by Han
published by Rinie Tuesday 13 October 2009
Fresh from being crowned second in WCG.MY, our Dota expert Underminer is once again happy to conduct his interview with us. He managed to take his team all the way to the Final of WCG.MY, where his team IG Shizuma Pro came unstuck against the eventual winners, Cybertime 2. As expected he is gracious in defeat, choosing to praise his superior opponents, while giving us detailed insights of the happenings in his camp. Here is a detailed interview from a truly top player and analyst from Malaysia’s E-Sports scene, Underminer.
1. Congratulations on your second place finish. Firstly, were you happy to be finish in second or were you disappointed that you were unable to take that last step to be crowned champion?
Thanks for the wish, first of all, allow me to introduce the team. It consists of Canonzaii, Mikebz, Andy, Shizuma and Papaxiong. 4 of them hail from Penang and Papaxiong came all the way from Johor to join up. To be honest, with the banning of the top 4 teams in the scene right now (Ks, INC-Excello, Keydone.MU and Cybertime 1) the team was formed with the intention of going all the way with Shizuma (the only female participant in the Dota tournament) playing a carry role. However, the caliber of the scene without the top 4 participating is much stronger than we anticipated. Midway into the tourney, we saw Cybertime 2, the eventual winners was just a step ahead of everyone in terms of training, skill and strategy. Their superiority over the other teams was obvious with the stomping of their opponents with relative ease along the winner brackets.
So yeah, we were disappointed of not coming in first but we knew the winner deserved every bit of their glory.
2. What do you believe contributed to the defeat in your last game?
Coming up from the loser’s bracket, we knew we need to win 4 games in a row to have the chance to reach the Grand Finals in Day 2 of the tournament. Leaving nothing to chance, we drafted our A draft from the start of day 2.
I guess Cybertime 2 studied us well from our 4-game rampage to reach the Grand Finals. Losing the first game to us, they too drafted something safe for the first time in the tournament for the 2nd game ; coupled with a certain mistakes made in game from our part, Cybertime 2 managed to take the second game.
3. What was very important to your team in the run to the final?
Coming from various backgrounds (Papaxiong is the core of the Kingsurf domination of Malaysia for the past 2 years; Mike and Canon forms the core of the current FTZ-Asia team, the top all-Penangite team currently; Andy and Shizuma plays only pubs until the recent switch to clanwar games) and teaming up for the first time, I knew from the get-go that a synchronization in command and draft is crucial. The lack of communication in this vital part almost cost us the tournament when we first lost to Nt.Gaming and then came back from the brink of defeat to beat Fecca-Fey in a pulsating match.
At the end of the first day, no one was happy. Over at dinner, everyone seems worried of our chances to advance further and a clash of ideas ensued over the way to play the game happened. In a flash of brilliance, Papaxiong took up full responsibility of the success and failure of the campaign, making it very clear that it’s his way of the highway.
Surprisingly, everyone complied despite a certain discontentment. Papa then laid down some concepts for all to follow and decided to overhaul the way we think and play the game. Trainings and discussions goes on until 4 am in the morning.
At Day 2, under his command, we played like a team and not 5 individuals and managed to play the maximum 6 games we planned to do. Though we lost the last game but overall, everyone’s Dota improved from the time we first met 2 days ago from the final and it all boils down to Papaxiong’s planning and the professionalism of the others to just listen and do what is best for the team.
4. What do you believe the success of your team is down to?
I believe it’s down to everyone wanting to do well deep down. The team has no training before we met and the decision to follow Papa’s command took a lot from everyone of the team. Dota is a game where there are many ways to win. To discard off the old habits and adjust to a totally new concept, really is a testament to the professionalism of the players in it. Everyone thought its easy to win with the players we have, but in fact, the more famous the players a team have, the harder it is to integrate. For us to put away our differences and gel within 1 day is something I thought is the key to our run in this tournament.
5. Finally, any advice for other teams who wish to play professionally?
Looking at the careers of the more successful players/teams, I noticed every one of them have good people skills. They are basically friendly with everyone in the scene. So I guess to be able to have fun climbing the hard ladder to the top, a basic respect of your fellow teammates and people in general are needed. The chances of your team to be a success increases exponentially if everyone just likes you and prefer to train with you more. I guess the Dota scene in Malaysia just kept to this formula and our success in the International scene is a testament to this basic principle.
Shout outs to Cybertime and Lim in particular for bringing Dota back into WCG Malaysia. It is also an honour to be competing alongside the best gamers in Malaysia: Serry, JohnRambo and Si Jali. Just watching them in action is an inspiration of what true E-sports represents.
To me, they are genuine athletes and new icons of our digital society. The emotions we felt throughout the game can be and should be shared among the public audience and that’s the where the future of the industry lies. E-sports are at the crossroads of all the most exciting fields of our generation: sport, entertainment, Internet, new technologies, video games. To be able to be part of its history in Malaysia is truly an honor.
And thank you Spotgamers for the interview.
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