysian players and Black will now be competing in the SEA and Chinese region, which, fosters some of the biggest Dota2 talents in the world. The roster's only obligation as of now is playing at the China Dota 2 Development League Season 3, where they will be chasing a top-four finish and a spot at the playoffs, where top two teams get awarded with a pass into the China Dota2 Professional League.
LGD.Int Dota2 roster:
Lai “Ahjit” Jay Son
Dominik “Black^” Reitmeier
Wang "Gy" Kok Guan
Pang "BrayaNt" Jian Zhe
Raymond “Ray” Then
