TongFu sponsors Dota 2 “retired” veterans team

Remember the fun team of veterans announced earlier this month? Well, not only do they have a slightly different lineup, but now they also have a new sponsor—TongFu! Here’s their official weibo post:

Here’s an English translation:

Tongfu porridge co. have announced their sponsorship of “dragon-phoenix 8 treasure porridge” Team OB, and are about to release a “dragon-phoenix 8 treasure porridge” range [of porridges].

The team’s nickname perhaps comes from a joke in Chinese of that porridge being made up of several key ingredients and this team being made up of all-star players. There is little to no connection between Dota 2 and porridge, but TongFu picking up a Dota 2 team isn’t entirely new. In fact, it has been home to many of today’s legends such as Zhang “LaNm” Zhicheng, Chen “Hao” Zhihao, and Zhang “Mu” Pan. TongFu.OB’s roster will be comprised of Zhou “Zippo” Xiong, Yao “Zhou” Chen, Xie “DD” Bin , Jiang “YYF” Cen, Zou “820” Yitian, and Huang “LongDD” Xiang.

This isn’t new. Zhou has been here before.

Now before you start cheering for this team’s #RoadToTI5, let us stop you by saying that it’s not aiming to be the best in the world. As Zhou mentioned in his first announcement, they’re playing for fun. Aside from TongFu.OB, the organization has a serious competitive team, TongFu.WanZhou, which is comprised mostly of relatively newer players. According to TongFu:

Both new players and veterans are both important and necessary parts of China’s Dota 2 strength. We hope that the young men of Tongfu e-sports can absorb the experience from Team OB’s veterans, and from now on bring even more excitement to tournaments and competitions!

So if TongFu.OB isn’t aiming for competitive greatness, what is it after? Perhaps it’s going to tread the same path as other retirees aiming to help newer players in the Dota 2 scene. Zhang “xiao8” Ning recently formed a team with four new players to usher new talent into the Chinese scene. Recent retirees Xu “BurNIng” Zhilei and Bai “rOtk” Fan have also expressed their intention to help develop young talent, although they haven’t announced anything specific yet. If TongFu.OB isn’t any different, it could be that the team will scrim with lower teams to help them improve.

Check out its previous roster:

(via Reddit, image source)