Oh, of course, let's start with these two links:
Here and here.

Brought to my attention by DotaSG, and naturally has aroused an interest in me since a large portion of this site has been devoted to archiving Zenith history.

I think XtC does a pretty damn good job themselves of archiving their own history, sans the personal opinions, which might be a good or bad thing. Everything else I've done not under Zenith has roughly remained forgettable, and certain parts regrettable. I look forward to another time when I can personally once again at least roughly report (with of course, limited insights) on the happenings of a team Zenith, but I doubt that'll be early enough to be a Christmas present.

The two articles actually do pretty damn good reporting, something you won't find here. I do have a habit of inserting a little bit of my incessant whining in about everything I write.

Non incessant whining bits of information can be found here.

Oh dear. When was the last time anyone updated that.

For someone who hasn't actually been in any of these teams, Underminer does a bloody good job at tracking their history, and writes a succinct summary of it better than I ever can - plus it's actually focused with "flow", a concept alien to me. I guess you can really see in it the devotion one man has put towards the game.

Irrelevant random point which I feel like saying right now since I never got the chance to say it. Did you know that for most of the last 2 years (well, I can't speak for most of this year, but I'll assume nothing has changed), the generally considered 'best' player internally within the whole Micronology gang was Bouncy?

More on that some other day. But I never actually do elaborate on any points I push forward do I?

I could add on to what is written in the two articles by Underminer, but I'm pretty satisfied with what's written. From what I can tell, it's a complete enough story. Perhaps supplemented with salutary comments to NutZ and, I believe very importantly, QueeN. Maybe I can fill in on what I need to fill in on.

It can be shocking how much public opinion can differ from internal opinion in a team. A point illustrated 3 paragraphs up should show that. Of course, back when I was actually playing for Zenith (oh, another case of "back when..."), I could pretty much post here and control public opinion :D.

Zenith 2008 (i.e. the period when I wasn't playing and wasn't involved in any decision making for the team), whether I support their decisions or not, was at least rather stringent in their selection of a 5th player (the criteria however, I believe, was flawed). It thus stands that they had a pretty damn good reason to keep QueeN in their team no matter how many failures they had.

While Musica was no doubt a great choice for ESWC, I do believe that the team would have been equally or more willing to let QueeN take his place, but well, they did sort of agree with Musica that he would play ESWC for them.

There is a fair amount of respect to be paid to someone who spends much of his life developing a team, has his team suddenly leave him, after which he joins them back, wins almost nothing, and have his team suddenly leave him again. Not to say the least about his teammates.

But really, I'm not at liberty to reveal anymore, since I don't actually know any more. Nevertheless, about every member who has joined Zenith has had a story to tell, that has yet to be heard.

Except Lem. Who joined for like... 3 days. Or something.

And where did Adverska go?

Except for me, since I tell everyone all my stories. Ha ha ha. Or are there a few I keep to myself and try to forget?

Back to the present now, SMM.

As a whole, the event is pretty cool. It's right in the middle of a rather big shopping plaza, so food and whatever you need is pretty abundant. Plus plus, free drinks. Awesome that is.

The story as it goes is like this. I went down to SMM as a commentator, not as a player. More on that later (REALLY!!), but as a commentator this is probably the first time I've experienced true fatigue.

First of all, THANK GOODNESS FOR THE FREE DRINKS.

I think I did about 15+ games back to back in the 3 day period, some solo. As a result, slips in hero names, or whatever one can slip up in, happen. Somehow I said DotA had 6 lanes and I ended up calling wrong hero names and missing kills. Fortunately there is no recording of any sort to preserve all my mistakes for time immemorial.

Then I headed back to Singapore, and got a sore throat only the day after. Strangeness.

Another irrelevant point. Is it just me or does my team treat me like shit every time I start to actually care about it?

Well, I don't tend to write about XtC matters here, but rather my own personal take on things. The lineup for SMM however, as one should have been able to see, was Tofu, ice, gGg, xy, and Alan (the letter 'A' is capitalized for no good reason). This was in fact a lineup that only was finalized to go to SMM one month or so before the actual competition.

As a side note, it's rather sickening when "my team" gets thrashed 2-0 by Impreza in some ADC replacement game... and I find out about it through the Dota-Allstars forums.

Ah, the memoirs of someone who has been slowly phased out. Of course, the final lineup, as Tofu explained from the start, was to have a team which he could hardcore train with. NSFs of course, are not in that category. His philosophy of course, is no doubt sound. Hardcore training brought Zenith to ESWC victory, and this team managed to secure a sound 2nd position in SMM amidst VERY DAMN INTENSE competition. Well, I had hoped that there was room for a 6th, but political correctness and politeness didn't outweigh $$$$$$$.

Well, actually I didn't know I wasn't playing until about 2 weeks before. Then I got offered to commentate. O well. I did need a vacation from Singapore.

And of course, making the decision to not let LuX play while he's away in Australia and not contactable for more than a month isn't very nice, but to be frank was rather necessary to achieve this result, since it is rather risky to hinge on a player that hasn't played for such a long time.

Stuck in a position where such justified injustices are handed down, there is nothing that can be done but wish them all the best. Silence of course, is disposed from the majority which it best benefits.

But now that it's over, damn.

I could do a hell lot of whining here, but overall it leads to me ending up right now with no more direction of where to go.

The good thing is that when someone goes hardcore training and picks up a lot of things along the way (without you), suddenly the game is so much more fun because I know of what I need to acquire and can feel once again, IMPROVEMENT!

Because as much as I always love picking the right hero for the right situation to use, I think it's about time I learn to use the wrong hero to put him in the right situation. After all, when the Athlete runs a race, he runs with no load, but perhaps it would be better for him to train with load on him.

And once again, when there is a team I thought I could settle in once again (or was it the same team I had already settled in?), a chain of decisions and events partially correlated with one fat boy leaves me left to pick up the pieces.

Off we go into the wild blue yonder,
Climbing high into the sun;
Here they come zooming to meet our thunder,
At 'em boys, Give 'er the gun! (Give 'er the gun now!)
Down we dive, spouting our flame from under,
Off with one heckuva roar!
We live in fame or go down in flame. 
Hey! Nothing'll stop the Asterisk Force!

EVO COMPIE WILL BE POSTPONED TO NEXT WEEK, 23rd NOV.
ALL INTERESTED PARTIES PLEASE CONTINUE TO SEND IN YOUR REGISTRATION.
PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL PLAYERS MAY TAKE PART IN THIS COMPIE.
teams which have paid will be scheduled for next week instead.
THANK YOU for your continued support.
should you need to enquire further, please approach MARTIN at evo, or drop us an email at evoleague@gmail.com

EVO COMPIE --- RETURNS!!


16th NOV 08 Sunday
8am-7pm
16 Teams ONLY (single elimination)
Venue: Parklane B1, Evolution (beside Mac)


S$60 Registration includes
-30 hours free LAN (per team)


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.
*Payment deadline for the 16 teams is on FRIDAY 8pm. Teams which fail to pay by then will have to give up their slot to teams on the waiting list (if there are any)
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Tournament Details
*latest map on getdota.com will be used. [current map - 656]
*'ranked' players, winners of previous evo compies allowed!

Terms and conditions are subject to change without prior notice by the evo management.

please check http://www.garenasg.com/index.php?showtopic=1965&st=0#entry20307 for updates

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