Dotaland note: This was a joint interview by Sgamer and GGnet; GGnet has a translation up too but I feel that that translation doesn’t suit Dotaland, so I took a few minutes to translate it myself…

Original: http://dota2.sgamer.com/news/201212/148500.html

In the finals of The Asia in Malaysia, LGD.cn defeated MUFC 2-0 to take the title, thus avenging their earlier defeat to MUFC in group stages and taking home $15000

Afterwards, Sgamer and Gosugamers interviewed LGD.cn’s captain Ning “xiao8” Zhang, and director 8 expressed the feeling that there was extra pressure on them being the only Chinese team present. Their loss in the first match of the tournament to MUFC allowed them to cool down a bit and re-analyze their opponents and themselves, ultimately allowing them to get revenge in the finals. After winning they feel great; and in the interview he analyzed a bit on what happened in the finals matchup, explaining that Nyx Assassin is very fearsome in this patch, to the point of being a must-pick hero. Let us delve into the details below~

Q: xiao8, first of all congratulations to you and your team for taking The Asia championship. Thank you for accepting this join interview from SGamer and Gosugamers. Please introduce yourself first?

xiao8: Hello everyone, I am LGD.xiao8

Q: How do you feel right now?

xiao8: I feel awesome. Because we were the only team representing China here, there was some added pressure at first, but right now I just feel great~

Q: So, your finals opponent was MUFC, do you feel that MUFC is stronger with Hyhy?

xiao8: I feel that the addition of Hyhy increases MUFC’s competitiveness, but I felt that as we gradually became accustomed to their strategies in matches and analyzed them, we could defeat them.

Q: Your team only lost one match at this competition, that was precisely against MUFC in the first match of the tournament. When you learned you would be against them again in the finals, what were your thoughts?

xiao8: There weren’t too many specific thoughts, because after we first lost to them, we analyzed the reasons that caused us to lose. We discussed whether it was a strategic problem or individual problem, and in doing so we learned our lesson, so we were very calm.

Q: Your team in both games of the finals picked Nyx Assassin for your counter-push lineup, what were the reasons behind picking him for you?

xiao8: Nyx Assassin is a hot hero in this patch version. He can control the flow of the game, he has burst, and he can easily solo kill enemy squishies, so I feel that he is a must-pick hero in this version.

Q: In the first game, MUFC innovated a bit in their picks of Death Prophet and Necrolyte for a push strategy, yet failed to achieve much of a result. You guys controlled the match throughout. What are your views on this game?

xiao8: On paper, this looks like a very fearsome push strategy. But our heroes were simply stronger overall, plus when they began pushing we were able to disrupt their tactic, and thus the game continuously favored us.

Q: In the second game, MUFC picked Lifestealer along with Enchantress. In the first game, we discovered that MUFC favors fighting you guys 3v3, yet failed to find much success with this most of the time. However, in the second match they managed to gain the upper hand in early game, and the fighting became much fiercer, so what did you guys do to handle their counter aggression?

xiao8: We fell behind because Yao skilled the wrong ability in early game while going bottom lane, which led to us losing that lane. But our lineup was geared more towards countering theirs, specifically for countering Lifestealer, so gradually in mid-game we re-gained our standing. Additionally, Lifestealer isn’t really a great DPS hero.

Q: Lately, the Southeast Asian scene has just wrapped up the SMM 2012 competition, which meant many teams were training Dota, and not training much Dota2. How much preparation did LGD have for The Asia 2012?

xiao8: Indeed, we had been training all along for this competition.

Q: Many people believe that SEA teams are closing the gap with Chinese teams, what are your views on this?

xiao8: I feel that in terms of individual skill, the gap is not very big. But in terms of teams, the gap is still very large, because SEA and most foreign teams all lack the professionalism and communal training and analysis environments that Chinese teams have. So I believe that Chinese teams are still that much stronger.

Q: Christmas is just about here, and now that you’ve won, you have the best gift for yourselves. Before you head back to China, are you guys going to celebrate at all? Buy some gifts for family or girlfriends?

xiao8: We plan on buying some stuff, and then we’re going to invite MUFC to dinner, and we can celebrate together.