amazingxkcd Profile Blog Joined September 2010 GRAND OLD AMERICA 15736 Posts Last Edited: 2017-05-31 11:06:06 #1

Rocky Journey



With the IEM Taipei X just around the corner, many questions surround the teams overshadowed by the dominant teams boasting from China and Australia. In this analysis, we will take a look at the top dog from the Southeast Asia qualifiers, MVP.Karnal. To reach this stage, MVP.Karnal had to defeat the likes of HNA, MiTH (Made in Thailand), TitaNs eSports, Team nxl, and Team Devious. This run to qualifying for Taipei was unexpected, as favorites such as nxl and Threats were favored to run through the competition with relative ease. Threats were upset in the round of 32, whereas MVP.Karnal overcame nxl in a scathing battle in the semifinals.



MVP.Karnal consists of the following players with their dedicated roles:



Aiman "aimaNNN" Azham - Entry Fragger

Ashraf "acAp" Firdaus - IGL

Andrew "kaze" Khong - AWP

Syahrir "izzatR" Izzat - Lurker

Alex "xevR" Pereira - Support

Rags to Riches

First created on Jun 1, 2014, the 6 man rotation featured notable in-house players Imran “ims-” Sariffuddin, Alex “lx” Ngok, Aidil “eyedeal” Azham, and Haron “ronne” Mustaffa. Backed by the owner of Semi Hermatics Engineering, the lineup initiated the start of a dynasty. While this lineup had little opportunity to prove itself early on, the lineup made the most in the few opportunities they had to show off against the top of Asian Counter-Strike. MVP.Karnal excelled with their teamwork and skill, plowing through competition easily. Their best run was in the BenQ CSGO League, where they fell to nxl in the finals with a 0-2 score. Soon after was a hometown LAN named Selangor Cyber Games 2014 where the team would have to backup their late November dominance; they needed to prove to Malaysia that they were the best team. Like a walk in the park they strolled through the local competition, beating fastfive in the finals.



Three months into 2015 and through the Asia-Pacific ESEA S18 division, Mustaffa, Azham, and Ngok would retire. Not knowing how impactful their pickups would be, the remainder brought in soon-to-be star AWPer Khong and Pereira. This would prove to be a new start for the Malaysian team, as they reached the finals of the ESEA season, only to lose to then-dominant Threats (who were then under Skyred with TuKon and JohnnyP in place of Rap and crazyguy). The team worked the kinks out, and created dominant runs in ESEA S18, BenQ Cups, and Selangor Cyber Games with a few extra notable matches against teams from other regions.



During this period, Sariffuddin would be swapped out for former 1.6 pro Mohd “wanr0” Syazwan. The team continued to be a force to be reckoned with in Southeast Asia, and would have the chance to prove their worth when they qualified for ESL Cologne 2015’s Asian Qualifiers by beating Orange eSports. Now needing to prove their worthiness (and that the qualification wasn’t a fluke by all means), MVP.Karnal would be placed against Chinese qualified (and 2nd seed favorites) QeeYou, Indian qualified Neckbreak (arguably the worst in the group), and the recently signed event favorite Renegades. Starting off the event would be against QeeYou; the Chinese side’s Inferno CT side was unbreakable, only allowing MVP.karnal to get 2 rounds on their strongest T maps.Unable to mount a comeback, MVP.karnal fell to QeeYou 11-16.



With MVP.Karnal dropped down to the lower bracket, they would face the Indian representatives, only to make quick work of them with a stellar Inferno CT side. With Renegades topping the group, MVP.Karnal would have to face QeeYou again, this time on Overpass. This time, MVP.Karnal crushed QeeYou to the near point of embarrassment with a 16-5 score. Strong and confident off this recent victory, MVP.Karnal would go on to face the other event favorite, Australia’s second team Team Immunity.



Starting off on Mirage, MVP.Karnal and Immunity would play a contested first half. Unfortunately in the end, a technical problem and multiple anti ecos cost MVP.Karnal the momentum and the game. MVP.Karnal would never recover on Cobblestone, losing 16-7. It would cost them riches and the major spot to Immunity. Regardless, the fight MVP.Karnal put up would’ve surprised many who were foreign to the Asian scene.



While ESL Cologne 2015’s run seemed to be the prime of MVP.Karnal, it didn’t deplete their hunger for improvement. Unfortunately, MVP.Karnal would fail to qualify for the next qualifier (Dreamhack Stockholm 2015), going out in the quarterfinals to emerging Chinese team TyLoo, led by rising talent Yu Lun “fancy1” Cai. Five days after the online qualifier, Syazwan would leave and be replaced by Izzat. This unfortunately heralded a drop in the team’s performance as MVP.Karnal went on the longest slump of any of the top asian teams at that time, failing to quickly adapt to the loss of Syazwan.



For the next 3 months, MVP.Karnal’s results suffered, only notably placing 2nd in SoStronk Challenger Asia Cup #1, losing in an embarassing fashion to CyberZen, which featured 3 former QeeYou members and two members of 1.6 fame. Only this year did MVP.Karnal reemerge as a top team in the region, defying expectation and qualifying for IEM Taipei. The year of 2016 has a lot in store for Asia, and this tournament will draw the world’s attention to the teams competing. MVP.Karnal hope to capture the hearts of fans, and catch the eye of a sponsor. .



Past to present: Reflections and Opinions with xevR and aimaNNN

Can you tell us a bit about yourself, your background in CS history, and how you eventually came to be with MVP.Karnal?



xevR: I started off playing CS competitively about 5-6 years back. My first tournament would be in Source where I placed 2nd place. I started playing CS:GO as soon as it was launched, and was invited to join a Razer invite tournament to promote CS:GO. This is because we were one of the top teams in Malaysia. Shortly after placing 2nd in that tournament, I stopped playing CS:GO, since I felt that it was not growing. In 2013 i started playing cs:go back again when i started to notice a growth in the game. I played for a few friends for a couple of tournaments and managed to get podium finishes in most of the tournaments i joined. Soon after that mvp invited me to join their lineup in 2014.



Could you explain how MVP.Karnal and you came into contact with each other, and why they invited you?



xevR: The scene in Malaysia is not very huge as majority of everyone knows each other. Although, since I was already buddies with aimaNNN, the leader of the lineup, he invited me to join. From there, it has been a long journey since me and kaze joined.



We know at this point, the SEA region was mainly dominated by nxl, Skyred, and you. Even with the likes of kaze's AWPing and aimaNNN IGLing, it seems you could never hurdle against Skyred or nxl. Do you remember why?



xevR: In my opinion the SEA region is quite competitive among themselves. I guess very recently with our lineup, we had managed to overcome our lack of communication problems that we face during the game. Nevertheless, we still have lots more to improve on, and we will continue to improve ourselves as we are exposed to newer opponents and new challenges with our new roster.



Okay, let's move onto the most notable achievement you guys had while wanr0 was still on the team, which was ESL Cologne 2015's Asian Qualifier. You seemed to lose to QeeYou on a map they were favored on, but beat them on Overpass. This is statistically your worst map, and one of QeeYou’s home maps at that time. What happened in the group stage?



xevR: I guess during the first map against QeeYou, we were kind of nervous, as it was our first ever international LAN event as a team. We went back to our hotels that night, and talked about what went wrong. The veto for the 2nd encounter with QeeYou went in our favor as we managed to talk about how we would play Overpass the night before. I guess that most of the players showed up in that match, giving us the edge. Kaze was going big for us, not forgetting wanr0, acap and also aimaNNN playing a huge role.



That’s what they all say. Next, you faced Immunity. Winning this would guarantee a spot at the major, which would earn popularity, riches, and glory. If I recall correctly, the first map, Mirage, went 16-13 in favor of Immunity. It seemed as if you had lost pivotal eco rounds, along to go with an event delay that would be the end of your team. Because, it seemed as if the team was completely lost once you guys came into the 2nd map Cobblestone (which they lost 16-7, this being the original Cobblestone). Could you explain?



xevR: Yea the first map went 16-13 in favor of immunity, i guess after the huge pause, we lost focus and soon after that lost momentum and began to lose pivotal rounds against immunity whom has proven themselves to be the more experienced team in adapting to situations and closing up the game. Because of this map entirely, we have been focusing on our anti ecos, and also working hard on our communications. This would help in improving our CT side, I won’t say much about maps but all I can say is we are working on expanding our map pool.





I love the dedication and strive to improve with your new team, and that you will never forget that bo3 against Immunity. Let’s go straight to the Asian online qualifier for the Dreamhack Stockholm. You lost to TyLoo in a closely contested matchup 1-2. We all know that TyLoo was an emerging and top Chinese team at this time, but it seemed to take toll onto the team. If I remember, wanr0 would leave 1-2 weeks after this loss. Could you explain why?



xevR: After every lost, we got very disappointed with ourselves, We would take about 10 minutes of alone time and would then come together and talk about what went wrong and try to do better for the future. It was announced a week before the qualifiers. We did not practice much prior to the major, as we were taking a break. Wanr0 was also busy working. We only managed to put in a day of prac before competing for Dreamhack. I can’t exactly remember this qualifier match against TyLoo, sadly, so I can’t go in depth onto the series and the team as a whole. Wanr0 decided to retire for competitive gaming as he felt that he would want to focus on his work and life.



I got the feels, brother. Because, it really sucked for the team (after losing wanr0). At this point, you picked up izzatR somewhere near the end of this timeline, and it seemed like you guys were a shadow of yourselves, going on a 3 month slump. The only notable achievement during this timeline until the Taipei qualifiers was winning the hugest Malaysian tournament, the Cyber Games 2015 (in which you guys beat in5amous for a $7k prize). What happened at this time? Was it that hard adjusting to the loss of wanr0?



xevR: After the loss of wanr0, I guess we couldn't find a last to suit our gamestyle. We lost tournaments after tournaments and after we lost 2 local tournaments, we decided that we would have to make another lineup change. With the addition of izzatR, I feel that this couple of months have been good to us as we have improved a lot since then, because of our teamwork, cohesion, and synergy in the team has been better than before.



It was definitely a pain to watch your downfall at that time. Let's go on to Taipei. Obviously you guys are overshadowed by the Chinese and Australia representatives. Could you explain each team and how you feel that your team has an advantage over them?



xevR: Looking at the teams going to Taipei this weekend, I feel that we are the clear underdogs of the tournament. That gives us a huge advantage, as not many teams will look to us as a threat. I think CyberZen and TyLoo are 2 amazing teams and would do very well in the qualifiers as they would be the biggest threat to the australian gunners. In scrims, we have had mixed results between the two, so there will be no clear winner on LAN. Nevertheless, we will bring our A game, and will do our very best to upset the favourites. As for the Australian gunners? They gonna lose anyway, xD.



With Taipei’s recent change in your group (topguN standing in for Chiefs), could you review the groups one more time? Who will be the players to watch out for?



aiMann: I think Cyberzen is definitely by far the strongest team in Group A. Not taking anything away from Chiefs, but I feel that if we bring our A game against the aussies, we will be able to give them a good run for their money. The player to look out on Chiefs will definitely be zewsy as their main rifler. However in CyberZen, we are more familiar with their gameplay, and they have many strong players within their lineup, especially Savage, being their star awper. Risky Gaming is a good team overall, but we haven’t really seen them play against the Asian teams, so they could be the wild card factor here. We'll just have to wait and see how they perform against the Chinese giants.



Do you feel Asia is getting enough opportunities at playing in events?



aiMann: Nope, the spot is very limited. I feel that if you want to include West Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and China as one region qualifier for a spot at ESWC for example, or maybe dreamhack. Two slot is the least you could give the opportunity, but the best will be at least 3-4 slots. It’s annoying, because it’s always 1 Asian team go to Dreamhack/ESWC and get the experience they needed. It doesn’t really seem like it will help the Asia scene to improve faster. The Asia scene will improve, but not as efficient as Europe scene. They (Australia) have a league of their own, which China are doing now. Other countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand are lacking of good organization or method. We have that kind of league already like ESEA open for the Asia region, mostly. But, that is only online. America and Europe will have a spot for the ESEA LAN final, but should be same for Asia as well. Top 2-4 teams in the league come down to the final from Asia. If they don’t do this for Asia, we may be playing online leagues only forever. We don’t have a major of our own in Asia, but it’s probably because business stuff. If they do invest, though, they will make a profit. I feel that the Asian scene is very competitive. Every team can beat each other, doesn’t matter if you’re a top team. Even though TyLoo, CyberZen, and MongolZ are the favorites, so many top teams can compete like MVP.Project, nxl, Threats, xQR, Insidious, Signature.Jynx, MiTH, and us. China’s scene will be interesting soon, because all the 1.6 players are returning. I’m sure of the fact they will have their own problem of staying as champions as the competition grows. In fact, there’s so many teams across Asia that can compete.



Is there anything else, that you feel Asia lacks other than what you mentioned from other regions?



aiMann: Exposure, which is also similar to experience, so kinda the same. But, we as Asia, we have to do our role as well in taking the opportunity when we have it. I remember last time, Malaysia had a local qualifier for a spot at Dreamhack in 2009 I think. Same for WCG, where every region can represent. Now, they make it a region only, but I can’t blame them. Maybe it’s business investments again. Right now, it really saddens me.





Is there any request you would ask of the CS Scene?



aiMann: While obviously, we would ask for sponsors (we really don’t have any), we ask that people recognize and keep the Malay CS scene alive. Because, once the team disbands (which isn’t happening any time soon), the scene in Malaysia won’t be as strong as it ever is. Thus, I am asking the scene to keep the Asian scene alive at all costs. Thank you.





Writer:

Editors:

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CSS: FO-nTTaX



With the IEM Taipei X just around the corner, many questions surround the teams overshadowed by the dominant teams boasting from China and Australia. In this analysis, we will take a look at the top dog from the Southeast Asia qualifiers,MVP.Karnal. To reach this stage, MVP.Karnal had to defeat the likes ofHNA,MiTH (Made in Thailand),TitaNs eSports,Team nxl, andTeam Devious. This run to qualifying for Taipei was unexpected, as favorites such as nxl andThreats were favored to run through the competition with relative ease. Threats were upset in the round of 32, whereas MVP.Karnal overcame nxl in a scathing battle in the semifinals.MVP.Karnal consists of the following players with their dedicated roles:Aiman "aimaNNN" Azham - Entry FraggerAshraf "acAp" Firdaus - IGLAndrew "kaze" Khong - AWPSyahrir "izzatR" Izzat - LurkerAlex "xevR" Pereira - SupportFirst created on Jun 1, 2014, the 6 man rotation featured notable in-house playersImran “ims-” Sariffuddin,Alex “lx” Ngok,Aidil “eyedeal” Azham, andHaron “ronne” Mustaffa. Backed by the owner of Semi Hermatics Engineering, the lineup initiated the start of a dynasty. While this lineup had little opportunity to prove itself early on, the lineup made the most in the few opportunities they had to show off against the top of Asian Counter-Strike. MVP.Karnal excelled with their teamwork and skill, plowing through competition easily. Their best run was in the BenQ CSGO League, where they fell to nxl in the finals with a 0-2 score. Soon after was a hometown LAN named Selangor Cyber Games 2014 where the team would have to backup their late November dominance; they needed to prove to Malaysia that they were the best team. Like a walk in the park they strolled through the local competition, beatingfastfive in the finals.Three months into 2015 and through the Asia-Pacific ESEA S18 division, Mustaffa, Azham, and Ngok would retire. Not knowing how impactful their pickups would be, the remainder brought in soon-to-be star AWPer Khong and Pereira. This would prove to be a new start for the Malaysian team, as they reached the finals of the ESEA season, only to lose to then-dominant Threats (who were then under Skyred with TuKon and JohnnyP in place of Rap and crazyguy). The team worked the kinks out, and created dominant runs in ESEA S18, BenQ Cups, and Selangor Cyber Games with a few extra notable matches against teams from other regions.During this period, Sariffuddin would be swapped out for former 1.6 pro Mohd “wanr0” Syazwan. The team continued to be a force to be reckoned with in Southeast Asia, and would have the chance to prove their worth when they qualified for ESL Cologne 2015’s Asian Qualifiers by beatingOrange eSports. Now needing to prove their worthiness (and that the qualification wasn’t a fluke by all means), MVP.Karnal would be placed against Chinese qualified (and 2nd seed favorites)QeeYou, Indian qualifiedNeckbreak (arguably the worst in the group), and the recently signed event favoriteRenegades. Starting off the event would be against QeeYou; the Chinese side’s Inferno CT side was unbreakable, only allowing MVP.karnal to get 2 rounds on their strongest T maps.Unable to mount a comeback, MVP.karnal fell to QeeYou 11-16.With MVP.Karnal dropped down to the lower bracket, they would face the Indian representatives, only to make quick work of them with a stellar Inferno CT side. With Renegades topping the group, MVP.Karnal would have to face QeeYou again, this time on Overpass. This time, MVP.Karnal crushed QeeYou to the near point of embarrassment with a 16-5 score. Strong and confident off this recent victory, MVP.Karnal would go on to face the other event favorite, Australia’s second teamTeam Immunity.Starting off on Mirage, MVP.Karnal and Immunity would play a contested first half. Unfortunately in the end, a technical problem and multiple anti ecos cost MVP.Karnal the momentum and the game. MVP.Karnal would never recover on Cobblestone, losing 16-7. It would cost them riches and the major spot to Immunity. Regardless, the fight MVP.Karnal put up would’ve surprised many who were foreign to the Asian scene.While ESL Cologne 2015’s run seemed to be the prime of MVP.Karnal, it didn’t deplete their hunger for improvement. Unfortunately, MVP.Karnal would fail to qualify for the next qualifier (Dreamhack Stockholm 2015), going out in the quarterfinals to emerging Chinese teamTyLoo, led by rising talent Yu Lun “fancy1” Cai. Five days after the online qualifier, Syazwan would leave and be replaced by Izzat. This unfortunately heralded a drop in the team’s performance as MVP.Karnal went on the longest slump of any of the top asian teams at that time, failing to quickly adapt to the loss of Syazwan.For the next 3 months, MVP.Karnal’s results suffered, only notably placing 2nd in SoStronk Challenger Asia Cup #1, losing in an embarassing fashion toCyberZen, which featured 3 former QeeYou members and two members of 1.6 fame. Only this year did MVP.Karnal reemerge as a top team in the region, defying expectation and qualifying for IEM Taipei. The year of 2016 has a lot in store for Asia, and this tournament will draw the world’s attention to the teams competing. MVP.Karnal hope to capture the hearts of fans, and catch the eye of a sponsor. .I started off playing CS competitively about 5-6 years back. My first tournament would be in Source where I placed 2nd place. I started playing CS:GO as soon as it was launched, and was invited to join a Razer invite tournament to promote CS:GO. This is because we were one of the top teams in Malaysia. Shortly after placing 2nd in that tournament, I stopped playing CS:GO, since I felt that it was not growing. In 2013 i started playing cs:go back again when i started to notice a growth in the game. I played for a few friends for a couple of tournaments and managed to get podium finishes in most of the tournaments i joined. Soon after that mvp invited me to join their lineup in 2014.The scene in Malaysia is not very huge as majority of everyone knows each other. Although, since I was already buddies with aimaNNN, the leader of the lineup, he invited me to join. From there, it has been a long journey since me and kaze joined.In my opinion the SEA region is quite competitive among themselves. I guess very recently with our lineup, we had managed to overcome our lack of communication problems that we face during the game. Nevertheless, we still have lots more to improve on, and we will continue to improve ourselves as we are exposed to newer opponents and new challenges with our new roster.I guess during the first map against QeeYou, we were kind of nervous, as it was our first ever international LAN event as a team. We went back to our hotels that night, and talked about what went wrong. The veto for the 2nd encounter with QeeYou went in our favor as we managed to talk about how we would play Overpass the night before. I guess that most of the players showed up in that match, giving us the edge. Kaze was going big for us, not forgetting wanr0, acap and also aimaNNN playing a huge role.Yea the first map went 16-13 in favor of immunity, i guess after the huge pause, we lost focus and soon after that lost momentum and began to lose pivotal rounds against immunity whom has proven themselves to be the more experienced team in adapting to situations and closing up the game. Because of this map entirely, we have been focusing on our anti ecos, and also working hard on our communications. This would help in improving our CT side, I won’t say much about maps but all I can say is we are working on expanding our map pool.After every lost, we got very disappointed with ourselves, We would take about 10 minutes of alone time and would then come together and talk about what went wrong and try to do better for the future. It was announced a week before the qualifiers. We did not practice much prior to the major, as we were taking a break. Wanr0 was also busy working. We only managed to put in a day of prac before competing for Dreamhack. I can’t exactly remember this qualifier match against TyLoo, sadly, so I can’t go in depth onto the series and the team as a whole. Wanr0 decided to retire for competitive gaming as he felt that he would want to focus on his work and life.After the loss of wanr0, I guess we couldn't find a last to suit our gamestyle. We lost tournaments after tournaments and after we lost 2 local tournaments, we decided that we would have to make another lineup change. With the addition of izzatR, I feel that this couple of months have been good to us as we have improved a lot since then, because of our teamwork, cohesion, and synergy in the team has been better than before.Looking at the teams going to Taipei this weekend, I feel that we are the clear underdogs of the tournament. That gives us a huge advantage, as not many teams will look to us as a threat. I think CyberZen and TyLoo are 2 amazing teams and would do very well in the qualifiers as they would be the biggest threat to the australian gunners. In scrims, we have had mixed results between the two, so there will be no clear winner on LAN. Nevertheless, we will bring our A game, and will do our very best to upset the favourites. As for the Australian gunners? They gonna lose anyway, xD.I think Cyberzen is definitely by far the strongest team in Group A. Not taking anything away from Chiefs, but I feel that if we bring our A game against the aussies, we will be able to give them a good run for their money. The player to look out on Chiefs will definitely be zewsy as their main rifler. However in CyberZen, we are more familiar with their gameplay, and they have many strong players within their lineup, especially Savage, being their star awper. Risky Gaming is a good team overall, but we haven’t really seen them play against the Asian teams, so they could be the wild card factor here. We'll just have to wait and see how they perform against the Chinese giants.Nope, the spot is very limited. I feel that if you want to include West Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and China as one region qualifier for a spot at ESWC for example, or maybe dreamhack. Two slot is the least you could give the opportunity, but the best will be at least 3-4 slots. It’s annoying, because it’s always 1 Asian team go to Dreamhack/ESWC and get the experience they needed. It doesn’t really seem like it will help the Asia scene to improve faster. The Asia scene will improve, but not as efficient as Europe scene. They (Australia) have a league of their own, which China are doing now. Other countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand are lacking of good organization or method. We have that kind of league already like ESEA open for the Asia region, mostly. But, that is only online. America and Europe will have a spot for the ESEA LAN final, but should be same for Asia as well. Top 2-4 teams in the league come down to the final from Asia. If they don’t do this for Asia, we may be playing online leagues only forever. We don’t have a major of our own in Asia, but it’s probably because business stuff. If they do invest, though, they will make a profit. I feel that the Asian scene is very competitive. Every team can beat each other, doesn’t matter if you’re a top team. Even though TyLoo, CyberZen, and MongolZ are the favorites, so many top teams can compete like MVP.Project, nxl, Threats, xQR, Insidious, Signature.Jynx, MiTH, and us. China’s scene will be interesting soon, because all the 1.6 players are returning. I’m sure of the fact they will have their own problem of staying as champions as the competition grows. In fact, there’s so many teams across Asia that can compete.: Exposure, which is also similar to experience, so kinda the same. But, we as Asia, we have to do our role as well in taking the opportunity when we have it. I remember last time, Malaysia had a local qualifier for a spot at Dreamhack in 2009 I think. Same for WCG, where every region can represent. Now, they make it a region only, but I can’t blame them. Maybe it’s business investments again. Right now, it really saddens me.While obviously, we would ask for sponsors (we really don’t have any), we ask that people recognize and keep the Malay CS scene alive. Because, once the team disbands (which isn’t happening any time soon), the scene in Malaysia won’t be as strong as it ever is. Thus, I am asking the scene to keep the Asian scene alive at all costs. Thank you.Writer: Josh "Dope" Jose Editors: Amazingxkcd Graphics: Mirza CSS: Swampflare

The world is burning and you rather be on this terrible website discussing video games and your shallow feelings