http://event51.wanmei.com/dota2/201211/cdkey/user.htm
As can be seen in the link above, sign ups are live for Dota2 Chinese version, provided by Perfect World! According to this Sgamer post, the beta for the China region is supposed to begin in December of this year, which is a lot earlier than many people expected. Looks like Perfect World is pushing things forward.
Dotaland note: Fluffity fluff. Random convo I happened to catch in one of the Chinese chat rooms in Dota2, bit of light hearted trolling back and forth…
TT2: Right, people are always talking about some egg or another, what is this egg?
Mr.Black: If you die 100 times it’ll give you a courier
TT2: Where can I see my egg, and I don’t mean the ones I see when I look down
加班没有加班费: Eggs are for hatching new heroes..
加班没有加班费: Without eggs you can’t play new heroes
TT2: Eh, where can I see it then? Or, how do I acquire them
我爸刚弄死他: Oh fuck me, you are a bunch of cruel bastards
帅酷美少年: New heroes?
TT2: But… for me I can select all the heroes I see?
耍酷美少年: I can’t even laugh any harder
Mr.Black: There are hidden heroes of course
TT2: Enough… I’m serious here, I’m asking for help
帅酷美少年: Off you go then, just go play
Original: http://dota2.replays.net/news/page/20121119/1749015.html
Replays.Net: Hello Crystal (Laoshu), welcome to this Replays.Net interview.
Crystal (Laoshu): Hello, thank you to Replays for this interview.
RN: G-1 is over, LGD took the title, talk a bit about your thoughts on this result.
Crystal: To be honest, I’m fairly surprised at this result. The first day they defeated iG, I had already gotten a feeling that this team (LGD) had made a sharp change. Because before the match, I had gone to LGD’s training house, and seen them training the Magnus plus Luna combo versus LGD.int, yet they were losing boxes and boxes of Coca-cola (Dotaland note: in training for LGD and LGD.int, the losers must buy soda for the winners). So I assumed they would get rid of this strategy, yet they brought it to G-1 anyway, and had such great results with it.
RN: This means that in the time between then and now, they managed to take the next step in improving and perfecting the strategy.
Crystal: Yes. In training they lose Coca-cola, but in Fuzhou (the G-1 finals venue location) they win 180000 RMB, so those were worthy losses.
RN: So where do you think DK lost?
Crystal: I feel that they lost at BurNing, his form hasn’t been as good as it was in the past. Previously I rated him as the world’s number one carry, but since TI2 began, reasons for losses in some matches have been connected to BurNing. Up to the matches in the G-1 League, including some matches in the Finals here, BurNing made some very serious mistakes; quite a few times he was out of position when he needed to help a fight, if he had TPed to join in, then the eventual result certainly would have been different. BurNing’s form has some very noticeable signs of decline.
RN: Facing the current situation, what are you thoughts on how you think B-god should work to find his great form of yesteryear?
Crystal: I feel that he should start from the issue of bringing his girlfriend to offline matches, this is something that many teams have already prohibited, all feeling that bringing your girlfriend equals to looking for a loss. So BurNing should start from the basic attitude behind this in making changes, and additionally immediately after the matches ended, BurNing had already gone directly back to the hotel. This is a worrying sign, he should at least spend a bit of time afterwards to communicate with his teammates. Because my opinion and respect for BurNing is very high, I really hope that he can continue to be at the top of the world in what he does. Right now I’m a little disappointed.
RN: Orange defeated iG 2-1, to us this was pretty surprising, talk a bit about your views.
Crystal: Mainly it was Mushi performing very well, his early growth directly dictates his team’s win or loss later on. I feel that they should revolve their strategies around the heroes that Mushi plays well, because once Mushi is fat, Orange has already won 80%.
RN: After all this time commentating for G-1, what has been the most memorable event for you in the whole process?
Crystal: I think that co-commentating with 2009, this truly did allow me to learn a lot of new things. My own experience in offline commentating is not yet plentiful, and compared to 2009 it’s like the difference between ground and sky. So lately I’ve been asking many questions of him, what I want to learn is how to work with others in this field, not only being able to talk by myself.
RN: Then you will certainly bring us more exciting commentary in the future. Can you now talk a bit about G-1 League’s influence on Dota2 domestically, as well as what you think esports as a whole will be like in the future?
Crystal: First off, G-1 was a very successful tournament. Even though the offline portion was that grand, they still certainly did a very dedicated and professional competition here. Because the staff on hand was very little, Pikachu’s (Pikaxiu, Chinese commentator and organizer of this G-1 Dota league) dedication and responsibility was seen by all of us. This was the first Dota2 competition domestically, and the prizepool was large, so it will have a great influence on future domestic competition. I really look forward to the fifth G-1 League.
RN: Have you ever thought about making a comeback to play Dota2? For example there’s currently the rumored ZSMJ team, which still hasn’t confirmed its roster.
Crystal: I have thought about it before, because I played professionally for all those years and yet never won a title, so there have always been regrets about that in my heart. There was that WCG where beforehand I had said to 71 that I would retire afterwards, but 71 said a bunch of moving things to change my mind, so I did. Even though at The International 1 in Germany, we didn’t win the championship, but the bountiful prize for second place was something that made me quite happy already. I feel that my life began at EHOME, so my love for EHOME all these years has not been wrong.
RN: Then we hope that if there’s a chance in the future, that you once again step on the battlefield.
Crystal: In the past while still playing I never thought about this clearly, but now I’ve thought about it. In terms of age I’m still pretty young, even though my face doesn’t show it, but in truth I’m emotionally spent. Began playing Dota at 16, went pro at 17, and it’s enough for me. Dreams don’t always have to be completed by oneself, watching others fulfill theirs is also a kind of satisfaction.
RN: Please say a word to the fans and readers out there to bring this interview to a close.
Crystal: Thank you to the friends at G-1, to fans supporting us, and fans of Replays.Net. Having you all makes me feel very grateful.
In a bit of an upset, iG first lost to LGD 2-0 in the semi-finals (video of crowd reaction after LGD won), and then lost 2-1 to Orange in the 3/4th match.
LGD on the other hand defeats DK 2-0 in the Grand Finals to take home the 180000 RMB ( 28000 USD) prize. Some candid photos of the live venue and emotions from LGD vs DK here.
DK takes home 60000 RMB (9500 USD), Orange gets 50000 RMB (8000 USD), and iG gets 40000 RMD (6000 USD).
Vods of the full tournament are available at the 17173 official G-1 page: http://dota2.17173.com/zt/2012/zt02/index.shtml
Vods of just the LAN finals, on Youtube instead of Chinese providers: http://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/13f2el/g1_league_lan_finals_spoilerfree_vods/
Dotaland note: This is a mini-series from a 17173 writer, documenting bits and pieces of the events and happenings leading up to the G-1 League and Dota2 this year. This particular one shows a bit of the general buildup a few months prior to G-1 League 2012 starting.
Original: http://dota2.17173.com/news/11142012/092601975.shtml
September 19, two months before G-1
The Drums of War in Autumn
The second time I heard from Pikachu (Pikaxiu, Chinese commentator) was a month after the original. The ripples of the battle in Seattle had yet to settle, and he was already brewing up China’s first own Dota2 competition.
The International 2, was a competition, but more so it was like Valve holding a massive forum to recruit followers across the world to their cause, akin to the way Steve Jobs might hold an Apple event. And I had also been infected with the emotions fueling all this, so when I discussed things with Pikachu, I took the stance of a braindead fanboy and was a furious proponent of Dota2. Yet, considering the reality of the current situation, from the lower player and viewer base, to the incomplete transition of teams participating in the scene, to the question of Dota2’s official Chinese partner… holding a Dota2 competition was going to have significant challenges.
Objectively speaking, neither Dota2 nor TI2 are or were perfect. It was just that Valve’s unprecedented effort and dedication would quickly win over what was originally a comparatively unsupported and tough Dota1 scene, and ultimately let these original Dota1 players finally find a sense of safety, or maybe it was a sense of belonging. This convinced millions of Dota believers to transfer their faith to the Valve camp. Viewing things from this perspective, the 1.5M dollar prize pool was a worthy expenditure for Valve.
After confirming the G-1 League’s structure, the most pressing issue at hand was of course which teams would participate. Even though ForLove had recently announced their intentions to get into Dota2, their lack of offline training and teamwork showed, their players did not have enough experience with Dota2. The results in the preliminaries showed this: neither ForLove nor Noah’s Ark have matched their Dota1 skills in Dota2.
As for WE and EHOME, they had both lost players and were in a state of roster limbo after TI2, so they would be unavailable in the near term. Add in DT, Tyloo, and Royal Club, these ACE clubs declined to participate for one reason or another, and all that was left were iG, LGD, DK, and TongFu these four representatives recently returned from Seattle.
As a result, we had to invite foreign teams. Luckily, the Singapore server has always been acceptable for the entire greater Asia area in terms of delay and ping. And so, in a bit of a hectic and random fashion, this iteration of the G-1 League became half of an international competition in itself. At this time, coincidentally, it was also nearly a full year from the last international Dota competition held in China — WDC.
At the time, Pikachu was doing another 17173 event called UGT, so his energies were a bit stretched. On the other hand, I was not unfamiliar with the foreign scene and Dota2, and I’d say my English was adequate for the job, so Pikachu gave me the job of communicating with foreign teams.
Realizing that I could personally be involved in China’s first Dota2 competition, I can’t help but feel the chemicals in my body reacting, leaving me with an excitement that reminds me of that bit of poetry from one of our textbooks back in school: “In the depths of a dream, thoughts return to a camp ringing with the sounds of warhorns. The warriors are well fed, the music evocative of a majestic morale. This is an autumn display of military might on the battlefield.”
Just a quick reminder… through Saturday November 17 and Sunday November 18, the G-1 League’s LAN Finals will take place. Matches happen at 13:30 and 18:30 China time (0:30 EST / 6:30 CET, and 5:30 EST / 11:30 CET).
The matchups will be LGD vs iG and DK vs Orange!
Streams at: http://media.17173.com/dota/g1/ – http://tl.twitch.tv/beyondthesummit
Original: http://dota.sgamer.com/201211/news-detail-154953.html
SGamer: Thank you for this interview. Earlier there were reports saying you guys had moved your team headquarters from Tianjin to Hangzhou because you had switched sponsors?
xiao8: We haven’t changed sponsors, it’s just that internet in Southern China is a bit better. And also because we were forming our Int team, so having everyone together would make things easier to manage.
SG: LGD has always been seen as a favorite to win in any competition, yet you have lost in the finals of consecutive competitions recently, will there be any roster changes as a result?
xiao8: I don’t think so, lately the main reason behind our losses has been the fact that we’ve been making changes to positions within the team. After the ACE League, DD said he wanted to try playing the 3 position, but then after a bit of that he went back to his support role. Competition schedules have been very dense recently, and so we haven’t had much time to get used to the changes back and forth, and thus we haven’t found our team rhythm and as a result have been losing more.
SG: Were the original changes made to accommodate just whomever brought it up? Or were the changes a result of everyone feeling that they wanted some adjustments?
xiao8: It stemmed from individual requests for a position change and we all discussed it together. After all, if someone doesn’t want to play a certain position, they certainly aren’t going to be able to play it well.
SG: Because of the competitions you are now in, you guys probably don’t play much original DotA anymore, right? In your free time do you still go back to DotA and group up with friends to play some?
xiao8: Once in a while I’ll still go play solo or with a few friends on ladder.
SG: Regarding your newest teammates, how do you usually communicate with them?
xiao8: English!
SG: How come it seems like there’s quite a bit of pride in your tone of voice here… which of you has the best English?
xiao8: Right now, Yao’s English is best, although the club is already looking for tutors to help us with our English, so I think in the future the one with the best English skills will definitely be me!
SG: How do your two teams normally train?
xiao8: Pretty much whenever everyone’s here, we just train. And we just yell at each other, except sometimes no one knows what is being yelled. We usually play the “Cola Cup”, which is one Best of 3, whoever loses goes and buys two cases of Coca-cola …
SG: So your side wins pretty much 100% of the time, right?
xiao8: No, they’re quite good, in training we lose some and we win some.
SG: After TI2, IceFrog pushed through a large amount of changes in updates, do you feel that the updates in the last month have affected the pace of the game?
xiao8: I feel that right now, the fast tempo of games is just temporary, because an appropriate way to play this update version hasn’t been found yet.
SG: What are your thoughts on potential changes to the ban/pick phase?
xiao8: Don’t think it’ll really affect much, in the end everything depends on a team’s overall ability.
SG: Training with LGD.int, have you been inspired in any way? It seems like current Chinese team strategies have all stagnated somewhat.
xiao8: A bit, but right now more of the focus in training has been on getting them acclimated to Chinese teams’ playing styles.
SG: What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of Chinese teams versus European/American teams?
xiao8: Strengths are we are more professional and more focused; weaknesses I’m not sure, maybe the fact that they have better mentalities, I feel that they perhaps find more enjoyment out of the game.
SG: What is your assessment of DK now that they’ve made their roster changes?
xiao8: Their lineup has grown a lot stronger, so it’s a stronger DK
SG: Why do you say so? Because a lot of people have been questioning 357 and Dai’s skill.
xiao8: Dai and 357 are excellent 4 and 5 position players, from technique and mechanics to teamwork and experience, they’re top tier.
SG: Currently iG is undoubtedly China’s strongest team, and also probably your biggest adversary, have you guys figured out any weaknesses of theirs?
xiao8: No. They don’t have any significant weaknesses, so you can only rely on the ban/pick phase or excellent in-game performance to beat them.
SG: Are you all currently making the adjustments to pick up your form for the upcoming G-League and G-1 League?
xiao8: We’re still adjusting right now, and whether our form is good can only be known after we actually play…
SG: Due to the original DotA still getting updates, the majority of players in China still stick to it. Yet most competitions have shifted to Dota2, and as a result in China we see an awkward situation where DotA has lots of players but no competitions, and Dota2 has lots of competitions but no players. Will this kind of a situation affect Dota2’s overall growth?
xiao8: Whether it’ll affect anything I’m not sure myself, but I feel that once Dota2 is open domestically, the players will gradually come.
SG: In the end, anything you’d like to say to bring a close to this interview?
xiao8: Thank you to our sponsors LaoGanDie Hot Sauce, Taobao, Razer, and to all the fans supporting us, thank you.
Check it out at: http://dota2.wanmei.com/
Right now it’s got a collection of the hero spread artwork that Valve uses on its blog posts, a couple Dota2-related videos, and some epic music. No signups for access to Chinese Dota2 yet, but this is another step closer.
note: technically, as some readers have pointed out, this is not ‘officially live’, and indeed some of the videos on the site allude to a dota2.com.cn, which is not yet accessible
Original: http://dota2.sgamer.com/news/201211/147936.html
In the WCG China region preliminaries, DK has defeated TongFu 2-0 and will be facing their old adversary iG next. This very well may be a prelude to the ultimate finals at WCG, but iG has announced on their Weibo that ChuaN will not be a part due to his Malaysian nationality, and instead chisbug will take his place for this.
Chisbug is also a 4 position player, known for a very aggressive and ruthless style. At LGD’s peak last year, his Enchantress and Chen left us deep impressions. After iG’s current roster was formed last year, chisbug faded out of the scene and never joined another team, although recently it’s been rumored that he was to form a new team with ZSMJ, and indeed he has been seen playing a lot of Dota2. Will this represent another wave of iG’s cold-blooded gank strategies? And will iG be able to continue their dominance in the DotA and Dota2 worlds? We wait and see!
In the end, we wish good luck to DK and iG and hope they perform well, and win glory for the mother land!
Original: http://dota2.sgamer.com/news/201211/147750.html
Dotaland note: partial translation. Also, I’ve been to this venue and it is an impressive one, located in urban Shanghai right along the Huangpu River, quite cool…
In the new season of the G-league, DotA has been replaced with Dota2, and LoL makes an appearance too, alongside SC2 and WC3, this makes a total of 4 games in which competition will be held for the new season. Registration will open on November 8.
Additionally, the finals venue has been revealed as Shanghai’s Mercedez-Benz Arena, which is China’s premier and largest arts and culture venue, with the capacity to adjust for audiences anywhere between 5000-18000 in number. It has held NBA matches, hockey matches, large-scale concerts, and more.
In recent years, G-League has chosen various high-profile locations for its finals venues, such as at Shanghai’s famed Nanjing Road, Oriental Pearl Tower, Shanghai International News Center, and more, all for the promotion of esports. And now, their work has paid off and they have gotten the support of Shanghai’s municipal government and secured the rights to use the Shanghai Mercedez-Benz Arena, which we believe is another big step in the development and growth of esports, so we are excited!
DOTALAND.net 