Potentially the second female in a Major
It's a rare occasion that we see a successful female player join the competitive Dota 2 scene. Such might be the case with Bi "AXX" Xia, who's a popular streamer of the game in China.
Fans from the country are all hyped up since she has played with some of the legendary Chinese pros like Zhang "xiao8" Ning. The latter is part of Old Boys, a team of Dota 2 Chinese veterans who longer compete directly, but are still involved with the game to some degree.
Old Boys support new rising teams and one of those is Team Blaze. The roster consists of players who are barely known outside of China - AGAINST God, Xhd, po3, xi xi, KazZ.
The coronavirus situation
As we're all aware by now China is the outbreak zone of the brand-new coronavirus which started to complicate things in more than one area. Dota 2 is just one of the many esports titles which will are affected by the country's quarantine regime. League of Legends, Overwatch and others have already canceled numerous events.
The WESG APAC finals for CS:GO were initially set for January but were postponed for February, now the situation grows even more uncertain as there's no actual date announced. On the other hand, there's the Dota 2 Hainan Masters Invitational an event with $300,000 in prize money which was set for March.
According to the latest info, the organizers are considering moving the tournament outside of China, as many countries will have a hard time making it due to a widespread travel ban. Additionally, a lot of teams would put their players' health first and their competitive career second.
Due to xi xi and po3 of Team Blaze being stuck within the quarantine zone of the Hubei province, some stand-ins are necessary. That's where AXX comes in.
The females in Dota 2
This won't be the first time Xia steps inside competitive Dota 2, as she participated in The International 2019 China qualifiers with another team, but they failed to make it through. Beforehand, she also played with Newbee Boss in the Kiev Major Open qualifiers where they were defeated by Vici Gaming. Another popular female player from recent years is Marielle "Layla" Louise who was actually the first-ever female to take part in a closed Major qualifier.
Curiously enough, she also competed in the Kiev Major where her team Wheel Wreck While Whistling made it to the closed qualifiers.
The way ahead of AXX won't be easy as there's an Open qualifier to go through first. As mentioned above the coronavirus has also affected the dates for the ESL One Major qualifiers in China postponing them to February 12 and it won't come as a surprise if that's not the actual date.
Hopefully, the qualifiers will be played out and we'll have a chance to see Bi "AXX" Xia in action. If she makes it through the open qualifiers, AXX will be the second female to have ever made it to the closed qualifiers of a Major.
