We are maybe only a few weeks away from the first invites going out to this years International if last years timetable holds true, which means it’s about time we start considering which teams may or may not be showing up to the party. Beyond the usual hubbub this year we have an interesting twist, as previously datamined formats for four regional qualifiers has turned out to be true, leaving far fewer direct invites up for grabs this year than previously while at the same time expanding the scope of the qualifiers, splitting South East Asia and North America apart from their bigger brothers. With that in mind we will start our journey by looking at the health of the SEA scene, which has been subject to considerable turmoil since the last International.
The dire straits of SEA
While SEA has had an important role in the history of Dota, the scene has been in a relative decline for a few years now, and this has been reflected in their results at the International. Of the 75 SEA players across 13 SEA teams that have ever attended or tried to qualify for this premier event, only 20 have ever posted a top 8 finish, with only five players being able to replicate that feat in a following year and none managing to stay at that level for all 3 events that have been held to date. Further more of these 20 players, seven are no longer playing Dota professionally including two of the five who’ve managed repeat top 8 finishes, with a further two leaving for China after last years international. The only two time top 8 player left on a SEA team? Joel ‘XtiNcT’ Chan Zhan Leong of Titan eSports.
Not a single player from Scythe.Sg of the International 2011 remains in SEA Dota 2 scene.
The problem hasn’t so much been that SEA has gotten worse, it’s that the scene is underdeveloped and has been stagnant while the other scenes have continued to grow. Language barriers prevent good players from consolidating across country lines stranding them in their small local scenes and unable to compete against teams that can draw on far greater talent pools. While both MiTH-Trust and Mineski attended the first International, with MiTH-TR coming in 7th-8th, neither team has since been able to qualify for the event when pitted against Chinese teams in the Eastern Qualifiers. In fact Mineski has never won an International qualifier game, while MiTH-TR has only ever won two qualifier games, both against Mineski. And then we have MUFC, one of two SEA teams that have in some form been invited to every International to date. Their record? 1-19 and once disqualified for having their captain kicked off of the plane in Canada en route to the event. It’s not without reason that a lot of people are pessimistic about SEA going into TI4.
So what’s the point of this history lesson? Well, for the first time ever we’re looking at only 11 direct invites to the event, which means that some direct invites have to be cut. In past years SEA has been afforded four direct invites in 2011, four in 2012 with MUFC later being disqualified and three in 2013. These numbers can’t hold up when there’s only 11 direct invites to be handed out, especially not given the state of the SEA scene since last years event. Given that there are four regional qualifiers it’s not only plausible but it might even be right for no teams to afford a direct invite from SEA, allowing only the single best team through the qualifiers with the second best team given a chance to prove themselves against the other regions second place qualifier teams at the event. If history is any indication, such a second place qualifier team from SEA would likely struggle to make the cut when put up against the second place qualifier from China, Europe and North America.
Prospective qualifier teams
Since Wei Poong ‘YamateH’ Ng replaced Galvin ‘Meracle’ Kang in Titan a bit more than two months ago the team has gone 33-3-15 in 51 matches, clocking in at a very respectable 65% winrate. These numbers however are largely against other SEA teams, and although Titan is showing that they can compete with the weaker Chinese teams in WPC ACE right now and came close to taking a game off of NewBee today, they are still 0-8 in matches against the top tier Chinese teams. Titan have the best case to be made for a direct invite of any SEA team, as they have seasoned players with International experience, with every player having reached top 8 or better at a previous event. They also have the strongest organization behind them, which matters quite a bit in terms of their ability to prepare for the big event. They should be included in the next International and may get a direct invite on this basis, although this means that SEA will have two teams at the event, setting things up for a potential repeat of MUFC's run last year.
Not the team you remember from last years International, Orange lost their entire remaining squad to Titan after last years event, leading them to pick up the core of what was the ill fated 0-14 MUFC. Of those players only Chan ‘WinteR’ Litt-Bin and MUFC sixth man Raymond ‘Sharky’ Wong remain on the team, as they’ve added three young players to their ranks since. While the team has struggled against other notable SEA competitors such as Arrow Gaming and Scythe, they have a strong organization behind them and name recognition which is likely going to be enough to get them into the qualifiers, where it will be up to WinteR and Sharky to try and leverage their experience into a top two finish. Even if they were to qualify they would realistically only be attending the International as a filler team with no real prospects of making it past the second round of the lower bracket.
Without a doubt the surprise breakout team of this year so far in SEA, Arrow Gaming consists largely of players who weren’t familiar to the viewing public just a few months ago. Consisting of former Lowyat.Net players as well as Lee ‘JoHnNy’ Johnny formerly of Chains Stack and a short stint in Rattlesnake, this team has been taking the SEA scene by storm during the past few months, going 9-1 and 16-4 in their last 10 and 20 games respectively. They mainly only play other SEA teams, but they have shown time and again that they can not just take games off Titan and Orange but also beat both of them, sitting on top of the joinDOTA League Asian division currently and making it to the finals of the AOC Pro Cup back in February. They may well make it deep in a qualifier run, but their prospects if they did end up qualifying are almost non-existent.
While the name is a tacky attempt to cash in on the fame of Scythe.Sg, the team is still a legitimate contender which some may better remember as last years First Departure. With Galvin ‘Meracle’ Kang returning to the fold after being removed from Titan eSports and former Zenith player Nicholas ‘xFreedom’ Lim biding his time before military service, this all Singaporean squad again has a fairly good track record against other SEA teams. As with any Singaporean team there needs to be a caveat however as the location of the SEA servers in Singapore have always been advantageous for the local teams when competing online. The actual strength of the team on LAN is yet to be seen, but it’s hard to imagine a SEA qualifier right now without including Scythe as one of the favourites.
The return of Indonesian legend Ritter ‘RitteR’ Rusli some four months ago caused a bit of commotion among long time fans of Dota, and was followed up by some decent results in SEA competitions, although not enough to measure up to what some fans were hoping for at the onset. RRQ have taken games off of other qualifier hopefuls such as Orange, Scythe, MiTH-TR and Mineski, but at the same time their overall trackrecord is spotty, coming in at a 51% winrate while only playing within the region. They are likely to be invited to the qualifier in order to add some flavour and as a nod to oldschool fans, but their chances of qualifying are slim.
MiTH-TR have been involved in both of the previous International qualifiers as well as the original event and there’s no reason to expect that they wouldn’t be invited again this year. They aren’t the most flashy team and they haven’t switched up their play style in years, but they are consistently relevant in a scene that sees teams and players come and go several times a year. Pipat ‘LaKelz’ Prariyachat may be one of the greatest victims of the language barriers of SEA, as with a better team around him he might well be far more relevant. As it is, MiTH-TR is another filler team, with a slight chance of making it deep in the qualifier.
These days all it takes to make most Dota fans eyes roll over is to mention Mineski. What was once the crowning jewel of the vibrant Pinoy scene is now better known for their spectacular failures on the international stage and their once a month roster swaps. The team has been doing ok, taking some games off of other qualifier teams and have once again reached out to DK’s Chai ‘Mushi’ Yee Fung for some coaching, but whether this will have any impact on their previously mentioned terrible success in TI qualifiers is doubtful. They’ll get a spot representing Pinoy dota, but don’t hold your breath for them to qualify.
Michael ‘ninjaboogie’ Ross is one of these players who continue to float around the SEA scene and elicit a bit of hope wherever he goes before seeing yet another team fold and him moving on. The main motivation for their inclusion is that every qualifier ends up including two Pinoy teams, for all that no Pinoy team has ever won a qualifier match. Exe.TnC would look to buck that trend, and ninjaboogie is in fact one of the few Pinoys to have had some qualifier success previously with Duskbin, but it’s still highly unlikely that we’ll see any Pinoy colour attending Seattle this year.
The South Korean Dota scene hasn’t exactly panned out as many hoped, with little improvement being seen over the past year even as Nexon continues to pump money into the local scene. Instead Korea has become the place to go for Western players who can’t for whatever reason find a real contender team back home, and Zephyr is the ultimate representation of this trend as a full five man squad of North American and European players are sitting on top of the South Korean scene. The major notch against them in terms of the qualifier is that they are from SEA only in the most superficial sense, but it is likely that their name recognition will be enough to get them a qualifier invite.
Phoenix is the strongest of the home grown Korean teams and winners of the recent StarSeries IX Korea qualifier. While Tae Won ‘March’ Park can be considered a partial import and the squad did use Jimmy ‘DeMoN’ Ho for the previous Nexon Sponsorship League they still now consist of all Korean nationals, and this may put them ahead of Zephyr in consideration for the International qualifiers, even though they consistently seem to lose to Zephyr. Another option might be that they would end up bumping Exe.TnC from the qualifier.
Let us know if you think we missed out any team that you think deserves consideration in the comments!
"The League Championship Series is a professional sports league, with players who compete for most of the year, live with their teams and travel extensively. All this adds up to a full-time job and commitment that requires significant sacrifice and lot of maturity. That’s why we believe that 17 is the appropriate minimum age for a pro player."
-Riot's 2014 Season 4 FAQ
One of the remarkable facets of esports is that the medium of competition, with matches taking place inside a virtual environment inside a computer, means that this is a competitive discipline or sport which truly can transcend societal limitations. If someone can perform to a high level then they can be a professional and earn a degree of respect, regardless of age, gender, religion, ethnicity or income level. Battles that must be fought on those fronts in other sports, where societal labels have held back potentially great athletes, become almost moot in the world of esports. It's merely about whether the person has game or not inside the server.
In that sense it's worth considering the impact of age restrictions on esports and its future. Riot Games explicitly enforces a restriction that says only players aged 17 or older may participate as professional gamers in their League Championship Series (LCS), which covers the highest level of play in North American and European regions.
It was initially assumed, and often cited in public discussions, that Riot had made this ruling on the basis of some labour laws that meant an American company could not salary an individual under the age of 17 to work full-time. Were that the case, then there could be little argument with Riot themselves. As their FAQ and interview answers (above and below, respectively) show, though, Riot themselves deny this as the impetus.
"The decision to limit eligibility in the Championship Series to players 17 and older is not based upon an American standard. The Championship Series is a true pro sports league and its players will be training and competing for most of the year. They won’t just be attending a few weekend tournaments, scattered throughout the calendar. Championship Series pro players will be living with their teams, traveling extensively and making an adult commitment to eSports. They will need to be able to make decisions and sacrifices which require a high degree of maturity.
Our pros will have full-time jobs and we believe that 17 is the appropriate minimum age for a player to operate at this level."
-Dustin "RedBeard" Beck, Riot Vice President of eSports, speaking in an interview (Mobafire)
This is significant as players under the age of 17 have accomplished incredible and admirable feats, both in other esports titles and in competitive LoL itself. Some of them are still under the age of 17 and yet have proven themselves worthy competitors and deserving of the title "professional".
This column will tell the story of some of the esports names, past and present, who have proven themselves to be professional gamers, despite not being old enough to pass Riot's restriction.
The Russian Quake maestro
Alias: Cooller
Name: Anton Singov
Current age: 27
Date of Birth: August 5, 1986
Anton 'Cooller' Singov is one of the most legendary names in the history of Quake dueling. While he now stands as an elder statesman of the game, he was once a young phenom from Russia who came roaring over the horizon and dominated the world's best players. Surprisingly qualifying for the 2002 World Cyber Games (WCG) from Russia, one of the deepest scenes for Quake 3 dueling talent, a 16 year old Cooller defeated reigning WCG champion ZeRo4, considered the world's best dueler, in the group stage.
The following year Cooller won QLAN, beating top aimer Z4muZ, to signal he was ready to challenge for the title of world number one. At the first Esports World Cup (ESWC), Cooller met ZeRo4 in the final and slayed the former number one in emphatic fashion. From then on Cooller would be constantly in the conversation for the world's best duel player.
What's most interesting about Cooller's successes before the age of 17 is that one of most famous qualities was his composure under pressure, never letting on if he was nervous or having it manifest in his play. He was the ultimate cool competitor, seemingly unshakeable in big matches. There are players who are 25 who lack such composure and mental strength.
Quake's impossible talent
Alias: Cypher
Name: Alexei Yanushevsky
Current age: 23
Date of Birth: May 17, 1990
There have been many talented players in the history of Quake dueling, but none shone as brilliantly as Alexei 'Cypher' Yanushevsky has done. This Belarusian possessed such an incredible skillset in-game that his range of consistent rocket damage exceeds even the rest of the world's best players by such a margin as to almost not make sense. Cypher came into the spotlight in 2006, defeating the aforementioned Cooller in the semi-final of ESWC in Quake 4. For a 16 year old player to be an ESWC finalist was more than a hint at the potential the young man possessed, as he would show over the years.
Cypher would go on to become one of the greatest Quake duelers of all time.
Unleashed aggression
Alias: av3k
Name: Maciej Krzykowsk
Current age: 23
Date of Birth: April 1, 1991
15 year old Maciej 'av3k' Krzykowsk came into a Quake 4 scene dominated by the impossibly consistent aim machine that was toxic. Where others simply couldn't beat the Swedish tyrant, who had won seemingly every event that year, av3k emerged as a new name to enter the circle of contenders. At the Digital Life event in October of 2006, av3k defeated legendary Quake 3 champion Fatal1ty in two series, in the upper and lower brackets, but fell to toxic twice to finish runner-up.
Eight months later, aged 16, av3k defeated toxic 2:0 in the upper bracket and then edged out the Swede in the finals. The player who had seemed unbeatable, and for good reasons, had been taken down by a 16 year old Polish dueler. Two weeks later, av3k won ESWC, defeating Cooller in the final. He would finish fourth at WSVG Toronto later in the same year, still yet to hit the mark of 17.
av3k brought an aggressive playing style, coupled with sheer fearlessness, that made other professional players uncomfortable, both in terms of their in-game movements, which were restricted by his constant aggression and willingness to fight, and in terms of their mental frame at all points of the game. If you were in control of the map against av3k you always feared he would break control at any moment, launching a furious surprise attack, and if you were out of control then his ceaseless pressure left you unable to formulate a plan to turn the game, due to lacking time to think.
Nevermind the upset
Alias: Mind
Name: Park Sung Gyoon
Current age: 22
Date of Birth: October 3, 1991
Park 'Mind' Sung Gyoon emerged from nowhere, competitively speaking, to win the GOMTV MSL Season 3 tournament in Korean BW in late 2007, all at the tender age of 16. Having defeated iloveoov, the monster macro Terran of 2003-2004, in the Ro16, he then bested sAviOr in a close five game series in the semi-final. sAviOr had been in five straight MSL finals, the last being only two seasons prior, and won the most MSL titles in history.
Despite having beaten that legendary Zerg name, Mind was expected to be the sacrifical lamb for the final, facing off against Bisu, the champion of the last two MSL tournaments, playing in his third straight final. Mind was scripted, seemingly, to lose to Bisu and see the Protoss player elevated to the status of bonjwa of the scene, ruling over the year comprehensively. Instead, Mind pulled off the upset and brilliantly thwarted the efforts of Bisu, taking the MSL title for himself.
In the next season's MSL, still aged 16, Mind made another legend killing run, beating NaDa, the most accomplished player in history, in the Ro8. In the semi-final he was defeated by Jaedong, who would go on to win the title and would later be known as one of the game's greatest ever winners.
Instant brilliance
Alias: Flash
Name: Lee Young Ho
Current age: 21
Date of Birth: July 5, 1992
Lee 'Flash' Young Ho was only 14 years old when he qualified for his first Ongamenet StarLeague (OSL), the most prestigious individual league in Korean BW, in 2007. The South Korean BW scene was the most competitive and difficult to break into of any esports scene which had existed to that point in time, packed with professionals of all ages, all practicing 12 or more hours every day to attempt to reach the top of the scene. To qualify as a 14 year old was an incredible feat on its own, but Flash had much more to show in this rookie season.
The young KTF Terran would go up against Bisu in the Ro8, at a time when Bisu was widely considered the best player in the world, the reigning MSL champion and having just reached his second consecutive MSL semi-final a day prior. Flash paid the Protoss player no respect, cheesing him and outing him in the quarter-final. Eight days after turning 15, Flash lost a five game semi-final series to GGPlay, who would go on to win the title that season.
In March of 2008, a 15 year old Flash would win the GOMTV Star Invitational and Bacchus OSL titles in the same month, defeating Jaedong in two Bo3s and Stork in both finals. Stork had been considered the world's best PvT player, with a supposedly unbeatable carrier build, but Flash had been able to edge him in the first final. In the second, taking place only two weeks later, Flash smashed Stork 3:0 in the fastest OSL final in history. His bracket route for that tournament had been crazy, facing Jaedong in the Ro8, Bisu in the semi-final and Stork in the final, the three players who would, along with Flash, be considered the greatest of that era. 15 year old Flash had reached the top of the most competitive esports scene in the world.
Aged 16, Flash finished top four in the Arena MSL, losing to the eventual champion fOrGG in the semi-final, and finished runner-up to Jaedong in the GOM Classic Season 1. Before reaching the age of 17, Flash had won more than $115,000 in prize money.
The lower bracket monster
Alias: Leenock
Name: Lee Dong Nyoung
Current age: 19
Date of Birth: April 1, 1995
Lee 'Leenock' Dong Nyoung was able to reach the final 16 of the first two GSL Open seasons in 2010, aged 15 years old. In November of 2011, the young Zerg player attended the stacked MLG Providence, MLG's year-end championship. The format of the event meant that pros who had earned points throughout the circuit were seeded into the bracket accordingly. Leenock's low seeding meant that only two rounds into the upper bracket he met DongRaeGu, perhaps the best Zerg player in Korea, and was defeated 2:0 and sent to the lower bracket.
From the lower bracket Leenock would mount an improbable and incredible run, defeating six pros to reach the final. Amongst those he slayed along the way was Mvp, the best player in SC2 history and a multiple time GSL champion, as well as MMA, reigning GSL champion, and the aforementioned DongRaeGu. In the final, Leenock faced foreign Protoss star NaNiwa. The Swedish Protoss had run through all of his opponents in the upper bracket and looked set to take the title, needing only to win a single Bo3 to take the crown. Leenock edged NaNiwa in the first Bo3, winning 2:1, to make the series into a Bo7. Winning two straight maps, he took the crown and the hefty first prize back to Korea with him.
Back in Korea, Leenock had been making a similarly impressive run through GSL Code S, the highest level of competition in Korean StarCraft2. Beating Mvp in the final, the man who had reached the past two finals consecutively, he fell to jjakji there, taking a silver medal. Prior to reaching his 17th birthday, Leenock had racked up $84,000 in prize money.
A rookie unlike others in SC2
Alias: Life
Name: Lee Seung Hyun
Current age: 17
Date of Birth: January 11, 1997
Lee 'Life' Seung Hyun had made it onto an SC2 pro team in Korea at age 14. At 15 years of age, the young Zerg was able to win GSL 2012 S4 Code S, all in his debut to the tournament. In the quarter-final he had bested MarineKing, multiple time finalists, to reach a semi-final against TaeJa, perhaps the hottest tournament player in the world at the time, dismissing that player in a 3:0 sweep. The finals had met matching up with Mvp, a four time GSL champion, accounting for the most titles in the game's history. Going all the way to a deciding seventh game, Life there defeated Mvp to take the hardest title in the SC2 world.
Over the next two months, Life won the MLG Fall Championship and the GSL Blizzard Cup, against defeating big names in high level competitions. After his 16th birthday, the StarTale Zerg would add the Iron Squid - Chapter II title, defeating former GSL champion DongRaeGu in the final, becoming only the first player in history to return from 0:3 down in a final to win 4:3. The mental composure life showed under pressure went beyond anything expected of most 16 year olds.
In March, Life won his second MLG title, adding the Winter Championship to his haul. Later that year, Life would made the semi-final of a very stacked Dreamhack Bucharest, win IEM VIII New York in emphatic fashion and finish second to an unbeatable TaeJa at Dreamhack Winter. Before his 17th birthday arrived this year, Life had collected $196,000 in winnings.
A young mechanical master
Alias: Uzi
Name: Jian Zihao
Current age: 17
Date of Birth: March 29, 1997
Jian 'Uzi' Zihao was already known in the Chinese scene as a monster AD Carry of the LPL, the top Chinese competitive league, going up against the likes of WeiXiao on a regular basis. It wasn't until the Season 3 World Championship that the entire LoL world understood the talent level of this young Chinese player, though, as the ADC put on a clinic against fellow Chinese rivals OMG in the Ro8. In the semi-final his team dispatched European side fnatic to reach the final, where they would lose to SK Telecom T1, arguably history's greatest LoL line-up.
What's astounding about Uzi is that not only was he his team's star player, all at age 16, but his team was even notable for a strategy which was entirely focused on protecting him and having him carry the end game late. The pressure to perform could not have been higher for a young player, yet Uzi shined against all but the best team in the world. The Chinese player, who turned 17 last week, has already helped his team win more than $334,000.
Coming into his own at the right time
Alias: Maru
Name: Cho Sung Choo
Current age: 16
Date of Birth: July 28, 1997
Cho 'Maru' Sung Choo was competing in the first season of GSL Open as a 13 year old. The next two years of his career would see him frequently appearing in Code A, the second tier of Korean SC2 competition, and making a single Code S run to a Ro16 finish. At age 16, Maru made a true competitive statement, winning the WCS S2 KR OSL title. Smashing INnoVation, considered to be the world's best player, in a 4:0 sweep in the semi-final, the young Terran then went up against Rain, the reigning OSL champion of the previous year and one of the world's elite Protoss players, defeating the SKT player 4:2 to take the crown.
In the next season of GSL, Maru defeated former GSL champion jjakji to reach the semi-final, there losing to a Dear in blowtorch hot form, who went on to take that season's title. In the WCS Season 3 finals Maru again ousted a former GSL champion, defeating MMA in the Ro8, only to face Dear in another semi-final, again losing by a 1:3 scoreline to the player who would win the event and was considered unbeatable at the time.
At the WCS Global Finals, all of two weeks and a few days later, Maru knocked out two time GSL champion MC in the Ro16, beat WCS S2 EU champion duckdeok in the Ro8 and then lost out to Jaedong, legendary BW champion and multiple time runner-up of SC2, in the semi-final. In the Hot6ix Cup, the final tournament of 2013, Maru swept soO, GSL finalist that year, in the Ro8 and fell to Soulkey, the year's most consistent player, 1:3 in the semi-final. In the first GSL of this year Maru finished in the Ro8, losing out to former GSL champion Life in 2:3 series.
In the span of just over seven months, Maru was able to win an OSL title, finish top four in five elite level tournaments and finish in the top eight a total of six times. Still aged 16, the young Terran has won over $75,000.
Youth without youth
Alias: Zzitai
Name: Liu Zhihao
Current age: 16
Date of Birth: August 25, 1997
Liu 'Zzitai' Zhihao began competing in LoL in 2011, at the tender age of 13. Joining invictus Gaming (iG) in April of 2012, he managed to qualify for the Season 2 World Championship, representing China, at the age of 14. At age 15 he helped his team emerge from the group of death, featuring Frost, CLG Prime and SK Gaming, to a quarter-final finish, pushing European masters Moscow Five before losing both games.
In 2013, Zzitai's iG were the team that stopped the incredible domestic run of World Elite, where they had been unbeaten in a series for over six months, in the final of StarsWar League Season 2. A month before his 16th birthday, Zzitai finished runner-up to World Elite at IEM Shanghai. As a 16 year old he would win IEM Singapore, defeating Frost in the final.
Zzitai was known both for his creative champion picks and his ability to swap to the AD Carry position, as needed, something highly unique for a top level professional player, especially in a scene as packed with ADC talent as China's.
The 16 year old Zzitai's teams have accrued over $271,000 with him in the line-up.
A new talent rises in China
Alias: SmLz
Name: Han Jin
Current age: 16
Date of Birth: September 24, 1997
Han 'SmLz' Jin may well be China's next AD Carry star-in-the-making. The ADC of World Elite Academy, the second team of the famed Chinese organisation, the 16 year old has already shown off numerous highlight plays in the second tier competition of Chinese LoL. Many tip him as one of the next stars of the scene, with the joke often being that the WE.Academy is better than the main WE line-up that competes in LPL.
Those restricted directly
Having looked at numerous examples of players who have accomplished incredible things in other games or outside of the NA/EU region for LoL, let's take a look at two famous cases of players who were limited by the Riot restriction.
The young Danish mid master
Alias: Bjergsen
Name: Søren Bjerg
Current age: 18
Date of Birth: February 21, 1996
Søren 'Bjergsen' Bjerg was only 16 years old when he helped his Copenhagen Wolves team grab the spotlight by beating Curse.EU, the talented but troubled team who had beaten Moscow Five at Tales of the Lane, in the group stage of Dreamhack Winter 2012. Two weeks later, his team beaten ALTERNATE three times to finish runners-up to fnatic in the THOR Open final. Less than a week after that, CPH Wolves won NorthCon, beating Team Acer, featuring the likes of CitizenWayne and Amazing, in the final.
In the span of less than a month of play, Bjergsen had proven himself a fast rising talent in the European scene, one packed with star mid laners, and helped his team grab numerous respectable placings. There was one problem though: with his birthday on February 21st, he would not meet the Riot age restriction before the qualifiers had takent place for the first LCS split. This meant his team had to attend the split without their star. As it happened, a miraculous run of form allowed the team to qualify, even when some of its members had assumed they wouldn't, despite numerous strong teams attending the qualifier.
With the first two weeks of LCS Spring taking place before his birthday, Bjergsen had to sit on the sidelines and watch his team go 0/5, plunging to the very bottom of the league. Returning to the line-up in week three, now aged 17, would help revive their form and they went 13:10 in their remaining 23 games, totalling an impressive 56.52% win-rate. Their 13:15 overall final standing meant they finished fifth at the end of the regular portion of the split, leaving many to wonder where they might have finished with Bjergsen in the line-up for the first five games.
Swedish sensation
Alias: Rekkles
Name: Martin Larsson
Current age: 17
Date of Birth: September 20, 1996
Martin 'Rekkles' Larsson was only 15 years old when he competed at the MLG Summer Arena with Team BLACK in August of 2012. Getting to play against the likes of Team SoloMid (TSM), the dominant team in NA LoL, and Azubu Blaze, the reigning OGN champions, was quite the competitive debut for the young Swedish AD Carry. Three and a half months later he got a chance to play for fnatic and immediately helped turn the ailing European team's fortunes around.
Rekkles and company shocked CLG.EU, formerly Europe's second best team and a semi-finalist from the World Championship, 2:1 in the final of Dreamhack Winter. A week later, at the stacked IPL5 event in Vegas, Rekkles would shine as fnatic stormed to an impressive and explosive runner-up finish. After beating Blaze in the group stage, Rekkles' team were able to twice defeat reigning LoL World Champions Taipei Assassins 2:0 in the bracket stage. The young Swede even got to go up against Doublelift, mechanically gifted and highly touted American AD Carry of CLG Prime, in the upper bracket.
Facing the likes of Cpt Jack, Bebe, WeiXiao and Doublelift, Rekkles had been given the chance to test his skills at AD Carry against some of the world's most famous and accomplished names, frequently proving up to the task. A week after IPL, fnatic won THOR Open. Less than a week after that Rekkles played his final tournament of the year and his last for fnatic in that incarnation, finished runner-up at IEM VII Cologne. Beating Reapered's SKT in the group stage, fnatic won 2:1 against a CJ Entus team featuring dade and inSec in the semi-final. In the final they fell to the same SKT they had met in the group stage.
Over a one month time span, Rekkles had helped fnatic to top two finishes in four straight events, one being arguably the second biggest and most competitive of the year. The age restriction, with Rekkles' birthday not until September of 2013, meant he would not be able to compete for fnatic in the first two LCS splits. The team let him compete in the amateur scene while they went off and won both LCS splits. On the amateur circuit Rekkles was able to win three offline tournaments and place top two in two others, shining as one of the stars of the semi-professional environment. Before turning 17, Rekkles had won his teams over $96,000 in prize money.
Accomplishments that matter
By outlining these stories I've shown numerous cases of young players accomplishing incredible feats, sometimes even becoming the best player in the entire world in their game at age 15 or 16. Flash's unbelievable climb through the ultra competitive Korean BW scene to reach the semi-final of his first major tournament, then going on to win a title in record time the next year, would barely be believed if it was the plot of a movie. Life ascending SC2 to knock off the greatest player of all time in his first season is both a captivating tale and one that inspires admiration.
Yet if the names on this list, minus Bjergsen and Rekkles, had been competing in the North American or European regions, with LoL as their competitive game of choice, then they would not have been able to show us these incredible runs. Their chance to prove themselves elite competitors in the world, as good as any of the professional players older than them, would have been denied them.
No doubt many reading this article remember being wowed by the mechanical perfection of Uzi's performance against a scary OMG team in the Ro8 of the World Championship, yet we must consider that if he had been competing in a region where the league was run entirely by Riot that we would still not know who Uzi was, or not to the same degree. His skills would not have been able to shine to the same degree competing in an amateur circuit.
Players like Flash, Life and Maru, had numerous hurdles along their competitive careers in the early years. Deny them those first couple of years to figure things out and nobody can know if they'd even have been capable of half of their accomplishments. Denied access to elite level competition, how would they learn composure or adapt to opponents figuring out their strengths? These failures, mixed with their successes, were part of the path they had to take to reach the pinnacle of their games.
If Riot waved their magic age restricting wand all of the stories in this article, minus two, would be gone. But what of those two stories? In Bjergsen's case it's not simply a fun 'what if?' to speculate on what might have happened in CPH Wolves had been able to use him for the first five LCS Spring games, being as they would finish only two wins behind fourth placed EG, it's also an important consideration to make in terms of them even getting to play in LCS. Replay that LCS qualifier five times and CPH Wolves might not even make it in a second time, that's how dangerous a field it was to navigate. Without CPH Wolves in LCS Spring we don't get to see Bjergsen's incredible rookie performance that split.
In the case of Rekkles, had fnatic won the Summer split without any dip in form, nobody can even know if he'd be in fnatic right now. The Swede might be playing for another team entirely. While Uzi, who is seven months younger than him, competed in the final of the Season 3 World Championship, Rekkles, who had already proven himself at IPL5 and in the rest of the pre-S3 circuit, was forced to sit at home and watch the tournament online, wondering how he might have done under such circumstances.
If Riot waved their wand, then the careers of Zzitai and Uzi as LoL professionals would not yet have begun. There'd have been no S2WC group stage for Zzitai, no S3WC final for Uzi. In fact, none of the accomplishments listed here, minus those of Bjergsen and Rekkles, would have ever taken place.
Conclusions
In "real" sports it's simply not going to happen that a 16 year old possesses the physical gifts to beat the best player in the world, who is in his physical prime. In esports, this was both possible and has happened on numerous occasions (Cooller, Cypher, Flash, Life). To deny those players the opportunity to accomplish such feats, on the basis that some people their age might not be able to handle the strains and rigors of a professional career, is both arbitrary and questionable.
Players have proven themselves capable of conducting themselves as professionals, sometimes even above and beyond the level of older peers. Meanwhile, some professionals buckle under such pressures at ages beyond 17. Such matters would be best judged on an individual basis, perhaps left to the player himself or his parental figures to make a decision on. Arbitrarily telling players they can't compete, on the basis they might not be able to handle being a professional, both hinders their development along the path of becoming the best pro player they can be, but also denies the world a chance to see their talents in full bloom on the biggest international stages.
If it is the case that in fact the impetus forcing such a restriction is a legal one, then Riot should simply be honest about that and then there would be little reason for anyone to dispute it. Instead, they have framed this as a debate about the developmental age at which someone should be allowed to compete. Allowed by who? The people who made the game and invested money into the league, these are the people who have set themselves up as arbiters of such a condition. I say that there have been cases of players who could play as well as anyone older, remain composed just as well as anyone older and act as professionally as anyone older. They should not be denied a chance to prove that to be the case.
I was awe-inspired by Flash's early BW accomplishments, Life's victory over Mvp left me stunned and Uzi's mechanical mastery left me speechless. If Riot waved their age restriction wand over those proceedings, I'd never have seen any of those things come to be. That would be an awful shame, especially in a field like few others, where limitations can truly be transcended.
Adrian 'Candy Panda' Wübbelmann, AD Carry of SK Gaming, is the star of the 24th episode of 'Reflections'.
Should SK have removed ocelote before the Summer split of LCS? Was retirement ever an option for Candy Panda in the off-season? What are his thoughts on long-time ex-botlane partner Nyph? How good was nRated when they picked him up and what changed about his attitude?
Time line of topics discussed:
00:10 Intro
00:20 During the off-season was CandyPanda ever in a position of being forced to retire or leave SK?
01:10 SK struggling in Summer split.
02:36 ocelote's level in the Summer split.
03:44 hyrqBot's jungling.
05:33 Was it a possibility for everyone minus ocelote to stay together?
06:15 Candy Panda's level in the Summer split.
07:27 What happened in the Promotion series vs. SHC?
08:40 Did he know Nyph would leave regardless of if they qualified for LCS?
09:44 Why did Nyph look so bad early on in Alliance in the split?
11:03 My theory about why Nyph and tabzz weren't doing well as a botlane.
12:19 Did Nyph get too much credit in the SK botlane?
13:57 Has something changed about him this split?
14:50 Champion pool changes.
15:35 Comparing Nyph and nRated.
16:24 nRated's off-season problems.
18:29 Where nRated's skills were when SK picked him up.
20:07 Was there carry-over synergy from when CandyPanda played in fnatic?
21:36 Not being able to carry as ADC in solo queue.
22:43 Finding the balance of ADC.
23:19 Does ADC need a buff?
24:18 Do ADCs who carry the whole game still exist?
25:21 Contrasting Piglet and Uzi.
26:57 SKT having the top 3 players at all of the positions.
28:02 Piglet in a different team to SKT, with a lesser Support?
29:00 Is there an ADC who would be a monster if he had a better Support?
30:00 Rekkles vs. puszu
32:45 fredy122
33:28 Svenskeren
35:09 Jesiz
37:02 Predicting if EG could have the best botlane in NA.
Just a week after Valve officially announced that The International 2014 would be held at Seattle's Key Arena stadium on July 18-21, tickets have sold out for the Dota 2 championships, Valve confirmed to onGamers.
"Tickets were gone roughly one hour after they went on sale", said Valve's Doug Lombardi.
Officials for the Key Arena confirm to onGamers that roughly 10,000 tickets have been sold for the event, including both general admission and VIP tickets. Key Arena could not confirm if another wave of tickets would be put on sale.
Inside Key Arena - what it may look like for The International 2014
Tickets are currently being sold on eBay for upwards of $500 per General Admission ticket. GA tickets originally went on sale for $99, with floor seats for $199, and a VIP package at $499.
Last year the League of Legends Season 3 World Championships sold out the Los Angeles Lakers home Staples Center in similar manner, also selling out in one hour.
As rumored, this year's International event will see a change to how the qualifiers and direct invites will work. There will be 11 teams invited directly as well as four Regional Qualifiers taking place May 12th through the 25th. The winner of each Qualifier will receive an invitation, with the four runner-ups competing in Seattle for the final spot
onGamers previews South East Asia's hopefuls, with previews for North America, Europe, and China coming soon.
Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' Alesund, CS:GO player of Ninjas in Pyjamas, is the star of the 25th episode of 'Reflections'.
How did he develop into the lurking role he is famous for now? Is he a perfectionist? Was there a moment when it was decided f0rest and him would stay together their whole careers? How does he think of Ex6tenz as in-game leader? How would shox have done in 1.6?
Time line of topics discussed:
00:06 Intro
00:26 Did he always think he'd be a fnatic player?
01:16 Leaving fnatic for SK.
03:00 Was he ever guilty of checking stats after games and changing his playing style according to them?
06:39 The role of being the lurker who clutches rounds.
08:39 How did he develop into that role?
11:11 How does he think of himself skill-wise?
13:30 His role allowing him to make up for the mistakes of the team.
15:40 Is GeT_RiGhT a perfectionist?
16:46 Can he feel some satisfaction if he plays very well in a losing effort?
18:33 Being driven to practice so hard.
23:11 Does he still drill so many CSDM hours?
25:01 Spraying in CS:GO
26:52 The other CS:GO pros with sick spray.
28:05 Auto-sniper
30:32 f0rest in 1.6 vs. f0rest in CS:GO
31:50 f0rest's motivation level.
32:36 Was there ever a moment f0rest and him agreed to stick together throughout their careers?
34:12 If Gux had been allowed to rejoin SK, would they have made a trio which had stayed together into CS:GO?
36:31 Making NiP in CS:GO
42:29 Xizt as the IGL
44:11 Were NiP above other teams in skill level early in CS:GO?
45:31 Virtus.Pro battling NiP early.
47:42 Ex6tenz as the new ave.
50:31 Are NiP becoming more like Titan?
51:40 Not changing anything in NiP.
52:32 shox's addition to VeryGames.
54:35 How would shox have done in 1.6?
56:39 Is there a 1.6 player who didn't play CS:GO who could have been amazing?
58:31 Winning lots of small tournaments but not a major.
1:02:23 Would he be as dedicated in another area of life as he is at CS?
1:04:45 Hypothetical: aliens come to Earth, kill the other NiP players and make him choose new team-mates.
The Dota 2 ACE Alliance announced that, due to DK and iG players needing more time to complete visa arrangements for their upcoming trips to Kiev, the two teams will be playing with a total of four stand-ins between them tomorrow.
For the day, iG is picking up Sansheng, currently contracted under TongFu, ostensibly to replace ChuaN. On DK's end, they'll be picking up a trio of new Speed Gaming.cn players or largely unknown identity -- their IDs are Jdh, Zy, and Zrd -- to replace what looks like iceiceice, Mushi, and LaNm. Certainly no small shoes to fill in DK's case.
As a sidenote, some fans have asked why DK haven't approached the likes of 357, 820, or even LongDD to fill in temporarily. On the surface it looks like a good idea and even sounds like a way for old EHOME to make a one-day reunion, but alas, the ACE regulations stipulate that inactive players that aren't registered officially aren't eligible to represent teams in official competitions.
The two teams will both be facing Titan, who got off to a decent start in WPC this season before two rough days against the other top teams of the competition. With three stand-ins in key positions, DK will have a challenge ahead, while iG will likely have things easier as Sansheng is very familiar to all of their players.
Drayich shot to fame as the head of the all-Swedish SK-Gaming back in Wc3 DotA, where he lead legendary players such as Jonathan 'Loda' Berg and Joakim 'Akke' Akterhall to become one of the most important teams during the early days of Dota. Later on he went through mousesports during their glory days before moving on to Heroes of Newerth. After retiring from professional gaming he made his return to e-sports last year as part of the Swedish television casting crew for The International and ASUS RoG DreamLeague along with friend and fellow former SK-Gaming player Erik 'Bogdan' Olsson and have since worked alongsides TV6 and DreamHack to provide the Swedish audience with professional insight into all of our favourite game.
The interview
You just released a song about Dendi, the fourth one you've done about a Dota personality. What's your process for deciding who you're going to write a song for like?
"Sometimes I just decide on a player and then find a suitable song. This was how it was now. I saw the free2play movie, and I thought this guy really deserve a song. But then I need to find some kind of inspiration, and I did when I got back from Stockholm last time. Then I just sat down with my wife, and practiced some while writing the lyrics."
You're well known for being a big family man. Has your family played a part in the recording of the previous songs as well?
"Yeah, I can't do anything without my family either in my mind or next to me. My kids help out even, and that's just how it works. Usually my daughter sings the song before it's done because she practices with me. It's a part of the fun. Music is a big part of my family's life."
How did the first of your tribute songs come to be? What makes a man sit down and decide to write a song for a friend and colleague?
"The joy, without a doubt. But the first song was more random, I just had an idea and went for it. I never expected it to be so big, honestly. The songs afterwards though I might have put more time into. I don't know why I think it's fun. But it sure is. I always loved music, but I'm really not a future in music. I'm not good enough, and I guess with Dota 2 I'm able to sing a bit and combine it with my interest in writing. But it's about joy, and sharing that joy mostly."
Have you ever included or been tempted to include some references in a song that only the subject of the song might pick up on?
"I did in the Loda song actually. I don't think many people understood the text about "a Saturday night some years ago you came to me and put up a show" for example. But the main thing is to make references so everyone can understand."
So what was Lodas show like? ;)
"It was great. He and Bogdan performed a really fun song at my wedding."
How awesome! Speaking of which, if you were to put together a band of Dota players, who would be in it and what would they play?
"LOL that's a good question. Maelk on the trumpet I think. Chuan playing the bongodrums. Dendi could probably do the synth. Loda and Bogdan probably both singing and dancing."
That sounds like a very interesting lineup. Any thoughts on what kind of music you'd play?
"Jazz. :))"
It would certainly have to be something as free form as that!
Drayich and Bogdan doing the pre-game show for TV6 during TI3 finals.
Switching gears, you and Bogdan have come out of retirement to become the knowledge duo for the Swedish speaking audience as Dota continues its expansion over there. How do you feel your work is being received by your countrymen?
"To be honest I was worried in the beginning. I know how to speak my language, but would I know how to speak Swedish when it comes to DotA? Would it sound corky? Would people turn away from the stream because of this? But as we started out and admitted that some words are hard to translate (eg. creeps or pushing) I think the viewers started to accepting it more. But we still have a ways to go before people really accept it all the way i think. But many people have said that they went from English casting to Swedish because they felt we did equally good work. So that's cool."
And how has the partnership with TV6 and DreamHack been? Is Sweden really the mecca of e-sports that it looks to be from the outside looking in?
"TV6 and DreamHack are dream partners for me. I feel like I'm around social people with really good knowledge. So even if the level of seriousness is high we still have fun, and for me it's just perfect. I think its hard being in "the mecca" and saying whether you are there or not. But this e-sport production combined with DreamHack event is, at least for me, as good as it gets. It could always grow bigger, but the quality is just great."
Do you think the audience exists elsewhere as well, but just isn't being explored? Should there perhaps be a channel in the Ukraine dedicated to showing Na`Vi matches on the TV?
"I think the audience is all over the world. But the key thing is finding ways of attracting these people. And it's gonna take time to make it really good everywhere, but we are going towards that goal. Ukraine might already be happy enough with SLTV, I don't know, but I think having broadcasts with various languages definitely is an important part of making e-sport grow. I thought about it during the Olympics this year, I couldn't even imagine watching that in any other language then Swedish. And that's because I'm used to it."
Do you think that as we grow and there is more of a demand for country specific content like that, that it's going to hurt the feeling of being an international community? Or is that even really true right now, with major communities like the Russians and the Chinese separated from English speaking fans?
"I don't think the risk is worth considering. I mean it might happen, but it might also happen without language as the problem. We all unite around Dota. But some of us wants to watch e-sport and others might prefer just playing pubs. It's OK."
That's a very uplifting message so I think we'll end it there. Any shoutouts?
"Shoutout to my mentor in life, my wife and life companion Marit. And I wouldn't mind if you guys sent some positive (or negative) feedback @dotadrayich
Thanks for the interview."
PapaDrayich can be found casting DreamLeague in Swedish over at TV6 weekly and his other songs not featured in this article are available over at his YouTube channel.
Of course it's not only legendaries that make up a deck. Since we're running with a Northrend theme as of late, let's see what creatures from the land of ice could possible be considered for Epic status in Hearthstone.
Frost Wyrm
Blizzard Cinematic Art
These undead leviathans are the strongest of the Lich King’s army. Players were first able to get their hands on Frost Wyrms in Warcraft III, where they were by far the most powerful air unit of any of the factions. Their attack rate may have been slow but the damage they put out as well as the chilling utility their attack possessed, more than made up for this. In World of Warcraft the Frost Wyrm’s power was not played down and they became second bosses in the Northrend raids: Naxxramas and Ice Crown Citadel.
Long ago, the dragons of Azeroth would fly to Northrend when coming to the end of their lives. This meant Northrend became littered with dragon graveyards, filled with their petrified bones. When the orc Ner’Zuhl was tortured and transformed into the the Lich King by Kil’jaden of the Burning Legion, Northrend became his seat of power. Ner’zuhl used his formidable magical powers to raise the dragons from the dead. These once noble drakes then became horrifying skeletal constructs, who’s great power allowed the Lich King to expand his empire across Northrend and beyond.
The frigid beasts retain no memories of their draconic roots but do posses a keen intelligence, making them capable of advanced tactical warfare. Like most dragons, Forst Wyrms are capable of using their breath as a weapon but breathe an icy cold breath rather than a flame one. The core of a frost wyrm is freezing cold and it is able to retain the freezing cold of Northrend in its heart no matter where it is. This means that when the Frost Wyrm inhales deeply, the air it breathes becomes frozen. On exhaling the behemoth pelts its foes with an icy blast.
So why is a Frost Wyrm deserving of epic status as opposed to just being a rare of a common? Firstly their huge power should be recognised through the card type they are. Secondly and most importantly there are several named Frost Wyrms throughout Warcraft. There’s Sindragosa, who used to be the prime consort of Malygos the blue dragon aspect. She was killed by Deathwing along with most of the blue flight in one fell swoop; this also means that most frost wyrms are the corpses of blue dragons. She also appears in World of Warcraft as the second boss of Ice crown citadel. There’s also Naxxramas’ second last boss, Sapphiron, who was murdered by Arthas and Anub’arak to gain access to the magical items he protected. And Kesha the valiant steed of the great horde hero Orcus...
Necromancer
Artist: Samwise Didier
The pallid Necromancer was, like the frost wyrm, first available to players in Warcraft III. They were a versatile little spell caster, able to reanimate corpses to fight for the scourge, send their allies into a frenzy and cripple their opponents. Humans first came into contact with necromantic magics when the horde attacked Azeroth . The orcish Necrolytes were able to raise skeletons to fight for them.
Those that study the necromantic school of magic are able to use their arcane abilities to manipulate the force of death itself. Practising these arts does come with an absolutely massive risk as each time a necromancer uses their magic they risk becoming consumed by it. Frequent users of necromantic magic begin to take on the qualities of their creations: sunken eyes, pale skin and an unbearable stench. They eventually can turn to undead themselves.
Kel’Thuzad was the first human necromancer and opened a school named Scholomance to train others in necromancy. Despite the fact that the magic school was outlawed, Scholomance was able to remain hidden from prying eyes. The necromancers from the school were instrumental in helping the Lich King spread his disease of undeath over the kingdom of Loderon.
There are many necromancers that have been lured back away from the scourge. Lady Sylvanas of the Forsaken, undead no longer under the Lich King’s oppressive rule, saw the necromancer’s huge importance to her race. Necromancers are capable of freeing enslaved undead from the Lich King's control and currently research spells to bring the Forsaken back to life.
Again I feel necromancers should be epic as there are many of their kind that are referenced within law: Kel’Thuzad, Gothik the Harvester and Heigan the Unclean to name a few. Most importantly, I believe they could be fun mechanically, either summoning undead minions for the player or perhaps raising a card from the dead to fight as a slightly weaker version.
Announced at the 2014 National Association of Broadcasters in Las Vegas, Azubu will partner with Brightcove’s media solutions. The website currently uses other Brightcove services for video playback and ad insertion.
Azubu’s CEO, Ian Sharpe, commented on the partnership:
“High-quality broadcasts are the cornerstone of what makes Azubu such an appealing eSports destination; providing these broadcasts all around the world is far more complex than serving just one region, but eSports is a global phenomenon and it deserves--at long last--a global broadcast platform”
Sharpe went on to say:
“Through our reliance on Brightcove technology, viewers can enjoy optimal viewing of high-quality programming. Our viewers will enjoy a lean-back experience, without lag time or disconnects. Brightcove also makes it easy for us to derive revenue from tournament streams in order to continue to serve gaming enthusiasts at the highest level.”
Brightcove CEO, David Mendels also spoke on the partnership, saying:
"Azubu is a prime example of a media company that is truly at the cutting edge of video delivery and live broadcasting across platforms. We are thrilled to partner with Azubu to deliver eSports competitions in real-time to the company’s massive audience anywhere in the world.”
Brightcove also recently announced updates to their product Zencoder. Zencoder will now allow ultra fast HD streaming to compliment the diverse needs of broadcasters and other professional content providers.
Jon Dhal, vice president of technology at Brightcove said: "Brightcove Zencoder helped to unlock a new generation of Internet video use cases by providing companies such as AOL, the Wall Street Journal, PBS and Funny or Die with an API that offers nearly limitless encoding power”
This announcement is consistent with plans to relaunch web and mobile platforms in April 2014.
“As a result of Azubu’s change in management, there is a strategic focus on forming partnerships with existing teams and players across the spectrum of eSports", Azubu said in a statement provided to onGamers.
Sharpe spoke on the funding, saying: “Our strategic goal with Sapinda is to do what's necessary to grow the eSports ecosystem -- to make a bigger pie, so to speak -- and to raise the bar of eSports broadcasting."
It was also recently announced that Azubu has also brought Leaguepedia founder Matt Gunnin on board as Director of Content.
After having attended DreamHack Summer and ASUS ROG Nordic in the summer of 2013, Krensel has now decided to travel and remain in Europe for an extended period of time in order to attend all of the planned DreamHack Open stops throughout the summer months.
PiG will be residing in the mY insanity team house, which is currently located in Switzerland and will be able to receive practice from players like Jung 'jjakji' Ji Hoon, Son 'StarDust' Seok Hee and Sam 'Kane' Morrissette. Krensel is also not leaving out the opportunity of him attending several other events during this period of time.
PiG has long been considered one of Australia's premier talents within SC2, winning a majority of the events in the country and being one of the prime rivals of Andrew 'mOOnGlaDe' Pender, the first truly successful Australian SC2 player.
Following his impressive results in the premier division of WCS America 2014, fnatic took the time to interview their most recent player acquisition in a long-form article that details everything from his training schedule, his ambitions in SC2 overall and how good he sees himself becoming in the future.
Excerpt:
Unfortunately the team [FXO.NA] disbanded in mid-2013 and he was without a team before officially joining Fnatic, a move that seemed in the offing, “I actually wasn’t surprised when I joined Fnatic, When I first realized I wanted to play games at a competitive level, I was confident that I could become good. Joining a mainstream and popular team such as Fnatic was always one of the many Esports related goals I had” says Neeb.
Despite the timezone difference majority of his team mates, Neeb does not feel that has had any bearing over his relationship with the team, “The past few months have been pretty much lots of school work and the rest of the time being dumped into SC2. Talking/practicing with teammates isn’t one of my priorities until after I play my 20 games/day, but with school playing 20 games gets really tough. On top of that, most of the team is from Europe, so when I get home from school it’s evening there. I would like to interact more with the team in the future though” Says Neeb. With team mates like Harstem and upcoming stalwarts Miniraser and Zanster he’s quite confident about his growth in the game as well as being a team player.
Neeb almost passed his Ro16 group as well, defeating Chris 'HuK' Loranger and losing barely to Kim 'RevivaL' Dong Hyun in a 2-1 series. You can find the interview in its entirety here.
At the dawn of Dota 2, it's fair to say that there wasn't much of a scene in North America. The first International was attended by only four players from the Americas, with one of them taking up the role as a coach for his team. Old-timers speak of teams like Jax Money Crew who were around at the start of competitive Dota, but the harsh reality of cross-Atlantic pings meant that until Dota 2 there had been a very limited capability for North Americans to compete online with the Europeans, and so the scene consisted only of a select few individuals who had the passion to follow their dreams.
Dota 2 has done a lot of good for the North American scene, with both new homegrown talent as well as transplants from Heroes of Newerth bolstering the scene, to the point where we've had two North American teams attending both of the last two Internationals. These teams were also remarkable for consisting increasingly of a new generation of players, with Complexity fielding 5 new faces to EG's four more familiar ones at the 2012 event and a whopping eight out of eleven North American players at last years event being either from Heroes of Newerth or having risen to prominence during Dota 2.
However, for all the growth we've seen both in terms of the professional hopefuls of North America and the amount of tournaments available for them to compete in, the ambitions of the scene are consistently outpacing the actual capacity. This is exemplified by a new move towards cross-Atlantic teams, lead by the success of Kaipi/Cloud9. Whereas during TI2 and TI3 only one European attended as part of a North American team, this year we're looking at no pure American teams among the favourites.
Interestingly, the efforts to grow the North American scene are also spilling over into South America, to the point where just below the surface of the professional scene the Peruvians and Brazilians are making giant strides to compete for being the next team to break through from the Americas. As the qualifiers should reflect this and as the depth of the North American scene is quite frankly a bit lacking still there are four South American teams that will be put forth here as not just adhering to a quota but deserved choices for the Americas region qualifier.
The direct invites
As an organization, Evil Geniuses has struggled in Dota 2. They've had star-studded teams which have failed to perform and for a long time were unwilling to make the tough decision needed to turn their fortunes around. After failing to qualify for last years event things started to change however, and while the first incarnation did not work out, it was clear that they were willing to let go of big names like Jimmy 'DeMoN' Ho if they felt it needed to be done. It wasn't until after the New Year that they shepherded a team first known to us as S A D B O Y S into becoming a true force on today's scene, and they did so by taking a chance on young talent in the form of Artour 'Arteezy' Babaev, Peter 'ppd' Dager and Ludwig 'Zai' Wåhlberg. It's paid off in spades and Evil Geniuses is without a doubt the direct invite from North America this year and a strong candidate to go deep in the eventual tournament.
To put this team under North America may be disputed, but for the sake of symmetry it's more reasonable to speak of them here as a cross-Atlantic team belonging to a North American organization. Since last years heated debate over whether Kaipi should have had a chance to qualify for the International the team has come a long way, not just proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are one of the best Western teams but that they deserve one of this years hotly contested direct invites. The addition of WehSing 'SingSing' Yuen and Kurtis 'Aui_2000' Ling has worked out great and the team has become a major force within the scene and a trendsetter. It should also be noted that while Pittner 'bOne7' Armand has not attended LAN's in America due to visa issues this has been more of a precautionary measure to ensure that nothing goes wrong in his visa process before the International, and that the team will absolutely attend the event with their full five.
Prospective qualifier teams
Last years top 8 team hit upon rough times only a few months after the event, which culminated in the dismissal of Brian 'FLUFFNSTUFF' Lee last month. Even if the team had managed to stay together they would have been in for a serious uphill battle to prove that they had come together enough to warrant one of the rare direct invites this year, but with the late roster change which has yet to be solidified they are soundly relegated to the qualifiers. This isn't necessarily a bad thing however, as they are showing signs of improvement and with Demon being the likely new fifth the squad are the favourites to win the qualifier, with potential to reprise or exceed their performance of last year.
The former Pretty Boy Swag squad now known as eHug are an interesting experiment within the burgeoning North American scene, as a team which had mostly been posting results in regional tournaments was given a chance at a team house. The squad has been progressing steadily but a true International breakthrough has been missing, and the exit of promising mid player Alan 'Ryuuboruz' Andersen has further set the team back in their goals. They are the familiar name, safe and with a fair shot in the fairly weak qualifier field, but likely still need another year to come into their own.
Sneaky Nyx Assassins have been slowly building up steam behind the scenes under the leadership of former Team Liquid and Complexity player Michael 'ixmike88' Ghannam, but their profile was further raised when Fluff joined the squad just recently. They've since taken games off of both eHug and Revenge eSports, but have also suffered some stinging losses. Their inclusion makes sense as the squad has the potential to reach far in the qualifier, although they'll likely only be competing for second place in the qualifier and would struggle to secure the 16th slot at the actual event.
The final North American entrant may come out of left field for many, but as has been said the depth of the North American scene isn't quite there yet. This squad is cautiously the most promising of the lesser known teams but haven't yet had much chance to show what they are capable of. Their real test will be in the upcoming second season of American Dota League and they or another similarly unknown North American team are only going to be gathering experience in the qualifier this year.
Previously known as Artyk Gaming and For Sweet Revenge, Revenge eSports have been one of the interesting teams to emerge during Dota 2 with especially mid player Brian Freddy 'Smash' Sina being a fan favourite. While some were calling for their inclusion in the Western Qualifiers last year, there's little doubt that they will be among the teams competing for a spot at the International this year and are even considered one of the favourites. If they were to get themselves to Seattle they would be a true wildcard as not only have they mostly competed in lesser online tournaments, but they have no international LAN experience. Will they be overcome by the circumstances or will they improve in a lag-free environment? A lot of people are hoping to have that question answered in July.
If Revenge are the Peruvian hope then CNB eSports Club are the Brazilian favourites for this competition. A lesser name overall, CNB (formerly known as Swagenteiger) edged out Revenge for a 5th place finish in the American division of the joinDOTA League, still coming just short of qualifying for the playoff bracket. They've got some victories over the other qualifier teams but overall the odds are likely stacked against them. As with Revenge, they are unproven on LAN and have no major international competitive experience.
Union Gaming is another Peruvian team that has established themselves as a consistent presence in American competitions, with all the same faults as the other South American teams. They've had a number of players pass through the team so far, some formerly of Revenge or Netolic.SA, but seem to consist mostly of homegrown players right now. While the team is a obvious selection given the candidates they are unlikely to challenge for a top 2 finish and are mostly gathering experience at this event.
A team very similar to Union Gaming, the House is Down is the second likely Brazilian entrant into the qualifiers. They've got some former paiN-Gaming flavour to them but are generally a lesser version of CNB eSports Club. Their prospects in the qualifiers are slim but again they will at least gather experience and give some exposure to Brazil in Dota 2, helping further the integration of this rather sizable community.
Let us know if you think we missed out any team that you think deserves consideration in the comments!
Riot Games has introduced us to three different fun modes over the past six months and with the last one being such a huge success, we decided it was time to give you an overview. So let's get straight to it and see what made every mode tick and what made it fun to play.
Scenarios like this were very likely...
The first mode introduced to us was One for All, a mode that let you vote for a champion that everyone had to play. The champion with the highest number of votes would be played by everyone. With an equal number of votes, the choice would be random among the champions that had the equal amount of votes.
This already sounds like an interesting mode to play, however it did have some flaws when it came to the enjoyment of the game. If, for example, the majority of the votes would fall on Annie, players with have a high chance of performing well. Annie is fairly easy to pick up on and to have fun with. But what happened if the majority vote would go on someone like Lee Sin? He is a rather demanding champion for which you need to have quite some mechanical skills. Now there you are, you wanted to have some fun and are forced to play a champion that you will most likely not enjoy and have a hard time mastering with all the consequences that go with it. And all of that because of a majority vote ending in your disadvantage. Most popular picks were Nidalee, Lux and Lee Sin(despite being mechanically hard to play) while champs such as Graves and Quinn sat at the bottom of the rankings.
This mode was thus best when playing as a 5 man premade, with friends and voice communication.This way you could decide on a champion everyone was fine with and enjoyed playing. Showcasing some funny moments from One for All is this video by Youtube user Dadamixful.
The second mode that Riot shot onto the rift was called Hexakill and was live from 02.20.2014 until 03.02.2014. In this mode, teams were made up of six summoners and the highest possible kill wasn't a pentakill but a hexakill, which is where the game mode got its name from.
The mode however wasn't nearly as hyped as the One for All mode. Basically it's a Summoner's Rift game with six champions instead of 5. Reset champions such as Katarina or Master Yi were quite popular here, as they upped your chances for the desired Hexakill.
The biggest thing you could play around with here was during the laning phase where you could go 1-1-3, 2-1-2, 1-2-2, etc. in combination with a jungler or even without and put extra pressure on the lanes. A nice way to experiment with champions in different lanes where before there wasn't any room for.
Showcasing the Hexakill, here we have Diamond Pete's Katarina!
Last but not least Riot introduced Ultra Rapid Fire, better known to the community by URF. It went live on 04.01.2014 and will be live until 04.13.2014. URF has no resource cost on spells and everything is on a 80% cooldown reduction, including summoner spells and active items. Additionally, ADCs have double up on bonus attack speed. There are a few other bonuses but these are the main ones.
This mode has been hyped a lot, which shows in the amount of people playing. Given to us on the 1st of April as a little April's Fool from Riot to the fans, it delighted players all over the world. This gamemode let you test out ridiculous stuff noone would be able to do in a normal game, such as a Lvl 3 Fiora soloing dragon, but also allowed new players to test out champions without having to play a full SR game. People could get the feel for a champion they wanted to try out for so long because the main idea is to have fun. While the gamemode is for fun, there are also negative sides to it. Overpowered champions were quickly found by the community and the amount of Alistars, Hecarims and Evelynns in the games grew. Sona was so strong that she was completely taken out of the queue by Riot. Riot had removed Ryze and Kassadin straight away from the start and added in some tweeks to champions like Shaco and Teemo. You could ban 6 champions just like in ranked, however this was often not enough and thus sometimes you just got demolished on the Fields of Justice. Overpowered champions in their turn brought out the worst and the best in people - from flaming to competitng for the win. People couldn't take the fun mode for fun but brought in the competitiveness that belongs in the normal and ranked modes, often ruining the game for other players.
Overall URF mode is a very enjoyable game as it lets you try out some crazy stuff and some player's favourite champions have now become viable in a weird way. This all contributes to the great success that is called URF.
Riot put in an extra effort to have the URF mode hyped as they organized a showmatch between two NA LCS teams, namely Cloud 9 and TSM. On Day 1 of the EU LCS Super Week, after the regular games and before the challenger series hit off, this game was played in the NA studios. Being cast by both the NA and EU casters and with interviews being done while the teams were playing, a rare but enjoyable sight to see.
With TSM picking Vladimir, Maokai, KogMaw, Xerath and Lux and Cloud 9 picking Ezreal, Urgot, Lux, Jayce and KogMaw, both teams picked up champions that were rather favored by the everyday player as well. The game was really fast-paced and even though we are used to the teams playing it rather safe and going for objectives before kills, this game showed they definitely like to take kills as well! Finishing the game within 19 minutes with 29 kills for TSM and 48 for Cloud 9, Cloud 9 took the victory. A game we won't be forgetting so easy.
As an example for what a Hecarim can do in this mode, watch this video from dali style getting 9 kills in a row, diving around in the enemy base.
So all in all it's safe to say that the URF mode was the most fun out of these three, with the least exciting one being Hexakill. URF gave us so many new things and everyone could just play what they wanted, the only downside to it is that even in a mode that is meant to give us laughs and let us have fun we can find people who take the game a bit too serious. In Hexakill it was a nice way to explore different tactics but that's basically where the fun ends. All for One brought the opportunity to see how far 5 Blitzcrank's could pull in a champion or how much 5 Teemo's could shroom up the map. Though best played with friends this game mode has brought some enjoyable moments as well.
What do you think was the most fun mode to play? Give us your ideas in the comments below let us know what you enjoyed the most.
The invited teams are four of Europe's top performers in fnatic, Na'Vi, Alliance and Cloud 9, who will be competing for a total of $25,000. DreamHack Bucharest will also follow the current formula of their ongoing ASUS ROG Dreamleague, and will make sure that each participating team receives a percentage of the event's ticket sales.
Last week I set up a prediction model that predicted the results of Superweek for both North America and Europe. I used a model that took into account a team's season win rate on blue or red side, their head to head matchup, and their last 5 games. I wanted to do a small retrospective to see how the model worked out and how I should change the model for the upcoming playoffs.
How the model did.
The first region to look at is Europe. Overall, this model had a 68.75% success rate. Some of the big upsets were Copenhagen Wolves over Gambit on day 1 and Millenium over Alliance in day 2. The one upset that was successfully predicted by the model was the Millenium over Supa Hot Crew on day 1. Overall, I think this model weighed head to head a bit too much, causing the wrong predictions for Gambit vs Roccat, and Copenhagen Wolves vs Supa Hot Crew. Gambit has a really good win rate on blue side, and should have been predicted over Roccat, while Supa Hot Crew has the worst red-side (or any single side) of any team (18% win rate), so they should not have been predicted despite having the head-to-head advantage.
The next superweek was NA, which strangely also had an overall prediction success rate of 68.75%. Some of the big upsets were of course the XDG upset over TSM on day 3, and Curse over CLG on day 2. However, the model also predicted an upset, Coast over Dig on day 2. Overall again here I think head to head played a bit of a negative role, for example in the EG vs CRS game CRS had higher win rates, and a better last 5 games, but the model predicted EG because they were 2-1 in the head to head matchup.
How successful was the model?
While we know that the prediction model was right 68.75% of the time, in order to bring that into context we compared it to a few different models:
Region
Prediction Model
Picking all Blue-side
Picking higher-seed
EU
68.75%
68.75%
76.9%
NA
68.75%
50%
81.25%
While 68.75% is above the coin-flip 50-50 method, the prediction model overall was a bit unsuccessful because it was less than just picking the higher seed (or "favorite") in every matchup. And while the picking all blue can be a successful strategy, as for NA over 60% of games are won by blue side, I think this model is more consistent/reliable than that.
How to change the model for the future
Overall win rate needs to be factored in more. Currently the model looks at the win rate of a team's season on blue or red side (with double the weight of other factors), but I think should maybe also add in a full season win rate on both sides to put even more weight into the higher-seed.
Head to head should be weighted less. The issue with head to head is it doesn't just increase the win rate of one team, but it also reduces it of the opposing team. This doubling effect provides just too much power for the head to head factor and should be reduced.
I will give predictions for the playoffs using a modified version that predicts who will win and how so in a bo3. Stay tuned for that within the next week!
Data collected with help by the onGamers Stats team: Derek 'Kathix' Adams, Steven 'whedgehead' Falgout, Kent 'Traepoint' Frasure, Jake Morales, and James 'PelkaSupaFresh' Pelkey. Design by Ben 'Sarcasmappreciated' Li.
Previously, we reported on Team DK needing three stand-ins for the WPC 2014 matchday on April 6, with the three stand-ins being provided by the newly re-formed Speed Gaming.cn team. Today, PCgames.com.cn got an interview with the three mighty stand-ins, along with the rest of the young SPG.cn squad. The interview is translated below.
The SPG.cn players, position 1 through 5 from left to right
PCgames.com.cn: Can you introduce your new SPG.cn players? Age, position played, and so on.
SPG.cn:
Position
Name
ID
Other IDs
Age
Favored heroes
Carry
Mo Ying
SPG.MY.cn
红一叶
19
Anti-mage, Slark
Solo mid
Zhou Yang (same name as KingJ)
SPG.ZY.cn
跳刀跳刀`
22
Invoker, TA
Offlane
Zhang Ruida
SPG.ZRD.cn
Faith_bian_shana
16
Centaur, Nyx
Support
Jiang Donghao
SPG.JDH.cn
YouknowJDH
21
Techies, Visage
Support
Zhang Yiping
SPG.ZYP.cn
Miss_U_Ghost
16
Rubick, Techies
PCgames.com.cn: The new SPG.cn squad has made appearances in the WPC qualifiers as well as the new season of ECL. Despite unfortunately falling short in the WPC qualifiers, we all noticed some bright points in your play, and in your first match in ECL against NewBee, you put in a strong performance against them even though you ultimately lost. Can you talk a bit about what your team currently needs to do to improve upon weaknesses?
SPG.cn: The match against NewBee was a very high-level, fast-paced one. For a young team such as SPG.cn, it was a very valuable one. Afterwards we'll face LGD, another powerful opponent. To be able to play against them will be a great help for us.
PCgames.com.cn: How did DK come to approach Speed Gaming in the interest of loaning three of your players as stand-ins? Was it because your two teams often scrim, and they were convinced of your ability?
SPG.cn: It must have been. I think for us the most important thing is to make sure we have the right mindset. We haven't played a lot of competitive matches yet, but in training, we never get lazy. Opportunities go to those who are prepared for them, so if our daily training lacks quality, then even if others present you with opportunity, you may not be able to take advantage.
PCgames.com.cn: Playing with DK, was it B-god calling the shots? How did you guys so quickly build teamwork?
SPG.cn: The victory cannot be separated from B-god's confident leadership. With him leading us, controlling each timing and the tempo at that time, it was an insightful experience. While the plaudit's for BurNIng's aura must be given, we were also very clear that any victory and teamwork would come from better execution.
PCgames.com.cn: Your three stand-ins helped defeat Titan, yet iG's stand-in, Sansheng, lost. What are your thoughts?
SPG.cn: That was only a mishap. Instead of making guesses as to why it may have happened, we strongly believe that iG's position as a top-tier team in Dota 2 remains all the same. As young newcomers, we hope to receive more encouragement from such elders.
PCgames.com.cn: In the new ECL season, only two teams advance from each group to the offline finals. You guys have already lost one to NewBee, with the other two teams in the group being the mighty DK and LGD. Do you still have any confidence in advancing?
SPG.cn: We have the boldness to attempt to change that which can be changed, we have the heart to accept that which we cannot change, and we have the intellect to discern between these two things -- that is our current attitude.
PCgames.com.cn: What are the plans for the team's future?
SPG.cn: Through systematic training and building a strategic focus for the team, to successfully push SPG.cn into a world-class team. We are full of confidence in SPG.cn's future!
PCgames.com.cn: Any words to end things here?
SPG.cn: Thank you to our bosses for their support and belief. Our growth would not happen without the nurturing of Speed Gaming Club, so we must thank them for giving us this opportunity to prove ourselves.
With the Challenger Series playoffs nearing, we take a look at the four teams competing for their chance to go into the EU LCS Summer Split Qualifiers. The Qualifier is being played on the newest patch so the games look very promising, as surprises and innovations are never out of the question.
Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. Reason Gaming
Playing against each other in the Challenger Series playoffs, they battle for a spot in the spring relegations to have a shot at getting into the EU LCS Summer Split. However, the loser of this match can still go into relegation if he wins the next match against the loser of Cloud9 HyperX Eclipse vs. Denial eSports.
Ninjas in Pyjamas
The mastermind behind NiP's bot lane.
With Ninjas in Pyjamas, we have a team whose name is known, as they have already competed in the Season 3 EU LCS Summer Split. The previous NiP line-up had a rather unsuccessful road through the competition as they eventually found themselves in relegation. This made them undergo a big overhaul in their roster, nukeduck, mithy and Zorozero were brought in. Their Jungler, Hulberto was brought in recently to replace Amin, he also had a brief moment on stage when Gambit Gaming was in need of replacements. Freeze on the other hand has been with NiP for quite some time. With all of the players having prior experience in various teams, they are definitely not an easy one to face.
As mentioned, All of them have prior experience in the LCS. They fought for a spot in the EU LCS Spring Split but despite losing to Team ROCCAT, they got a spot for the first European Challenger Series where they finished second. They have been going strong in the second edition so far and are one of the favored teams.
Key player in this game will be Nukeduck, who is known for his assassins, which are always prominent in the midlane, as well as mithy on support. Another player to watch closely is Hulberto, who is rather new and favoures junglers such as Kha'Zix, Elise and Eve, the latter one benefiting a lot from the Season 4 Ward changes.
Reason Gaming
Krislund
On the other side of the rift we have Reason Gaming, a fairly unknown team that got disqualified from the first Challenger Series due to a DDOS attack on their Jungler Trashy. The team was founded in December 2013 and has had the same roster since, which consists of Trashy in the jungle, BarneyD as Support with Krislund as his ADCarry, Sencux in the Midlane and beansu as the Toplaner.
With the team having 6 wins and 2 losses so far in the Second Challenger Series, they have earned their way into the Semi-Finals. Relying heavily on their Midlaner and Jungler, this is a team that can keep up with the Ninjas and has the potential to claim victory over them.
Players to watch here are Sencux and Trashy, both players on who their team heavily relies. Notable here is the fact that both of them are still too young to compete in the European League Championship Series. Reason Gaming would therefore need to recruit two new players for said positions.
What to expect?
As mentioned above, this game isn't all or nothing just yet, but the winner gets a secured spot in the Qualifiers for the EU LCS Summer Split, which would lift a huge burden off of their shoulders. The key matchup to watch here is the midlane, with both players favoring assassins. Another interesting pair of players to look at are the junglers for both teams. Both junglers might bring out some new picks with the recent changes of patch 4.5 and the introduction of the new jungle item Feral Flare. Looking at how NiP is considered one of the best challenger teams at the moment, the match might go their way but you never know, Reason Gaming wouldn't be in the semifinals if they didn't have their strengths as well. Safe to say we'll be looking at at least 2 very interesting games.
Cloud 9 Eclipse versus Denial eSports
The next clash is between the second Challenger scene dominator, Cloud 9 Eclipse and Polish threat Denial eSports. Both had their fair share of success within the small tournament scene and have even met before with C9 edging out a narrow victory. Let us see how both teams got here and what we can expect from this match.
Denial eSports
The mantle of the "ever existent Polish threat" within eSports is now taken by Denial. Although they joined the organization two weeks ago, the squad has had its share of experience under the Departed tag. There, the guys were a high-level competitor in most online cups and Challenger scene tournaments. Taking a look at the roster we can immediately identify players such as niQ, Kikis and Woolite, young Polish talent that has been part of the high-level scene, albeit not the elite tier, ever since Season 2. Being a part of WCG participant Gameburg, legendary Team Sypher and later on Team H2k, jungler Kikis is undoubtedly the most experienced member within the line-up.
Most experienced member Kikis.
Following example, niQ(who is also known as simply 760) is another veteran of the scene despite being 19. The mid laner has been an integral part of Team Acer Poland, a team which has given us current LCS participants Overpow, Celaver and Xaxus. Despite being a top laner for the team, the youngster switched to jungler when he and the aforementioned trio transferred to Anexis where they had a relatively successful period together. Finally, Woolite, the AD Carry of the team was a member of two inceptions of KMT before going to GF-Gaming.
The squad has quickly made a name for themselves, achieving good results in both scrims and tournaments, namely their runner-up finish at the 2014 Black Monster Cup. The team also attended big events such as Dreamhack Bucharest under the Pulse eSports organisation, but finished 5/8th. Relying on their vast amount of both domestic and international experience, the Poles will make Cloud 9's day a living hell should they underestimate them. Demolishing the opposition during the second edition of the European Challenger Series (which included a sound 2-0 victory over C9E), Denial have earned their potential shot at an LCS spot.
Cloud 9 Eclipse
On 4th of January 2014, it was announced that a new Challenger titan was created - Cloud 9 Eclipse. Lead and formed by former Gambit Gaming support Voidle, the team featured hot talent from all across Europe - from Estonia, through Romania, Netherlands and all the way up to Sweden and Norway.
With such a star-packed line-up, the team quickly started racking up wins and established themselves as the only true competition to NiP at the time. Unsurprisingly, those two were in the finals of the first edition of the EU Challenger series, where C9 made quick work of their famed opponent. Although people initially recognized only k0u and Voidle, the other three have proved their worth and exhibited skill, composure and hunger for victory.
Voidle, Odoamne and Febiven after their Challenger League win.
Febiven has been feared for his Riven and Kassadin play across Europe and in an interview, Gambit mid laner Alex Ich has stated that he often discusses different aspects of the game with the gifted Dutch player. The top laner from Romania, Odoamne, has now shown us time and time again that his play style and success versus big names compensates the overall lack of experience and exposure within the scene. Getting stronger by the day, Odoamne is more than capable of holding his own on top. Finally, Hjärnan is the last addition to the already talented line-up. The Swedish AD Carry made a name for himself for his exemplary Lucian play and together with Voidle, they are yet to fall down from the top 15 Solo Queue Challenger players this season.
What to expect?
While many of you would easily point Cloud 9 as potential winners, this is not really the case. The head-to-head record truly favours them, as both teams have met time and time again in the Challenger Series or during online cups and smaller tournaments in general. As we all know, the big stage is a totally different environment which can affect players in different ways.
On paper, Cloud 9 is the stronger line-up, not only because of the star names, but the quality of the whole package of players. On the other hand, Denial's on stage experience dwarfs that of C9. This is a key factor as we have seen big teams choke under the limelight not once or twice. Both teams have proven that the one who brings his A-game that day will walk away victorious. The potential featured match-up here is on mid lane where Febiven will have to face niQ, a player with vast amounts of experience. One thing is for certain, never underestimate the Polish team.
The EU Challenger series playoffs begin on the 10th of April. Tune in to our coverage center to witness the best of the best in Europe's Challenger scene display their skills and fight for the precious LCS spot.
After a series of unfortunate forefeits turned the standings of the ninth season of SLTV's European division upside-down and enforced a 3-way-tie between RoX.Kis, Alliance and Cloud 9, the final two participants have now secured their flights to the biggest Dota 2 LAN outside of The International.
Cloud 9 looked like the obvious favorites to exit the tiebreaker with a very impressive shape in recent online tournaments, but were defeated soundly by the reigning champions of TI in Alliance. After having defeated RoX.Kis in the game before, this victory secured Alliance spot in the LAN finals, and the final spot at the LAN would now be given to either C9 or RoX.Kis. Whilst the odds stood massively in C9's favor, RoX managed to come back from a shaky start and clinched the final spot in Kiev later this month.
Full list of teams attending SLTV XI Grand Finals:
Evil Geniuses
Alliance
Na'Vi
RoX.Kis
Team Empire
Team DK
invictus Gaming
MVP Phoenix
All eyes are now set towards the CyberSport Arena in Kiev as the three winners of Valve's annual tournament The International will be present to fight for a total prize pool of over $200,000 in one of the most diverse tournaments ever in terms of nationality.
Following their recent period of success, Evil Geniuses' Dota division is looking like one of the West's premier teams in the esport. Fielding an overall winrate of over 80% since their inception in January this year, I got the opportunity to talk to the team's captain Peter 'PPD' Dager after they had managed to defeat their North American rivals in Team Liquid for a spot at the upcoming Starladder XI LAN in Kiev.
This interview was conducted on April 3rd.
You recently won the SLTV America qualifiers after three very hard-fought games against Team Liquid. The result was unexpected by the general community given your recent record against them, and their overall play in recent times. Was Liquid’s shape surprising to you when you were tied 1-1 in the series?
We've played Liquid so many times in the past few months it is ridiculous. I honestly feel like they have an edge because of that which makes them perform better against us than they do versus other teams. They played great and I don't want to take anything away from them concerning that.
Before the finals, some controversy arose as you would seemingly not be receiving a WB advantage against Liquid, how strongly did this affect you going in to the series?
I joked on twitter that I was perhaps “approaching maximum tilt”, I wouldn't say I was super mad but I was a bit mad. I think it's silly that there is no advantage for a winners bracket after we played such an intense series versus DOG for that 1 game advantage. I apologize however, I was probably out of line.
On the same token, one of the main talking points in the community about EG’s recent success has been your captaining. If you were tilted going in to the series, did that contribute to the rough start you faced in the first game, and if so when and how did you overcome it?
No tilt would affect my draft/game. I come prepared to my matches and once you start playing Dota I kind of just sink into the game and eliminate any outside distractions.
Many people outside of the inhouse ladder community in America might not know of your current stand-in Mason, who's currently replacing Fear. Could you give everyone a brief introduction of him as a player and his strengths.
Mason is just like the rest of us, before EG formed I was actually in the process of making a team with him so it was disappointing to have to leave him behind when I was asked to tryout. He's a great player with tons of potential and I hope one day soon he commits himself entirely.
Would it be unfair to say that his hero pool is limited in comparison to Fear due to the amount of Mirana you have been drafting recently, or do you use it to your advantage as a mean of always securing him a comfort pick?
Mirana is a great hero but it is definitely a comfort pick. Mason plays such a good Mirana and because we have 3 students practice time is hard to come by. Mason can probably play anything but my job as the drafter is to give my team the best opportunity to succeed.
Aside from also being the captain of the squad, you are also the drafter for the team, and this may be the aspect most people talk about when they see your team play as you incorporate a huge amount of heroes in to your strategies. If you could, could you explain your thoughts going through the drafting phase?
I am very adamant about preparing for almost every game beforehand. I analyze replays, player movements, ward placements, everything you could imagine and put that into account when I draw up a game-plan. Of course almost nothing ever goes as planned in Dota so I always remember to have some flex, and obviously we have some favorite heroes that we pick more frequently but almost every hero in Dota is viable in the right lineup against a certain team.
Your affinity for Treant Protector has given you the nickname “American Goblak”, and seems to be centered around picking it up along with additional heroes that are extremely potent in massive teamfights, like Ember Spirit or Dark Seer. Do you feel like he’s effective without either of those two heroes, or is he very situational?
I'm still learning the hero but I think he is pretty strong overall. I do not think he belongs in EVERY lineup but if played properly he can certainly be effective in most games. He does not require an Ember Spirit or Dark seer to be successful.
Your group in SLTV will feature Invictus Gaming, as well as the #1 and #3 seeds from the European league. If we look at iG currently, they have been in outstanding form for quite a while and are considered to be DK’s biggest rivals overall currently. What’s your own take on their success, and the overall thought of playing against such a highly rated Chinese team?
I heard they decided to randomize the groups, but I'm looking forward to playing against the Chinese. I haven't had much time to watch them play as they are usually playing in the wee hours of the morning of EST but I will definitely be watching some replays before leaving for Kiev.
If we just assume currently, and place the current #1 and #3 seeds from the EU portion of the tournament in to your group, you’d be playing against Empire as well as C9. You’re one of the few teams that holds a winning record against Empire (5-0), would you consider them a big threat in the group if you were to meet?
In the group? Possibly, its a best of one so anything can happen. Generally I am very confident against Empire or any team in general. I know my team has what it takes to win and it will come down to our performance on the big stage.
On the same token, Cloud 9 have been one of your biggest rivals in the scene so far, but you have yet to face their full line-up on LAN. If you were to face them in Kiev with their full line-up, do you think it’d be much more of a challenge than when you defeated them at the Monster Energy Invitational where Jimmy 'DeMoN' Ho stood in for Pittner 'Bone7' Armand?
I think Demon gave c9 a little more flavor and unpredictability which definitely helped them be successful versus us at the LAN. However I think for myself personally I played very poorly at SXSW and am looking forward to redeeming myself at Starladder for my recent poor performances.
Final words or shoutouts?
Shoutout to the guys from Hunter Street, shoutout to my little brother Alex and his friends Adam and Sam, Shoutout to Monster, Razer, Kingston Hyper X, Astro, Cyberpower PC, ZAM, and Benq, also a shoutout to everyone at onGamers, love reading esports content on your website. Keep up the good work!
