The official Chinese Dota 2 Weibo just posted that xiao8’s new ‘dream team’ has been named “Newbee”, and will consist of xiao8, Mu, Hao, ZSMJ, and KingJ.
For some context, “Newbee” is similar in the way it sounds to “niubi”, which is a common slang used by youth to roughly mean “fucking awesome”.
While the ‘dream team’ has basically confirmed its 1-3 roles as Hao, Mu, and xiao8 respectively, the new team’s 4-5 positions saw much uncertainty as only recently, originally rumored additions ChuaN and Faith have both been said to be returning to iG after the break. In their place, newest information suggests that ZSMJ and Banana will be joining the ‘dream team’. This essentially leaves TongFu with no first team squad remaining, so along with seeing this new dream team unfold, another point of interest will be to see how TongFu might look to recover.
There’s also the chance that KingJ may be involved in all this somehow. After being relatively inactive in the past few months, yesterday he posted on his Weibo two posts suggesting he was about to make a return, saying that “It’s almost time“, and “See you tomorrow guys“.
Sources: http://dota2.replays.net/news/page/20140218/1880417.html – http://t.qq.com/KingJ
Link to previous issue: Dec 29 — Jan 10
Everyone’s home celebrating and stuff so there’s actually not much… Took a selection of Chinese New Year wishes and some other random stuff.
rOtK
Basketball (with pics): “Since going on break I’ve been practicing hard for 10 days now, after the break you’re all done!” [mentioned ChuaN, LaNm, Mushi, fy, and Yao in his challenge]
IceFrog
Dog and invoker: “Every time an Invoker uses Chaos Meteor, my dog barks”
Chinese New Year customs (with pics): “My girlfriend decorated my room, and gave me a red packet, telling me to put the packet beneath my pillow. But why does the packet need to go under your pillow?”
Chinese New Year wishes: “Happy Year of the Horse everyone, good luck and success to all!”
Ferrari_430
New year and travels (with pic): “Gone home for the year. Results in the past year haven’t been that satisfying, hope the new year brings better tidings. PS: The Wuhan airport doesn’t even have any checks in place for luggage, what if someone accidentally or purposely took someone else’s?”
ChuaN
Kyxy should get this in his cosmetic item set: “Kyxy WR Aegis”
ZSMJ
New Year wishes and item set: “Happy New Year all! I’ve got a Storm Spirit set made for me, go help and click like, don’t leave me with no new clothes to wear in the new year! Remember to like and comment and all of the pieces and favorite! Love you all, and I wish you all riches and happiness.”
Fy
New Year party (with pic): [At the VG Chinese New Year party,] Fy, for an iPhone 5s downed an entire cup of baijiu, what a man, good job!
xiao8
Mahjong (with pics): “Dragged my luggage with me to come play mahjong, I’m a charity gambler”
G-League thoughts: “Even though it was a 3-0, but I feel Chinese events are more fun to watch than foreign events”
Ruru
LGD’s Chinese New Year party (with pics): “Happy year-end party! Hope that 2014 is a wonderful year!”
ddc
Terrorblade: “TB is indeed the hardest late game carry.”
Zhou
TongFu porridge (with pic): “New year gifts”
Sansheng
Chinese New Year: “I wish everyone happy new year, success in your goals and results in your endeavors!!”
Faith
Chinese New Year: “Happy New Year to all. Good health, joyousness, and I hope every day can be filled with laughter, hahahaha~”
Mushi
Chinese New Year: “Happy new year! I wish everyone great luck in the year of the horse! Smooth sailing, and to get everything you want”
Bonus ZSMJ gif: 
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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/
Follow DOTALAND on Twitter: twitter.com/Dotaland
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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In the D2L East playoffs between DK and TongFu, we saw that Zhou appeared on the 4 position, while ZSMJ took up carry duties. While the results started off amazingly, in the end they were mixed as TongFu took an early game 1 then proceeded to drop the next 2 games and lose the series 1-2. Nonetheless, is this the beginning of what can be said to be a big change for Chinese Dota 2 fans?
Zhou, carry and captain of TI2 champions iG, moving to the 4 role is a big piece of news in itself, and the potential return of the famed Z-God, ZSMJ himself to the hard carry role is another.
Select fan reactions below:
“As a ZSMJ fan, you may be overjoyed at this news, but please don’t disregard the other carry’s hard work and persistence. Zhou has played carry and been captain for so many years, always thinking of the team first. Seeing Zhou no longer as the carry makes me sad, the feeling of which is probably similar to how ZSMJ fans felt when they first saw him playing support with VG. Zhou’s transition, as a fan, to me signals the end of an era, but I will always support you, no matter what team, what position, you will always be captain and carry in my heart.”
“I respect Zhou. Add oil ZSMJ, add oil Zhou, add oil TongFu”
“B-God’s recent fortunes haven’t been that much better than these two. If we talk about rising carries, it would be xiaotuji and Sylar.”
“Is this really the end of another era? Once led a Chinese team to TI champions, once commanded the respect of teams around the world, once stood amongst the ranks of the Big 3 Carries. I don’t know how it must feel to have so much pressure under all this. Drafting pressures, the pressures of carrying. As captain, even more responsibilities in terms of helping the team establish early game, picking the team up in times of difficulty, these are not things that every player can handle. I hope we can all give a bit more support, and a bit less negativity.”
“ZSMJ says, Zhou-god buy chicken”
SCNTV: Alright, let’s interview the two teams’ captains. This is iG’s YYF, and this is TongFu’s ZSMJ. First question for YYF, you won a game then lost a game, what did you think you lost on in the second game?
iG.YYF: I feel that mainly I didn’t play very well, the fight right after the opposing Lone Druid finished Radiance wasn’t a good fight for me. We actually could’ve won that fight but didn’t get the details right, and then things went out of control afterwards.
SCNTV: Next question for ZSMJ, in the first game your team had a small advantage at times in early game yet still ended up losing, where did you think you lost the game?
TongFu.ZSMJ: I feel that Lone Druid mid might’ve actually been better. And then it was our roaming supports trying to gank mid without much success, and YYF got really fat in top lane, so fat that we didn’t even want to try ganking him, and then we gradually couldn’t compete any longer.
SCNTV: We’ve seen that YYF recently has really favored using Bristleback, so why do you feel that Bristleback is able to be used on the competitive stage?
iG.YYF: Because this version tends to favor teamfights and face-to-face fighting, and Bristleback is just the type of hero for this. He’s excellent in head-on conflicts, can get Mek for the team, so it can be said that he is able to ensure a team’s mid game.
SCNTV: Let’s ask ZSMJ: we know that currently, Alchemist can fit into the 2, 3, and 4 roles, so can you tell us what is so special about a support role Alchemist?
TongFu.ZSMJ: I’ve felt for my entire career that this is a hero that can play everything from the 1 role to hard support, because he has strong abilities, and is also suited for fighting, so he can play in many roles. For a support Alchemist, his stun and acid are both very high damage in early game.
SCNTV: YYF, there’s been a pretty dense line of matches recently, how have practices been for the team, what is the team’s form like right now?
iG.YYF: Just continuously exploring [new tactics], the main purpose of which is to get familiar with things. There are lots of matches right now, so the matches are our main form of practice currently.
SCNTV: ZSMJ, your coach sydm, has been playing as a standin for VG recently, what do you make of his performances?
TongFu.ZSMJ: Even though I didn’t really watch that match, but coach came back and said that they almost made a big comeback with Spectre, so it seems he’s been pretty good.
SCNTV: Okay, thank you to both for the interview, and we hope that you can bring us even more great matches in the future.
Sources: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjM0ODM2OTAw.html – http://dota2.sgamer.com/news/201311/153560.html
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Helping you cyber-stalk your favorite based-in-China Dota 2 pros and personalities, DOTALAND brings a random, semi-curated selection of posts from various publicly-accessed Weibo accounts over the past few days. What are people eating, doing, saying?
This is a new thing and I make no guarantees of: quality, consistency, or overall usefulness. Is this cool, want more, is it weird, useless? Let DOTALAND know: twitter.com/Dotaland
Sorted by player name, alphabetically. Begins with link, followed by translation of post text. Presence of pictures will be noted if available.
ChuaN
What he’s been up to (pics within) — “Holidays are over, thank you to this group of brothers. Now it’s time to gather my pathetic self back together, and take big steps towards my dream!”
DD
No eating late at night — “Whoever catches me eating late at night again, I will pay 200 RMB each time! Please supervise me”
LaNm
Pickup basketball — “Anyone for basketball around 10 in the morning? Usually one to two hours, Mushi and I are looking for a group.” (DD responded saying he’d play football/soccer, KingJ said ping pong, rOtk said it’s far while someone else said that rOtk is bad at basketball anyway, but they agreed that they should organize a game together sometime)
#Dedication — In response to someone asking if he’d do more commentating: “I’m dedicating my all to my professional competitive career, no plans to split my focus. Will only consider commentating again after I retire.”
LongDD
As a commentator 1 — “Commentating is so much fun, hope that I can gradually overcome nerves, and be like I am when streaming on YY, at ease.”
As a commentator 2 — “Going home tomorrow. Thank you WPC for giving me this opportunity to learn and show myself. WPC is great, I hope to have the chance to come back again in the future.”
Mushi
After DK vs iG (DK 2-0 iG) — “Thank you everyone for your well wishes, in the end we held! I still did not do my best, so I must work hard to analyze!”
rOtk
First commentary experience — After commentating DK vs iG: “I speak what I see. I definitely had no intentions of purposely speaking ill of DK, it was simply that I’m not a great commentator. I will improve in the future. I was truly trying to objectively analyze the two teams’ styles — DK tends towards farming, iG tends towards fighting, and thus I felt that DK would face high pressure. But congrats to DK.”
Sansheng
Quitting smoking — “I want to quit smoking!! Please everyone supervise me!!” (Zhou’s response to Sansheng, not the most encouraging: “If you are able to quit smoking, then I can quit eating!”)
Sylar
Pub problems (with pic) — “Today’s results have been unbelievable (literal translation: sky-shattering in a bad way)!” (spoiler: pros aren’t immune to loss streaks either)
xiao8
Bad habit for a commentator to have — “It’s about time to fix that habit of using profanity”
YYF
After DK vs iG (DK 2-0 iG) — “Due to a serious mistake on my part, we lost today. I’ve never hated myself as much. For my performances today, I can only use four words to describe: I’m so damn noob!”
ZSMJ
Gift from Zhou (it’s an awesome Medusa figurine, pic within) — “How’s this Medusa from Zhou-god?”
For everyone trying to keep track at home, but are having trouble… here’s a rough collection of the main newsworthy events in 2013’s Chinese shuffle and relevant source links. From top to bottom, the order goes from the most recent to the earliest. Items that are mostly at the moment unsourced rumors will be in italics.
– LGD confirms RStars.xiaotuji as their new carry, Sylar to RisingStars
This rounds out LGD’s lineup once more, and the situation bears similarity to when LGD first brought Sylar on — xiaotuji is another promising relatively new player to the scene. Can LGD repeat history and become dominant once again? Sylar on the other hand replaces xiaotuji in RisingStars — can Rstars continue their upward trajectory?
– DK announces new all-star lineup
BurNIng remains as carry, Mushi joins as solo mid, iceiceice as offlaner, with Dai/MMY and LaNm on support — this is said to be the role specification of the new star-studded DK lineup. On a sidenote, DK’s manager Farseer would like to state that the so-called ‘dream team’ that had been rumored earlier is not actually DK: “it has nothing to do with us, please don’t call us the dream team.”
– XDD and xiaotuji of RisingStars both leave, said to be joining ‘top teams’
The Rstars owner talks about both of them leaving. The big rumor regarding xiaotuji is that he is LGD’s new carry player.
– Zhou rumored to be changing his mind on going to TongFu
Zhou publicly flames Efeng, part of the management at iG, for “being two-faced, your words are worth nothing”. Speculation is that this is referring to the fact that prior to Zhou leaving iG and going to TongFu, he was promised that iG would not try to recruit other TongFu members away, but after Zhou left, iG made one or more approaches for TongFu player(s). TongFu’s manager Cuzn looks to be meeting these new developments with a mixture of surprise and dismay.
– Zhou leaves iG, joins TongFu, while Hao goes to iG
Zhou leaves iG, Hao comes to iG. The two players essentially switch places on their respective teams. Additionally, some sort of ‘strategic partnership’ has been formed between the two clubs as a result of this transaction. It is also said that KingJ and Mu are both leaving TongFu, and possibly Banana too. The split of Hao and Mu is a saddening one.
– rOtk and Super to VG, ZSMJ and CTY out of VG
ROtk and Super quickly find a new home with VG. At the same time, ZSMJ and CTY are said to have left VG, with VG stating that they made every effort to get ZSMJ to stay, whether as a coach or otherwise. ZSMJ himself has said that he will continue playing… but not with VG, apparently.
– Kabu (and LaNm) leave RattleSnake
Kabu reveals that he’s left RattleSnake. In his farewell post on Weibo, he tagged Luo, Icy, and Sag, but not LaNm, indirectly further confirming the latter also no longer being part of RSnake, something that had been rumored since after TI3. LaNm would go on to join DK.
– Mushi leaves Orange, eye on China
Mushi announces that he’s left Orange, with his goal being none other than China. He would go on to join DK.
– LGD statement on Sylar situation
LGD attempts to address the beyond-awkward situation with their now-former carry, but Sylar responds in his own way (his responses have since been deleted), basically refuting their claims and refusing to reconsider.
– DK statement on rOtk situation
DK’s manager Farseer tries to clear the air regarding the huge changes that left only BurNIng in the team. ROtk seems to be understanding, and ultimately caps off a bittersweet ending by wishing everyone well…
– rOtk kicked from DK, unwillingly; Super and others out too
In which rOtk outlines why he felt unfairly treated, in a fiery, empassioned statement. The rest of the DK players seem to be just as shocked, and respond in their own individual ways. A few days later, DK confirms that only BurNIng remains in their roster. MMY would return to DK as a member afterwards.
– Sylar leaves LGD.cn of his own accord
“I’ve left the team,” with this statement, LGD is short a carry player, and what a carry Sylar was for the team.
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ZSMJ recently made an appearance on the ZSMJ Tieba on Baidu. He asked for people in Hangzhou to come play basketball with him, and also answered some questions in the thread — some of the answers are really excellent and insightful. And sometimes, even hilarious. Who knew, ZSMJ is a comedian too? Additionally, it was revealed that his salary at VG is 5000 RMB a month and his compensation also includes rent and food (not bad at all). Give this one a read!
Q: About the move to the 4 position
ZSMJ: Because the team has lacked results for this whole time, I’ve been very frustrated. Our individual skills are all not bad, yet we just can’t seem to achieve any results. So I thought that maybe I could switch to the 4 spot, maybe this is the final step before we make that breakthrough in our team’s growth. In Fy’s daily training, I’ve noticed that he has a lot of potential in playing the carry role, so we decided to give it a try, and as such, the team is currently in a new build-up phase. The ultimate result of this experiment I do not know yet, but I can only do my best. One must change, adapt, and strive, in order to not have any regrets later on. I’ve always been very focused on following my dreams, so thank you to those who have supported me and helped me all along my journey.
Q: We heard that, before your comeback, you had preferred the quiet lifestyle of retirement from esports, that being on the computer all day was really bad for your health. So what was it that brought you back to all this again?
ZSMJ: I think it was my dreams, I wasn’t satisfied. I thirst for a championship title to prove myself. And I do really like Dota and Dota 2, there’s a very deep emotional attachment. As for computer-related activities and how they relate to my health, I say that because whenever I play professionally, my health and physical state tend to deteriorate. I’ve had surgery before, because of the drain that it has had on my body. That’s also why I’m so skinny. During my retirement, I had manage to gain a few kilograms, and my acne cleared up. But now I’m right back to around 50 kg, and have acne all over my face.
Q: There’s been widespread flaming of CTY for all sorts of problems, what do you think? What is your opinion of CTY?
ZSMJ: CTY is an extremely talented and skillful individual player. But because of a lack of experience, so currently his play isn’t reliable enough, and he lacks some understanding of how to play the mid and late game scenarios. I believe that with time, he will improve on all these things. Everyone has their weaknesses, so going on and on about one new player’s weaknesses really isn’t doing any favors for the Chinese scene in terms of finding new talent. We should all look for their strengths, and help them develop. I myself am a player with relatively stronger execution, relatively weak leadership, so the team isn’t directed by me. Thus, people end up flaming CTY since the focus in that falls on him. Perhaps if I had a stronger pesronality to take on that role instead, it could be better for everyone, so I will also work hard on that.
Q: Outside of training, what kinds of things do you do for fun?
ZSMJ: Lately due to the lack of achievements, I’ve been feeling the pressure of needing to achieve some results, so apart from training everyday, it’s just sleep. I feel like I’ve met a bottleneck myself, so I’ve really been frustrated~~ I don’t know how to solve it. In the past, while playing professionally, I would go work out, go to the movies, and also play basketball. Are there any groups playing basketball near the Xihu District in Hangzhou? Call me~
Q: As a fan of yours since I started playing Dota, I’ve always liked you. Now that you’re switching to the 4 role, I’m all sorts of emotional, but also hope that you can achieve success with this. Will there be a chance for you to return to the carry role in the future? What circumstances would have to be met for this to happen?
ZSMJ: My switch to the 4 is not because I personally want to play the 4 role, but because it’s something to try to help the team’s needs. If there isn’t any success from this attempt, then I will go back to playing carry. I’m just looking for a way to break through. Whatever ends up suiting our needs is what we’ll do!
Q: Do you have a girlfriend? If you’re looking, then would you prefer one that plays Dota? What other things would you look for in a girl?
ZSMJ: No girlfriend. I don’t like girls that play Dota. I don’t want a public bus (everyone gets a ride), and they must have great figure! Large chest! Can cook and clean, house worthy, loyal and doesn’t mind that I’m poor. Due to the fact that these girls do not exist on this planet, I’ve thus gone on the path of homosexuality. I have many boy friends. I like chubby ones, ones with lots of meat on their bones. If you meet these requirements, I only say this: Please contact me.
Q: Your item hotkeys
ZSMJ: ` – 2 – F2 – TAB – Q – F3
Q: What is your ideal lifestlye? Your fans are often categorized as hardcore fans, or braindead fans, etc. What do you think about this? What kind of porn do you like? I’ll PM you some of whatever it is.
ZSMJ: My ideal life is to have a home, have a car, have a woman, and have a kid. The home doesn’t need to be large, the child as long as it is mine, is fine, and as long as the car moves, we’re good. The woman doesn’t need to be beautiful, as long as she’s good to me, then that’s great.
As for fans, I feel it’s pretty nice. I love my fans, no matter what kind you are. I’ve always believed that true support comes in the form of its steadfastness. For me, I haven’t won much in the past year or two, yet regardless of my own poor performances or change of teams, my fans have always supported me. I grew up in the village with my grandma, never received much in the way of a formal education. My parents didn’t pay much attention to me. So the kinds of emotions and relationships that I have from my fans are things that I truly appreciate, it’s just like family, and I really love it. Each and every thanks I say to you all, I fully mean it. I just wanna say, even though I may not be the greatest Dota star, but I am someone worthy of all your support. I believe that I will one day stand up top with title in hand.
As for porn, I haven’t watched any in ages. I’m old… Plus, it’s a waste of tissue — I’m poor, can’t afford that stuff.
Q: What is your relation with 2009 like? Always been curious; is it a tale of two brothers fighting alongside each other, or a Shakespearean story of brotherly love?
ZSMJ: Without 2009, there wouldn’t have been FTD, and wouldn’t have been today’s LGD. I really respect 9-god, and appreciate him. He’s a business genius. At the time of our departures, it wasn’t anything about anyone abandoning the other, more that he just had made the decision to leave LGD. Now it looks like he made the right decision, because nowadays 2009 is doing quite well.
When I first started playing professionally, I didn’t understand anything, I was just a raw kid on the scene. 2009 was a 20-something college student, for him to bring us all along and up through the scene all in the name of chasing our dreams, it couldn’t have been easy for him.
So he will always be my captain, my most respected captain.
Sources: http://tieba.baidu.com/p/2474570985 — http://dota.shandian.biz/1006.html
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