ECL 2013 info and details

Even though the ECL 2013 doesn’t have the biggest prize pool, and may feel overshadowed by the recently-ended Alienware Cup and Perfect World’s own DSL, this ECL is still an important one, because it is officially supported by the Chinese government. The entirety of the competition will be played offline in Beijing at the official Esports Stadium over the period of 5 days, so this is bound to be a high quality competition!

Prize pool: 1st place 100k RMB, 2nd place 20k, 3rd place 10k

Background info: The ECL 2013 is sponsored by RedBull and QPAD, and is a tier 1 esports event supported officially by the Chinese government’s Esports Development Center. The venue is in Beijing, China, at the Shijingshan Esports Stadium.

Participating teams:
Group A: iG, LGD.cn, VG, Royal, Orange, MuXi
Group B: DK, LGD.int, XPY (former 90016), TongFu, RattleSnake, RisingStars

Official Chinese stream page: http://www.cespc.com/html/tvol

Official website: http://www.cespc.com/

Solo tournament voting: http://www.cespc.com/html/special/eclsolo

This solo tournament will have a prize pool of 10,000 RMB (roughly 1630 USD)

 

TongFu team interview after their DSL win

Congrats to TongFu for taking champions in this season of the Dota 2 Super League. First off, we’d like to ask the three of you with tears streaming down your faces, what brought those tears about?
Sydm: For me, to see them win made me very happy. To watch them grow step by step, and finally win this title, the feeling is that for me, to give so much to this game and finally see some results in helping them become champions here, it’s a very joyous thing. We all love each other, and the win is a collective achievement.
Mu: Tears of joy; this has been my very first champion in a large event, and I hope that this is a new beginning for me. I will work even harder down the line.
Hao: I’m the same as Mu, really, hadn’t achieved a title at a large event in a very long while. To play together for such a long period of time and finally win a title, the tears falling are tears of happiness.

KingJ, you had a chat with Nekomata before the match, what was that about?
KingJ: His mom had said that it would be DK and TongFu in the finals here, with TongFu to take the title. At the time, I had hopes for this as well, but didn’t think that it would really come true like it has.

Before the match, there was an EHOME reunion. As an old EHOME veteran, did this awaken your desire to become champion today?
KingJ: It was a very emotional moment, but to be able to win against old teammates, current opponents… I’m still happy about it.

How do you all rate your coach, sydm?
KingJ: Coach has helped us improve on our focus and analysis, the effects have been great.
Banana: We wouldn’t have this title without our coach!
Mu: He is a legit coach.
Hao: He fully deserves to be recognized as a great coach!
Sansheng: Coach has helped us focus better, and become more disciplined, thus allowing ourselves to overcome our own challenges.

In the match-deciding Game 3, you guys picked Naga Siren and Razor. This was something we had seen from Zenith before, were you guys borrowing the strategy from them?
Hao: I think a lot of people had tried this before in practice, and we will make sure to prepare more strategies for TI3.

Banana has just had his 26th birthday, how will you guys celebrate tonight?
Banana: We’ll go celebrate by having a fun team dinner.

What do you think of Hao’s recent performances?
Banana: He’s becoming more and more steady and reliable all while maintaining his fierce and aggressive style, and he should be considered a top tier carry now.

Use your home dialect and say something to your fans?
Banana: Thank you for all your support (in the Henan dialect)

Your team had just lost previously to DK in the Alienware Cup, what adjustments did you make for this?
Mu: We lost yesterday, then we spent a lot of time discussing together. We felt that the loss had something to do with our own performances and form, our drafting, as well as our execution. But we also felt that the DSL match would be much more important, and so after our discussions, our drafting for the DSL finals was improved, but of course most importantly, we played much better.

How would you rate your opponents in the DSL finals, DK?
Mu: I think DK failed to perform to their own standards today, and their picks entirely fell into the traps we had set.

Can you talk a bit about the key points in each of the three games played, or share with us when you felt you had each game won?
Hao: The first game was determined from the drafting and lane setups that they would be at a disadvantage, and indeed they basically lost in laning phase, and we had a clean win. The second game with me on Anti-Mage, I got two kills and was very fat, while my teammates held the ship steady to give me more room to farm, but the win was probably secured later on when I had fully built out my items on Anti-Mage. In the third game, they attempted to counter us by changing their laning up, but it didn’t end up affecting us at all. Our supports rotated, and we ended up getting an advantage later in laning. The drafts meant that we had stronger teamfights, and when we took Roshan, that’s when we could had the title in sight.

For Coach Sydm, you had not been highly rated as a player, yet you’ve seen great success and recognition now as a coach. What was the transition like? And how exactly are you going about helping your team and players?
Sydm: I hadn’t ever considered becoming a coach before this, and it was a bit of a coincidence or fate that brought me to TongFu. It was decided after I chatted with Hao, and I felt that becoming a coach meant I wouldn’t have to waste all the time I’d put in before. I wanted to dedicate myself to helping them, and I made them improve on their living habits, so they could focus completely on training and competing. And as an observer, I’m able to see many things that they might not be able to see clearly in-game, as well as be there to smooth over any potential conflicts. After all this hard work, seeing them able to win this title, I feel it’s all been very worthwhile.

Banana, as an older player, what have you done to ensure that you continue to play at a high level, even improving over your previous self?
Banana: Because I want to win titles!

What hopes do you have for your TI3 adventure?
Sansheng: The DSL title is just a beginning for us, and as long as we don’t get overconfident with ourselves, I feel that we can achieve even greater things at TI3.

Predictions for TI3 results?
Sansheng: Before this, we wanted to strive for a top 3 finish. After this, I think we’ll want to make sure we get top 3, and strive for top 2. We won’t talk about being champions at TI3 because we don’t want to put that kind of pressure on ourselves.

Can you all share you takeaways from this DSL win?
KingJ: To be able go the whole distance is a reward in itself.
Banana: We were able to do well in terms of teamwork and execution.
Mu: The biggest takeaway is to be able to win the title.
Hao: What Banana said, an achievement in teamwork with new teammates.
Sansheng: The biggest reward is that we proved ourselves, and increased our own confidence.

Say something to fans to cap off this interview.
TongFu: Thank you to all for your support, and thank you to our sponsor TongFu Porridge for their unrelenting sponsorship.

 

Chinese pros respond to LGD ‘tactical pause’ against NaVi

A selection of responses from some iG, LGD, and TongFu people regarding the Alienware Cup ‘tactical pause’ incident between LGD.cn and NaVi…

Ferrari_430 responds to DD:

DD: We were at an internet cafe. When I dropped, sydm (TongFu coach), along with Hao, were both behind me. This fight was very much in our favor; when the pause happened, Magnus had already gotten 4 with his second ult. Those who get it, get it.

Ferrari_430’s reply: Got it got it got it :thumbs up:

Yao’s explanation:

Yao: Today we weren’t at our team base, we were in Shanghai for a photoshoot, and so we played the match from an internet cafe. The computers had some issues, there had already been problems earlier, and then at the team fight DD completely crashed. We couldn’t possibly play the game out for 80 minutes, and then give it up by playing 4v5.

Sylar explains:

Sylar: At that moment, Magnus had gotten Shadow Fiend in an ult and had Skewered him in; our communications at the time involved Rubick saying that he had Dragon Knight’s stun. As he went to use the stun, his computer stopped responding, otherwise Shadow Fiend would’ve been instantly picked off at that time. Instead, Rubick sat there for nearly three seconds doing nothing before we actually hit pause.

Ruru is sad:

Ruru: It’s been five years now and I’ve always said to myself to be strong to the end. But this world does not see my hard work. The only thing I get is insults and a lack of understanding.

Hao and Mu to the rescue:

Hao: DD’s computer indeed had problems, LGD had that fight in the bag easily

Mu: Nothing to do with any pause; NaVi had no chance in that last fight!

xiao8 is just happy they won:

xiao8: Fuck yeah, finally got revenge for TI2!

Pics and video from DSL Finals day: DK and TongFu

Worth checking out… some of the galleries load a bit slowly, but I decided against re-upping them to imgur because I don’t wanna steal views or whatever. Yeah. There are some shots of the venue, which is the new Gamefy Esports Stadium, pretty cool.

 

Pre-match: http://dota2.sgamer.com/albums/201307/8006_323420.html

DK eats breakfast (KFC, apparently): http://dota2.sgamer.com/albums/201307/8007_323445.html

Venue shots: http://dota2.uuu9.com/201307/447681.shtml

More venue shots: http://dota2.replays.net/pic/page/20130706/1830391.html#p=1

Fan interaction and crowd shots: http://dota2.sgamer.com/albums/201307/8004_323372.html

Lots more crowd shots and images from event: http://dota2.uuu9.com/201307/447697.shtml

Perfect World people speak: http://dota2.sgamer.com/albums/201307/8005_323401.html

DSL Finals Opening Cermony: http://dota2.sgamer.com/albums/201307/8008_323447.html

rOtk and DK live: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTc5NzAwNDYw.html

TongFu’s awarding: http://dota2.sgamer.com/albums/201307/8009_323467.html

 

DSL interview with TongFu.Hao: We will look to counter DK’s style

SGamer did an interview with TongFu’s Hao, focusing on their upcoming Dota 2 Super League Finals showdown with DK…

SGamer: Thank you for doing this interview with us. You’re just about to partake in the DSL Finals now, what is your team’s form like recently?
TongFu.Hao: Our current form is pretty good, because in practice in the past few days we’ve been performing quite ideally. There’s still time before the Finals though, so what actually happens on the day is still uncertain.

SG: Have your practices been the same as usual, or have you undergone specific routines to prepare?
Hao: Our recent practices have mostly been the same as usual, we’ve been focusing on training up on a wider variety of heroes and styles, so we can have them as options to use in the match.

SG: Have you found any particular style to counter DK’s renowned ‘turtle’ strategy?
Hao: Eh, we’ve done some analysis into styles that may be able to counter, but we’ll have to wait until the actual match to see if they actually work out.

SG: How do you feel about your team’s chances at taking the title here?
Hao: This is hard to say, because after all, DK is an old-school powerhouse team. We can only find out after we’ve played and fought, but if you insist on having me make a guess, then I say it’s 50/50!

SG: Many fans have taken a liking to you due to one of your nicknames being ‘Chopper Hao’; now, if you don’t win the title here, then will you follow through on the whole “if I don’t win then I chop my hand off” thing?
Hao: Uhm… actually, that’s hard to say. Actually, it was a misunderstanding at the time that I said that.

SG: Then let us settle this misunderstanding once and for all by taking a look back at what truly happened then.
Hao: It was like this: at the time, I hadn’t gone professional yet, I was still just another amateur player. I was with friends on a team playing at an offline event in Guangzhou, it was a school league. But at the time, we weren’t actually students, so we got reported to the authorities. The person who reported us also happened to be someone whom we had played against earlier, and we ended up flaming each other on the forums. What I said at the time was that, as long as it was an offline event in Guangzhou, if I failed to win then I’d chop my hand off, yet it ended up being interpreted to apply to all kinds of competitions outside of that, so it really was a bunch of misunderstandings.

SG: If you do win the DSL title, are there any wishes you have in you that you’d be able to fulfill afterwards?Hao: Winning the title itself is my wish, plus, my goals are to win more than just the DSL.

SG: What other goals are there?
Hao: Of course to win more titles and championships, haha.

SG: Nowadays, more and more teams are constructing coaching teams. Your team has sydm (战神7） as coach, how have the results been? Do you feel that having a coach is becoming increasingly important?
Hao: I am absolutely convinced by sydm’s attitude towards his work. Why I say this, because he is very professional and treats his work with the utmost respect. Drafting, every team’s style, he takes notes of everything in a notebook. When we lose, he is always there to remind us, to keep our heads up, that we still have chances, and helps us adjust our mentality and help us analyze why we lost. When we win, he’s always there to remind us, to not get arrogant, to not get loose, to work on staying in winning form. I really do feel that having a coach is pretty important.

SG: You’ve been playing professionally for three or four years now, and been in scores of events, small and large. What do you think about DSL?
Hao: DSL is currently the highest prizepool event in Chinese competitions. Due to official support from Perfect World, it has the broadest reach, and does very well at packaging and presenting the players. Gamefy’s work at producing the event itself has also been very professional. Of course, for me my favorite part is the commentators they have, haha.

SG: Do you like the Chinese voice work for the localized edition?
Hao: The voice work is very decently done. Some will sound very sincere and full of emotion, while others are hilarious. Additionally, the Chinese client has been done to be very user friendly, so I believe that as the Chinese beta grows, many people will come to love it.

SG: Currently, it would seem that most professional teams in Dota 2 consist largely of veteran players who have been around for a while. Newcomers seem to lack opportunities to prove themselves, why do you think that is? Speaking for yourself, do you tend to dislike carrying new players?
Hao: I feel that one cause for this problem is that Dota 2, unlike LoL, is not as easy to get into. Most people at the top are there on the basis of many years of practice and experience. I do indeed dislike having to play with newcomers, I basically don’t do it. The reason I dislike it is simple: I don’t want to waste my time, and it affects my mood.

SG: Older players eventually naturally end up in the end of their careers and choose to retire, so will these things add up and cause overall Chinese Dota 2 competitiveness and ability to decline?
Hao: I feel that right now there hasn’t been much of any decline, but it’s not an easy thing to determine.

SG: Do you think that the current TongFu is the strongest TongFu there’s ever been?
Hao: I don’t think so. Reasons are two-fold: first, we have yet to win anything, so there’s nothing for us to boast about. Second, I feel that our previous roster was rpetty good too, it just lacked a bit of teamwork and trust. After this Final, you will see whether the current TongFu happens to be the one that looks the most like champions, haha.

SG: Okay, then go ahead and say something to cap off this interview!
Hao: There’s a lot I’d like to say, but I haven’t earned the right to say it for now. After we’ve won something, I will say it on stage during the awarding! Lastly, thanks to our sponsors TongFu Porridge!

Source: http://dota2.sgamer.com/news/201307/151354.html

CDEC gets 70,000 RMB in prizes as the CDEC “Midnight Snack Cup” launches

It looks like CDEC is making big moves, perhaps partially funded by the ticket sales through Dota client. For more information on CDEC and what they’re doing in Dota 2, check here.

Starting on June 23, and ending the week of November 3, every Sunday evening (China time) at 20:00, CDEC will, from its weekly top 20 rankings of participating players, invite 8 professional players to be joined with 2 non-professional players, to take part in a weekly “Midnight Snack Cup” series. Each Sunday night in this “Midnight Snack Cup” series, two BO1s will be played, with the winning side of each BO1 getting 1000 RMB to split between themselves, meaning there will be 2000 RMB in prizes each week for 20 weeks. (20 weeks x 2 games, 1000 RMB for victor of each game = 40 games, total prize for winners at 40,000 RMB)

Additional individual prizes for players will be handed out twice over the 20 week period. The “Most Stable Performance Prize” will go to the professional player with the highest number of wins, and will be awarded 10,000 RMB. The “Best Newcomer Prize” will go to the non-professional player with the most wins, and will be awarded 5000 RMB. Both of these prizes will, as mentioned before, be handed out once at week 10, and once at week 20, for a total of individual player prizes amounting to 30,000 RMB.

This means that for CDEC competition, in the 20 weeks between June 23 and November 3 this year, there will be 70,000 RMB (11,400 USD) in prize money handed out to the best participants, professional and non-professional alike, in both team format and individual format.

For CDEC streams, English and Chinese, check their stream page at http://live.vpgame.cn/

Sources: https://www.facebook.com/VPGAMECDEC/posts/541640935896281 – http://dota2.replays.net/news/page/20130623/1825189.html

LGD’s xiao8 and Yao face off for glory and the girl in this Razer promo video

Original Youku video link: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTczNDk0MDUy.html

This is pretty awesome. In this promotional video for Razer products, LGD’s Yao is supposed to be the rich, handsome dude that has everything, while xiao8 is playing as an underdog average Chinese gamer. The girl is xiao8’s girlfriend irl, Zhao Jie.

Summary of vid: The two guys face off in a Counterstrike variant for the girl, Yao dominates early, then the girl suggests they switch spots. Only one of the PCs is equipped with Razer equipment, and in the end xiao8 pulls it back and wins it all. Please note that Dotaland does not officially condone gaming on scissor switch keyboards such as the one portrayed.

More CDEC details, stream links, future league direction, etc

CDEC is the most prestigious high-level in-house competitive Dota leagues in China. Having been a feature of the Chinese Dota scene for years, recently, they’ve switched to Dota 2, and have even provided an in-game ticket for viewing via the Dota 2 client. Ruru (also manager of LGD), manager of CDEC, recently answers a variety of questions regarding this switch, the in-game ticket, and other future CDEC arrangements accompanying its switch to Dota 2.

For more info and to follow more CDEC, check out their Facebook and Twitter.

How can I watch CDEC streams, or will a stream only be provided via LGD’s YY channel?
LGD’s stream will not be the only place where you can view CDEC in an online streaming environment. In fact, we openly allow any and all CDEC participants to stream. That is to say, every CDEC participant is free to livestream their games within the league. By now, many viewers will have already seen games streamed live from various perspectives, and it must be emphasized that we encourage this. Additionally, each club may choose to send their own casters to stream CDEC games, and upon approval by CDEC, will gain access to games via the in-game client in order to commentate and stream.

We have a CDEC stream directory page here, where viewers and fans can freely choose between different streams: http://live.vpgame.cn/

Will in-game tickets replace these livestream options?
No, no matter what, streams will remain free and open to all. As long as someone is streaming from within CDEC, then viewers will have a stream to watch.

What sets CDEC apart from normal games?
CDEC currently utilizes a set of matchmaking tools to match a mix of high-tier amateur players and professional players, the goal being to set up consistently balanced games while allowing players room to play with a wide variety of fellow CDEC participants and thus learn and challenge themselves in different scenarios.

Why has CDEC started selling in-game tickets?
For profit.

Isn’t this profit coming at the expense of everyone else?
No. First of all, we have costs of our own invested into all this. If this kind of thing was easy, then we wouldn’t be the only remaining league like this. We’ve hired a programmer full-time to support our endeavors in this, we have our own software for the league, and we also need testing for the software. We also have people working full-time in organizational and moderation efforts for CDEC, and we have server rental costs, as well as prize money for participants.

Secondly, we aren’t necessarily interested in being the ‘heroes’ and saying that we only want to contribute with no expectation of anything in return. But I still must say, 50% of our profit from the in-game tickets will go towards further prize money for CDEC itself, while the other 50% will go towards clubs and entities that contribute to CDEC (such as casters, promoters… as yet we haven’t gotten any clubs that want to contribute in an official capacity), and online event coordinators.

Third, it should be noted that the in-game tickets remain only an option. Online streams will remain free to stream for players, and free to watch for fans. The choice to purchase a ticket is purely a voluntary gesture of support for what we’re doing.

You mean you, Ruru, won’t gobble up all the ticket profits for yourself?
No, it won’t. Perhaps people’s impression of me is that I’m quick to anger, easily agitated. Any talk of me taking the money privately should begin, and end here. I couldn’t possibly be dumb enough to exchange what I’ve worked for in my young adulthood for a bit of ticket sale money. As for details of ticket sales and related profits, I propose to be transparent; how about I post via Weibo when the time comes?

Why don’t the games have item drops for viewers?
Because technically, the games consist of randomly-arranged groups of players on each side, not set teams as in other competitions. This is a problem that we’ve already communicated with Valve, and they’ve let us know that this is something they’ll try to fix as soon as possible.

Why isn’t there a courier included with the ticket?
Because making a courier takes time. Sorry, just wait a bit more.

CDEC claimed to be promoting appraisal and discovery of new talent, why do we only see the same old faces over and over?
Our plan is to gradually open up further levels of competition within the league, with poor performers being demoted to lower levels, while strong performers get promoted to higher levels. Because the league as a whole has just begun, this level-based league system still needs more time to develop. Once the higher level ‘ladder’ system stabilizes, we will also open up an open competition league system, with no minimum threshold for competition, and this will be the so-called ‘open qualifier’ level where strong players can be selected into CDEC proper. The hope is that once CDEC fully takes form, we can contribute our bit to esports. (Dotaland note: CDEC operates via seasons, and player performances are tracked via points)

What purpose does CDEC exactly serve? Aren’t games within CDEC still just that — games?
I’ll answer this with just a number: From CDEC’s founding to now, there have been over 400,000 official CDEC games played.

Can we submit suggestions for CDEC?Of course. As they say, three soldiers see as much as one general — one person’s view is never comprehensive, the more the better. Anyone who feels they have talent to contribute, or some way to help, is welcome to submit themselves forward. We also do have quite a few existing questions and problems, such as how to encourage players to be more creative in playing different and new strategies. How should we fairly split prizes? (No more winner takes all? Prize for best newcomer? Strategy prize? Most improved prize?)

Wouldn’t it be better to just let the players go play pub games? Not only have you closed everything off behind an in-game ticket, but you’ve also taken away our ability to watch first-page pub games.
On this, we respect the players’ decisions; if they choose to play this then that is their choice.

Source: http://t.qq.com/p/t/301934127870136

Pre-TI3 analysis: A tale of narrowing margins and increasing difficulties for China

Looking towards TI3 (less than 50 days away now!), Chinese esports man Felix has a writeup of some fears he has for Chinese teams at TI3 in Seattle this year…

TI3: A tale of narrowing margins and increasing difficulties for China — by Felix

I think lots of readers will be hesitant and doubtful upon first reading the title here. But have no fear, I think it’s better that the ire be directed towards people like me who write this kind of stuff, rather than be directed at the teams and players in case they fail to win at TI3. I absolutely believe that they will all give it their 357% effort, but it must be acknowledged that what faces them at TI3 is much more dangerous and challenging than TI2.

1. I want to note that in the matchup between RattleSnake and Quantic for the Wild Card spot, RSnake has to be seen as the underdogs here. You can go to Gosugamers and check their match records, and compare the two teams recent results. You should see a definite trend. What this means is that, from the outset, the number of Chinese teams present may well be 4 versus 12 non-Chinese teams, as opposed to last year’s 5 versus 11.

2. Ageing. If we take a detailed look at the 4 guaranteed Chinese teams present, apart from TongFu’s Banana, all the other 19 players participated in TI2. In contrast, before G-1 Season 5, how many people knew of Admiral Bulldog, or EGM? Who was NaVi’s Funn1k? What about Fnatic’s players’ names, their roles, their preferred heroes? I’d guess that not many Chinese players would be very familiar. After TI2, with the exception of VG who brought out a few new faces, there have been no other newcomers. The likes of CDEC can’t be expected to bring immediate results right now, and thus our Chinese teams must accept the circumstances as they are currently… yet we should still question what brought this about.

3. Understandings. After their respective losses at TI2, foreign teams and players have spent the year analyzing and learning Chinese teams. In particular, Orange, who have participated in three different large-scale Chinese events since then, LGD.int who have been living and training in China, as well as the Alliance that came to China and stomped, not to mention NaVi, who will be coming to China to train soon. Across these teams, there has been a dramatic increase in understanding of the Chinese for them, while in comparison, Chinese players and teams have incomplete understandings of European and American players and teams. Chinese styles are no longer mysterious to them, while our opponents remain unfamiliar to us.

4. Gap in competitions. This is a point that I think most everyone can recognize. I roughly counted all the events available between the the end of G-League in January to the closing of G-1 League in May of 2013, and not a single Chinese team played more than 10 matches in that timespan. If you go look at Steam’s event ticket calendar, you find that in that same timespan, there were at least four significant events taking place in Europe and America. To be able to use competitions as training is a luxury for any team, and in this respect, foriegn teams havee had over five times as much experience in the past months as Chinese teams. What this brings about is a falling behind in playing style and strategies, and this is something that has already been seen at G-1.

5. The offline advantage is gone. Alliance, coming from faraway Sweden to China, showed us that the gap in offline skill from older days was no longer to be seen. Over the past half year, iterations of ESL, DreamHack, StarLadder, and other competitions have all come and gone, and with them the idea that foreign teams are “fierce online, weak offline” is fading away.

6. Mental burden. After NaVi took TI1, Chinese teams approached TI2 with a nothing to lose, everything to gain attitude, in which they all strove to be the ones to win TI2 for China. This ultimately helped iG overcome all kinds of challenges in terms of stamina and determination, and allowed them to complete the impossible mission in the end. At TI3, however, it will be completely opposite, as not only is it not a given that iG will be able to approach the competition with the ease with which last year’s defending champs NaVi did, but they will also have the entire nation’s hopes and expectations upon them. As such, all participating Chinese players and teams will simultaneously feel that they want to win, yet they’re afraid of losing. Chinese Dota stands as the world’s best, so winning is to be expected, while losing is letting the nation down.

These things, while they may seem small or inconsequential to some, will be taken to heart by others that understand the nuances of competition. Me bringing these things up here is absolutely not to be a naysayer for our Chinese teams, instead, it is to bring a word of caution. Even though the Chinese Dota 2 servers are nearing open beta, even though Dota 2 has just been featured on CCTV, the trip to Seattle for all our teams is definitely not just a vacation, it will be a game of increasing challenges and difficulties compared to prior years.

After TI3, Chinese Dota is primed to flip to an all-new chapter; close to half of the currently active players may retire one after the other. They are not only your gods and legends of Dota when underneath the spotlight, they are also competitors in esports, and they’ve worked and sacrificed for years just for the few chances they get. So no matter what results they achieve, they should be worthy of your understanding and respect.

I’ll just say this much in this piece, next up I’ll write more specific analysis of the teams. Less than 50 days now, add oil.

Source: http://fight.pcgames.com.cn/285/2854049.html