While we're much complimented by your accusations, apparently the new metagame involving heavy warding seems to have made people forget about map awareness and prediction. Oh well. I seem to recall writing an article back in the early days of the blog about this.
The future looks ready for... MORE EXPANSION OF THE TEAM!! As more and more people take long-term leave from Zenith (my turn comes soon), you're going to see the team lineup on the right column grow and grow. Now, when all those people return from their long absences... well, that's an issue for far too long in the future for me to think about.
Today's writeup will be short, about our new, and sadly less idiosyncratic member, ZX, which makes for a less spicy article. I write ice's name with a small 'i', because that's what he writes it as. Unfortunately I'm not doing the same with ZX even though he writes both letters in lower case, because having a two-letter nick makes a lowercase 'zx' far too insignificant amidst a bunch of text.
The history of ZX's relations with Zenith members actually goes way back into 5.84c in the days when Tofu, LuX, and GPS (and Shoury and Lu.cK) were still known as DsD. Known then as custommapplaya (and thus being called 'papaya' by all of us until just recently), he was LuX's senior in TP and was busy serving his NS. He was originally intended to be a stand-in for DsD but unfortunately had NS commitments.
Fast-forward to two years later, after IGC. Dk-Mag3 was originally slated to join Zenith to replace the NS-going LuX after IGC, but had chosen to stay with Micronology, then suddenly decided to join Zenith (for what was only going to be a week or so), bringing ZX along (i.e. ZX was originally merely "part of the package"). Unfortunately, the week that Dk-Mag3 joined was fraught with inactivity due to many members of Zenith being too busy with MYM, and he chose to return to Micronology since he probably didn't want to leave hyhy and Bouncy behind.
ZX however, chose to stay in Zenith, and well, that's the story.
The origin of ZX's nick is a no-brainer for someone called Zhen Xiang. Anyone wants to hazard a guess? We did get a nice comment from some European in IHCS though (DotA inhouses in Quakenet). Since ZX's GGC account is "mynameiszx", he was asked "is your name really zx?" to which of course he confirmed. "Wow. That's wicked".
Initial opinions about ZX were mixed. He came in around the same time as NutZ, and we went into CAPL with the lineup of GPS, ZX, NutZ, Tofu, ice, and I. Constantly playing a pure support role in Micronology, we were unsure about his skills, but his performance in that CAPL was really beyond expectations, at least not something that I expected.
ZX's weaknesses are actually rather trivial. His most major one would probably be his ability to sometimes simply NOT USE a skill or an item that would save his life, as if he has simply forgotten that it exists.
ZX also sometimes, usually when playing a late gamer, gets caught at the worst time, but this doesn't happen in competitions at all, so it's a minor fault at most. He also can be crazy to a fault, often charging right into death, and unfortunately sometimes having his teammates leap in with him.
ZX used to be one of those flash-engagers too, where all of a sudden, he would cast a spell to start an engagement without any warning whatsoever, surprising his enemies. Unfortunately, his teammates, who would probably be busy retreating, would be even more surprised. However, he has since gotten over not notifying his teammates of his sudden movements.
ZX also used to engage pretty badly with certain heroes. His Sandking used to NEVER epi-blink into battles, even when that was clearly the best option. His Enigma used to be almost unspeakably horrible. However, he has since improved tremendously in this aspect, which is a testament to his good attitude towards improvement. He still however, stays a little too quiet in game, a little like NutZ (^_^), speaking only when it's too late.
Finally, ZX, being brought up around all his Micronology customs and traditions, is BM. Now now guys, it's perfectly fine to whine and smash anyone you like in teamchat, but when you type in allchat, do keep some things reasonably politically correct!
Even though they may be true.
On to the good part...
First and foremost, ZX is always early.
HOLY SHIT!! Ant is NO LONGER THE ONLY ONE THAT ARRIVES BY THE REPORTING TIME.
ZX is a dedicated admin, and responsibly informs the team whenever he is going temporarily inactive or when he might not be able to make it for a game. To me, this is PURE GOLD in a teammate. He has no qualms (okay, he whines a bit, but he still usually makes the trip!) about taking a 100 minute journey from his home to Katong to meet with us too, and he's a busy SIM student with a social life etc. etc.
ZX can play almost every single hero in the game better than most people, and be useful to the team! Where Tofu also shares this trait, ZX fairs better in that while Tofu individually will do well with a hero, he often won't help the team as much as ZX does.
In terms of skill there is really nothing bad to be said about ZX. He has established himself among the team as pretty much one of the most trusted members no matter what hero he plays, except SP (hah). While he might not have that constant "flair" that other team members have, he is consistently the reason why the rest of his team is doing well.
ZX is pretty good at about everything, but what he is particularly exceptional in is in assisting farmers. It's really quite hard to describe it, but suffice to say that he has often made farming for his teammates very much quicker and easier.
Still with all this, ZX is constantly improving, and has been showing better and better performances ever since he has joined team Zenith (of course, before that, I wasn't watching him so I wouldn't know). Moreover, he won't be taken away any time soon (he has already finished NS) so he looks to be a very promising player in the team.
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