Shrinkzxo Profile Joined August 2014 Dotoland 268 Posts Last Edited: 2016-10-31 20:27:11 #1 Translation

Xz: "TI3 Alliance reignited my fire."



Xz's Liquipedia Player Profile



Until Wings’ dominant performance at TI this year,



However, after Frankfurt Major, where they lost to EG again and fell as another victim of OG’s improbable run through the lower bracket, CDEC had virtually vanished from the public eye and the break-up of team became inevitable. Unfortunately, the fracturing did not bring back the glory the players previously had: Agressif went to LGD but became the burden of the team; Q and Garder stayed at CDEC but were unable to prevent the ship from sinking; Xz went to CDEC.Y to help out new players; Shiki, for one reason or another, seemed to have stopped playing altogether. What happened? Xz has written to ImbaTV to tell the story and the full translation can be found after the break:





Xz gave us a stunning performance at TI5 as CDEC’s position 3. Some even say he was the best position 3 in the tournament. However, he chose to join CDEC.Y leaving leaving CDEC Gaming and subsequently disappeared from most people’s view. Now we see him playing for LGD, but what is his story between now and then?





Invitation from Maybe; became diffident after watching Faith_bian



I joined CDEC.Y when CDEC was performing not-so-good. The reason is that I was still bounded by the contract I had with CDEC. Additionally, I think CDEC.Y is a youthful team with tonnes of potential. But after that, we did not qualify for TI6 and we did not perform well at SL-i in America. That is when the idea of a re-organization came to the team. Maybe reached to me as soon as the off-season came and we reached an agreement immediately. He also reached out to the other three players personally.



EHOME and Wings at this TI are said to resemble CDEC last year. EHOME came from the qualifier and Wings are very young. However, they are actually very different from us. Both teams had won an international tournament before TI and proved themselves. If a comparison has to be made, we were more like EHOME. Our playing system is more singular; we played relying on the same style to play the tournament all the way through. As for Wings, they were impeccable this TI; they had great diversity in playing style. They could give their three cores enough farm in a bad game so they could come back in a single team fight. When they have the advantage, they know when to fight and when to retreat — they can win in 20 minutes without exposing any weaknesses. Our performance last year was nevertheless slightly worse than what they did this year. The only thing we share is that both teams did not get scared by playing TI for the first time.



Faith_bian played the same position at Wings as I did in the beginning. Recently there overseas media that rated him the best offlaner even the best player. I agree wholeheartedly. He’s almost invincible in this role. His micro, reaction, initiation are all the best in the world. He also has a deep hero pool that makes difficult for his opponents to target him with their bans. He even played Puck in one game! He had been wonderful throughout the tournament and it is not an overstatement to say he was the best player at TI. However, his strengths are a problem I now face: now the requirement of micro and reaction is very high for offlaners. Consequently, I became less confident and tried to be a drafter and a support, which are both new roles to me. This idea is my own; and I wanted to make my teammates look better as well. Jixing who joined LGD as a “newbie” is an offlaner, so I will be a support and drafter. But we know the richest person has most say in late game, which is the norm.











New LGD, new lads; all good buddies from the trainee days



I know a lot about two of newly joined teammates from CDEC.Y. Ame is handsome, strong and stupid.* Victoria has decent personal ability and micro. The new players that emerged from CDEC League, including Jixing, were hired by Maybe. So his [Jixing’s] ability should be good. Most importantly, we have become a super young team. And I have become the oldest player! Our biggest advantage is that we have some of the best 1 and 2 positions in the country. Their youthfulness enables us to try more stuff; and we have more drive. As for how we will perform? Well, we’ll be able to tell after training and playing in competitions.



Even though LGD, LFY, CDEC and so on are smaller clubs under a big one, we, like any other team, are independently managed. This is true even for youth and branch teams because we are competitors. However, we have much better private relationships when compared to other teams. Even though we are managed separately, other teams in LGD system will take priority when we make transfers, as dictated by our contracts. However, the negotiation between player and management is still important, as the cases of Shade and Jixing, which were decided by the boss.



Until Wings’ dominant performance at TI this year, CDEC’s run at TI5 was probably the most memorable run in the short history of Dota 2. However, something still differetiated that run from CDEC’s. Where as Wings had already attended Manila Major and won The Summit 5, TI5 was CDEC’s first major international tournament. Additionally, Wings did not have to go through the torment of Wild Card qualifier, which is where CDEC began their domination of the tournament until the Grand Final.However, after Frankfurt Major, where they lost to EG again and fell as another victim of OG’s improbable run through the lower bracket, CDEC had virtually vanished from the public eye and the break-up of team became inevitable. Unfortunately, the fracturing did not bring back the glory the players previously had: Agressif went to LGD but became the burden of the team; Q and Garder stayed at CDEC but were unable to prevent the ship from sinking; Xz went to CDEC.Y to help out new players; Shiki, for one reason or another, seemed to have stopped playing altogether. What happened? Xz has written to ImbaTV to tell the story and the full translation can be found after the break:Xz gave us a stunning performance at TI5 as CDEC’s position 3. Some even say he was the best position 3 in the tournament. However, he chose to join CDEC.Y leaving leaving CDEC Gaming and subsequently disappeared from most people’s view. Now we see him playing for LGD, but what is his story between now and then?I joined CDEC.Y when CDEC was performing not-so-good. The reason is that I was still bounded by the contract I had with CDEC. Additionally, I think CDEC.Y is a youthful team with tonnes of potential. But after that, we did not qualify for TI6 and we did not perform well at SL-i in America. That is when the idea of a re-organization came to the team. Maybe reached to me as soon as the off-season came and we reached an agreement immediately. He also reached out to the other three players personally.EHOME and Wings at this TI are said to resemble CDEC last year. EHOME came from the qualifier and Wings are very young. However, they are actually very different from us. Both teams had won an international tournament before TI and proved themselves. If a comparison has to be made, we were more like EHOME. Our playing system is more singular; we played relying on the same style to play the tournament all the way through. As for Wings, they were impeccable this TI; they had great diversity in playing style. They could give their three cores enough farm in a bad game so they could come back in a single team fight. When they have the advantage, they know when to fight and when to retreat — they can win in 20 minutes without exposing any weaknesses. Our performance last year was nevertheless slightly worse than what they did this year. The only thing we share is that both teams did not get scared by playing TI for the first time.Faith_bian played the same position at Wings as I did in the beginning. Recently there overseas media that rated him the best offlaner even the best player. I agree wholeheartedly. He’s almost invincible in this role. His micro, reaction, initiation are all the best in the world. He also has a deep hero pool that makes difficult for his opponents to target him with their bans. He even played Puck in one game! He had been wonderful throughout the tournament and it is not an overstatement to say he was the best player at TI. However, his strengths are a problem I now face: now the requirement of micro and reaction is very high for offlaners. Consequently, I became less confident and tried to be a drafter and a support, which are both new roles to me. This idea is my own; and I wanted to make my teammates look better as well. Jixing who joined LGD as a “newbie” is an offlaner, so I will be a support and drafter. But we know the richest person has most say in late game, which is the norm.I know a lot about two of newly joined teammates from CDEC.Y. Ame is handsome, strong and stupid.* Victoria has decent personal ability and micro. The new players that emerged from CDEC League, including Jixing, were hired by Maybe. So his [Jixing’s] ability should be good. Most importantly, we have become a super young team. And I have becomeOur biggest advantage is that we have some of the best 1 and 2 positions in the country. Their youthfulness enables us to try more stuff; and we have more drive. As for how we will perform? Well, we’ll be able to tell after training and playing in competitions.Even though LGD, LFY, CDEC and so on are smaller clubs under a big one, we, like any other team, are independently managed. This is true even for youth and branch teams because we are competitors. However, we have much better private relationships when compared to other teams. Even though we are managed separately, other teams in LGD system will take priority when we make transfers, as dictated by our contracts. However, the negotiation between player and management is still important, as the cases of Shade and Jixing, which were decided by the boss. Translator’s Notes

*He used this word in an affectionate way.











My holiday choice and my ideal girl



Chinese teams have two holiday periods a year: TI and the Chinese New Year. Every time there is a holiday I go back home to spend time with my family. When there’s no training I won’t stream. But I never stop queuing on ladder, even now. We haven’t assembled to start training so I am playing on my own in the team HQ. When it is a high MMR game I can quietly practice supports. If the average MMR is low I will need play core myself. But this is helpful as well since it increases your understanding of cores. By playing them, you know better when they need help and what kind of help they need.



As for hobbies outside Dota, I think as long as you get the right person you can do anything (a scream from a 24-old single old). I feel I am now an appearance-maniac — I like any beautiful girls, especially short-haired, vivacious girl like



We will assemble on October 1st. Having had so long a break, we will need time to find the feeling of playing. Also we are a new team. We will play in tournaments as we train since there are a lot of tournaments out there; Nanyang Cup, DPL and H-Cup will be our target. Coming immediately after these will be the Boston Major.







My game, my university



I’ve been playing games since I was little. Without bragging, I was top of my grade in the primary school graduation exam and dad bought me a computer for that. That is where things all went wrong. I did not have internet access in the beginning so I played StarCraft on Single Player. When I got to high school I started to touch on WarCraft and Chenghai 3C*. Then there was Dynasty Warrior**. I started playing Dota during the second semester of my second year*** at high school. I’ve been a good gamer throughout the years, but not the best — like runner-up level? But the transition to Dota 2 was not very straightforward. I took an abeyance during university to go to Tianjin, trying to be a pro — which may surprise people who did not know I started that early. But I did not get any results. After I year I went back to school ignominiously. Then I played LoL for more than half a year to a point I reached Diamond and got ready for the transition. Right at this point a former teammate of mine told me Dota 2 came out. This was the year Alliance won TI, which re-ignited the fire for Dota inside me. He asked me if I’d take a gamble together. As I did not learn much at school, I decided not to leave myself a plan B. I joined them. We went to Shanghai straight away. I stayed at HGT, then NE, LAIG, in the end it was CDEC. The teammates who dragged me in were Red and Green. Red is still at Brave Heart; Green seemed go into Overwatch. We still occasionally eat together.



Even though my gaming experience is labyrinthine, my professional career is rather smooth as I played and worked hard to the top to join CDEC and appear in front of everybody. “Love,” Garder that is, found me and asked to join CDEC to make five of us who played, played and played all of the way to the Grand Final of TI, where we lacked the coup de grace. Now the five of us have parted for different destinations: Agressif is now on the forefront of public opinion because he hasn’t performed that well. Shiki is truly injured. But we all know he has what it takes; he will be back. As for CDEC after TI5, I must say I am actually usually very happy with what I’ve got. After TI I was thinking: I’ve got 2 million; there is nothing more to pursue in life. I can go home and live on the interest of the money I have. Even though we still trained like we had trained and played tournaments like we had played, winning did not excite us that much and losing did not make us feel that bad anymore. Viewers no longer labeled us as a youth team but second best in the world. In addition, CDEC.Y did not have many achievements, either. And as I mentioned, we barely had an opportunity to play any foreign teams. For a while I could not find any drive to play Dota at all. But after having watched TI this year at home and having seen the young lads at Wings wearing the national flag and lifting the trophy, I started to be salty about being merely a viewer. I started to realise it still is the champion’s title that every pro wants! This is something that runs through the minds of Maybe as well as everyone on LGD and we will continue to work hard towards our common goal.



Chinese teams have two holiday periods a year: TI and the Chinese New Year. Every time there is a holiday I go back home to spend time with my family. When there’s no training I won’t stream. But I never stop queuing on ladder, even now. We haven’t assembled to start training so I am playing on my own in the team HQ. When it is a high MMR game I can quietly practice supports. If the average MMR is low I will need play core myself. But this is helpful as well since it increases your understanding of cores. By playing them, you know better when they need help and what kind of help they need.As for hobbies outside Dota, I think as long as you get the right person you can do anything (a scream from a 24-old single old). I feel I am now an appearance-maniac — I like any beautiful girls, especially short-haired, vivacious girl like Chen Yihan (Ivy Chen). Anyway, if I were a girl I would not fancy myself now. Just wait and I will get better. Perhaps I will have different fancy as well.We will assemble on October 1st. Having had so long a break, we will need time to find the feeling of playing. Also we are a new team. We will play in tournaments as we train since there are a lot of tournaments out there; Nanyang Cup, DPL and H-Cup will be our target. Coming immediately after these will be the Boston Major.I’ve been playing games since I was little. Without bragging, I was top of my grade in the primary school graduation exam and dad bought me a computer for that. That is where things all went wrong. I did not have internet access in the beginning so I played StarCraft on Single Player. When I got to high school I started to touch on WarCraft and Chenghai 3C*. Then there was Dynasty Warrior**. I started playing Dota during the second semester of my second year*** at high school. I’ve been a good gamer throughout the years, but not the best — like runner-up level? But the transition to Dota 2 was not very straightforward. I took an abeyance during university to go to Tianjin, trying to be a pro — which may surprise people who did not know I started that early. But I did not get any results. After I year I went back to school ignominiously. Then I played LoL for more than half a year to a point I reached Diamond and got ready for the transition. Right at this point a former teammate of mine told me Dota 2 came out. This was the year Alliance won TI, which re-ignited the fire for Dota inside me. He asked me if I’d take a gamble together. As I did not learn much at school, I decided not to leave myself a plan B. I joined them. We went to Shanghai straight away. I stayed at HGT, then NE, LAIG, in the end it was CDEC. The teammates who dragged me in were Red and Green. Red is still at Brave Heart; Green seemed go into Overwatch. We still occasionally eat together.Even though my gaming experience is labyrinthine, my professional career is rather smooth as I played and worked hard to the top to join CDEC and appear in front of everybody. “Love,” Garder that is, found me and asked to join CDEC to make five of us who played, played and played all of the way to the Grand Final of TI, where we lacked the coup de grace. Now the five of us have parted for different destinations: Agressif is now on the forefront of public opinion because he hasn’t performed that well. Shiki is truly injured. But we all know he has what it takes; he will be back. As for CDEC after TI5, I must say I am actually usually very happy with what I’ve got. After TI I was thinking: I’ve got 2 million; there is nothing more to pursue in life. I can go home and live on the interest of the money I have. Even though we still trained like we had trained and played tournaments like we had played, winning did not excite us that much and losing did not make us feel that bad anymore. Viewers no longer labeled us as a youth team but second best in the world. In addition, CDEC.Y did not have many achievements, either. And as I mentioned, we barely had an opportunity to play any foreign teams. For a while I could not find any drive to play Dota at all. But after having watched TI this year at home and having seen the young lads at Wings wearing the national flag and lifting the trophy, I started to be salty about being merely a viewer. I started to realise it still is the champion’s title that every pro wants! This is something that runs through the minds of Maybe as well as everyone on LGD and we will continue to work hard towards our common goal. Translator’s Notes

*A War3 Map

**Another War3 Map, based on DotA the Chinese novel Romance of Three Kingdoms. The name is identical to the FPF series by KOEI.

***Chinese schools are 6-3-3 before university.











This is a time for new players to make their name



I do pay attention to every and each domestic team. I think Newbee will play well. Sccc is the second Chinese 9k; Ame and he are like masters of two schools of Kung Fu. Kaka is the first (Chinese) 9k and has the same duty in the team as I do. But he has a good sense in the game of chaining spells and timing, whereas my Dota style is more to follow my own feelings. So his meticulosity, self-discipline, and concentration are what I need to learn from. Apart from that, they can’t speak proper Chinese, so I look forward to the chemistry between those two. And there is new VG; Ghost is a strong player, VG will be equally strong as well. Wings and EHOME will still be very strong teams. iG.V is another team who did not change their roster, so they will probably break through as well. But in my eyes, the three strongest team in China are still LGD, LFY and CDEC (laughter).



As for overseas teams, I haven’t met them much this year* so I have little knowledge about them, but I am a fan of Zai! He’s low-key but very strong. I still know EG’s line-up very well and think their position 1 and 2 are very unpredicable. After all every person who made to 9K has what it takes. I actually watched RTZ’s first person view. His style is very farming-intensive and doesn’t care about what’s happening to the team whatsoever. But he’s very slick in the details. Under-performance in big tournaments only says that his style is incompatible with the team meta right now. Their Position 3 is world-class. Not really the best in the world** but his main strength is consistency. Their support duo is the strongest and most invincible [sic]. Cr1t was OG’s second carry. Zai is a top-class player on every position. If nothing surprising happens they have locked a Top 3 spot in TI7 on paper.



Lastly I’d like express appreciation for the supporters who cheered us on live and the fans who stayed up late to support us in front of their screens. Thanks to my former teammates along the away and management who recognize my ability. Thanks to my parents for their understanding. Thanks to my small legion of fans who are always behind me. Wait, I am not writing for retirement. That will be all.



I do pay attention to every and each domestic team. I think Newbee will play well. Sccc is the second Chinese 9k; Ame and he are like masters of two schools of Kung Fu. Kaka is the first (Chinese) 9k and has the same duty in the team as I do. But he has a good sense in the game of chaining spells and timing, whereas my Dota style is more to follow my own feelings. So his meticulosity, self-discipline, and concentration are what I need to learn from. Apart from that, they can’t speak proper Chinese, so I look forward to the chemistry between those two. And there is new VG; Ghost is a strong player, VG will be equally strong as well. Wings and EHOME will still be very strong teams. iG.V is another team who did not change their roster, so they will probably break through as well. But in my eyes, the three strongest team in China are still LGD, LFY and CDEC (laughter).As for overseas teams, I haven’t met them much this year* so I have little knowledge about them, but I am a fan of Zai! He’s low-key but very strong. I still know EG’s line-up very well and think their position 1 and 2 are very unpredicable. After all every person who made to 9K has what it takes. I actually watched RTZ’s first person view. His style is very farming-intensive and doesn’t care about what’s happening to the team whatsoever. But he’s very slick in the details. Under-performance in big tournaments only says that his style is incompatible with the team meta right now. Their Position 3 is world-class. Not really the best in the world** but his main strength is consistency. Their support duo is the strongest and most invincible [sic]. Cr1t was OG’s second carry. Zai is a top-class player on every position. If nothing surprising happens they have locked a Top 3 spot in TI7 on paper.Lastly I’d like express appreciation for the supporters who cheered us on live and the fans who stayed up late to support us in front of their screens. Thanks to my former teammates along the away and management who recognize my ability. Thanks to my parents for their understanding. Thanks to my small legion of fans who are always behind me. Wait, I am not writing for retirement. That will be all. Translator’s Notes

*The implication here is that he hasn’t met them in Dota matches and/or in person.

**That title apparently goes to rOtk





Source: http://dota2.sgamer.com/news/201609/165618.html

Translator: Shrinkzxo

Editor: Bluemoon Translator https://twitter.com/shrinkzxo