Category Archives: Chinese Dota

TongFu.Hao pre-WCG interview

Original: http://dota2.replays.net/news/page/20121128/1752976.html

Replays.Net: Hello Hao, welcome! Say hi to your fans.

TongFu.Hao: Hello everyone, I am Hao

RN: This is the first time Dota is on the WCG stage (even though it’s technically just exhibitions), is there any pressure in representing China?

Hao: No pressure, we absolutely will not lose, and even if we lose it will be in the finals to LGD.

RN: Then your goal is?

Hao: Top 2!

RN: Apart from LGD which we’re obviously all very familiar with, there are some other teams from different places such as South Korea, Mongolia, and they are teams that we’re all not very familiar with. When you come up against these unfamiliar teams do you and other Chinese teams anticipate having any problems?

Hao: There should be a bit. Because these teams, we completely lack any knowledge of their style and preferred tactics. What heroes they use, what we should ban or pick, all things that we aren’t very clear on, so we can only rely on our own strongest systems.

RN: Currently most big Chinese teams have moved to training mostly for Dota2, so is there difficulty in finding practice partners for Dota1 now? (Dotaland note: TongFu will be representing China at WCG in Dota1) Do you have specific training for Dota1 right now, how is it going?

Hao: Yes, it’s very difficult, because nowadays there’s no one training Dota1 anymore. So the 5 of us can only run 5-man stacks on ladder to get re-acclimated to the feel of Dota1.

RN: You just brought up ladder, so what are your ladder rankings, what’s your win rate like?

Hao: Rankings are not all the same. Anywhere between 2300-2500… win rate… if all 5 of us are together, 90% or so.

RN: While you frantically prepare for WCG, there is also the G-League Dota2 competition, how do you balance your training focus? On the official TongFu blog posts we often see that you guys order delivery for meals, is this level of training causing any sort of exhaustion? And do you have any events or activities at your base to relax a bit?

Hao: Because we’re just about to go play WCG matches, so these couple days we haven’t trained any Dota2. After we get back from WCG, the plan is to only play Dota2, because we still need to prepare for G-League. About the food, it’s okay, we only get delivery when our house maid is on holiday or after she leaves at night, and it’s not too bad. We all laugh and joke around, in the past we used to play cards. Nowadays we don’t play cards anymore, because we’re all hungry for results to prove ourselves, so this recent period all we’ve been doing everyday is training.

RN: LGD’s ddc cannot compete (WCG nationality rules), will this give you more confidence for your matchup?

Hao: Yes, because ddc is an extremely strong player, I feel that LGD without ddc is the same impact as iG without ChuaN. But KingJ should not be overlooked either, but we still have confidence.

RN: How have TongFu’s new roster additions longdd and Veronica come along? Your form and teamwork, have they met your expectations?

Hao: It’s been alright. A lot better than earlier. As for expectations, still a ways off… but when we built this current roster, the goal was always the next International.

RN: Dota2 China servers are close to arriving. For you, are there any functionalities that Steam currently lacks that you’d like to see?

Hao: None; as long as it’s playable it’s good. We all greatly look forward to China servers, because currently playing on Steam means we have really poor connections. The Shanghai server is un-usable, so we can only use the SEA server in Singapore. If China servers come online, then we can use those, and our training will have higher quality to it…

RN: Big thanks to Ms.Hao for the interview with us, and we wish you success at WCG. At the end, we ask you to use one sentence to describe each of your teammates, and yourself.

Hao: Sansheng: A good man! Veronica: This guy has had a little too many IDs recently. Mu: A very intellectually spirited player. longdd: Very high professionalism. Hao: Trying my best. And at the end, thanks to our sponsor “TongFu Porridge” for their constant support, thank you!

SGamer interviews manager of newcomers VG (Vici Gaming)

Dotaland note: Let’s get to know some new faces in the Chinese scene! Vici Gaming recently defeated well-known name Noah’s Ark in the G-League 2012 S2 preliminaries to book a spot in the round of 8 held in Shanghai. Who are they… where are they from… let’s find out!

Original: http://dota2.sgamer.com/news/201211/148175.html

In their debut at the G-League 2012 Season 2 preliminary stages, Dota2 newcomer team VG crushed Noah’s Ark by a score of 2-0, easily advancing to the Round of 8. Afterwards, we managed to get an interview with VG team lead Fengdidi (Dotaland note: his name translated literally is “wind little brother”)

SG: Hello, very glad to have Fengdidi do this interview with us, why don’t you say hi to everyone?

Fengdidi (Fdd): Hi everyone, I am PandaPanPan (Dotaland note: another ID of his from when he was a player)

SG: First of all congratulations to VG for the victory over NA in advancing to the round of 8!

Fdd: Thank you!

SG: As for many of VG’s players, it’s fair to assume that many fans have yet to come to know. Fengdidi can you introduce to us some information about your team?

Fdd: Our team was officially formed on October 21 (of this year), though before today we hadn’t gone live with it. The team currently has training in Hangzhou’s Westlake District.

SG: Can you please introduce us to your players?

Fdd: Apart from former TyLoo player xiao7, everyone else is pretty much new to the scene. For now we have CTY playing carry, the god of war xiao7 as solo, captain Fenrir and fy as supports, Xtt as the 3. (Dotaland note: due to being new players, their English IDs aren’t as established and these may not be authoritative names)

SG: Then we must ask, with all these new players, what led you to choose them in the formation of this new team?

Fdd: In the Dota circle I’ve looked at and considered many players. Over a long period of consideration, in addition to my own personal observations, I ended up going with these five players. After coming together and training for a month, so far I’ve been pretty satisfied/

SG: Can we ask a bit about the players’ living arrangements?

Fdd: All the arrangements are pretty ideal, food and lodging are all quite ideal. Everyone has their own room. And the base is in a very nice environment.

SG: How do you arrange and set up your training? With such massive progress here, can you reveal anything for us?

Fdd: The rules I’ve set for the players is to finish eating by noon, and then begin the day’s training. If there’s no training partner then they play as a 5 man group online, so for now the results have been pretty good over the past month. The players themselves are also pretty dedicated. In addition I also regularly join them so we can play 3v3 to practice laning.

SG: We heard Fengdidi you also used to be a pro player, what has led to you becoming a team manager now?

Fdd: Last year I played with Panda for a year, and went through quite a bit. This year I spent half a year chilling at home, until my current boss contacted me saying that he wanted to form a team, so I began work on making that happen. Why I don’t play professionally anymore is because I’m comparatively noob nowadays, plus I’m old now.

SG: Talk a bit about your match against NA, what are your thoughts on how the players performed?

Fdd: Their performance was within my expectations. The team trained for a month, before that they didn’t even know how Dota2, so this entire month I’ve been with them in training, explaining things to them, so now that they’ve defeated NA, I feel that it’s all expected. Especially since NA recently hasn’t been training Dota2.

SG: Your win over NA was also within my expectations. Want to make a prediction for the match between TongFu and N9?

Fdd: As for predictions, I definitely hope TongFu can win, after all many of their players were teammates of mine in the past, and I really hope to be able to meet them in Shanghai. Plus, we stack every night to play Dota2!

SG: After defeating NA, surely other teams will begin to take notice of you and take you more seriously. What do you think of your chances of advancing to the semifinals?

Fdd: Advancing to the semifinals we’ll have to look at our performance and luck, so the specific chances aren’t something I can comfortably conclude right now!

SG: Okay, thank you Fengdidi for the interview! Let us meet again in Shanghai then. And we wish VG good results in this edition of the G-League.

G-League qualifiers over, group stage groups revealed, vods

Haven’t found a better version of this image-wise, so I’m using the version by reddit user ‘sheltered’ as seen here.

There’s been a running ‘joke’ or rumor that ZSMJ’s secret team BLACK WOOD EAR participated in these preliminaries. Unfortunately this team did not qualify further, therefore whether they are truly ZSMJ’s secret team may not now or ever be known…

G-League 2012 Season 2 Dota2 group stage groups

Group A: DK (direct invite for runners-up of last season), LGD, LGD.int, ForLove

Group B: iG (direct invite for winners of last season), VG, TongFu, MUFC

Latest vods: http://v.gamefy.cn/lists?cid=47

Recap vod of qualifiers last stage: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDgwNDIyNjQ4.html

G-League Dota2 online preliminaries update

Original: http://gleague.gamefy.cn/view_26989.html

(Dotaland note: in the above link, click on the big letters in boxes to find upcoming matchups for each prelim group. As a recap, also note that iG and DK will not be playing in the prelims as they have been seeded to the finals brackets due to being 1st and 2nd last season, overall prizepool is over $40k)

On November 23 at 20:00, Gamefy will bring live coverage of G-League 2012 Season 2’s Dota2 competition in the form of matches from the A group in online preliminaries. The match will be between Noah’s Ark who just moved to Shanghai, and new up and coming team VG, the format will be a best of 3.

This day of competition is G-League’s first official Dota2 live streaming coverage, so who will claim group A’s one qualification spot, let us anticipate together!

Of note is LGD.int making its debut at 18:30 on Nov 23 (less than 6 hours from now) against team All iN

Stream is found at the Gamefy Fengyunzhibo page: http://www.gamefy.cn/tv/pplive.php — http://www.fengyunzhibo.com/tv/youxifengyun.htm

[fluff] Chinese trolling in game… “what is this egg?”

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

Chinese commentator Crystal (Laoshu) talks G-1, BurNing, DK’s loss

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.

 

G-1 League 2012 season comes to an end: LGD takes top, iG places 4th

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/

17173 series: G-1 2012 bits and pieces (1)

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.”

G-1 League LAN Finals begin tonight: LGD vs iG, DK vs Orange

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