20Q20A with CJ Entus Madlife Article: Chexx TL_Chexx November 30th, 2013 19:16 GMT

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20 Answers



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20Q 20A: Black^

Welcome, everyone!



If you are a regular on the Dota 2 forum here at Team Liquid, then you should be familiar with this feature. 20Q20A is our way of getting professional players involved with the Team Liquid community. We are giving you an opportunity to ask one question, and once we have enough, we will select twenty of them to be answered by CJ Entus' legendary support player, MadLife himself. We hope you enjoy this new feature, and lend us your participation to make it a success.

20 QUESTIONS



Ask away, TL!

Thread can be found Ask away, TL!Thread can be found here



20 ANSWERS





What do you think it is that makes you excel so much at playing support? Do you think this "quality" would have made you a top player at a different role? Such as Mid? [Live2Win]



A special moment for me was in the times where there was no Korean Server I played on the NA Server together with Friends. At this time I played many champions and different playstyles (AP Shaco, AP Janna). Playing many champions gave me a lot of experience which is now the foundation of my game style right now I think. And I think with this knowledge if I go to another lane I could be of any help but I couldn’t show a satisfying performance.



You are stuck on a island. What 3 things do you bring with you? [partydude89]



pencil, notebook (analog), knife



Please tell us about your funniest moment as a progamer. [jpak]



When Howling Abyss was released for the first time I picked with my teammates 5 Airborne Champions Alistar, Chogath, Malphite, Jarvan and Zyra and we tried to place them into the Jarvan Ultimate and force an Airborne Ace. This was very funny.



What do you think about the vision changes in season 4? Do you feel that this will play to your strengths or your weaknesses? [NeedsmoreCELLTECH]



What I saw from the Season 4 patch there seems to be nothing bad for me. We should look at this patch as not just beneficial for me, but for all other support players. Changing vision/buying wards a shared responsibility, increasing gold for supports, and allowing people to choose their own style (whether it’s focusing on utility items like Shurelias or Mikaels, or going AP items to take advantage of the AP boosted CC abilities) are all very good changes, and I think it will be very fun as well.



Are there any unorthodox supports that you like to play for fun? [Fusilero]



In my case, I’m not as used to ranged supporters (like Sona or Annie), so I spend a lot of my spare time practicing such supports. I don’t practice any other supports particularly.



Do you really sit at a desk with notes of every single champion's skills and cooldowns and memorize every aspect to them all? [Saituchiha]



It’s not really memorization, I just try to get as much experience as possible and play thinking about the skills that I think are important. I started with flash cool downs, and then I started thinking about wards and global skills, the AOE skills that have a big effect in team fights, and then on to escape skill cooldowns, etc.



Where do you think NA teams rank in the world? Do you expect this gap to close or widen? [GhandiEAGLE]



It’s hard to define what a team’s “level” is. Korea, Europe, US, and China all try to do different things and play a different meta, and each individual team differs in that aspect as well. I think the one who does the most research and applied that to the game who gets to enjoy the glory of victory. Just because a team plays in a different way from us is no reason to think “that’s the wrong way to play.”



Are you friends with any of SC2 players from CJ( Sora ,effOrt Hero ,...)? [Amarant1995]



Personally I would like to get close with them but I don’t have time. Therefore I am not yet friends with them.



How do you feel about the fact that everyone refers to a big Thresh or Blitzcrank play as a "MadLife"? [Manisier]



I think it’s a huge honor. Other pro supports have the skill to pull off plays that are better than mine, and I just think I pulled off my plays due to luck. I’d like to use this Q&A as an opportunity to say thank you to my fans for putting my name on such a good saying. Thank you!



There's many saying that the first generation of professional League of Legends gamers are dying out, and that it is now the time for the "second generation" gamers to make their mark on the scene like you did before. How accurately does that sentiment reflect the current situation, and as one of the few professionals in Korea to stay on top of the scene since the very beginning, do you have any secrets for doing so, especially playing a game that is as volatile as League of Legends with its non-stop patches? [Letmelose]



Certainly these days when you watch tournaments 2nd generation progamer have better results than 1st generation progamers. But I don’t know why this generation shift is occurring. Personally, I don’t think that my current position is at the very top. I’m still a work in progress, and it’s not like someone can define a specific position as being “the top” ‘_’.

The worst thing you can do is get complacent in the present and become lazy. Once you realize that’s what you’ve become, then it’s already too late to turn it back. As a preparation against that, I practice consistently and try to think creatively.

Things like patches aren’t a problem. All the other teams are in the same situation, and thinking of the situation as difficult just slows you down - it doesn’t help at all. So you should look at the situation positively, and overcome it with a lot of practice. And really, I don’t think that it’s difficult. There’s nothing better than consistent change.



Doublelift has mentioned recently in an interview that he is " jealous of whoever that gets to play with Madlife " and jokes that in his dreams he hope you reciprocate the love. What are your thoughts on Doublelift as an ADC? In terms of playstyle and individual skill combined how well do you think a Madlife/DL botlane will do against other botlanes? [qiuri]



When I started at MiG as an amateur and scrimmed CLG for the first time before that I admired Doublelift a lot. When we scrimmed CLG for the first time at this time I played mostly Alistar and Doublelift was Ezreal. I tried to headbutt (W) him from inside the bush, but he arcane shifted away without having any vision. I thought that his reaction speed was incredible, to the degree that playing Alistar or Blitzcrank against him was meaningless.



If such a player praises you it feels very good. If I would plan to play on the NA server certainly let play us together. And regarding playing together in botlane, under the assumption that we could communicate with each other, I think we could stand toe to toe with the other pro bottom duos, depending on how much time we had to practice.



Are there any specific changes you'd like to see to any of the game mechanics in LoL? [Sprouter]



There are already a lot of small changes that are happening slowly, so there’s nothing I want. Hmmm, if I really had to pick, then I guess buffs to characters I play? -_-..



In high pressure situations, would you say you play instinctively or reactively? [Amui]



I play differently in each situation. I think “If I played like I did in practice now, will the situation improve.” Or “would it be better to improvise with this idea I just thought of now?” I pick from these two different ways of thinking to best fit the situation at hand.



Will we start seeing more niche/underplayed champions in a support role in season 4? [Kinie]



As much as it is a huge change, I think we will occasionally see some champions that we didn’t see before.



What do your parents think about your job and esports? [cLvrandomness]



My parents always believed in my decisions and gave me advice and helped me. From my first days as an amateur, my parents would cheer me on, instead of being worried about me. They said things that made it so I wouldn’t regret my decision. If it wasn’t for my parents, I wouldn’t be in this place today. I’m always thankful to my parents.



Perhaps this is a non-issue in Korea but in other parts of the world LoL players face a stigma from other competitive gamers of playing a low skill cap game. if this does exist in Korea what is your response to these accusations? [Slusher]



No comment.



If you could design a support champion, what would he look like? [GrandInquisitor]



A range attack Q skill is a grab which deals pulls allies to me and restores my mana, and damages and steals the Mana from the enemy. W skill is like the Thresh lantern but if enemies walk over it they get stunned. E skill knocks up enemies like (Alistar Q). R has an electric field around me which applies a 99% slow and silences at the same time damage taken is reduced by 80% and I receive a +80 AD buff. I would like to design such a Champion that only I could use.



In your opinion, what is the most difficult aspect of being a league of legends pro? [Clinic]



There’s nothing hard outside of the game, but inside the game itself it’s the most difficult when I practice a champion I’m not that good at. I know in my head that you have to improve your skill at a champion through countless games and failures, but it’s hard to feel that in your heart as well, so it’s hard.



Who are your favorite supports to play to carry in solo queue environments? [Zdrastochye]



I like Champions which you can lead with like Blitzcrank, Thresh, Alistar, Annie etc. but for my team members Champions like Sona, Lulu are very helpful because of that and the sake of my team I play in SoloQ these Champions.



How would you rank yourself in comparison to other supports? [wei2coolman]



When I practice I always think that I’m not that good, and I play thinking to learn more. But when I play tournaments, I play thinking that I am a better support than anyone else, and that we will beat the other team. Personally, ranking myself is hard.





Writer: Chexx

Gfx: fusefuse, riptide, Chexx

Translator: Chexx, Waxangel

Editor: Waxangel

Banner image by: Chexx &

: Chexx: fusefuse, riptide, Chexx: Chexx, Waxangel: WaxangelChexx & Inven Welcome, everyone!If you are a regular on the Dota 2 forum here at Team Liquid, then you should be familiar with this feature. 20Q20A is our way of getting professional players involved with the Team Liquid community. We are giving you an opportunity to ask one question, and once we have enough, we will select twenty of them to be answered by CJ Entus' legendary support player, MadLife himself. We hope you enjoy this new feature, and lend us your participation to make it a success. Administrator Follow me @TL_Chexx