The Chinese esports market seems to be shaking again — the Team Tidebound organization is officially shutting down its shop after just a year of active presence in the Dota 2 discipline. The club’s management has organized an official statement on Weibo, where it speaks in plain text about the “inactive status”, which takes effect immediately. The decision, let’s put it this way, looks as difficult as possible, but predictable — the bosses referred to problems with finding talent in the region and vague prospects for long-term employment.
Team Tidebound, in general, did not last long — the project was launched only last year. During this time, the team managed to make some noise, though. There were real legends on the roster — Zhang “y” Yiping and Zhang “Faith_bian” Ruida, who, let me remind you, took Aegis to The International 2016 and won the Riyadh Masters 2022. The team, apparently, planned to lead — they quickly started at the open qualifiers of DreamLeague Season 25, and then went to PGL Wallachia Season 3 together with ESL One Raleigh 2025.
The guys had some success, and serious ones at that — take at least the triumph at Clavision Masters 2025: Snow-Ruyi. In addition, they almost won the Asian Champions League 2025 trophy, finishing in second place. Even at The International 2025 in Hamburg, the team was able to make it to the playoffs stage – along the way, however, they were knocked out by the Nigma Galaxy. In an official farewell, the club thanked the players for endless training and constant flights — they left beautifully with a perspective.
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Where can I find former Team Tidebound players now?
Interestingly, almost the entire roster has already been built — no one has abandoned the top gamers to their fate. The trio represented by shiro (kerry), as well as the y` and planet supports, have moved to Vici Gaming (VG) — this tag is returning to the big game, it seems. By the way, the Cheng ‘NothingToSay’ Jin Xiang midlane was also not out of work — the guy officially became a part of Xtreme Gaming.
We will see both Vici and Xtreme organizations in action very soon at ESL Challenger China. The tournament, by the way, will be held from January 30th to February 1st. The only one who is silent so far is Faith_bian (Bach). The offline player has not yet announced where he will continue his career, which is strange, given his experience and status. Apparently, he’s waiting for a really fat offer – or he just decided to take a break before the 2026 season.
The Future of Free Agents and the new Vici Gaming 2026 roster
Insider transfer forecast
The Chinese Dota 2 scene is on fire again — the Team Tidebound organization, apparently, has finally turned its back on the shop after a disastrous performance at DreamLeague Season 27. The squad, by the way, flew into the top 16, which was the last straw for the club’s bosses. Now top performers like shiro, Echo, niu, pLAnet and the legendary y` have entered the free agent market in search of new havens. The offseason promises to be hot — along the way, rumors about upcoming tier-1 transitions are already beginning to be confirmed by statistics.
Shiro’s career and possible transfer to BetBoom Team or Aurora
Guo ‘shiro’ Xuanang has always stood out for his phenomenal ability to vacuum a card — at TI 2025, the guy gave out an average of 650 GPM, performing especially hard on Morphling and Lifestealer. The experience of playing for Aurora Gaming makes him a tasty morsel, however, problems with team chemistry can scare away such giants as Gaimin Gladiators.
Option 1: Vici Gaming — insiders are whispering that the transition is almost solved. Shiro, in fact, fits perfectly into their trademark aggression, reinforcing Kerry’s position. The chance of success is about 70%.
Option 2: Latin America (Nemesis Gaming) is a good way to compete in the minors without too much pressure. Plus, the karma is a stable salary and the status of the main star of the region.
Tier-1 dream: BetBoom Team — if the team decides to change the first position, shiro may well close the hole, but it will definitely require a test match.
We recommend that you closely follow the open qualifying stages of PGL Wallachia S6. — it is there, most likely, that we will see the first serious performance of the updated roasters.
Prospects for Echo and niu in Team Spirit or Entity
Xu “Echo” Ziliang and Li “niu” Kongbo are a bunch who, at the best of times, gave out a 58% win rate on signature Puck and Tidehunter. Echo, He has very strong analytical skills in macroeconomic thinking, and niu is a recognized master of initiation, but they simply did not have enough time to play in Tidebound.
| Player | Strong Heroes | Potential Teams | Tier-1 Probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| Echo | Puck, Storm | Team Spirit, Liquid | 50% |
| niu | Tide, Mars | Entity, 9Pandas | 40% |
Echo could join Team Spirit as a potential replacement for Collapse — if the “dragons” suddenly come in to upgrade, his style of play is very similar to Larl. Niu, on the other hand, is quite capable of reaching the Entity or 9Pandas level — offline players with top-8 TI experience are now worth their weight in gold. We recommend checking periodically. DLTV.org — there, signature announcements fly out the fastest.
Statistics of pLAnet and y in the Clavision Snow season-Ruyi
Lin “pLAnet” Hao and Zhang “y`” Yiping are about reliability, vision, and competent fighting. pLAnet on Rubick and y on Disruptor are still capable of creating dirt, although in the leitgame Team Tidebound disband is their main weakness, to be honest.
pLAnet: it may well surface in Tundra Esports — the Swedes are now actively looking for the depth of the squad after the main tournament of the year.
y`: a low-cost, but mega—experienced option for Heroic or OG – such veterans raise the team’s win rate by at least 10%, as Mikoto did in Aurora.
The role of the Yao Coach in the LGD system and new contract proposals
Yao “Yao” Zhengzheng replaced bLink at one time and noticeably stabilized the draft stage, but the termination of the organization’s activities put his career on pause. Most likely, he will leave for Vici Gaming after some of his wards or settle in LGD as an analyst — such a brain will not be left without work, this is a fact.
Forecast of China’s esports market and lockdown players
The 2026 offseason is a mess. After TI 2025, free slots appeared even in Liquid and Falcons. The former Tidebound leaders are not Nightfall—level media giants, but their combined experience and $104k in prize money per season will definitely attract the attention of mid-tier clubs. The main risk now is a possible Chinese lockdown on players’ departure, which could lock them inside the region.
As a result, the forecast is as follows: 60% of the squad will settle in China or Southeast Asia (Vici, Aurora), another 30% will try their hand in the CIS (BetBoom, Spirit), and the remaining 10% will remain free agents until February.
