The following is a translation of an interview conducted by Huomao.

Dota 2 Asia Championships(DAC) 2018 will kick off on March 29. Former DAC champion, Xu ’BurNIng’ Zhilei is also invited as a special guest. We had the chance to talk to this legendary player himself as he told us what DAC mean to him and what are his plans for the future:

Hello BurNIng! It will be your third DAC appearance except you were on stage as a player last 2 times, you placed 4th at the first DAC and last year was your year to claim the championship. How much did these two seasons of DAC mean you to?

I think DAC is the biggest international tournament held in China and I always feel like representing the home team every time I attend , the crowds really give me strength and help me to be in my best shape. Wining second DAC feels like one of my small goals has been fulfilled.

You are invited to DAC as a special guest this time and your old teammates like Mushi and LamN are still competing in top-tier tournaments, Fear who is the same age as you has also returned to the scene. Does watching them play give you the urge to return to the competitive scene again?

It surely does, especially when I see my old teammates are still playing in those international tournaments. But there are also a lot of other important things in life, like health, family and friends. One can’t live only for his own dreams.

You’ve cast quite a few tournaments and it seems Chinese teams have been pretty underwhelming ever since TI7. What qualities do you think Chinese teams are lacking comparing to foreign top-tier teams?

Chinese teams’ playstyle is too one-dimensional and they are not good at improvising. In my opinion many foreign teams are really good at reading the situation and make quick adjustments to make up for their draft disadvantages.

Which teams do you think will show up at DAC this year?

For Chinese teams: LGD and Newbee. For western Teams: EG, VP, and Secret.

You and Slyar exchanged some carry experience with each other during your stream. Anything you could share with us?

I think Carry as a role is super strong in this meta. Offlane got nerfed pretty hard which makes it easier for carries to pressure the enemy offlaner in the early game. Also Nullifier allows carries to burst down key targets during teamfights and end the game. There are 2 types of carries in the current meta: One is tempo based carries such as Lycan, Death Prophet and Dragon Knight, these heroes need to hit certain level at certain minute mark and start to group up, push towers and snowball the advantage. The other is farming carries, these heroes want to get ridiculously farmed until they hit the peak and finish the game with their lead in levels and items.

You got married last year after DAC, what’s your next step in life? To have a child maybe?

I’m a bit of a perfectionist so for now I want to focus on my job as a streamer and analyst, also I need work on my physical fitness. Then maybe I’ll start thinking about having a child.

Thanks for the interview, any shout outs?

I want to thank all the fans for supporting me, I guess I couldn’t say that I’ll keep bringing you guys amazing matches in return since I’ve already retired, but I’ll still try my best to make my stream entertaining and educational and also I’ll keep casting competitive matches