Four Angry Men (4AM) has officially revealed the full roster of their new Dota 2 team, with longtime veteran Liu “Sylar” Jiajun listed as the team’s carry player instead of Zhang “Eurus” Chengjun, the star player that many expected to be rounding out the superteam.

4AM has long been rumored to be assembling a Chinese superteam since their entry into the Dota 2 scene in early August, and now the organization has officially revealed its full star-studded lineup on their official Weibo account: Sylar, Lu “Somnus丶M” Yao, Zhou “Yang” Haiyang, Xu “fy” Linsen, and Ru “RedPanda” Zhihao.

4AM is one of the biggest PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) organizations in China. It was founded by Wei “GodV” Zhen, who notably played as the midlaner for LGD’s League of Legends team from 2014 to 2017 before he shifted to PUBG and started his own organization.

4AM partnered with Chinese company Little Elephant and Big Goose Culture in fielding its new Dota 2 team, which will offically be called 4AM.Little Elephant.

However, the superteam 4AM officially rolled out doesn’t seem quite as ‘super’ as the one they were previously expected to field.

Early into last month’s major roster shuffle for the Chinese Dota scene, fy confirmed in his stream that he will be playing for 4AM alongside four other stars in his former PSG.LGD teammate Somnus, RedPanda, and former Vici Gaming (VG) duo Yang and Eurus, more commonly known by his former tag Paparazi灬.

That expected lineup was indeed a veritable superteam brimming with talent, with players in every position that are considered in the Top 5 in their roles in China, if not the world.

However, Sylar is a clear downgrade from Eurus. The latter has spent the last few years alongside Yang in VG, where they were the lynchpins of one of the two best teams in China beside PSG.LGD. Meanwhile, Sylar’s last meaningful stint was with VGJ.Thunder in 2018, with whom he placed 13th-16th in The International 2018 (TI8).

Despite being one of the most decorated veterans in the Chinese scene since starting his career in 2011, Sylar is well past his prime. He peaked in 2014, when he played with fy in VG and finished in second place at TI4. Since then, he has bounced between LGD, EHOME, VG and its sister squads, Team Aster, and then Team Sirius before landing with EHOME again at the start of this season prior to joining 4AM.

While Sylar is by no means a bad player, it seems obvious he wasn’t 4AM’s first choice for the important carry position. Reports from the Chinese scene indicate that he was only picked after 4AM’s initial deal to acquire Eurus from VG fell through. One of VG’s founders even went on Weibo to criticize 4AM’s dealings and revealed that Eurus is still under contract with his organization until September next year.

Such reports are supported by the fact that VG has already signed Thai rising star Nuengnara “23savage” Teeramahanon to replace Eurus last month. It seems that 4AM backed off from taking Eurus from VG at the last minute, apparently balking at paying his speculated transfer fee of 1.8 million RMB (US$260,000).

With that said, 4AM should still be one of the best teams in China even if they didn’t quite get the superteam they wanted. However, it no longer seems guaranteed that they can be the ones to return the Aegis of Champions back to China in TI10, where a historically-dominant Team Secret remain the absolute favorites to become the champions.

Four Angry Men Dota 2 roster:

  1. Liu “Sylar” Jiajun
  2. Lu “Somnus丶M” Yao
  3. Zhou “Yang” Haiyang
  4. Xu “fy” Linsen
  5. Ru “RedPanda” Zhihao

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