I did aim to have played all 82 heroes by June, but with the recent booming of competitions both online and offline, it seems I'll have to be practicing heroes instead of trying new ones for fun. Hero logging however, will be indefinitely postponed. I actually find it rather amazing though, that in the hectic rush of competitions, I actually played one new hero and that actually paid off, more on that later. Anyway, number 33 - Goblin Alchemist, will be added on to the backlog, along with Bristleback, Silencer, Doom Bringer, Lord of Avernus, Treant Protector, Bane Elemental, Shadow Shaman, Earthshaker, Lord of Olympia, Queen of Pain, Prophet, and Twin-headed Dragon.

Lessee... to begin with, Zenith trials. As it turns out, GPS has decided to stop blowing, at least for one hero. The shortlist of the half dozen or so players who are still potential candidates will be used at a later date, but not too near in the future, at least until someone goes somewhere else, or GPS or me start becoming habitual feeders again. So that was a lot of wasted admin. Bleh.

Let's start with the Gamers Inc competition. I'll start with it because there wasn't anything much to be said about it. We have a habit of getting into losing streaks, and one competition loss is usually a very very bad sign for the next competition. Thus we all went into this fully prepared and actually taking it rather seriously, so no diffusal lothar RKs were used. I can say we pretty much breezed through this competition rather easily, but I can only hope that we can maintain the same attitude in our next competition. One thing good about it though, was that I don't think we used the same draft in any of our matches. We basically did a new stunt for almost every single game in the competition. I'll let the replays do the talking for anyone who is interested.

Interschool followed directly after Gamers Inc. Frankly, from what I can see, it was mostly just about which team was unlucky enough to meet TP, NP, or ITE FTW* early. For reasons I'm not too certain of, there really isn't a single Pre-U school team that can do anything against those 3. Maybe it's the advantage in players available, or the abundance of good players. Overall though, it was my first experience marathon shoutcasting, and taught me the valuable lesson that while it might be tiring to watch two good teams drag the game, it is DOWNRIGHT FRUSTRATING to watch two noob teams drag the game. Sadly when the tournament went to the better parts (I'll assume), I was mostly playing and so was unable to do any commentating. Oh, and playing Gears of War was also a blast. I would actually buy an xbox360 if I had the time and was willing to spend the money (but I don't!).

I joined inter-school with schoolmates, and honestly I didn't expect to get as far as 4th, but mostly like I said, it was just about which above-decent team got wiped by the top 3 teams first, and we didn't meet them until the semi-finals, so yeh... my schoolmates turned out to be pretty decent in gameplay. Engagements, lane control, and catching actually went quite well. The only drawback is that they farm slow. Slow. SLOWWWW. Oh, and one of them charges into enemies alone for no reason at all.

I'll be brief for our first few games. We did play one really good game in the quarter-finals, that I feel is simply epic, but of course that's because I played it, and onlookers might not feel the same. Anyway...

First game was up against Bedok View Sec Sch I believe. I can tell you how the game went, but I'll just tell you that they chose Nerubian Weaver and Lightning Revenant, and practically attack moved. We just push and raxed in 40 minutes, not really much of a game.

Next we went up against AJC, which was supposedly not too bad. I believe they went mostly a draft without much AoE at all, prompting me to draft Bear and Warlock to fast push them. I beared top against THD and Zeus, who basically gave me almost free farm. Turned out to be a rather easy game in the end, and we just smashed rax once radiance and treads were up. Their heroes having no AoE or escape mechanism, and coming in one by one disorganised, meant they were sort of pwned badly by the big entangling Spirit Bear.

The next match was against HCJC. This one was quite scary because they went RK, QoP, SF, Zeus, and something else I forgot, basically 3 late gamers and very good holding out. I opted to risk for another Warlock Bear fastpush strat. It started rather badly, with Warlock losing out in middle lane. Nevertheless, with them having 3 late gamers and all actually farming rather well, I called for middle lane push once treads radiance was up. We took down the base tower, but were unable to push any further.

A few pushes resulting in neither side gaining an advantage leaves me quite scared, seeing as how they have 3 late gamers farming really well. Somehow though, a very nice engagement leaves their mid crypt taken down. We basically keep smashing into their top until it downs too, with a very nice engagement after a few not as nice ones. At this point they are super buffed. We just keep the pressure on them, basically smashing into their towers so they can't really leave their base. I use my last charge of Aegis to take down the bottom tower, but they are holding out really well. At this point, I send my teammates to die at bottom lane, and take down the throne. We didn't really have a point where we were losing, but their late game heroes were so well farmed that any major screw up by us would have resulted in us having a very difficult time winning that game.

Next we went up against Clementi Town Secondary School, which I was quite happy to face because there was one guy in their team who throughout one of my commentaries was being a complete nuisance in front of the stage. They were running a Bristleback strat through the competition, and I was actually quite scared of it. Turns out that they were more scared that we would counter their Bristleback strat, and instead chose Obsidian Destroyer.

Their draft basically lacked lane control. We were actually leading in terms of kills by quite a bit early on in the game. My QoP LoA was able to control their Obsidian at top, but he called for mass help and farmed quite a lot. Unfortunately for him, the rest of his team was basically underfarmed and underleveled, and I also happened to be running VS and Doom in my team. It was a rather short game. I don't believe the Destroyer got off one good ultimate. He spent most of the engagement being doomed or being dead, and the rest of his team didn't have much of a chance.

The quarter-finals against Deyi though was throughly epic. They had Viper Warlock Sandking Zeus Bear, up against our LoA QoP Bane Veno and... dig this... ALCHEMIST.

Turns out we're pretty even in terms of lane control... which is good. At least we have some skill. Lanes are pretty even, with Veno Bane up against Warlock Zeus or Sandking (can't remember) and Bear and his friend dying to LoA QoP up top. Early game goes rather evenly. I somehow manage to take Viper in mid. However, with all the farming I do it's really difficult to control him. He gets a rather early relic, but not before I buy a Perseverence and hold around 3k. He ups radiance around the same time as me, but I do have an extra Perseverence. After a bit more farming for BoT, I wait for QoP to Skadi before attempting a push, seeing as how Bear is hard to stop farming but hasn't yet got a Radiance. Unfortuantely, QoP Skadis REALLY SLOWLY. Bear gets Radiance and his stuff, but I call for push anyway.

The first push isn't too bad. I manage to farm quite a lot, but the middle tower survives with a few hundred HP to spare. Courtesy of a very nice Bane grip on Viper, they basically have nothing to slow me with, just a lot of spell spam.

The next few pushes don't go off very well though. My team practically walks right into epicentre and all the AoE combo of Deyi, and the Bear perma-entangles me. Luckily I do manage to break out of entangle to finish off a few lower HP heroes that have been damaged by QoP's spells. Overall, we aren't really losing that much in the engagements. After a few pushes, due to the sheer amount of times we have pushed, Mid Scourge base tower goes down (Deyi's). At this point however, my team gets baited by a Bear and they all die, leaving me to defend the mid Rax alone from the full enemy force. By being just purely overfarmed, I actually am able to defend the raxes alone before my team revives, but waste 1 charge of Aegis and can't save the Mid Ancient Protector.

We push back, and successfully manage to take down one rax on their side. However, at this point, their entire team is really well farmed. Basically, our AoE leaves them at half HP, and their AoE leaves the rest of my team dead. Fortunately, I still have a farming advantage.

At this point though, they start pushing, and we start to engage them in all sorts of places away from base. Forests, river, etc. My aegis wears out, but here comes the fun part. I have 5K, all 6 item slots full with Skadi, Heart, BoT, Radiance, Bfury, and Aegis. Throughout the entire game, although I pack somewhere along 10 deaths, I buy out immediately every single time with around 5K left to spare still.

Around every single engagement, my entire team dies, and they micro me around, so either Bear or Viper gets out alive but with very little HP left with no way to push, since by the time they get there I've already bought out. One cunning little engagement at our forest though, leaves me wondering why I managed to take down all the heroes there. Only then do I find their Bear ploughing down our top base tower. Bleh. Bad.

No wait, it gets worse. Deciding that there isn't any point in taking down an Alchemist that buys out all the time anyway, Deyi pushes mid, drives my team back, and proceeds to use AN ENTIRE CYCLONE STICK on me, which buys them time to take down the tower.

Bear gets BoT now, and pressures other lanes. I'm not really sure how it happens, but our top rax falls after another of their split pushes. All this while, I'm basically suiciding in engagements, and buying out to defend.

With only one set of raxes left, they somehow don't think of going for the World Tree. I easily fend off mid and top lane creeps (the joy of Bfury Radiance) before defending bottom lane a lot. Very damn impressive work from my Bane makes them do very little damage as they basically smash into our towers. Around this time, Bear and Viper run out of Aegises. I basically take opportunity of the time after they fail the bottom lane rax smashing to rush for their Throne, although they do very well in defense. I manage to empty the way to the throne and bring one tower to half HP, but that's about it.

After another wipe, where our bottom tower goes down, I decide to charge after the bottom rax. Lo, they're waiting for me already, but I delay them for a really long time. Fat Alchemist for the win. My LoA player decides to take this time to finish off the half-dead Throne tower. As expected, I buy out, and they all are forced to heal.

At this point, as they cross the river on the top lane (I did push creeps quite far), my teammate notices that they have bought YET another stick of Euls. See, we have only one set of raxes left now. And I can't stop it from going down if I'm flying. I decide to do something desperate and make a beeline for their throne.

I'm not really sure how my team defends 4v5, but I think the Eul was saved for me and they didn't realise I was already at their Throne. They manage to take down one and a half raxes, with very good delaying from TP and my excellent Bane Elemental player. When the throne has about half HP left, they fall back, TPing to save it.

I die. Oh no. Guess what? Yes, I buy back again. Now the throne has around 1.5K hit points. With the creeps quite far up, I BoT just before their base. My noble LoA joins me, and tanks everything on the way. All the stuns, everything. He BKBs, activates his ultimate, and together with me, we take the throne down.

In a 100 minute game where you're only surviving on half a rax and the opponent seems to be wining, especially in a quarter-finals match, that was a rather epic game.

I'll leave TFL and MYM and our ventures into international arena for later ^^ MUCH MUCH LATER.