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　　DK's current form has been questioned a lot throughout the last month and a half. After being heralded as the kings of China on the 6.78 patch, the transition to 6.79 affected them heavily, and teams that simply couldn't find an answer to the Burning-led band of five surpassed them. These included teams like LGD, who showed no mercy on any teams in the D2L S4 round-robin stage and punched in their tickets to the Las Vegas finals without losing a series. One cannot ignore the rise of the new iG-roster either; the TI2 champions had not spared any expense after their subsequent failure to place in the top 5 of this year's edition of the tournament. Removing Chen 'Zhou' Yao and Wong 'ChuaN' Hock Chuan in favor of claiming the highest placing Chinese team at TI3, TongFu's star players Chen 'Hao' Zhihao and Jiao 'Banana' Wang where Zhou became a trade between the two organisations.

　　Finally, Vici Gaming, that featured two of DK's former prized performers Bai 'rOtk' Fan and Xie 'Super' Juanhao left their former team in the dust for a while. Trouncing the Asian superteam in not only the D2L Season 4 playoffs, but also at the NEST LAN. Their success wasn't also limited to domestic competition, they showed a form reminiscent of that of the Chinese dominance of old when they clubbed their way through the RaidCall EMS One finals in Poland, besting the most successful Dota 2 team of all time in Na'Vi, TI3 champions Alliance and finally a newly invigorated fnatic roster. DK were in the shadows all of a sudden, with all the talent they possesed they found themselves far away from the peak they had sat comfortably atop mere months ago.

　　On the same token, TongFu were in a similar situation ever since TI3 had come and gone, their end of the trade with Invictus Gaming in Zhou had not yet yielded them the success they had expected, and looking at it from an outsider's point of view, it's not all too surprising. The trade he had become part of was, in his eyes, a ruse to exchange him cheaply for the top-performing carry of China at the time in Hao, and when the trade was completed iG purchased TongFu jungler Jiao 'Banana' Wang and star support Zhou 'KingJ' Yang left shortly after, leaving Zhou with the daunting task to build up the team off of his own individual prowess.

　　As a result, TongFu fell behind significantly in important competitions like the WPC-Ace League and the D2L Season 4 round robin. TongFu found some balance at long last after they exchanged their previous offlaner Xuntao 'XTT' Xu with Zhao 'Kabu' Kai. Following this replacement, they placed within the top 6 of the WPC-Ace League, and also managed to advance to the playoffs of the extremely prestigious G-League 2013/2014 season.

　　But in both of their respective playoff appearances, heartbreaking losses transpired and both of their opponents in LGD and DK won against them in one-sided series. In the face of these losses, the carry player's patience had begun to run out and he made it known that his current form is nothing he is proud of, and that he would rather retire than keep on being called a has-been.

　　I am in bad form today, and I felt it when I was playing. If I can't adjust better, I will retire. Thanks to all my fans, I let you guys down.

　　- Zhou

　　Both of these stories found themselves aligned eariler today as the final of the Fengyun Hegemony Battle commenced. On both team's path to the podium, they conquered demons that had long been chasing them: DK eliminated Vici Gaming in two games straight, and showed to the world that their style transcends continents as they defeated LGD 2-1 after deploying the famed Io/Tiny combination that only fnatic has favored in recent times.

　　TongFu were on a date with destiny, starting it off with eliminating the Singaporean First Departure team in a close 2-1 series. Following their initial series up, they once again claimed victory against the Western heroes of Speed Gaming.int. One more series was between them and their first finals appearance since the Dota 2 Super League in July. In their way stood Invictus Gaming, and Zhou took his revenge upon his former team and left them in the proverbial dust as they were graced with the presence of a final after such a long abscence.

　　It seemed as if the tale of two fates had taken them on paths of redemption, but ultimately TongFu were the ones with everything to prove in this Bo5 showdown, DK were still the team that had beaten them in the G-League semi-finals, DK were still the team that contained the undisputedly highest amount of talent of any team in Asia. It was all on them to show up today. DK did, TongFu didn't.

　　DK showed three games of completely different nature, starting it all off with a farm-fest in the shape of Xu 'BurNing' Zhilei's Luna, followed by a heartbreaking game 2 where DK's split-pushing lineup left the teamfight eager TongFu unable to utilize their heroe's strength at all times, and finally a complete wash followed in the final game of the tournament as Chai 'Mushi' Yee Fung played with TongFu midlaner Zhang 'Mu' Pan like a shark with his prey.

　　Overlooking the fact that this was an online tournament, its finals became something of a story worthy to tell even the most casual of Dota 2 players. What this in the end means for Zhou, we'll have to see. For DK, their first win together is hopefully a premonition of things to come for a roster that was created to be the best of the best.

　　Fengyun Hegemony Battle results:

　　1st - Team DK, $9880

　　2nd - TongFu, $2470

　　3rd - Invictus Gaming, $823

　　Image Source: Neodota.com, Team DK's FaceBook, sinaimg.cn, 2p.com, raidcall-emsone.com, gosugamers.net