Dota Talk

On the 2nd and 3rd of February, our newly inducted DotaTalk editor, Solstice, was sent to cover the Flash Esports Dota 2 League, consisting of the Amateur League, and the Professional League. This event was held at the Alienware Arena, Lucky Chinatown, Singapore. An EXCLUSIVE DotaTalk interview was conducted with Daryl ‘Iceiceice’ Koh, Captain of  Team Zenith, winner of the Professional League and Open Category, along with a summary about the event!

 

There are several goals for this inaugural Dota 2 tournament, which are as follows:

The first is to revive the stagnating Dota/Dota 2 community, which in it’s golden years had LAN competitions being organized regularly from 2007-2010. In recent years, activity has gone down, and many local talents from the past have disappeared. We feel that with the release of Dota 2, the FD2L will serve as a prelude to a vibrant gaming community here in Singapore.

The second is basically to give Dota 2 gamers, be it casual, semi-professional or even the likes of top-tier teams like Zenith a chance to improve and polish their skills. We believe that sustained competition is the only way to make this possible, hence we organized this league with four seasons in mind a year (one per quarter).

Source: Flash Esports

Background

 Team Zenith is a world renowned Dota 2 team, with players from Singapore and Malaysia. They have many prestigious awards, such as 3rd Place in the First Internationals, and 5th Place in The Internationals 2, along with the 1st place in the GosuCup Asia III and IV.

 First Departure is a relatively new team, and their rise to fame came with after their undoubted performance in the SEA League 1st Qualifier. Their win at the Flash Esports Dota 2 Amateur League over  Team Zenith was unexpected, as they were the underdogs, and caused quite and uproar.

Amateur League

Epic battles raged, as Singapore’s leading Dota 2 teams faced off at the Alienware Arena on Saturday. Spectators would sit in front of televised dota matches, watching the moves that the player behind made, analyzing their mistakes and praising their game changing moves.

One of the most notable games would be between ISGaming and Team Zenith, whereby missed fountain hooks by ISGaming would elicit laughter at the players, but a successful fountain hook would evoke spontaneous applause. ISGaming, the winner of Only Gaming Matter’s Ameteur Open #2, eventually lost 0-2 to Team Zenith in the Semi-Finals.

First Departure (which won the 1st qualifiers for the SEA League), another favourite Dota 2 team, was dropped into the Lower Bracket in the semi-finals by Team Zenith, after superb teamwork trumped all. This would later come back to haunt them, however. In the Grand Finals of the Flash Esports Amateur Dota 2 League, against all odds,  First Departure won the title, along with a $500 cash prize and $150 worth of vouchers. It was a tense game, as Singapore’s top premier Dota 2 teams faced off. Team Zenith did not leave empty handed either, winning a respectable $400 cash.

Professional League

The Grand Finals featured  Team Zenith, against  First Departure, in a best-of-3 match. There was a marked difference in atmosphere, with an air of seriousness during the tournament, and much more spectators could be seen.

Game 1  

First Departure (Radiant) Vs Team Zenith (Dire)

In Game 1, the most notable pick was Spectre for  Team Zenith’s YamateH, and countering a void pick for  First Departure’s Meracle. A duo carry strategy was seen by  Team Zenith, as Captain Iceiceice played an offlane Lifestealer. Meracle’s void was kept down throughout the whole match, due to xy-’s roaming storm spirit, and Ice’s Nyx Assasin, giving no chance for him to get his chronosphere off. Here, we saw a revival of the famed “Naix Bomb”, whereby the Lifestealer infested the Storm Spirit, before casting Ball Lightning into the engage, dealing massive AOE damage. The atmosphere was electric during teamfights, with YamateH, xy-, and ice shouting, as they were very animated during the games. Shouts of, “KILL THE VOID”,”SILENCE HIM and “BACK!” could be heard. Team Departure was mostly quiet, with the occasional bustle during teamfights as well. With the Spectre free farming throughout the game, and the rest of the team hunting down   First Departure’s Void, the gold and experience graphs rapidly went the way of   Team Zenith. Within 30 minutes, the gold and experience graphs went 20k each in the favour of   Team Zenith. The GG was called 32 minutes into the game.

Game 2 

Team Zenith (Radiant) Vs First Departure (Dire)

Game 2 opened on a different note, with  First Departure wisened up to  Team Zenith’s antics. This time,  First Departure was the team to opt for a duo carry strategy, with Weaver and Phantom Lancer being their choices. YamateH,  Team Zenith’s main carry player this time opted for a offlane batrider, leaving the carry role for Iceiceice. This game opened to a extremely bad start for  First Departure, as the safe lane Anti-Mage, played by Iceiceice controlled  First Departure’s offlane weaver. Eventually, Iceiceice was able to find a few solo kills against the Weaver, gaining much needed gold and experience. Other than that, it was mostly free farm for Iceiceice’s Anti-Mage.  First Departure’s Meracle on Phantom Lancer was continuously ganked on the Dire’s safe lane, at which pitted trilane against trilane. One of the highlights of the game was when xy-’s storm spirit, used ball lightning to evade  First Departure’s QoP’s Ultimate, Sonic Wave, which led to spontaneous applause from the audience. Eventually Meracle’s Phantom Lancer got his Diffusal Blade at 23 minutes. This made no difference, however, as   First Departure called the GG at 25 minutes.

NOTE: Both   First Departure and   Team Zenith will be playing at the SEA League Group stages today. Click HERE for more information.

EXCLUSIVE interview with Daryl ‘Iceiceice’ Koh!

Iceiceice, Captain of Team Zenith was recently interviewed, by our very own editor, Solstice, and this is the full interview!

Any thoughts on the current Dota 2 Scene in Singapore?

Not much really, i was quite suprise by the number of teams that registered for the Flash Dota 2 tournament. Didn’t really expect there to be that many teams lurking around…

What are YamateH’s general feelings about a new environment, does he travel from Malaysia to Singapore daily for bootcamps?

For now, no. We did not train at all for this tournament as it’s our official “first” lan tournament together (we did took part in an online gosu cup tournament). He’s happy I guess, or he seems to be.

Is ‘Ice’ going to be a permanent player for the team, or at the moment is only a temporary player?

For now he’s a standin, but we are consider taking him as a permanent player. We’ll have to see how things goes since we want the best line up.

What is Team Zenith’s aim in 2013; what do you hope to win?

Everything.

Which team do you want to match up against the most? Why?

I would love to be match against another zenith if possible, like duplicate all of the zenith members. Why? Because it will probably never happen.

What are your feelings/sentiments towards The Internationals 2013?  How far do would you go if invited? Do you think IG will be able to defend against their title?

The same as every year. As far as possible. NO

Solstice: Do you think that Team Zenith is currently doing better under this new roster?

I’m not very sure currently since we haven’t had any training yet lol.

Do you think that Team Zenith has more potential with this line up?

Refer to 7!

With YamateH and Ice joining Zenith, do you guys prefer booting camping at lans or bootcamping online, due to distance constraints?

We will always prefer boot camping at lans as you can only train till a certain level online.

Correct me if i’m wrong, Roles are Iceiceice as semi-carry/ganker, YamateH as carry, xy- as solo mid, xFreedom as hard support and Ice as semi support.

Can’t tell you, that’s a team secret.

Having been invited to The Internationals twice, what do you think Valve can implement to improve the player’s stay and experience during the tournament?

Well, I guess if they could throw gold bars at us every night, that would improve everything by a lot.

What are your predictions for the G-League Finals? Will IG or LGD claim the gold?

Don’t care as long as it’s nice.

Trivia Time!

What’s your favorite food?

Currently, tuna belly sashimee!

What’s your favorite color?

Well, my favourite color is pretty much mood dependent….

What’s your favorite drink?

Ceylon milk tea!

What’s your favorite role in Dota?

6

What’s your favorite team in Dota? (excluding Team Zenith of course   )

I don’t really have one TT

Do you prefer boxers or briefs?

Boxers obviously.

Shout outs?

Big shout out to MyRepublic for sponsoring my internet! check out their Facebook and site.. AND I DON’T DISCONNECT BECAUSE OF THEM, IT’S MY PC!!!

Team Zenith’s Current Lineup

• Daryl ‘Iceiceice’ Koh [Captain]
• Wai Hong ‘xy-’ Toh
• Nicholas ‘xFreedom’ Lim
• Ng ‘YamateH’ Wei Poong
• Chee ‘Ice’ Cai Chua

Event Background 

Hosted by Flash Esports, the Flash Esports League is a quarter yearly tournament, with Dota 2 being introduced into the game lineups only today. This is event was co-managed by Tammy ‘FurryFish’ Tang, former Team Zenith manager.