Overview
Invictus
Gaming is the result of Wanda Enterprise director Wang Sicong acquiring Catastrophic Cruel Memory. The team was founded in August 2011 and has divisions for Dota 2, Starcraft 2, League of Legends, Hearthstone, Overwatch and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
The team is managed by former Catastrophic Cruel Memory SC2 players xiaOt and GoMax.
Their teamhouse was located in Beijing, before they moved to Shanghai. Created by the son of the 10th richest man in China, iG is envisioned as a fresh force to dominate the scene with both raw skill as well as an unprecedented level of professionalism and player compensation.
History
Invictus Gaming was created in August 2011 with the purchase of Catastrophic Cruel Memory, the strongest team in the scene at the time. The newly re-branded iG was seen as the new flagship of Chinese DotA. The creation of iG.Y after poaching 4 of the members of LGD, historically one of the strongest teams in China, came as a shock just days after the purchase of CCM, now dubbed iG.Z. Having moved into the DotA scene with what seemed to be overwhelming force, the two iG teams represented what appeared to be the two strongest teams in the scene. The prophesied domination, however, never came, iG (CCM) lost in an upset to the up-and-coming Tyloo in the Chinese WCG 2011 Finals and no longer seemed invincible to top-level teams. Soon thereafter iG (CCM) lost Xiao8 and DDC to LGD as they left to reform a new LGD with ZSMJ, its previous captain and the only player who did not transfer to iG. After purchasing Awoke and Faith from Tyloo for iG(CCM) and CH from Panda to complete the previous LGD squad, iG reformed into iG.Z (Zhou) out of the previous CCM and iG.Y (YYF) out of the previous LGD. Weakened by the constant reorganization, both iGs would suffer at the hands of a resurgent DK and was defeated in both WDC 2011 and G-League 2011. It also performed poorly at the International 2011, with its unprepared players of iG.Z ending up so demoralized as to forfeit its final placement matches after being eliminated from the tournament and the iG.Y section unable to compete due to ZSMJ's refusal to temporarily play with his previous teammates under the LGD banner. Hampered by constant disappointing performances, iG eventually reformed its squad into a single collection of some of the best talents the Chinese DotA scene had to offer in the form of Zhou, 430, YYF, Chuan, and Faith. This new team, despite being hampered by a lack of team coordination and synergy resulting from the combination of 4 players who had all previously required large amounts of farm, nevertheless was able to win SMM 2011, which showcased the potential of a team so laden with talent. Despite winning SMM 2011, iG continued to struggle through team coordination and organization issues as all four of its main players scrambled for farm and Faith engaged in what was quickly dubbed "1 protect 4". While their individual skill and talent were unquestioned, iG was seen as weaker than either DK or LGD due to their inability to play as a focused team, which was reflected with losses in both DotA and Dota 2, despite their quick invitation to the International 2012 which they then proceeded to win. In the months leading up to the International 2012, iG resolved its team issues and defeated DK and LGD convincingly in DotA capturing the G-League 2012 championship.
