Ame and Xtreme Gaming secured the BetBoom Dacha upper bracket playoffs by being the highest-scoring team in the group stage.
After a two-year hiatus, Wang "Ame" Chunyu returned and showed to the world why he is still one of the GOATs of Dota 2 by going 8-2 with Xtreme Gaming in the BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024 group stage. Scoring the highest, Xtreme Gaming secured first place and will proceed to the main event on Feb. 11.
A stellar performance at BetBoom Dacha 2024 group stage
Ame had been on break post The International 2022 (TI11). Apart from winning the 2022 Asian Games, which occurred in October 2023, he did not participate in any LAN tournaments. Fast forward to 2024, he officially returned to pro Dota 2 with Xtreme Gaming. And on his first international LAN, BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024, Ame dominated the competition, dropping only one game to Team Spirit and another to nouns.
The last time he played against Team Spirit was at Arlington Major 2022, where he lost yet another grand finals to Spirit since TI10. Despite being slightly ahead at the moment, Spirit's Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk's respect for Ame did not waver. Like many others, Yatoro saw Ame as the GOAT that he even included a Chinese character "雨" to his in-game name. At BetBoom Dacha, the rivalry continues between Ame and Team Spirit. Having only tied his best-of-two, Ame still has a score to settle with Spirit.
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Ame the GOAT of Naga Siren
Even though he had only just came back to the pro scene, Ame showed no signs of rust. At the BetBoom Dacha group stage, Ame played a different hero almost every game. He was the only one to win with Anti-Mage, a hero that is currently out of shape in this meta. However, the hero which garnered most attention to Ame was his Naga Siren.
During his second game against BetBoom Team, Ame got six-slotted in just 36 minutes into the game. He finished his Manta Style on top of a Power Threads in just 13 minutes. According to Ame's Dotabuff profile, Naga Siren is his signature hero with a whopping 63 percent overall win rate. But the Dota GOAT himself gave credit where credit was due because when asked in a post-game interview, Ame stated that he drew his Naga Siren inspiration by watching Chen "Zhou" Yao. Zhou is yet another legendary Chinese Dota 2 player who won the second TI with Invictus Gaming back in 2012.
"I feel basically nothing" in beating his former teammate at Azure Ray
Within the same interview, Ame was also asked on how he felt about defeating Azure Ray on Feb. 6, to which he responded by saying he basically felt nothing. Among Azure Ray is his former teammate from his LGD days Zhang "Faith_bian" Ruida (now known as Bach). It is safe to say that the stoic Ame spends little time caring for feelings at the job, much less than doing his side hobby, cosplaying.
With a final score of 8-2, Xtreme Gaming secured the top seed for the upcoming BetBoom Dacha upper bracket playoffs on Feb. 11.
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