Tag Archives: LGD

The Asia interview with LGD.dd: “we will bring the title back to China”

Original: http://dota2.sgamer.com/news/201212/148489.html

 

The Asia’s first day of matches has ended, and after an arduos day of competition, LGD has squeaked by and advanced from their group with a 2nd place group finish. Back at the hotel, we managed to get a text interview with the low-key LGD.DD (they have not taken any video interviews from anyone yet, their focus is to win first and then do interviews!). He shared a bit about his experience so far at The Asia, and analyzed the reasons behind their loss to MUFC earlier. Let us take a look together~

Q: Thank you to DD for accepting this interview with SGamer Dota2, first off say hello to everyone.

DD: Hello everyone I am LGD’s DD.

Q: You’ve been in Kuala Lumpur for two dasys now, and in that time it has snowed in many places back in China! Can you tell everyone a bit about the weather over here?

DD: The weather here is very hot and humid, and it rains often. Everyday it’s around 30 degrees celsius, so it’s all about the t-shirts and shorts.

Q: Even though it’s very hot outside, inside the venue it’s quite cool~ Are you satisfied with the organization and preparation of the hosts this time, for example what are your thoughts on the hotel or venue arrangements, etc?

DD: The hotel is definitely quite good. But for the competition itself, I have to say that today’s matches went on for a bit too long, and ended up affecting our performance to a certain extent. And especially on the main stage, it was a little bit too cool up there, the air conditioning was too strong. We were shivering all over as we sat up there.

Q: Today’s headline match was the first match of the competition, where you guys lost to MUFC. What were the aspects your team faltered in that led to the loss?

DD: Our roster picks and lane arrangements had problems. And their Lone Druid completed his Radiance very early, that in addition to strong pushing in Tormented Soul, Furion… in the first push early on, our defense was too forced, and once that fight was over we’d already lost the momentum of that game, which was made worse by the fact that our roster was only suited for teamfights, not for late-game.

Q: Do you feel that MUFC are strong? Especially since hyhy is also playing for them here at this The Asia tournament.

DD: Pretty strong indeed, their ability is quite decent. Hyhy is also a very experienced played, so his joining only makes them stronger.

Q: After the match, Sylar and xiao8 reflected that Night Stalker could be switched out for Brewmaster or Sven, or the hard support could be switched out for Keeper of the Light, for a greater effect in that these heroes are very flexible. What do you think?

DD: This mainly you have to look at the rosters on each side. Though heroes like Keeper of the Light are indeed very flexible and fit in many places, only needing one other AOE skill to insta-clear creep waves, allowing a team to drag defense out for a long time. Actually, our loss to MUFC wasn’t entirely down to the picks; we simply didn’t expect it to be that tough, added on top of the fact that we played poorly in early game and allowed Lone Druid to get fat.

Q: After this match, xiao8 constantly repeated a phrase: “If we lose another one, we’re done”. In the following matches, you guys completely stomped your opponents. So the first loss was a warning to you all?

DD: Yes, it really was if we lost another match we would be dead. We had been forced to the edge of the cliff, so we could only play every match to the best of our abilities. And we are slowly finding our match form; these first matches can only be said to be warmups — the real matches will be tomorrow!

Q: Tomorrow you face off in the brutal elimination stages, and your first opponent is MITH.Trust. Any specific plans to deal with them?

DD: It’s been a long time since we last practiced with Trust, plus they advanced as winners of their group B, so they cannot be underestimated. Tomorrow’s matches are best of 1, so we must be wary of them and any killer strategies they may have. We will have a team meeting tomorrow morning to look at how to deal with them.

Q: Okay, we hope you will bring the championship here back to China, LGD add oil! Lastly, say something to the fans!

DD: Thank you SGamer for the interview, thank you to our sponsors Taobao, Razer, and LGD, we will bring the title back! Please support us, everyone!

17173 series: G-1 2012 bits and pieces — offline finals days (6)

Original: http://dota2.sgamer.com/news/201212/148391.html

Dotaland note: Felix菜刀刃 helped 17173 organize and plan the G-1 League earlier this year, China’s first Dota2 tournament. These bits and pieces are a series of his reflections and musings on the lead up to the event, the event itself, and surrounding tales. Dotaland translated an earlier entry here.

The fourth iteration of the G-1 League was also China’s first Dota2 competition. It was a first for simultaneous English and Chinese casts, and received high praise and support from Valve and IceFrog, and various foreign gaming media sites fought to get coverage of the event. It’s not exaggeration to say, then, that in terms of Dota’s development domestically, this G-1 League held milestone meaning.

This series documents from my own point of view snippets of the experience from planning and preparation all the way to the ultimate LAN finals, and everything in between, hopefully to bring a more complete and realistic perspective of the G-1 League. And the other hope is to acknowledge and give thanks to the hard work and dedication to esports, given by so many people.

November 17, day one of offline finals

The two days before competition resumed, our various finals teams had already gotten to Fuzhou to participate in the creation of a music video (Dotaland note: this video was the G-1 League theme song, performed by players). And because they had to play in the GEST final, Orange could only make it a day later, landing near midnight, thus missing out on the music video. Pikaxiu and other staff stayed up till 4 in the morning tweaking settings on the computers to be used in the finals, ultimately managing to stabilize pings around 60ms. It could be said that everything was progressing in a clockwork fashion.

The finals venue was an indoor recording studio; the lighting, sound, and stage effects were all excellent, the only drawback was its limitations on viewer capacity. Last year’s G-1 finals were held in Shanghai in partnership with NeoTV. What this meant was that this was 17173’s first time doing this on their own, and relatively speaking, they lacked a bit of experience on the matter. According to Pikaxiu, in comparison with the goals he had set prior, he could only give this event 60 points out of 100, but taking into consideration 17173’s current abilities, that can be raised to an 80.

The second day’s atmosphere was charged and full of energy. Every inch of the venue apart from the stage area was packed with viewers. 2009 and Crystal (SJQ/laoshu) were at the complete mercy of scores of smartphones and their cameras. Our media section was squeezed off to a corner, where we had relied a flaky wireless internet connection. Despite the roughshod accomodations, all the media people there were still very passionate in their work. Especially worth mentioning here is 178.com’s Marbo, who used a handycam to record the entire G-1 music video, thus allowing fans a sneak peak of a ‘ripped’ version of it.

That night’s semi-finals saw LGD facing off against iG, and we saw Magnus. We saw his imba dodging ability, where facing even a three-man gank, Yao would still be able to escape safely. In the end iG seemed a bit clueless in front of LGD’s aggression, and without making much of a resistance they surrendered. Thinking about it, this result shouldn’t be too strange — iG had just finished WCG China matches, and had been busy with a campus tour, so they as a team would still be in an adjustment stage and thus a lack of form could be expected. What was commendable was the fact that despite this, their attititudes remained upbeat. In interviews and from the way they acted after their losses, a sense of professionalism and respect could be seen from them. I guess ever since their experiences in Seattle, they’ve grown a lot. And not long after this, they took the win at the WCG World Finals, displaying once again their aura of kingliness…

In the other matchup between DK and Orange, things were much tighter. Because at the time the two teams were using different internet connections at the venue, their ping was different. Orange had up to 200 plus ping, while DK seemingly only had around 100 ping. In the first game Orange were swept away with little argument, then in the second game when they figured out this issue, over two hours were spent on trying to fix it. At the last after the problem was just barely dealt with, another hour went by as the match went back and forth, culminating in a sad loss for Orange. As for the differing pings between the two teams, it was hypothesized that Orange’s line was shared with a neighboring office. The tests and setup prior to the matches had happened in the middle of the night, yet the matches themselves occurred during peak usage hours, so the high ping only presented itself then. This was something that we as organizers missed. In the end Orange were very patient, and didn’t have that many complaints.

After the day’s matches, a group of friends in the media went out to eat, and bumped into Orange’s players eating at a street-side stall. ChuaN, with friends from Malaysia, we could see that he was truly happy at the time. Old friends from the same places, meeting with tears in their eyes… couldn’t imagine them fighting each other to the death, right?

November 18, second day of G-1 League offline finals

Don’t know why, but the more exciting an offline event is, the more I remember of the bits and pieces outside of the matches. On the 18th the things I remember most were the tense atmosphere, the occasional yells; these are things that no replay would ever capture.

Mushi’s Outworld Destroyer towering like a god, figuratively putting an exclamation point on his professional career. After this competition he missed out on WCG and G-league alike, the rumors being that he had switched to LoL… The final was LGD against DK, and B-god sadly failed to save society. After the match he and his girlfriend quickly left the venue, skipping even the awards ceremony. DK manager Farseer’s expression as he stood in for him on stage was unpleasant to say the least; the last time Farseer had been like this would have to go back to 2011’s first G-League when DK lost 0-3, the opponent at the time I think was also LGD. And on the other end of the stage, after DK put out GG, xiao8 rushed off the stage and hugged team lead Nicho in a release of long-held emotion. In the end, where there are winners there will always be losers, and the stage of esports will not see any perpetual winners.

And so G-1 came to an end. Even though I have no intentions of singing praises and talking things up, but still reflecting back on our achievement here is very satisfying. In the esports world, apart from players, commentators, there are another group of people — competition organizers and planners. They are the staff that set up the night before, and when everything is over, it’s also them that clean up. Even though they may present a cheerful face, their responsibility is still heavy, and their work often goes unknown by everyone else.

The “My First Person View” G-1 League theme song released afterwards had many little emotions and moving parts. The lyrics and directing were done by Yaoyao. Post production was done by Pibao, with Pikaxiu the producer. The strengths of the G-1 staff team is that they’re full of creativity, and full of energy. If there is a good idea, they will go all the way to try to make it reality. Many things look hard to accomplish, but as long as there is a determination to go along with needed ability, then the chances of it happening are good. This is perhaps another layer of the meaning behind ‘compete to your heart’s desire’.

Yaoyao is leaving 17173 after this G-1 League, so let’s commemorate everything, including the end of this series, with the lyrics to “My First Person View“.

 

 

 

Chisbug reveals a little more on ZSMJ’s new team… three confirmed members, sponsored by LGD as well?

Original: http://fight.pcgames.com.cn/warcraft/dota/interview/1211/2700000.html

Q: Hello, CH! Long time no see!

CH: Indeed, it truly has been quite a while.

Q: As ChuaN-god’s replacement for iG here at WCG, how do you feel?

CH: I think quite honored, after large-scale competitions like WCG aren’t many, and I’ve really been hungry for a return to the battlefield, to enjoy the rush brought about by competing.

Q: Yesterday, ZSMJ confirmed at the Perfect World Dota2 expo booth that he was returning to competitive Dota, can you talk about how your new team’s creation is coming along?

CH: Indeed, ZSMJ first contacted, and I was very glad to help him. Our goals are the same. Right now the team only has three players, [in addition to myself and ZSMJ], the other player currently is a Zhensan (Dotaland note: Zhensan is a Warcraft 3 mod similar to Dota, using Romance of the Three Kingdoms lore) player named Show. We’re currently searching for the other two players. The hope is to complete the team by the end of the year.

Q: Have you found sponsors for the new team?

CH: The team’s sponsor situation is exceptionally stable, the base will be in Tianjin. Currently the team name also has LGD in it, it will take the format of LGD.XXX (the specific details beyond this cannot be revealed yet)

Q: Speaking of, thinking back to originally when iG’s new roster excluded your name, what was the feeling like?

CH: To be honest, really sad and disappointed. The only thing I could do while sitting at home with nothing to do was to play a few pubs, at that time the ladder system had just debuted, I remember I was ranked top 10 or so.

Q: Well, we wish for you to continue your efforts and good luck in your career!

CH: Thank you, this is why I’ve come 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/