Tag Archives: DK

Pre-WCG interview with DK.BurNing

Source: http://dota2.sgamer.com/news/201211/148195.html (apparently the original original is from Replays.Net, can’t find that though… nor did I look really hard)

RN: It could be said that WCG used to be the absolute top of world esports competition, but as other competition scaled up both their size and prizepools, it feels as if WCG is no longer a major attraction. How do you all feel towards WCG as a competition?

BurNing: I believe that many people only became interested in esports because of WCG, me being one of them. No matter what the prize pool is, WCG has been around for all these years, so it undoubtedly remains one of the most influential events around the world.

RN: Your team just ended their G-1 competition. Surely for a team such as yours with such grand ambitions and confidence, taking second place was not satisfactory. This WCG is a very good opportunity to redeem yourselves somewhat, do you feel that this will be a new start for you?

BurNing: Compared to LGD and iG, we’ve always been in more of a breaking in period in terms of teamwork. Our G-1 results indeed cannot leave us satisfied, we lost due to insufficient preparation, so we await the upcoming challenges presented by WCG.

RN: We all feel that current DK has great talent, but it seems that there were communication issues between players. Right now have there been adjustments and discussions regarding who should take the lead in matches, in order to avoid splits in decision-making in the future?

BurNing: These problems have indeed shown themselves a bit recently, in both bans and picks as well as overall tactical thought there have been not insignificant amounts of differences, and we’re currently making adjustments.

RN: In this G-1, Luna had an extremely high win rate, and Magnus and Jakiro both joined in as hot commodities, yet it seems like DK doesn’t tend to favor picking heroes like these, with you guys more often going for Leshrac, Invoker. Does this have to do with your team style, or what? Have you tried some new strategies?

BurNing: We’ve been too singular in our training, and our picks haven’t been very suitable for the current tempo of games, yet we never went to try new setups. These issues are a result of inappropriate training methods.

RN: It feels like the overall ability of your opponents at this WCG aren’t very strong, with various teams missing members due to WCG regulations, including iG without ChuaN. Does this lead to more confidence in winning the title here?

BurNing: Even without ChuaN, they’re still very strong. Additionally, Orange as well as the Ukrainian team led by Dendi cannot be underestimated.

RN: In your eyes, right now who is a tougher opponent between LGD and iG, and who do you like to face more?

BurNing: Both are quite tough, and we don’t like facing either, it’s just that towards the later stages of competitions they’ll always be there.

RN: From a professional player’s point of view, is it easy road to win for you or is it a bit sad that so many strong teams and players won’t be present?

BurNing: Those with ability will naturally be able to win, those without it can only watch others win, so it all has nothing to do with who is participating in a given competition.

RN: So these teams at WCG are mostly all unknown, do you think that all the non-Chinese teams are walkovers?

BurNing: At WCG we will not slack in any match, we will take every opponent seriously.

RN: WCG has always lacked a Dota competition, so as a first-time participant of WCG this year, do you have any thoughts?

BurNing: First time participating in a world finals for WCG, I’m sure it will be very exciting and fierce.

RN: Does your family occasionally watch you in your competitions?

BurNing: Occasionally they will. Usually it’s when I win, I give them a call, and when I lose, they give me a call. It’s been quite a while since I gave them a call.

RN: Although many fans have been very disappointed with your recent performances, really it’s because everyone has a sort of high expectation for DK. So any words to those fans and followers?

BurNing: Thank you to i-ROCKS for sponsoring our team, thank you to everyone for their long-time hopes and support of DK. We’ve disappointed you all, we’re currently working hard to make adjustments, so believe us, we’ll be back.

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

Post G-1 League, SGamer analysis of the four finals teams

Original: http://bbs.sgamer.com/thread-10982393-1-1.html

(Dotaland note: written by a fan on Sgamer forums, chosen by Sgamer editors as the post G-1 summary. Personally I think the writer didn’t give LGD enough credit, and was too easy on iG, but it’s decently written anyway. I translate, you readers make your own conclusions! 🙂 Happy Thanksgiving weekend to those who celebrate, and happy Dreamhack to all!)

1. iG

Riding a wave of strong recent results, including a whole string of convincing victories in the group stages that left them top of their group, an easy 2-0 win over Orange in the next phase – no disrespect meant to Orange here – no one could deny that iG were the favorites in the eyes of all viewers. But yet, iG’s greatest strength turned out to be their greatest weakness too. They thought that no matter what, as long as they played well they would be able to overrun their opponents, and failed to realize that inherent problems within themselves had gradually been developing:

First of all are their team compositions, iG’s two matches against LGD as well as their last matchup with Orange fully displayed this issue. And really this is a problem that had already been seen in the online preliminaries. First off it was an iG strategy centered around Zhou-god’s Death Prophet plus two melee heroes, and the main reason behind the loss in this match was due to the fact that the melee heroes never developed well. Whenever Zhou was in trouble, the two melee heroes were unable to support him in either escaping or outputting damage, so their being present was no different from simply feeding. Next game it was against LGD’s carry-less lineup, and in the face of a strongly fed Night Stalker there was no corresponding damage output, leading to a quick defeat in the second game. And then versus Orange, with a non-carry lineup resulting in a relatively low damage lineup, added to problems in team execution, Orange successfully overcame iG’s early advantage to win.

The next issue is overconfidence. In the deciding game against Orange this was very apparent, after picks had been decided, execution was very well done at the start and they were able to quickly take both of Orange’s bottom lane towers. But then they thought that after they had acquired an advantage, they could sit back and play safely, resulting in a stagnant style of play that ultimately allowed Mushi — who was playing with sickness — to farm out key items and then rapidly turn the tide and finally leave iG to wallow in an unfamiliar losers’ position.

Conclusion: Chinese teams have always relied mainly on their technical and tactical superiority over foreign teams, but even from group stage matches such as against Orange it could be seen that the gap is small. Especially evidenced in Orange’s 4v5 teamfight win in the last match, it can be said that iG’s former advantages in laning are virtually nonexistent now, and so once the technical and tactical gap has been closed, it is completely normal to lose some.

Hopes: Even though iG this time placed last out in the offline finals, it cannot be denied that in terms of player caliber as well as overall team ability they are still top amongst Chinese teams, and they are showing very solid team understandings and teamwork in general. As long as they utilize training well, summarize experiences from losses, and get away from losses, and further develop those new heroes they’ve picked up in recent matches and hone their multi-core strategy, it won’t be hard for them to once against stand at the top of the world!

2. Orange

As the only non-Chinese team at G-1, Orange is lucky. Due to a lack of deep understanding of them, I won’t get detailed with them, and I’ll summarize this: Overall technical and tactical skills are on a lower level than Chinese teams, and any advantages gained in early laning and mid-game small teamfights is quickly worn away and lost later on to cause a loss. However, after making it to the offline finals, even though they still showed similar problems against DK, they had made noticeable improvements by the time they played iG. Their blue-collar players (aka support players) aren’t flashy, but get to work and do their roles well, their key players greatly increased their stability, even though their loss in the second game was due to missing small details.

Yet, in the third game in the match against iG, some excellent control and execution allowed the team ample time to build up and farm up, in particular the 4v5 teamfight win under a tower was pretty. In the end Mushi completed his key items, got a 3-kill in mid, and in the process led Orange to complete one of the bigger stories of this G-1 — defeating iG to allow Orange to take 3rd place overall.

3. DK

After the finals, DK’s BurNing has been under huge pressure. At first I, like the commentators and everyone else, also felt that key problems fell on B-god, but after reviewing other vods of the match, it could be said that I’ve gained a more complete understanding of everything. Before the finals this time, DK had already received widespread support and seen as the most likely to be the ones to knock iG off their horses in an inevitable joust. And DK’s performances since the group stages showed a very high level of ability, in spite of the fact that they had only played to a 1-1 draw with Orange and defeated LGD in a close 2-1. Yet, the fact remained that DK’s five players each have immense talents, and that in addition to their stable performances had garnered large amounts of confidence in DK from fans. Then why were they disposed of in the Finals by 2-0, here are my thoughts:

Teamwork: DK’s teamwork has been shown to be lacking since the group stages, and in the high-skill Finals match this was something that was even more apparent. In the first game, with an advantage from laning, the trouble came when LGD went to gank Rubick and ended up winning 4 kills for the price of 1, with the problem being DK’s players arriving at the scene one by one resulting in disjointed usage of skills that led to an inability to maximize damage potential. Perhaps people will think that this was simply due to teleport delay times, but if the players at the time had realized this earlier and teleported in an orderly fashion, LGD may not have been able to leave the fight with such an advantage. Later on at the last Roshan fight, Enigma’s Blink ult failed, which caused Sven to lack the needed environment for following up with his DPS, which resulted in everyone else having trouble following up at all… which directly led to the 1 for 2 teamfight loss there. And this was the ultimate reason DK lost mid lane completely in that game.

As for the last ten minutes of the second game, the miscommunication between B-god and two of their players, plus mis-positioning by three players in mid, these were all amongst the things that displayed DK’s problems with teamwork.

B-god: DK’s team is undoubtedly centered on B-god. Even though B-god is a very high caliber player, in this match, it can only be said that he performed okay. In various scenarios where he would usually demonstrate his value to the team, he fell short — such as going out of sync with his team after building Armlet in the first game, poor decision making of when to fight and when to farm, and inappropriate timing for entering teamfights resulting in a loss of DPS. In the second game when stumbling across enemy Luna in his own jungle, he did not decisively ult to grab the kill. And then it was not having a teleport scroll at key times; these were all things that B-god should take responsibility for, things that he should look to do better on. Even though his last-gasp steal of the Aegis was a good idea, if there had not been the problems earlier on, the last-gasp scenario then would have never happened.

Conclusion: DK’s core issue is obviously the issue of teamwork. Players not being in sync with each other, uncoordinated leadership, lack of cohesion, poor positioning, these are all the biggest taboos for teams in Dota, yet they have all manifested in the veteran team of DK! The overall drop of team performance has also in some ways limited individual player performances, so their loss in the end should not be that surprising. On the other hand they are still running with a new roster after recent changes, so a lack of teamwork and understanding can be expected as well. B-god as the team’s core lacked any outstanding plays, to the point that it could be said he was distinctly average. This can be attributed to a lack of battlefield awareness or even a drop in ability, yet the real reason is something we may not find. Lastly it is the issue of mentality, perhaps some of the team and individual problems could be due to increased pressure and expectations brought about by the LAN environment, where live fans and friends (and in Burning’s case, girlfriend) were present, so it could be useful to focus on improving tolerance for pressure in these environments for future matches!

Hopes: Teamwork and understanding is the biggest of the big issues! Only if the team can come together cohesively can the team’s overall ability be truly displayed. If B-god can successfully become a part of this team, I believe that issues such as being out of sync, bad TPs, and bad supporting can all be problems of the past! And lastly I hope all the fans and Dota lovers out there can, for the good of China’s Dota scene, give an extra bit of support for what is one of our own teams, full of our own star players, and keep a bit of the accusations and flaming back. Our Dota scene will certainly get better and better!

4. LGD

As the most low-key Chinese team in this G-1 League, it can be said that LGD has laid low, taking losses to ultimately win. Group stages, elimination stages, they repeated lost to iG and DK, leading to a face-off against iG first in the finals phase; these all piled the pressure on LGD. Yet it was just this massive pressure on LGD that finally forced them into a complete unit, a impregnable unit. First against iG, Luna’s aura showed that they were full of vitality, yet it was LGD’s own players that first gave up first blood, then second blood… causing LGD to go into pressure mode. Their captain’s timely adjustments then led the team back, step by step, from the edge of the cliff of defeat. So the match between iG and LGD became the most widely discussed and praised amongst our foreign commentators, in the first game every teamfight, gank, LGD’s execution was superhuman. Yet iG’s trademark resilience became the thing that helped this drastically changed LGD the most: when pushing the tier 2 tower at top, it was xiao8’s decisive initiate on the defiant Death Prophet before she was able to activate her ult that sealed the fates of iG and LGD in this competition.

Overall conclusions: Lack of lategame power. At the beginning of the first game versus iG, LGD’s performances were certainly exemplary, yet it was as if the entire team wore masks of madness — after every wildly successful gank there would be a period of quiet. So iG would utilize these periods to push towers, and in fact gained an economic advantage from this. In the second game this was also fairly apparent. Even though in the widespread fighting LGD took an advantage, they didn’t push this advantage more later in the game and left room for their opponents to operate. Versus DK, if the first game Enigma’s Blink ult succeeded, in the second game if that fateful ten minutes of DK fail never occurred, if two supports had retreated back to defend the high ground and Magnus never got three people in his ult… then LGD’s winning results may not have been as certain.

Player and team ability: LGD’s overall ability is probably third out of the top Chinese teams, and in reality, the performances of LGD players in this competition was above their ability level, hence superhuman for them. Xiao8’s rise after role change, Yao’s Magnus landing multiple huge crowd controls accurately, lively and dynamic support plays, and steady play from Sylar the carry. But whether all of this can continue is key to whether LGD can continue posting good results. Also, LGD’s overall depth feels to be lacking, all their activities are as an entire team, resulting in their entire team needing regen after each fight, which means they lack the ability to make things happen after each fight.

Hopes: LGD won this competition fair and square by way of excellent individual and team performances, but they still have some problems such as a lack of creativity and flexibility in individual ability and team tactics. The hope is that these things are addressed in training in the future.

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

xiao8 interview with Sgamer: “Our recent losses came from fluctuations in the team … iG has no weakness”

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.

Chisbug back to iG for a guest appearance at WCG

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!

BurNing mini interview: “Didn’t expect to beat iG at WCG China, will retire after TI3”

Original: http://dota.sgamer.com/201210/news-detail-153339.html

Dotaland note: Short little interview with BurNing

In the recent WCG China area finals, DK faced iG and DK were able to achieve a good start in their opener, taking the win against iG! After the match, Sgamer’s reporters interviewed DK’s captain and carry player BurNing. BurNing revealed that he didn’t expect to beat iG, and that he would retire after TI3. Let’s check out the details~

SGamer (SG): Thank you to DK.BurNing for accepting our interview. DK just underwent roster changes, and went on to get a win over iG here at WCG China. Can you describe the process of this last match?

BurNing: We haven’t practiced Dota much recently, plus we have new members and lack understanding, so we thought it’d be very difficult to win, we never thought we could beat iG here.

SG: What were the considerations that led to Dai and 357 being recruited to DK?

BurNing: This was something we had considered immediately after TI2. We had a lot of people to choose from, and the reason we ultimately went with Dai and 357 was because teamwork and closeness is important to our team atmosphere, and these two players contribute to that.

SG: Playing both DotA and Dota2, are there any difficulties, and are there any differences for you all as professionals?

BurNing: The two games do have some differences. For example the way bottles interact with runes, in DotA you have to specifically use the bottle, in Dota2 you simply right click the rune. Dota2’s hotkey system is different as well, you can directly alter and customize them. For example 357 uses the QWER system, and during practice once, 357’s Tidehunter wanted to eat a tree, but the hotkey was on V, and he ended up using his ult… very awkward.

SG: This… what kind of situation was this?

BurNing: 357 hasn’t played DotA in two years, his ladder score isn’t even 1500!

SG: Does B god have any wishes for this WCG?

BurNing: For every competition our wish is to win, and this one is no different!

SG: At TI2, DK’s results weren’t great, do you have any plans and hopes for TI3? What are your plans for after TI3?

BurNing: TI3 is definitely something where we will give our all for success. As for myself, no matter what results I achieve, I will be retiring.

SG: You’ve been named one of the three best carries in the world, what do you think are the attributes that other carries can compare with you?

BurNing: I like Zhou and Sylar the most, although Sylar still lacks some experience right now, and Zhou trains relatively less so isn’t in the greatest form.

SG: Thank you to B god for the interview, we wish you all the best in your future competitions!

BurNing: Thank you!