Original: http://dota2.replays.net/page/20120831/1723293.html

Original original (requires registration to view full): http://bbs.gtv.com.cn/thread-1475-1-1.html

Today’s entry is a bit of a filler, indeed, there has not been a lot of amazing events to come of the day for writing about.

Because I was up late last night rushing the last entry, I slept in until noon, when Zhou etc came and woke me from my slumber. After some simple communication, I came to find that my original plans to tag along on adventures outside had fallen through due to the greater group leaving earlier, so I became another of the youth left behind. After some amount of sadness at this loss of adventure had passed, a few of us embarked on our own adventure to go and find some food. DD (of LGD) surprised us at this point, showing that a few days after arriving in a faraway foreign land, he had become as good as a local: he had figured out our immediate surroundings — taking us through some small back streets until he pointed us straight to a nearby Chinese restaurant!

While we enjoyed Chinese food that agreed much more with our tastes, YYF was shaking his head and saying, “NaVi steadfastly refused to train with Chinese teams before the prelims, causing even Chuan to find no way past them. But on a rest day they suddenly try to arrange training with iG.” YYF was clearly still upset about NaVi’s behavior, and went on to ask LGD to continue the ’embargo’ against NaVi and refuse their approaches, and “let NaVi continue to live in their own little world.”

The righteous and honorable “D” twins of LGD both nodded solemnly, and then moved on to chatting about the situation in the upcoming elimination stages. For the two leading teams in either group, being able to pick the next opponent is a good advantage, they agreed. Afterwards, the topic moved to how to put Zenith into the loser’s bracket; after strategic discussions on this ended, I brought up a bit about CoL’s current state, and unexpectedly Zhou had something to say, and he said it with an annoyed air: “CoL is quite bad, I feel that they’re worse than some of the teams ranked lower than them, and I really can’t understand how they got to 2nd in their group!”

I had nothing to say to that… so for the time being I brought the conversation on a new direction: in the face of a great set of results for Chinese teams, everyone has begun thinking not only about who would take the final championship home, but also about overall Chinese performance at TI2. iG and LGD were modest and humble about it; their obvious skill and results speak enough for everyone to understand.

Under current results, iG and LGD are pretty high profile in that their goals are quite clearly to make top 2, and thus guarantee the championship to a Chinese team. To go further, it is simple to say, in the top 4 it shouldn’t be an issue for Chinese teams to at least have half the slots. On large scale strategy, our enemies aren’t really on the same level, but on in-match tactics, it is still very important to respect the opponent and every one of their members, always remember that countless people have fallen to the unexpected before! Of course, perhaps the other teams still have hidden aces up their sleeves, some tricks to flash, yet, LGD and iG haven’t shown everything they have either, not even close. It can be said that the prelim group stages have been comfortable sailing; and I predict that the true battle that shows the true skill of teams will be between none other than LGD and iG!

As for DK, their form has returned significantly recently, and it shouldn’t be much of an issue for them to at least finish in the money in the top 8. Top 5 might be a barrier for DK, but if they face each opponent as they come and prepare accordingly, keep their feet on the ground and take matches one by one, then the Galacticos have a way to the championship as well.

And then we came to Tongfu, and everyone had something to say. Truly, by Tongfu’s skill level, making top 8 should’ve been no problem, and top 5 was a goal, while Champions could have been a dream. But now, things have gotten to this point, and I can’t really say more, for the Chinese contingent the true enemy is not the opposing teams here, it’s not the internet or forums or Weibo. Wars of words and winning battles against rumors makes no real difference, it’s the team and team members that make or break.

A very pleasing and appetizing meal of familiar tastes brought all of us to a certain happiness as we settled the bill.

Some of us had already been to Benaroya Hall to scout out the premises, and at night I conversed a bit with Mr. B about our upcoming work assignments, and though there were some concerns, it should be no big problem.

820, 2009, and Haitao (commentators) have also successfully arrived, each one reporting that their travels had been smooth. In comparison to some of the teams’ derpy travels here, I can only say that their troubles are caused by both internal and external forces!

Some Chinese teams have been trying to arrange training, but it’s been less than successful. In the end, let’s just leave this to fate, last minute cramming could be useful, but making sure form is good, having full rest, and high morale — these are the real things that will precede a successful campaign!