Tag Archives: MMY

LGD i-League S3 winners’ interview excerpts

Watching the on-stage team interview live after LGD wins i-League S3… some interesting questions and answers that I jotted down for fun (not comprehensive).

For Maybe – this is your first title, and it’s not a small title. Right now, you might be the top mid player in China. Compared to other young mids in the West, such as Sumail and RTZ, what do you think of yourself?

Maybe: They’ve got more experience at these big international events than I do. But I will work hard.

For Yao – how did you turn some poor situations in your games around to your advantage in your last few games here at i-League?

Yao: Our lineups tended more towards mid-late game stability, while the other teams favored early-mid game aggression lineups. We held out and won that way. Also, our coach would tell us, don’t give up even if you fall behind, don’t
get careless against any opponent. He put a lot of words in our minds.

For Maybe – What was your experience with CDEC like? It seems like your time there really helped you out.

Maybe: My time at CDEC felt like a springboard to the real professional scene. When I first started out, I actually knew nothing about how things worked as a pro. But after a year of that I figured a lot of things out. Then when I joined LGD, I still wasn’t immediately a part of everything, it still took some time. But I learned that it is very important to figure out how to work out with your teammates and learn how to be in a team.

For xiao8 – Who do you think will make it through the China qualifiers?

xiao8: My predictions might not be accurate, but personally I favor EHOME and HGT

For Maybe – What is your favorite mid hero at the moment? And which is your best?

Maybe: Shadow Fiend, Storm Spirit. Because these two heroes just feel strong.
And everyone likes them. And I like them too, so I practice hard with them,
and I play alright with them.

For Yao – Two games out of three you guys had Bristleback. I’d like to ask you to compare your Bristleback versus Maybe’s.

Yao: My BB is mainly about creating space in early game, and stacking stuff for Maybe. Maybe’s is more about later dps as a core.

Supplementary question – In one game your BB was relegated to stacking creeps for Maybe. What was that about?

Yao: Maybe told me he wouldn’t give me the Empower later on if I didn’t stack for him. So I did it. And he also let me get some experience and gold in his lane while he cleared the stacks. So it was a transaction!

For xiao8 – talk a bit about the coach for your team?

xiao8: Coach does a lot for us, especially in helping make emotional adjustments individually.

For xiao8 – Yesterday you were defeated 2-1 by VG, yet today won 3-0. How/why?

xiao8: Honestly yesterday we played poorly, otherwise we could have won then. Today we made the necessary changes and turned things around.

For MMY – I heard you got a girlfriend recently. How did you meet? Has she come here to support you?

MMY: I tricked her into being my girlfriend through the internet. But she’s not here. The girl here is the coach’s girlfriend (jokes – coach has trouble with women but is working hard on improving that)

Supplementary: Yao says the coach told them to play well at this i-League to impress the girl for him. The goal set was to at least make it to finals.

For Yao – Your thoughts on Team MY?

Yao: They are a very respectable, strong team. They’ve got some veterans. We’ve learned a lot from them and they’ve learned from us over the years. They’ve always had that signature SEA style, aggressive.

Question from chat – for xiao8 – what’s the word on xiaoxiao8?

xiao8: Uh… this is secret for now. But I’ve been away on competitions for a long time now, so with my wife I haven’t actually even talked much for half a month.

Question from chat for Sylar – you single?

Sylar: Uhm… Right now I’m single. [host adds: Sylar rejected a beauty at a
competition a few weeks ago]

The Summit 3 in my view

After having gone to The Summit 1 last year prior to TI4, it seemed fitting that this year, somewhat before TI5 I’d find myself at the third iteration of the event: The Summit 3. I mean, there aren’t many other parallels on paper… the teams are all vastly different, the participants quite different, and even the tournament itself very different – in good ways, but more on that later (EE also had a good writeup to a similar effect here). Even as things changed so much after TI4, a lot of things remain the same. Everything… and everyone, felt familiar and real.

So here’s TS3 in my view. Who will even read this after my having been inactive here so long? No matter, I just want to get thoughts on paper again…

May 12 2015

Tiffany (the gf) and I flew out bright and early on May 12, the day that BTS had scheduled as their media day. I’d be needed to help with that, where they were to shoot some fun promo video bits, along with interviews. Having tagged along with me to various events in the past, often helping teams out as a friend when I was busy elsewhere, I think BTS made a good call in having her come along too given the three Chinese teams being present meant that there would be times where just having me may not be enough. I may be biased but this was by far not the only good call BTS made – TS3 ended up being one of the most organized and generally best events I’ve been at. Anyway…

Upon landing at the Ontario airport, we walked out to find a person gesticulating wildly at us through the windshield of a van. “Remember me?!?” he’d half shout, half laugh through the open window. I remember you SirActionSlacks, you’re the guy

Buggatis and stuff

that almost died of dehydration while interviewing people after the last day of TI4. Well, that’s not all you’re known for but I remember anyway. A short car ride later, we were again at the top secret BTS lair, where things were already in full swing in preparation for TS3.

credits to BTS flickr

Interviews were done, laughs were had, and somehow things felt like they’d never changed. I felt like I got back into the rhythm of things fairly quickly… Perhaps it is because of the casual atmosphere of the various Summits, perhaps it is players becoming more carefree, but when the BTS guys told the Chinese players to goof it up on camera — many of them were very receptive. Even players who traditionally project a very serious outward appearance such as BurNIng, xiao8, and Sylar got in on it. Even MMY — who is renowned for being awkward on camera — played along. This alone is an achievement of TS that I have not seen any other tournament manage.

Around noon, having a break in the action, I grabbed some food and joined VG on the couch in the fun stream room. Knowing that they counted many football (soccer) fans amongst their midst, I put on the Champions League semi-final matchup between Bayern and Barcelona. Support for the two teams seemed roughly split, even as old man 357 went on tangents about Batistuta and Rui Costa: “Where’s Rui Costa? Batistuta would have scored that!” accompanied by Hao and the VG manager JaL laughing at him.

VG watching FCB vs FCB

SSDs for everyone

There was some other stuff that happened on the pre-tournament day – BTS covered their bases in having everyone fill out tax and payment forms. For LGD, xiao8 took care of all their team’s stuff like the captain that he is, while Maybe had questions about everything (but not in a bad way). Afterwards, teams got scheduled time on the practice rooms and PCs, while teams with no scheduled time either went back to the hotel for the practice room there, or in the case of VG went to a nearby LAN cafe.

May 13 2015

This was the first match day of TS3. The day before, there had been a Hotbid interview with Super of VG with iceiceice doing the ‘translations’. Needless to say, certain meanings were distorted purposefully, and they enlisted my help to make subtitles to reflect the true meanings. That was fun.

On this first match day, VG registered – for lack of a better word – two fairly casual victories. They’d win their games, come out looking not too fussed, and then head downstairs to get food and play Pro Evo Soccer on the fun stream. There was an interview with Hao, always happy to talk and share his thoughts, and there was an interview with Fenrir who has come a long way from his early days of declining interviews back at D2L in January 2014. A long time ago, but not so long ago either… After his interview, Fenrir looked at me, and proudly went, “That was a pretty good one, eh!? I gave lots of good answers and stuff.”

At some point today the other Champions League matchup between Real Madrid and Juventus went down: Fy seems to be a Real Madrid fan, and more specifically perhaps, a Luka Modric fan as he’d asked about whether Modric was playing for Real Madrid and seemed a bit disappointed when told that he was out injured.

When dinner arrives for the night, Hao quickly returns with food, sits down and declares “This chicken is so fucking good!” in front of the 14-odd thousand viewers who are all tuned in to watching VG eat. After most of the day was over, VG decided to play poker in the fun stream room. Half of the stream seemed to be up in arms over this as it wasn’t their idea of fun (I hold no opinions on this matter). I attempted to interact with the BTS2 stream chat somewhat, to varying effect. Either way, it was fun for me as I’m not actually a twitch chat regular and don’t even have a twitch account. So to anyone on that chat: I had a good time, hope you guys all did too!

Later that night, I get word from iG that someone on their team is sick. It turns out it’s Luo, so with the help of BTS peeps I go about gathering some cold medicine and vitamins from the BTS house to bring back for him. Finding iG at the hotel, Faith and ChuaN immediately notice me and say hi. I hand them the medicine, and more concerned with making sure they know to relay the correct medical advice along, I go into the directions for how to take the each different item. Faith cheerfully repeats what I’ve told them and I’m satisfied that the information has been successfully relayed. Ferrari appears from the hotel practice room, notices my Wintersun shirt and wonders what it is.

credit to BTS flickr

The night is late so we all head together to the elevator. In the elevator, ChuaN bursts out laughing at BurNIng as he sees the picture from earlier of BurNIng grinning like a madman. BurNIng tries to explain himself, “they were doing all kinds of dumb stuff in that room so I laughed and got caught on camera, it’s not what it looks like!” But ChuaN is having none of it as he laughs his way out of the elevator and all the way to their rooms.

May 14 2015

Hao and the Newbee boss at an NBA game

Day two of TS3 matches brought a more serious atmosphere, as teams hunkered down into the competitive tension. The exception here being VG, as they would have multiple days between their appearance on day one of the event until their next match. Taking advantage of the lull in activity, Hao went with the Newbee boss (son of one of the richest dudes in China) to an NBA playoff match. Watching the actual match later, I tried to keep an eye out for them but someone else got a much better cap of them in sideline seats. Some people wondered how Hao got there – the Newbee boss arrived at the BTS house around 4pm (in a Rolls Royce) and took Hao with him through the LA traffic.

Throughout the duration of the event, there was a team from the GQ magazine on-scene filming stuff for what they told me would be an online feature into the world of competitive gaming. For this purpose, I tried to spend some time talking to them about the Chinese side of things along with just sharing some general information and advocate for Dota some, so to speak. They actually put me on camera and filmed me talking to them a bit about Chinese Dota, and since LGD was in the house that day they asked some questions about LGD.

LGD-Gaming

I wonder if that’ll make it into the feature, but it was interesting nonetheless that GQ would send a team to film for multiple days to get a story on esports. Pretty cool; I’m looking forward to see what they make of it. We did suggest to them to get Fy for a photoshoot because it’s GQ, and this is Fy, but I don’t know how that went. 😛

Around this time is also when I first discover the wonder that is Gang Beasts. Somehow I end up dominating everyone else at this game, which is interesting because I’ve literally never played the game before. It’s a hilarious game though.

May 15 2015

1v1 CS:GO

The first half of the day was rather laid back, as LGD and iG successively showed up at the house to prepare for their matches on the day. LGD hung around in the fun stream and out back on the patio, as the weather had finally gotten a bit better (it had been raining the past few days), while iG went upstairs to the practice room. They were spread around the room relaxing: ChuaN watching the games and joking around with people, BurNIng playing pubs, and Ferrari_430 casually challenging S4 to a 1v1 in CS:GO.

S4 asks, “What’s your rank?” And Ferrari’s response was that he had no rank, he’s never played ranked. S4 laughs a bit, because apparently S4 is really good at CS:GO. We all expected Ferrari to get rekt but he held his own, at least partially due to S4 going easy on him. The highlight of the 1v1 came when S4 jumped down from the area above the CT spawn (is it called the catwalk? Or A-short? I only know these nicknames in Chinese…) while Ferrari was below and knifed him for the kill midair. The whole room exploded in cheers at that point, but ultimately Ferrari_430 held his own and only lost by a couple kills.

People were passing around a notepad having pros draw their favorite heroes. I came across BurNIng struggling to draw not Anti-mage, but Faceless Void, which I think he chose because it was slightly easier to draw. Ferrari specifically looked up an ‘easy version’ of Shadow Fiend and practically traced it off the screen, while ChuaN spent many minutes researching his ideal Rubick look and had it ready on his phone for when the notepad finally came his way. His Rubick thus was one of the more impressive drawings of the day, and he even asked for green pen to color in the green highlights of Rubick, but was unfortunately denied as there was no green pen handy anywhere.

Later on today iG was eliminated. I think. I’m pretty sure it was this day. One truth of working at events is that you hardly have any time or energy to really sit down and watch games and follow the tournament as a fan might. Sometimes, when you finally have some downtime you just want to relax and not stare at a game. Anyway, I think iG was eliminated on this day, by LGD I believe it was. After losing, iG were in no real mood to hang out and left the house in record time — understandable as despite The Summit’s casual approach, the competition is serious and so is the prize money and glory on the line.

Blurry practice room look

In the evening word gets to me that iG wants to reschedule their flights and leave LA early, to which I tell them that it’ll cost probably hundreds of dollars each, and they would essentially only be leaving a day or so earlier. Despite their bugattis and whatnot, a couple hundred dollars is still money and while these guys see handsome salaries and steady prize money, I’ve never known a Chinese player to be wasteful and so they ended up staying for the original duration. By the time I encountered some of them back at the hotel again this night, their spirits seemed to be much recovered and Faith brightly confirmed again to me that they would indeed not be leaving early. My next order of business was to try and convince some of them to try their hand at casting or otherwise hanging out at the house, and I spent a good hour or two on this. ChuaN said “I’ll cast if BurNIng casts with me,” but BurNIng got away without doing it and in the end ChuaN would come hang out and cast the next day anyway.

May 16 2015

I don’t know how he always sits like this

The competition is really starting to heat up and people are actually watching the games in the fun stream room. Watching EG vs LGD, VG’s guys talk about Aui_2000, “His carry was really good, and he was really good on that D-team… Dignitas? And that PotM team he was on was good too!” Then game 2 comes and ChuaN has arrived. Sitting down with everyone else, including the LGD manager and coach, we witness LGD buying back somewhat haphazardly and ChuaN nods in understanding, “I can relate. By the time it gets to this point, you just can’t stay calm anymore, you just have to buyback!!”

In the end LGD loses to EG and that’s the end of their Summit 3 journey.

Watching…

Sometime during this day we’ve introduced VG’s Fenrir and Hao to the wonder that is Crossy Road. Some of these guys are really into mobile games as a time filler (which makes sense since they are constantly on the move). Somehow this particular game caught their attention especially, and Fenrir and Hao spent at least an hour competing with each other. They both got near 200, but I think Fenrir did better. As Fenrir plays the game he makes sound effects for his chicken crossing the road, declaring as he dies a hundredth time “I’d rather jump in the water than watch my little guy get hit by a truck!!” Moral victories, I suppose.

And then it’s time for VG versus Secret, and they go with their team back out on the patio to discuss their approach for the matchup.

Aui won but had to go so forfeited his next round

VG versus Secret would see the result of ChuaN volunteering himself to join a cast on stream. A bilingual cast for an international game. It went alright, I guess. I’m under no illusions that it was unanimously loved, nor do I think it was executed perfectly, but it was pretty cool just because of what it was. I wrote out some of my thoughts on the general matter on reddit here if you’re interested.

Later on in the evening there was the Smash Bros tournament, but by that time most players are gone or leaving and everyone left at the house is running on fumes. I win one match as Game and Watch then lost the next round to the eventual champion, and I’m ready to call it a night too.

May 17 2015

This is the last day of the tournament, and just as things are reaching a crescendo you’re also becoming acutely aware that, well, this is it — the finals are coming. Win or go home, and… go home anyway. Because the tournament is drawing to a close. Everyone always has a good time at Summits, and even though VG loses to EG and ends their tournament third in what can be considered an upset, spirits seem to remain relatively high. They spend a solid two hours discussing as a team in the back patio but then they’re back in the house, hanging out upstairs in the practice room. Iceiceice and 357 set up to play some pubs together, even BurNIng shows up and hangs out for a while.

Secret win woooo

It’s almost like the grand finals are a sideshow, and perhaps to a great many of the players at this point it is. I get the last open seat in the room, and it’s next to FATA, who has his desktop background repeating an image of some dude. When I ask him who it is, I learn from him the “legend of kebap”. Later on Puppey comes and sees the desktop as well and for a few minutes it is kebap story time – apparently he was a player on mTw and loved cheese. Or something.

Iceiceice is playing Doom and has eaten the new rock golem creep, which causes mini versions of Doom to spawn whenever he dies. Every time he dies, he laughs like a maniac while trying to throw rocks at the enemies with the mini Dooms. BurNIng’s in the corner pubbing, but when I go look closer, he’s streaming… And he’s streaming on ZhanqiTV, and it’s lagging, and he’s constantly trying to make it less laggy but in the end it never really improves. We get him and some of the VG guys some In-N-Out, then BurNIng weighs himself on the scale in the bathroom and apparently he’s only 65 kg.

first time Super ever smiled

Fenrir, Fy, and Super hang out with us a bit and we chatter for a while. We talk about life and stuff… it was kinda deep. Then they want to go, but Fenrir keeps chatting, and Fy just stands there kind of blankly. He says, “I thought you guys were having a good time chatting so I was just gonna wait.” But we let them go, but not before I get a picture.

At some point Secret wins and the after party starts. Certain individuals get drunk and stumble around dangerously, doors are torn off walls, more people are on the floor than not at certain points in time.

see you

SmAsH smashing us all

After sending them off, I come back inside and there’s an impromptu game of Smash 64 going on. Except it’s not really a game, because it’s a massacre, and the massacre is coming at the hands of SmAsH of Not Today. Somehow I think we may have figured out the origins of his ID… Anyway, he’s coming out of a 4 player FFA with 3 out of 4 lives intact and 8 KOs on average per round. I try to 1v1 him after the others give up, the best I get is down to his last stock but it’s clear he is an excellent Smash 64 player, the best in the house, and he’s done it all with a giant grin on his face.

As the chaos swirls around us, BurNIng makes to leave in the night. He goes to find LD to express his thanks and bid farewell, then he’s off too. I go back upstairs to watch iceiceice play his pubs, and PPD comes over. He’s a funny dude when he wants to be and briefly sarcastically commentates on SumaiL’s pub game from over his shoulder. He also notes to iceiceice that “I was surprised when we beat you guys” and everyone just generally hangs out and exchanges pleasantries in a way that a shared interest allows. I find Kuroky and Zai at some point and say hi, then bye, because it’s getting quite late…

Eventually it’s sufficiently late that I feel like I should go too, and I run around the house trying to find and bid farewell to everyone I can, the BTS guys and gals, the people running camera and sound (for some of whom this is their first esports event), other personalities and whatnot, players… but I’m sure I still missed people. Regardless, this is a big thank you to everyone at the event and everyone working tirelessly to make the event what it is.

Thanks lastly again to BTS for having me here. As I mentioned in the short mini interview Toffees did with me on stream, it’s a privilege, and it’s always been a privilege, to be able to see all this at the ground level over the years and actually be a part of it too.

You can follow Dotaland on Twitter for occasional updates: twitter.com/Dotaland

Some cool G-League Finals pre-match interviews with iG and DK

First we have Hao talking about his career and his thoughts of BurNIng and BurNIng reflecting on his storied experiences with G-League through the years.

Then we have the rest of iG and DK chatting and sharing some thoughts and jokes…

Follow DOTALAND on Twitter: twitter.com/Dotaland

 

 

2013 in review from a Chinese point of view

UUU9 had a pretty cool editorial writeup on 2013 Dota from the Chinese point of view… I took some small liberties and added a little bit to make things read better in English when translating here and there.

Foreword

The long-awaited Dota 2 servers came, competition domestically and international grew ever fiercer, new players emerged, old players persisted, viewers’ tears and players’ tears mixed as results pulled all our heartstrings. DK finally escaped two years of no wins, VG saw a meteoric rise, and the scene witnessed five strong teams fighting it out on the path to TI4.

This past year has been memorable, with sadnesses and triumphs, sweat and tears. We haven’t given up, we’re still moving ahead — where there is Dota, we are there, if only for a belief, a passion, we strive together.

Dota 2 servers, finally

The original and unadulterated (mostly) Dota 2 experience finally comes as the successor to DotA. A top tier esports experience, million-RMB prizes, Perfect World’s Dota 2 has finally taken off… The servers officially went fully free and open to play on Sept 25, 2013. This also marked the beginning of a new wave of a people’s esport movement, as internet cafe events, city-based events, media-sponsored events, and fan events all came together to kick things off on a national scale.

Long-awaited, ranked matchmaking comes

On Dec 12, 2013, the matchmaking system that fans and critics alike have been clamoring for finally came to Dota 2 along with Winter’s Wraith Night promotional event and new hero Legion Commander. With split matchmaking queues for solo and party, the system brings another level of self-improvement and engagement for players.

Events

G-1 League Season 5, the fall of China

Led by Loda, Alliance came and conquered, leaving as true winners after storming through the likes of DK, iG, and LGD, the traditional top three teams in China. In doing so, Alliance took away the G-1 title, a first for a Western team on Chinese soil. This was the early beginnings of a trend of weakness for Chinese teams through the latter half of 2013, and questions were raised regarding the drastic drop in competitiveness, with concerns aimed at ACE, a lack of offline events, and the falling behind of Chinese strategies.

The world celebrates TI3, as China laments

At TI3, Alliance showed to the world what their abilities were capable of. Undefeated in group stages, defeating three-time finalists NaVi in the Grand Finals, their outstanding performances earned them plaudits the world across. Just prior to these amazing Grand Finals, China would see its worst showing in an International to date. Only TongFu, who kept decent form throughout, managed to squeeze into the top 4. But still, as TongFu were eliminated, our hearts shattered. For everyone Chinese team this was a massive blow, and the losses still linger within. After these losses, the scene has seen much encouragement and work to improve on perceived weaknesses, with various players expressing their determination in fighting another year in hopes of redeeming themselves at TI4. We wish them well.

A historic WPC-ACE inaugural season

The 2013 WPCACE League was held in Shanghai in collaboration with the Shanghai Sports Bureau, Jingruis Real Estate, and ACE. Eight top teams from wtihin China, plus two qualifier teams partook, becoming part of this piece of esport history. LGD, iG, DK, VG, TongFu all participated, and in three months’ time starting in September 2013, they fought for a total prizepool of 1 million RMB. In the end, DK fought back from 3 games down in a best of 7 to win 4-3 against iG, and not only was history made in the results and the fashion it was achieved, but also in DK finally breaking their two year streak without winning anything.

Teams

DK — The winless finally escape their fate

The galacticos, the team that countless fans put their hopes and joys on, the team that let those fans down over and over again. Yet always there in the end, always a challenger to be feared. Ever since DK moved to Dota 2, it had been two years without any titles. After TI3, LaNm, Mushi, and iceiceice brought their star power to the team and thus created what some called a ‘dream team’. In the WPC-ACE League group stages they exhibited dominating form against other Chinese powerhouse teams. Ultimately they took the WPC-ACE League title, and thus escaped their two year nightmare.

iG — The meandering of a former world champion

iG, once king of kings, TI2 champions and dominating presence on the Chinese scene. They entered 2013 with a relative dearth of domestic events to compete in, and iG eventually could not escape the low tide in form that Chinese teams suffered in general throughout the year as a result. Their losses at TI3 led the world to doubt this once-proud championship winning team, and after TI3, iG brought in Hao, while banana found a rebirth here. In WPC-ACE they went toe to toe with DK, and ended up with a more-than-respectable second place finish. 430’s outstanding plays, YYF’s steadiness, Hao’s aggressiveness were all on display as we look forward to this juggernaut getting back on track…

VG — The fierceness of the newcomers

VG was founded in 2012, and they first entered our view in March of 2013. They first started with newcomers Fy, sydm et al. After TI3, they brought in Super, rOtK, and Sylar to create a mixed old and new roster alongside Fenrir. Amongst other good results, they went to Poland and won a major title in EMS One, proving that their choices thus far have been justified…

RisingStars — For the glory

Founded in January of 2013, Rstars consisted of former Noah’s Ark and DT Club players. Yet not much came of this team as they constantly looked to be on the verge of making the next step. A dismal showing in the latter half of the year, however, meant that eventually the club was disbanded. To this, their owner expressed dismay, because try as he might, it didn’t work out this time; we wish him strength in trying again for his dream in the future…

RattleSnake — Waiting to strike

In the beginning of 2013, various domestic events were all making the switch to Dota 2. Luo, along with former WE teammates Icy and Kabu, with LaNm and a new face in FAN, formed RSnake. After making it to TI3 but not doing much more than that, RSnake made changes to the roster yet saw little result, and currently the club retains no domestic roster for events in China…

LGD — The team of teams

With xiao8 as their heart, and the old Dream setup as their core, LGD has always been recognized as the strongest Chinese team in terms of execution. This has allowed them to hold on to their position within the traditional top three Chinese teams. Yet, their strong showing at TI2 did not transfer into 2013 and they failed to win any large titles, earning themselves the only title amongst Chinese fans as “forever number two”. Their TI3 performances were even less satisfactory, and after TI3, it was xiaotuji — a more aggressive fighting carry — that joined to replace Sylar. In relatively short amount of time since then, they have seen results with the new setup, with a good showing at WPC-ACE League (and a title at D2L S4 in the very start of 2014)…

TongFu — The sleeping tiger

With Hao, Mu, and KingJ as cores in 2013, TongFu achieved much in the first half of 2013. Because of LGD losing their direct invite to TI3 due to roster change, TongFu received a direct invite instead, and their fourth place finish at TI3 proved that they deserved it. As the best-placing Chinese team at TI3, TongFu were still unable to avoid changes, and Zhou, ZSMJ, and xtt joined after TI3. The two big-name Z carries have yet been unable to see TongFu emerge from a low ebb in form, and Zhou has even expressed a desire to retire if things don’t change, yet we still wish them luck and strength, add oil TongFu porridge…

Players

CTY: A bumpy path

CTY first entered our view as a wonderkid in 2009’s solo mid tournaments. With dreams of playing professionally, he joined VG, yet weak performances led to questioning of him as a player. After jolting around and ending up with RStars, we may have seen the last of him in Dota 2, as rumors abound that he will make the move to LoL. Things are never easy for newcomers to the scene, and we truly need them here…

Fy: Best newcomer aura

Fy’s first appearance on the main stage of our consciousness was perhaps him on Rubick. He lit the game up, and quickly earned a title as “Best Chinese Rubick player”. Afterwards, his career saw some bumps and ups and downs in a short amount of time, but he stuck with VG ultimately and has so far been rewarded with an EMS One title, accomanied with recognition as the year’s best new player…

ZSMJ: Dreams of the top in my return

ZSMJ’s original retirement left many fans with a sense of loss. One of the biggest anticipations for early 2013 was ZSMJ’s rumored return to the scene. From VG to TongFu, from carry to 4 position, his goal has only been to play to his utmost in hopes of one day standing again at the top. We can all see his hard work and his improvement, and perhaps the most reliable player on TongFu right now is none other than ZSMJ…

BurNIng: A thirst to prove himself by winning

B-God, ever since transitioning to Dota 2, had not won any major titles. In his heart of hearts there was nothing he desired more than a championship title. In this period, there were rumors around that he was thinking about retiring. Their faltering at TI3 was heavy and hard; in his tearful moments, fans empathized with his sadness but pleaded with him to play on for another year. After making changes to the team, DK seems to have found a new self, and the end of 2013 finally saw a smile visit BurNIng’s face…

Zhou: Searching for life within darkness

Zhou-god’s poor form has been bound to him since 2013 began and never left him. Still, he’s been featured on the loading screen seven times, and he holds weight as a player. After TI3, he joined TongFu alongside ZSMJ to redeem himself. We hope Zhou doesn’t give up, add oil…

MMY: Rebirth

Joining DK in early 2013, Dai officially became MMY and made the move to support. No matter what position MMY plays, his talent shines through. His Wisp, Rubick, and Visage are all shining examples, especially his Wisp, which could be the best in China. Following TI3, MMY’s play with DK has been a central pillar to depend on for the rest of his team, and within Chinese hard supports, he has been one of the most reliable, most outstanding ones…

LaNm: A legendary talent

Before he became a pro player, he was the king of pub players. After he became a pro, through all kinds of hardships and challenges, he has finally proven himself in this stretch of 2013 with a title. In the beginning of the year, RSnake with him and Luo had been well-regarded by people around China, but unfortunately they fell short. Post TI3, he joined DK to partner with MMY in support, reuniting with two other former EHOME players. This setup did not let us down, and after settling in with the team, LaNm has gradually displayed more and more flashes of his brilliance…

Bonus — a few top Chinese comments in response

1. Dai possesses the most natural talent, but the weakness of these tyeps of players is that typically they don’t work very hard. Back then he was playing WoW all day, but I think he’s gotten better nowadays. After losing LaNm, we finally saw how important he was as a player, RSnake went directly from competing at the TI3 level to barely being a semi-professional quality.
2. Why does LGD have such strong execution? Because what xiao8 says is what happens. So if they win it’s because of this, but if they lose it’s also because of this. LGD’s other four listen to xiao8 to a point of blindly following. I forget which competition it was, but xiao8 was initiating and dying instantly, and his other four teammates would just follow in one by one and die too. Sylar perhaps hadn’t yet completely bought into this, he tends to play it safe and just straight up bails if he thinks things aren’t going right, so ultimately he was replaced due to not matching up. This type of team execution has its good points, and its bad points. If it works then it results in perfect counter-plays, if it fails then it’s feeding. Even if the others have their own thoughts, in-game they all unconditionally listen to xiao8. Yet nowadays, this kind of execution perhaps has greater weaknesses than strengths.
3. Zhou, I think was a victim of iG’s recent styles. He’s been forced to play carry under a style where the carry has to face heavy pressure on his own and doesn’t get much protection, this has gone on for so long that perhaps he has lost some of his original carry senses. This is why 820 once said, if you’ve played too much 5 position then you end up forgetting how to play carry, your thoughts and your mechanics are focused on a completely different area.

The importance of team execution isn’t determined in just one competition. LGD, ever since 2009, has been one brain leading four obedient teammates, this has been the LGD style. This is also why LGD has been steady and stable no matter how their roster has changed. Honestly speaking, LGD with xiao8 has been greater than the sum of its parts, this is where we see the power of execution. You can question the captain’s decisions, after a match you can go and discuss, but on the field you just go and do what he says. Losing a match isn’t that important, it’s losing that collective heart. Right now DK is truly a dream team, at least in terms of its roster. But just as they are each great individual players, they will also each have their own thoughts, and this might be DK’s greatest problem in the future. If addressed, DK will certainly win over the entire world. Every strong world-class team, at their peak, has always had two things: strong execution, and a soul. EHOME had 820, Alliance has Loda, NaVi has Puppey (not Dendi).

Source: http://dota2.uuu9.com/2013/

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Chinese Social Summary: Dec 29, 2013 — Jan 10, 2014

Link to previous issue: Dec 10 — Dec 28, 2013

Lots of stuff… New Year wishes, WPC-ACE responses, D2L responses… Translations of Chinese pros and personalities public Weibo posts and responses.
Description of ‘add oil’ here.

LaNm

Feed MMY: “Captain Duck hasn’t been given enough food, has become unhappy”
Regarding his WPC-ACE Finals keyboard smash: “No need to be concerned about my keyboard, lost a few keycaps, which will be returned to me after event cleanup for me to keep as a memory. In some future offline event, I’ll give them away to DK fans.”

xiao8

Regarding LGD’s WPC-ACE semifinal loss: “I’ll take all the blame. Sick and feverish for many days, and it’s affected our training. Sorry I’ve let down those friends who support us. On another note, would also like to wish everyone an early Happy New Year.”

DD’s response to xiao8: “Our captain persevered through sickness and still insists on taking the blame, this is too much, the blame cannot be yours.”

Watching DK vs iG at WPC-ACE Finals: “This…..”
A perfect ending with D2L S4 (with pics): “Thank you to my teammates, a perfect ending. 2014 will see a new beginning. It’s been more than three years with LGD, our Dream five forever.

820’s response to xiao8: “Add oil in the new place”
KingJ’s response to xiao8: “An end is another beginning”

Yao

New Year: “Another year has passed just like that. Ups and downs, joys and sorrows, in the end it feels like it’s just me alone with all of this, so tiring. There have been some negative emotions, I hope for understanding. Happy New Year to all, and good luck for the next year.”
D2L S4 win (with pic): “happy ending…”

rOtK

New Year and WPC-ACE: “Thank you to sydm for his best efforts in WPC-ACE, the matches are over for us so let’s not talk about that anymore. Tonight is New Year’s Eve, and I hope you all take some time to spend with family. To those I love, and those that love me, Happy New Year :)”
Entertainment in Vegas (with pics): “David Copperfield! Flashy, cool magic, the price of entry worth it.”
D2L S4 loss: “Things couldn’t always go so well for us playing overseas, but it was unexpected that we would lose in this manner. We played too ugly, sorry to everyone. Good luck to LGD in the finals, I hope for a good result.”

MMY

WPC-ACE Finals win: “We’ve completed a miracle, thank you to my teammates!”

820 response to MMY: “Awesome :)”

BurNIng

WPC-ACE Finals win: “This has been the most exhilirating match I’ve ever played!! Thank you to my amazing teammates!!”

Zhou response to BurNIng: “Never would have thought, a miracle has happened.”

Wishes for Super and VG: “Happy birthday (to Super)! Add oil for D2L!”

Black

DK winning: “Thanks to DK I can leave China happily 🙂 so happy!!”
LGD winning: “LGD DID IT!!!! wohoooooooooooooooooooooooo good job guys!!!”

820

Before D2L Finals: “The title we must bring back to China, we will do our best!”
After D2L Finals: “Mission accomplished, nice”

ddc response to 820: “A great coach of China!”
DD response to 820: “A 1-in-100 year rarity of an excellent coach”

ChuaN

On iG’s side for WPC-ACE: “I hope iG can win the title, add oil!!!”

Mushi

WPC-ACE Finals win: “Haven’t posted in a while! This post is to thank those who have believed in me all along, as well as to my family for staying with me! And my teammates for their hard work! We will work even harder in 2014! Thank you.”

Faith

Loss in WPC-ACE Finals: “We were indeed not as strong as our opponents. But what really makes me feel bad is the fact that 430 played through sickness for the entire day, he doesn’t even sound right anymore. And we still lost in the end.”
Talking about Alliance losing to Fnatic at D2L: “The patch changed so much :O”

YYF

Loss in WPC-ACE Finals: “We still aren’t working hard enough, let’s keep at it. We let our fans down again. Ferrari_430’s play today was excellent despite his sickness, but sadly we still lost. We will absolutely redeem ourselves in the future!!!”

DC

Watching DK and LaNm win: “At first, upon seeing LaNm slam his keyboard, I felt like it was funny, it was an act of excitement in a moment of impossible comeback. Afterwards, watching LaNm’s heartfelt shouts over and over on repeat, I somehow began to feel sad. Just as this match will go down in history, LaNm’s career has been filled with twists and turns. In comparison, 430, who came of age in the scene at the same time as LaNm, has had a relatively smoother experience in contrast. It’s been four years, truly hasn’t been easy for you. Old friend, fight on with all your battle scars!

ZSMJ

Comedian ZSMJ (with very good pics): “Going out with the girlfriend, a coat caught her eye. Upon seeing the price tag, she exclaimed in despair to me, “So expensive, it costs 3800”. I reply, “3800? It’s just the price of a Relic. Buy it! Wait seven minutes for me!” She threw me a look, and then, and then … there was no more~~~~ T_T”

Fenrir

D2L loss: “I wanted to be able to have a nice New Year but it’s so hard ~”

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DK.iceiceice interview: talks career choices, teammates, DK so far

It would seem that this was an interview for an esports magazine in China, conducted last month (prior to DK’s WPC-ACE win).

Q: After coming to China, you have used your excellence in conquering the hearts of many Chinese fans. Do you recall how you first came to play Dota?
iceiceice: I’ve played games from a very young age. Later on I got into Warcraft 3, as well as various custom games. After that, more and more people began going to Dota, and thus I became one of them.

Q: What is it about Dota that most attracts you?
iceiceice: There isn’t really anything that specifically attracts me. For me, Dota just generally is a game that can get my attention, and if there are other games that can do the same while providing opportunities for me to earn money, I would try them as well. For example, I played League of Legends for a period of time earlier, at first I was very into it, but after a while I stopped liking it. So even if League of Legends potentially has more money, I wouldn’t go play it.

Q: What led you to becoming a professional esports competitor?
iceiceice: Because I’m good. And also, because I’m really good!

Q: How does your family view your career?
iceiceice: They are very supportive, because they want my prize money. Yeah, they’ve taken half of my prize money.

Q: In the past, you’d expressed on many occasions that your desire was to come to China to continue your career. When you finally had the chance to make this come true by joining DK, what did that feel like?
iceiceice: I’d already wanted to join DK last year, but they rejected me. Now my wish has come true, so of course I’m very happy. But on the way to China I was constantly thinking, would I be able to live healthily? Because I’d always felt that living abroad might be dangerous for me. Upon arriving in China, the team sent someone to pick me up, it was an old person, and at one point I thought he was going to kidnap me.

Q: Apart from Dota 2, you once were keen on becoming a professional Starcraft 2 player.
iceiceice: I have a lot of interest in all games. At the time I was feeling that Dota wasn’t as fun anymore, so I picked up Starcraft 2 and began practicing that. I had always really liked watching Starcraft matches, for example Jaedong and Flash, their matches are great to watch, you can see their skill.

Q: Why give up on Starcraft 2?
iceiceice: That period of time was when I had to fulfill my national military service (for Singapore). Even though the plan was to go to Korea to play it professionally, but in the end because of the military service I gave up on that. During the service I had thoughts about continuing on this path, but it wasn’t realistic. To become good in Starcraft 2 requires large amounts of time, and I completely lacked that kind of time, plus I felt that there was no future for Starcraft 2 in SEA, so I gave up on it.

Q: Outside of Dota 2, what are your biggest hobbies?
iceiceice: I have very wide interests, such as photography, cooking. Apart from those things, I also like to travel, especially going to those places I haven’t been to before. Even though I’m very afraid of flying, there are no alternatives. Who can I blame for me liking to try new things? Although, in terms of girlfriends, one is enough.

Q: We’ve seen you wearing an AC Milan shirt during events before, you are a big fan of football (soccer)?
iceiceice: No, I don’t like it, I just think their shirt looks nice.

Q: After training every day, what do you do?
iceiceice: Usually, go out to eat, or play some pubs. If possible, I definitely try to get out and relax a bit. But right now, there are more and more events, and we must work even harder, thus I don’t have much time to go out and relax. Even though this is the case, I still feel that being able to have time to unwind is very important.

Q: During TI3, you defeated all other world-class solo players to win the solo mid championship. And after coming to China, you’ve proved your ability time and time again through making spectacular plays. How do you do it?
iceiceice: I feel that the TI3 solo mid title doesn’t really say that much. There, it was about everyone having fun more than anything. As for having good performances after coming to China, I think this has a lot to do with my teammates. They’re very strong players, and allow me to focus more in games.

Q: During your time with Zenith, we saw you mostly as a 1 or 2 position player. After coming to DK, you’ve transitioned to a 3 position. How would you rate your performances in this new position so far?
iceiceice: I really like my new position. In the 3 position, my advantages are that my mechanics are relatively strong, and thus if I get a solo matchup then I can usually gain an advantage. But in a suicide offlane situation I often die because I underestimate the opposition, and then sometimes if I die a few times I go on tilt and die all game.

Q: DK’s recent results in various tournaments have all been quite good. What do you feel has been the reason for these victories?
iceiceice: Currently we haven’t won anything, so for us all these tournaments are just practice, they don’t count for anything!

Q: Before you and Mushi joined, it could be said that BurNIng’s play played a part in DK’s losses. But after you two joined, BurNIng seems to not be as important in dictating the team’s results.
iceiceice: I feel that this isn’t because BurNIng plays badly or whatever, more that our opponents are too weak, and don’t do what they should do. In the future I think BurNIng’s value will definitely show. Everyone’s role on the team is important, except MMY.

Q: Talk a bit about your impressions of each teammate.
iceiceice: LaNm is old; MMY is handsome, but has too much pressure, and has gotten fat; BurNIng and Mushi go to bed together every day.

Q: For the future, what are your hopes for DK to achieve?
iceiceice: To win all the titles!

Q: Lastly, some words to our readers.
iceiceice: Thank you to all our supporters, especially those who come from faraway to watch us play. We will work even harder to do even better! Hope everyone can lend DK even more support! And thank you to our sponsors Tt Esports for their support!

Source links (but not original magazine source, which I can’t find after a brief search): http://dota2.sgamer.com/news/201401/154337.html — http://dota2.uuu9.com/201401/459824.shtml

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WPC-ACE 2013 post-Finals interview with Team DK

After their remarkable comeback victory in the 2013 WPC-ACE League, taking the 1 million RMB (165k USD) top prize, Team DK were interviewed collectively. Some insightful answers, some jokes and laughter; this is DK after winning their first major Dota 2 title.

Video source: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjU2MjA1NzE2.html

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Chinese Social Summary: Dec 10 — Dec 28, 2013

Link to previous issue: Nov 27 — Dec 9

Translations of random snippets from Chinese Dota 2 scene social media… for fun and light reading, etc. Not comprehensive or representative of anything.

Black^

Got a haircut (with pics): wants to know which is better?

ChuaN

ChuaN’s prediction for next G-League champion: “Looking at history, iG will win”

iceiceice

What to eat?: “What am I gonna eat for lunch?”
This doesn’t taste right…: “Fuzzy duck is not tasty” (MMY = mao mao ya = fuzzy duck)

On Meracle: “Meracle truly lives up to being the 1v9 man”
LaNm’s response to iceiceice’s Meracle comment: “He’s scored 6 goals in 3 minutes of added time”

KingJ

Foes of the Chinese servers: “Every day I am fighting the likes of Broodmother, Earth Spirit, and Slark!”
Ranked ladder woes: “Life is tough!! Ladder is too hard!!!”

LaNm

It was LaNm’s birthday: “Thank you for the wishes from everyone, each and every one of your wishes will be my motivation, driving me to never slow down. Merry Christmas to all.”

MMY

TongFu porridge before playing against TongFu: “I’ve just eaten a bowl of TongFu porridge last night… Hope there won’t be problems tomorrow!!”

rOtK

On Meracle Naga: “Just got back to base this morning, and after waking up, I watched Naga-bro’s play in the second game. I’m amazed… truly amazed. In the past watching his Naga Siren play I knew he was pretty good on this hero, but this game showed that he fully and perfectly understands the hero… So this is how Naga Siren is supposed to be played! It would seem that every player, and every team, has their own understandings of various heroes. Like Fnatic’s Enchantress, LGD’s Venomancer, iG’s Furion. Let’s all work hard at being ourselves! Add oil!”

Old friend: “I haven’t lost a friend, the feeling is pretty nice. We must each work hard to get what we desire! @BurNIng”

xiao8

Earth Spirit in MM: “I’ve now been beaten silly by Earth Spirit in solo queue…”

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The Team DK Files

The Team DK Files

Learn more about Team DK, circa December 2013.

Name: BurNIng

Naming Anti-mage has been most important for me

Birthdate: Feb 16, 1988
Nationality: China
Height: 180cm
Weight: 68kg
Clothing size: XL
Favorite star: Leonardo DiCaprio
Games played in past: Warcraft 3
Biggest esports career achievement: Getting Anti-mage name
Most important person in esports career: 71 (former manager of EHOME)
Mouse: Ttesports Saphira
Headset: (I can’t find the set I was given)
Keyboard: Ttesports Poseidon – Brown MX switches
Mousepad: Ttesports Dasher
Single?: No
Favorite Dota version: 6.78
Favorite Dota item: Battlefury
Hero you most like seeing on your team in pubs: Heroes with crowd control abilities
Hero you most hate seeing on your team in pubs: Bloodseeker, Weaver, Meepo
Hero you most like seeing on opposite team in pubs: Meepo
Hero you most hate seeing on opposite team in pubs:
Most important person in life: Mom
Dream career when little: Scientist
Current goals: Play well professionally
Plans for after retirement: Work in a more ‘free’ (flexible) career
Biggest challenge/opposition in the future: Self
Most important gaming gear: Mouse
Favorite keyboard switch type: As long as it’s mechanical then it’s okay
What happens if girlfriend calls while you’re playing Dota: Don’t answer (she understands)
What do you do if your pro career causes a lack of time to spend with family: Make more phone calls
What kind of girl do you like:
Would you play games with girls?: Refuse
Do you like your new uniforms?: They look better than the old ones
Who’s funniest in the team?: iceiceice

Name: Mushi

Most hate iceiceice playing Invoker

Birthdate: Nov 27, 1990
Nationality: Malaysia
Height: (Forgot)
Weight: (Never measured)
Clothing size: XL
Favorite star: Lots
Favorite athlete: Lee Chong Wei (Malaysian star top-ranked badminton player)
Biggest esports career achievement: The matches I’ve won
Most important person in esports career: A lot
Mouse: Ttesports Saphira
Headset: Ttesports Isura
Keyboard: Ttesports G-1 – Brown switches
Mousepad: Ttesports Dasher
Single?: Yes
How did you spend Singles Day?: Training
Favorite Dota version: 6.78
Favorite Dota item: Blink dagger
Hero you most like seeing on your team in pubs: Chen
Hero you most hate seeing on your team in pubs: (iceiceice’s) Invoker
Most important person in life: Family
Dream career when little: None
Current ambitions: Take my whole family and emigrate to Australia
Plans for after retirement: Do investments. Not in esports
Biggest challenge/opposition in the future: None
Most hated thing: Losing matches
Most hated esports thing: Losing matches
Most important gaming gear: All are very important
Favorite keyboard switch type: Red MX switches
What happens if girlfriend calls while you’re playing Dota: Don’t answer
What do you do if your pro career causes a lack of time to spend with family: Have family watch me play televised matches
What kind of girl do you like: Good personality
Would you play games with girls?: If they’re friends then yes
Do you like your new uniforms?: Not bad
Who’s funniest in the team?: iceiceice

Name: LaNm

Dislike MMY playing mahjong

Birthdate: Dec 25, 1989
Nationality: China
Height: 181cm
Weight: 55kg
Clothing size: L
Favorite athlete: Li Na (Chinese star tennis player)
Favorite Dota hero: Pudge
Games played in past: Warcraft 3
Most important thing in esports: Winning titles
Most important person in esports career: 71 (former EHOME manager)
Mouse: Ttesports Saphira
Headset: Ttesports Isura
Keyboard: Ttesports Meka G-Unit White version
Mousepad: Ttesports Conkor
Single?: No
Favorite Dota version: 6.78
Favorite Dota item: Mask of Madness
Hero you most like seeing on your team in pubs: Heroes with crowd control
Hero you most hate seeing on your team in pubs: Invoker, Shadow Fiend
Hero you most like seeing on opposite team in pubs: Crystal Maiden
Most important person in life: Grandma, Mom
Dream career when little: Scientist
Current goals: Achieve good results and prove myself
Plans for after retirement: Be a coach
Biggest challenge/opposition in the future: Self, mentality is very important
Most hated thing: MMY playing mahjong, iceiceice being with his girlfriend (because both are very annoying things)
Most hated esports thing: Being unable to find that tempo in a competitive game
Most important gaming gear: Feel like they’re all similarly important
Favorite keyboard switch type: Black MX switches
What happens if girlfriend calls while you’re playing Dota: Don’t answer if during pratice
What do you do if practice leaves you no time to spend with girlfriend?: Don’t care
Would you play games with girls?: If I know them, yes
Do you like your new uniforms?: That white area on the chest…
Who’s funniest in the team?: ice

Name: iceiceice

Don’t like girls that play games

Birthdate: June 17, 1990
Nationality: Singapore
Height: 191.5cm
Weight: 75kg
Clothing size: XXL
Favorite athlete: Messi
Favorite Dota hero: Invoker
Games played in past: Starcraft 2, Warcraft 3, LoL (participated in WCG before)
Mouse: Ttesports Saphira
Headset: Don’t use
Keyboard: Ttesports G-1 – Brown switches
Mousepad: Ttesports Conkor
Single?: No
Favorite Dota version: The earliest version
Favorite Dota item: Support heroes
Hero you most like seeing on your team in pubs: Anti-mage
Hero you most hate seeing on your team in pubs: Anti-mage
Hero you most like seeing on opposite team in pubs: Anti-mage
Hero you most hate seeing on opposite team in pubs: Anti-mage
Most important person in life: Girlfriend
Dream career when little: Aviator
Current goals: Travel around the world
Plans for after retirement: Make money, commentate/cast, stream, stock market
Biggest challenge/opposition in the future: Self
Most hated thing: No toilet paper whilst in the bathroom, talking behind others’ backs
Most hated esports thing: Coming to bother me when I’m really busy
Most important gaming gear: Keyboard
Favorite keyboard switch type: Red MX switches
What happens if girlfriend calls while you’re playing Dota: Don’t answer
What do you do if practice leaves you no time to spend with family: Practices are more priority
What kind of girl do you like: Don’t like girls that play games, don’t like unfaithful girls
Would you play games with girls?: Depends on mood
Do you like your new uniforms?: It would look better if it was leather
Who’s funniest in the team?: Myself

Name: MMY

The white area on our new uniforms looks like a bra

Birthdate: Sep 10， 1989
Nationality: China
Height: 182cm
Weight: 80kg
Clothing size: XL
Favorite Dota hero: Wisp
Games played in past: Zhensan, Warcraft 3
Mouse: Ttesports Saphira
Headset: Ttesports Isura
Keyboard: Ttesports G-1
Mousepad: Ttesports Dasher
Single?: Yes
How did you spend Singles Day: Played Dota
Favorite Dota version: 6.78
Favorite Dota item: Magic Stick
Hero you most like seeing on your team in pubs: Crystal Maiden
Hero you most hate seeing on your team in pubs: Anti-mage
Hero you most like seeing on opposite team in pubs: Crystal Maiden
Hero you most hate seeing on opposite team in pubs: Anti-mage
Dream career when little: Scientist
Plans for after retirement: Haven’t thought about this before
Biggest challenge/opposition in the future: Alliance, NaVi
Most hated thing: Playing mahjong
Most important gaming gear: Mouse
What happens if girlfriend calls while you’re playing Dota: Don’t answer
What do you do if practice leaves you no time to spend with family: Call home
What kind of girl do you like: Cute (moe) girls
Would you play games with girls?: Refuse
Do you like your new uniforms?: The white area on the uniform looks like a bra
Who’s funniest in the team?: iceiceice

Source: http://dota.uuu9.com/zt/teamdk/

MLG Columbus 2013 in my view

Going into this MLG, the first Dota 2 MLG, I didn’t really know what to expect. Never having been to Columbus before, that added to the mystique. In the end, I came out of it with a truly unforgettable experience, friendships, and a new-found understanding for why so many pro players are so damn skinny. I apologize in advance for the relative lack of pictures, as it’s a personal thing for me to not abuse my access when I’m invited to an event. This is my point of view from MLG Columbus 2013 as both an invitee to help with DK, and as a Dota 2 fan there for the spectacle, and finally, as a DK fan.

Thursday Nov 21, 2013

I left home in Seattle at 5am sharp to catch a series of flights that would guarantee I arrive in Columbus with a few hours to spare before DK’s plane was scheduled to arrive, the reason being that my first duties for MLG Columbus entailed being at the airport with the hired van driver to pick up DK and get them to the hotel. MLG had rented a big comfy van and a driver for this purpose, and around 9pm I got the call from the driver downstairs of the hotel and we headed over to the airport. Whilst waiting, Sigma and NaVi both went by and Dendi noticed me, got a goofy grin on his face and waved, to which I grinned back and waved probably even more goofily. His team seemed to be like “what you doing bro” and he gestured in my general direction. A brief time later, and the first of DK appeared at the foot of the escalators, coming down from the upper level of the airport to the baggage claim area. iceiceice, Mushi, and MMY, then BurNIng and LaNm. BurNIng smiled, somewhat surprised I was there I suppose, but seemed happy enough. A familiar face after nearly a full day of travel, perhaps? I waved as they approached, greetings were made, and iceiceice asked some random questions. We waited for their checked bags, and then we were off to the van to the hotel.

Team DK at the Columbus Airport

On the way to the hotel, I asked if they were hungry, and hungry they were. After getting them into their rooms and dropping their stuff off, by this time it was nearly 11pm, and so we simply decided on getting them food at the bar on the second floor of the Hilton. They got some pizza and wings, and LaNm wanted a burger, so he got that too. Iceiceice got a single pork belly slider — it was good, he said. While eating, MLG’s Adam happened upon us, and the introductions were made. Awesome guy, super straightforward kinda dude, he made sure that DK were as comfortable as they could be with their accommodations and filled me in on the basics of what to expect for the weekend.

With stomachs filled, the team was ready to rest up. LaNm would room with BurNIng, and BurNIng jokingly asks LaNm if he snores. LaNm exclaims that, no, he doesn’t! Mushi and iceiceice are together, while MMY rooms with the manager Farseer. I update them on the schedule for the next day: venue opens at 10am, teams are free to enter at that time to practice on the many stations MLG had set up backstage, the event officially starts at 5pm, etc. MLG really had their bases covered regarding practice space for the teams — there was never a lack of stations for teams to warm up and watch replays on and players had full access to these stations during all hours of the event — well played.

Friday Nov 22, 2013

Friday started off slowly as only half of DK had gotten up by the time I got down to the venue around 11am. The ones that had gotten down there, however, apparently had woken up at 6am — even after that late night and all the travel. I found LaNm, iceiceice, and BurNIng I think it was at the off-stage area. We were soon joined by Mushi and MMY, and the five of them had some fun playing a few pubs together. At lunchtime, we ventured over to the nearby North Market, where everyone got pho except iceiceice, who got Indian food. LaNm however became distracted by a Thai place and promised that he’d come get that next time… though there wasn’t another opportunity for him to do so over the weekend. As noon passed, they wanted to head back up to their rooms to rest a bit more, as most of them had woken up early due to jet lag and needed some more sleep. Unfortunately this meant that they missed their 4pm autograph session, but hopefully DK were generally available enough over the next few days for any fans to meet and greet with them. Around 5pm they came back down, bleary-eyed but with a bit more bounce in their step, and went back-stage to warm up prior to their on-stage matches against Alliance and Liquid. First they played a pub or two together, then did some analysis and discussion to their upcoming games.

Team DK backstage at MLG Columbus.

And then they were up on stage to play — Alliance, followed by Liquid. Honestly I hardly even remember these games themselves, but DK came out of the games 2-0 victors, showing impressive form. After the games, some passionate local Chinese fans (students from surrounding universities, mostly) came and offered to take us all out to eat. The offer seemed to be well-received by the Chinese contingent of DK, while iceiceice and Mushi apparently had been planning on going to get a burger nearby. Either way, everyone ended up piling onto a couple cars and off we went, about ten minutes away, to a Chinese restaurant.

In the words of iceiceice, “I don’t like Chinese food, I don’t know why they come out here and still want to eat Chinese food.” It wasn’t too bad though, and when Mushi and iceiceice indicated that they wanted a bit of Peking roast duck, our gracious local hosts ordered an entire duck… By the time dinner was over, it was 11pm and at least BurNIng looked tired and ready to head back. Apparently the restaurant’s boss lady is a Dota fan as well, or at least feigned to look like she knew who DK were (maybe she just saw team uniforms and thought they must be important), so everyone gathered up to take a group picture at the end. The only one of these photos I have is the one where no one was looking at the camera…

……

It had gotten quite cold by nighttime, and BurNIng was shivering at the doorway of the restaurant as we left. I gave him a mini-hug to warm him up a little bit and he was like, “Aren’t you cold? Or you’ve gotten used to it…” Yeah, I guess the difference in weather from Shanghai to the American Midwest in winter is pretty drastic; in a lot of buildings in Shanghai they don’t even have heating, such are the mild winters. It had been snowing a little bit on and off that evening and night, and iceiceice was especially excited about it — he had never seen snow before in his life, this was his first time. So, in between shivering breaths, he’d be exclaiming how exciting it was, and asking whether his breath would frost up in the chilled air, and how he enjoys cold weather more than hot weather, because you can always put more clothes on, but can’t necessarily take more clothes off, and oh my goodness it’s so cold right now, and how he imagined snow might be fluffier…

Saturday Nov 23, 2013

DK’s next match would be their first off-stage match, against Fnatic. I had them down at the venue by around 10:30am so they could have some time to warm up and get used to the setting, and they had some fun playing more pubs together. They started their last pub pretty late before the 11:30am start time against Fnatic, with just around 20 minutes time. LaNm declared, “Pick fast push!” and off they went, with the likes of Shadow Shaman, Leshrac… for an 11 minute victory.

The rest of the day, DK mostly cruised. Right before the DK and Navi went on stage, they were informed of the question that would be asked of each of them. Iceiceice and Puppey quickly decided that they would coordinate an answer between themselves, and hence came the hot chocolate answer. After their off-stage match against Sigma, they had around 2 hours for dinner or a break, or whatever. All of them except iceiceice chose to head up to their rooms to get some sleep, while iceiceice went with us to Five Guys at my suggestion, as he had been wanting a burger. It was snowing again as we made our way by car to the Five Guys a mile away, near Ohio State University campus. I ordered for iceiceice at his request, and got him a bacon cheeseburger with everything, plus extra mushrooms and onions, with A-1 sauce on top. “This is quite good,” he said through big mouthfuls. I’m glad you liked it.

Iceiceice with Five Guys

The light snow continued on our way back to the hotel. “Snow makes everything look nicer,” iceiceice remarked. Yeah, it does. But it was still cold, and iceiceice quickly forgot about his plans to make frosty clouds of air with his breath outside as we rushed back inside the hotel from the car. For the remaining hour, he went up to his room to relax for a bit as well, and so I waited downstairs for the rest of the players to appear at 8pm, half an hour before their scheduled match against Pretty Boy Swag.

Mushi came down first, followed by MMY, but then the rest of them were nowhere to be seen. 8:15 went by, then 8:20, then 8:25. By then I’d knocked on their doors and had begun calling their rooms. Sleepy voices echoed out from the other end of the phone, at least alleviating my fears that they’d somehow gone out and gotten lost somewhere. Instead in its place was a mystifying wait, as it was only 15 minutes later that iceiceice finally appeared downstairs, by which time it was already 8:40. So I went to room 520, where BurNIng and LaNm were staying, and knocked on their door — LaNm came to the door, putting on his jacket, and BurNIng was just climbing out of bed. He looked groggily to me, “We’re late, aren’t we?” I looked back at him… “Yeah, yeah you’re late,” with an exasperated but amused feeling inside.

BurNIng gets up, puts his shoes on, and looks at his phone and bursts out laughing. “I know why we never woke up!” he looks around at LaNm and me, “It’s because I set the alarm for 8 in the morning, when it should’ve been for night.” I laughed, LaNm laughed… Yeah, that’ll do it… that’ll make you late indeed. We rushed down to the venue, a mere 25 minutes late for Pretty Boy Swag. DK was clearly still tired, as their play and drafts were sloppy in both games against PBS and later Speed.

DK drafting in an off-stage match.

Afterwards, we discussed with MLG briefly the logistics of the next day’s semifinals matches, upon which DK eventually decided on playing second, and they went back up to work together on discussing their next challenge against NaVi. BurNIng started discussions that night by saying to his team, “This is one of our great opportunities to win a title… we’ve come so far already…” Even though they were fine with me being there, I didn’t want to intrude any further, and after helping them get a late dinner, I said my goodnights, made sure they knew their schedule for the next day, and left them to their preparations.

Sunday Nov 24, 2013

The next morning, iceiceice, BurNIng, and LaNm were up bright and early as I found them around 9:30am finishing up breakfast at the restaurant on the second floor. After breakfast, BurNIng went back up to get some more sleep, and iceiceice, LaNm and I headed to the venue. We went backstage, and LaNm excitedly exclaimed, “Time to pub!!” I love playing pubs!” and then invited me to play with the two of them. That was pretty fun. During one of the pub games, the other team was convinced they were fakes, but by the end, were wishing DK luck at MLG.

A bit later, MMY, BurNIng, and Mushi showed up, and DK gathered to do some last minute analysis and whatnot.

DK preparing before MLG semifinals against NaVi.

With about an hour to go before their semifinals match against NaVi, NaVi themselves showed up, and the two teams hung out a bit backstage. Iceiceice challenged Kuroky to an arm-wrestling match, and upon beginning the match, iceiceice immediately took both hands to KKY’s one hand, ‘won’ the match illegitimately, and raised his arms in triumph while Kuroky looked on with a mixture of bemusement and non-acceptance of having just lost the arm wrestling match. The rest of the time went similarly lightheartedly, with chattering and trolling and joking amongst the two teams.

I think it was before the NaVi match here that Mushi ended up being the one who had an on-stage question directed at him, thanks to iceiceice volunteering him for it while Mushi was in the bathroom. Mushi came back, heard that he was going to be questioned, and immediately shrank back trying to decline. In the end, I coached him on his answer a little bit after Mushi kicked iceiceice for signing him up in absentia, and Mushi went on-stage with his answers ready.

Discussing strategies.

Then came the semifinals match. The actual games were a blur in my mind, but DK ended up with the win after a game 3 in which BurNIng, perhaps uncharacteristically, took the risk of building a Divine Rapier when he wasn’t absolutely pressed to do so (in fact, not at all needed).

Of course, his Rapier came after they lost a close game against NaVi in game two, where XBOCT built a dominating two Divine Rapiers. After game three ended with a Rapier of his own, BurNIng then said something I’ll never forget:

“不出圣剑怎么对得起我们的粉丝”
“How am I worthy of our fans if I don’t build Rapier there?”

Throughout the weekend, DK were regularly mobbed by fans looking to get pictures and autographs, perhaps because DK were unable to make their session. Hopefully they were available enough throughout the event to make up for their absence at the session. On finals day, they had far less time to pause for signings and photos, and even still, they tried their best and often I had to play the bad guy to ‘drag’ them out of a crowd of fans in order to keep them on schedule. Hopefully no one was let down, and hopefully everyone understands the scheduling… BurNIng always had a conflicted look on his face whenever he had to decline.

And then, without much downtime at all due to scheduling delays, DK were up to play against Speed.int in the Finals of MLG Columbus. They’d come so far, and perhaps this was the closest any of them had been to a title in recent times. It was Mushi’s first final ever, in fact. DK won game one after a gruelling back and forth battle, with LaNm carrying the team on his spectacular Earthshaker play. After that game, backstage, LaNm was exhausted. He looked like he’d run a marathon, and indeed, he probably did the mental equivalent. By this time, DK hadn’t eaten since breakfast around 10am. A lot of players prefer not to eat full meals within a reasonable time of a competitive game, so you can imagine just why guys like LaNm are so skinny.

One more win, one step away.

In the end, DK faltered. LaNm was practically asleep during the game 2 draft, and from a casual fan’s point of view (my point of view, that is), his seating in the center of DK’s five isn’t a coincidence. He’s the beat of the team, the rhythm-keeper, and when he’s tired, the team feels it. (For those that are curious about DK playing the second semifinals, refer to this reddit post to learn more) Some of the drafts were questionable too, perhaps another result of the team, and BurNIng, being really tired. After the loss, Mushi sat quietly for a bit, the rest went without talking, and then they waited for each other to head back to the hotel together. It was nearly midnight already, and MMY, BurNIng, and LaNm all went up pretty quickly and fell asleep. Mushi came back down after a while, he and iceiceice hung out with us on the second floor lobby. We ordered some pizza and pasta delivered and the two of them, with me and my girlfriend, we four sat peacefully, eating and chatting into the night until about 2:30am.

BurNIng, MMY, and LaNm were to leave at 6am in the morning for their flight back to China and I was to go with them to make sure everything went smoothly. Originally iceiceice and Mushi were supposed to come along too, but their flight being only at 11am, they decided to head to the airport later. At nearly 3am, we all headed back up to our respective rooms, said our goodbyes. A few minutes later, iceiceice messages on Wechat (instant messaging service) asking what room I’m in… and appears at the door in his boxers. He insists on giving me the stuff from the bag that MLG gave to each player — a Steelseries mouse and mousepad, and a Turtle Beach headset. So right now I have in my possession the headset that iceiceice used live in his off-stage games at MLG. o_O. Thanks ice. Then we say what we think are our last farewells for the weekend… Hotel fire alarm goes off ten minutes later, and we see iceiceice and Mushi again in the lobby. Evidently, the rest of DK has slept through the alarm.

Sometime during the night, we ran into Dendi. He offered a photo op with him, but then added on that it would be ten dollars. Instead, I offered him the photo op with myself, he accepted, and thus I got a free photo. And he gave me a hug too. That made me feel better about the finals that had just ended… Thanks Dendi, you’re cool. I’ll see you next time too.

Hello Dendi.

In the morning, BurNIng and LaNm are downstairs and checked out on time, and after a slight delay, we have the others who are leaving on the morning flight. Spirits seem to be as high as they can be after losing a major final… or perhaps it just hasn’t sunk in yet. I know it hasn’t for me yet at that point. They’re discussing loudly — boisterously, even, what went right and what went wrong for them the previous night. LaNm is confident in what he says, MMY often offers a different perspective, while BurNIng sometimes agrees, and sometimes disagrees with the both of them. I go with them through security check, and after half an hour in which they never stop discussing, their boarding call is heard, and I herd them over to their boarding gate.

MMY smiles wanly before quickly turning away, the manager nods in appreciation, LaNm waves and simply says “See you next time”. BurNIng lingers a little bit, turns to me, smiles, and says “Give me a hug!” And then DK was gone, as quickly as they’d come.

Perhaps it didn’t sink in for them until they got back. It didn’t sink in for me until the trip home. I only then realized that I had so wanted to be able to send them home that day with the trophy, with a major tournament title. I’m sure they wanted it way more than I ever could have imagined.

All credit to Kaipi/Speed, they played to their style and didn’t let anyone or any external factor (of which there were many — all the more impressive for them) stop them, and that’s what winning is about. As for DK, MLG Columbus weekend has given me an unimaginable chance to be close to them, get to know them, and perhaps even help them. I can only thank MLG and Adam for the opportunity, and my respect and liking for DK and each of their players has only increased, if that was possible at all. DK — BurNIng, LaNm, Mushi, MMY, iceiceice… you guys are great.

Thank you.

shout outs to Cyborgmatt, Xixi, LD, Vykromond, Lumi, DPM, Godz, Merlini, Tangeng, Sun-Tzu, Dendi, Valve Chris, Valve Phil and family, and anyone else I missed but enjoyed the company of, for being fun to chat or hang out with at various times during the weekend. You all helped me keep my sanity while I went through with ~14 hours sleep over 4 days.

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