Someone should bring a radio around with tracks to add to atmosphere while playing competitions. My plan while playing SF is to play the Temeka soundtrack (youtube it if you don't know what I'm talking about) every time I enter a battle and have all my enemies freeze in laughter at the epic fail that I unleash.
30 minutes to write and I still have dinner to take. But lest I forget...
Today Shawn asks me when I'm going to move on.
i.e. quit DotA.
See, 1 year ago, I would have thought that I wouldn't exactly be in any position by this time to actually get anywhere near top 4 in any competition in DotA. Then again, my policy when it comes to planning has always been to plan 3 months in advance and never ever more, because anything you plan more than 3 months into the future, in all likelihood, will never happen.
Upon conscription I had almost wanted to join with a bunch of people that I never knew before - Isaac, some ex-GG[U] people, etc. and I think the name Purify- came up too. The whole purpose was to just be part of some team where I wouldn't be pressured and could just play for fun. At that point in time I had no idea how much time I could dedicate to playing and was pretty happy that I could join a team with basically no promised commitment at all. For that much and for letting me go after I was almost forming a team, I do give Isaac some respect.
Then, in my own words, an offer came by that was too good to resist. "Ice, LuX, NutZ, MusiCa, Ant". It didn't really worked out as planned, with me still being unable to offer enough time to train. Cue many other complications, and I'm where I am now.
I did plan to move on, really, but things don't work out as planned, and I find that spending weekends on DotA actually isn't such a bad thing, since I'm lucky enough to have around 48 hours out on my weekends. I still have university applications, driving, SATs to do though... so who knows when I'll decide it's time to stop being a teenager and move on...
I mean, with many of my classmates etc. (which I still meet on weekends) having barely 24 hours a bookout, I do have to spend some time with something mildly productive :D. And DotA is productive when you're somewhere nearer to the top... or when you're having fun :D
And of course, if your classmates play DotA, you get the added benefit of joining Summerfury with them now :D
Oh, HAPPY BIRTHDAY NUTZ.
Wow. It's very blog-ish now. I think I'll move back to talking about DotA instead of talking about myself after this. This week just has been one that I feel good to unleash any unsettled emotions I have onto this blog.
I'm more or less detached from Zenith anyway so why am I using this site T_T... must be for the audience!
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
As much as I would like to blog about all my experiences in the previous month, it's probably no longer relevant. I've been feeling a mixture of happy and surprised this week. For me, my feelings about the current events at ESWC date back to up to two years ago. It goes deep into the archives of this blog.
I'll state flat up that I did not expect Zenith to win ESWC. Not because I feel the other teams are good, but because frankly Zenith has not been performing, and didn't exactly improve much. Joining them the last few days before they headed out to ESWC, there really wasn't much change in their playing, not much improvement either, except that they were more or less broken and willing to try anything - including, wisely, giving Tofu more say.
But all this I can't judge, since I'm now an external observer.
Perhaps the western teams were slightly too overrated. Perhaps a gap evolved between the Asian and western teams when they decided not to mix around with each other too much anymore, and with teams like EHOME stepping up their game, the rest of Asia was forced to do so as well. Perhaps Zenith simply went in with nothing to lose, having suffered the worst streak of defeats that any team named "Zenith" has EVER encountered, and with that attitude managed to give their all and win.
Or probably, perhaps, it was that the strategical advantage was reversed.
I have worked all my life for this day and I have met with disappointment after disappointment. IHCS and MYM's and all the international tournaments... well, refer to past entries 1 year back and earlier. I would like to think that sending Zenith to ASUS and Dreamhack did something in contributing to bringing an international DotA LAN tournament closer, but it's something I think I say just to console myself. There was a big problem in the Zenith European Tour, and that was strategy. It was not that we had an inferior strategy (perhaps, but not totally), but that we were not confident of what strategies to use, resulting in very very inferior quality of play due to strategies we simply couldn't pull off (and weren't theoretically pull-off-able).
And there was that thing about Magnus. More proof about being totally unprepared strategy-wise. Skill-wise, I believe that even the lousiest of us (me) with 2 months of no practice (me) could stand up to any member of the opposing team in the European tour. And really, on hindsight, it was just screwed up.
Cue more dissing about us losing in LAN. Shit happens. This more or less seals us in for more dissing and doom for the next year or so since we did lose. So at least this ESWC should break that seal that I sort of tightened over the last 2 years.
So I'm very damn happy that Zenith wins, heck, any Asian team would do, but Zenith even more so.
Of course, a lot of questions pop up, like 'would this happen if I was there?' and 'COULD CONSCRIPTION COME AT A WORSE TIME?'.
I would say that Asia is on strategically higher ground right now.
Would I dare say what is in for Zenith? Chances are they'll ride on morale and do well, or perhaps they'll get even cockier and screw up even more. I told Wei Ming (gamesync) after Zenith lost to |sc that Zenith is a team that, despite the change in lineup, rides on a wave of ups and downs, and simply were riding on a down period. ESWC might be a break in their 'down' cycle, or might be the start of their 'up' wave. Either way, I dare to say that the current team will lose their 'up' cycle soon. The strategical advantage doesn't hold for very long.
I'll be honest here, when I say that there are a lot of things that I DON'T respect the current Zenith team for. Don't get me wrong, winning ESWC doesn't gain much in the respect field.
But it does make me very happy.
And in a way, it justifies the two years of work I've put in for the name. So for that at least, I can thank the current team Zenith, for once, finally, like I used to thank the old Zenith when I could work for them and see results.
I'll state flat up that I did not expect Zenith to win ESWC. Not because I feel the other teams are good, but because frankly Zenith has not been performing, and didn't exactly improve much. Joining them the last few days before they headed out to ESWC, there really wasn't much change in their playing, not much improvement either, except that they were more or less broken and willing to try anything - including, wisely, giving Tofu more say.
But all this I can't judge, since I'm now an external observer.
Perhaps the western teams were slightly too overrated. Perhaps a gap evolved between the Asian and western teams when they decided not to mix around with each other too much anymore, and with teams like EHOME stepping up their game, the rest of Asia was forced to do so as well. Perhaps Zenith simply went in with nothing to lose, having suffered the worst streak of defeats that any team named "Zenith" has EVER encountered, and with that attitude managed to give their all and win.
Or probably, perhaps, it was that the strategical advantage was reversed.
I have worked all my life for this day and I have met with disappointment after disappointment. IHCS and MYM's and all the international tournaments... well, refer to past entries 1 year back and earlier. I would like to think that sending Zenith to ASUS and Dreamhack did something in contributing to bringing an international DotA LAN tournament closer, but it's something I think I say just to console myself. There was a big problem in the Zenith European Tour, and that was strategy. It was not that we had an inferior strategy (perhaps, but not totally), but that we were not confident of what strategies to use, resulting in very very inferior quality of play due to strategies we simply couldn't pull off (and weren't theoretically pull-off-able).
And there was that thing about Magnus. More proof about being totally unprepared strategy-wise. Skill-wise, I believe that even the lousiest of us (me) with 2 months of no practice (me) could stand up to any member of the opposing team in the European tour. And really, on hindsight, it was just screwed up.
Cue more dissing about us losing in LAN. Shit happens. This more or less seals us in for more dissing and doom for the next year or so since we did lose. So at least this ESWC should break that seal that I sort of tightened over the last 2 years.
So I'm very damn happy that Zenith wins, heck, any Asian team would do, but Zenith even more so.
Of course, a lot of questions pop up, like 'would this happen if I was there?' and 'COULD CONSCRIPTION COME AT A WORSE TIME?'.
I would say that Asia is on strategically higher ground right now.
Would I dare say what is in for Zenith? Chances are they'll ride on morale and do well, or perhaps they'll get even cockier and screw up even more. I told Wei Ming (gamesync) after Zenith lost to |sc that Zenith is a team that, despite the change in lineup, rides on a wave of ups and downs, and simply were riding on a down period. ESWC might be a break in their 'down' cycle, or might be the start of their 'up' wave. Either way, I dare to say that the current team will lose their 'up' cycle soon. The strategical advantage doesn't hold for very long.
I'll be honest here, when I say that there are a lot of things that I DON'T respect the current Zenith team for. Don't get me wrong, winning ESWC doesn't gain much in the respect field.
But it does make me very happy.
And in a way, it justifies the two years of work I've put in for the name. So for that at least, I can thank the current team Zenith, for once, finally, like I used to thank the old Zenith when I could work for them and see results.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
"I think a lot of us owe an apology for doubting the caliber of the Asian teams. Their performance on LAN vs top NA/Euro teams is stellar."
for all the doubting, for all the insults when we lag in online matches and blow.
VINDICATED.
http://forums.dota-allstars.com/index.php?s=d8ec9d6fcfeaf7f82b3b99d43608cdc2&showtopic=238743&st=180
VINDICATED.
http://forums.dota-allstars.com/index.php?s=d8ec9d6fcfeaf7f82b3b99d43608cdc2&showtopic=238743&st=180
MUAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
HAPPINESS!!!
LATEST RESULTS
 SK | 0 | 1 | EVILG  |
 KINGSURF | 1 | 0 | S3X  |
 NAFU | 1 | 0 | SRS  |
| SK | 1 | 0 | KINGSURF |
| NAFU | 0 | 1 | EVILG |
| SRS | 1 | 0 | S3X |
| SK | 1 | 0 | NAFU |
| SRS | 0 | 1 | KINGSURF |
| S3X | 0 | 1 | EVILG |
| SK | 0 | 1 | SRS |
| S3X | 1 | 0 | NAFU |
| EVILG | 0 | 1 | KINGSURF |
| SK | 1 | 0 | S3X |
| EVILG | 1 | 0 | SRS |
| KINGSURF | 1 | 0 | NAFU |
| 1 | | EVIL GENIUSES | 12 |
| 1 | | KINGSURF | 12 |
| 3 | | SK GAMING | 9 |
| 4 | | SERIOUS GAMING | 6 |
| 5 | | NAFU | 3 |
| 5 | | S3X | 3 |
Sunday, August 24, 2008
From left to right : Tofu, Dk-mag3, xMusica, Bouncy, hyhy
tofu checked in his jacket, so he was the only odd one out xD
Off they go to sunny California!
Tofu's parents went to the airport to see him off, they're really cool people. His mum was laughing and telling me how tofu told her that he wouldnt "come back a virgin boy". LOL
And thanks to musica's humongous appetite, the few kgs fufu managed to shed crept right back on.
P.s. California is 15 hours behind us, and sadly the matches would not be streamed on ggtv *faint
Some cool random website ::
BYE~
*HAPPY BIRTHDAY TUNA!*
Monday, August 18, 2008
[!] Registration is officially closed due to overwhelming response. Teams may still apply but will be put on the waiting list.The first 16 teams are given priority but must pay within the next 48 hours, or their slots will be given up.
Thank you for your great support! =)
EVO DOTA TOURNAMENT.
--> click pic to enlarge
31 August 2008
Only open to amateur teams that have not won/ranked top 8 in the last 12 months
16 Teams ONLY (single elimination)
Venue: Parklane B1, Evolution (beside Mac)
S$60 Registration includes:
-50 hours free LAN (per team)
-Complimentary drinks.
Three Cash Prizes
First: $500
Second: $200
Third: $100
Registration
*The first 16 teams to submit COMPLETE team details to evoleague@gmail.com AND make payment of $60 per team will be awarded the slots.
*Title your email in this format: "EVO COMPIE - [YOUR TEAM NAME]”
*In your email, indicate the full name, gaming tag, i/c and contact number of each member (up to 6).
*Incomplete registrations will be ignored.
*Rooster adjustments can only be made 24 hours before the commencement of the tournament to ensure fairness.
*Registration will close on 29 August 2008 at 2359H
Payment
After registering online, you will be given a confirmation ID. Use this confirmation ID to make payment:
1. Online – POSB funds transfer (further details will be included upon confirmation)
2. Manually – evo counter (please bring your i/c for verification)
Tournament Details
*Teams should not be previously seeded (top 8), or winners of recognized DotA tournaments in the past twelve (12) months.
*Team members from seeded (top 8) or winning teams in the past twelve (12) months may take part, but should not exceed more than two (2) per team.
*Map version: latest stable version on www.getdota.com
*Rules: WCG Singapore 2008
Terms and conditions are subject to change without prior notice by the evo management.
Razer is conducting a survey/contest and would like everyone to be a part of it. By simply filling out the survey, one lucky winner will receive a Razer DeathAdder. Only one entry per forum member!
click here http://www.pmsclan.com/content.php?task=detail&pid=320
click here http://www.pmsclan.com/content.php?task=detail&pid=320
Friday, August 15, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Sunday, August 10, 2008
I was going to elaborate on the previous post, but I'll leave it for now. I think the question itself says a lot, going by the context of this blog.
I hate being forced to leave an event because I have to book in, and I had so much to write about WCG this year, amongst everything the less than desirable coverage of it online.
I hate being forced to leave an event because I have to book in, and I had so much to write about WCG this year, amongst everything the less than desirable coverage of it online.
Friday, August 08, 2008
HELLO EVERYBODY!!
i am so sorry, i know that sorrys are just not enough.. but.......
I HAVE FIXED THE BLOG!!!
rawr hahahahhaah
1) i've added in our new members
2) i've fixed the FREAKING links drop down list.
THIS MEANS, THAT YOU ALL CAN CLICK THE FREAKING DROP DOWN LINK OPTION AND IT WILL TAKE U WHERE I INTEND IT TO TAKE YOU TO.
ok i'm talking weird. i think its the tea earlier today.
on a happier note:-
please check out the link http://www.garena.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=294743
its been SO long since * made it past the first round of anything. wayyy too long.
maybe we're on our way back to standing on our own two feet!!