Tomorrow, on the 26th of June, we will usher in the offline finals of G-League's first season. Arguably China's top two powerhouses DK and LGD will stage an epic clash for a grand prize of 150,000 RMB ($23,000 USD). SGamer sits down with the prolific carry from DK, Burning, to discuss his thoughts for tomorrow's match.
You must have been busy preparing for the grand finals these few days. How are preparations coming along?
-"Because most of the competitions are using 6.72, we practically haven't had a chance to play with any team using 6.71. (G-League official map is 6.71b.)"
There are a lot of ongoing online competitions. Have they impeded your daily training?
-"Nope, our team has always carried a competitive mindset, and these competitions merely strengthen our resolve."
LGD put up a spectacular performance at StarsWar 6. Besides regular practice, have your teams prepared anything in store to deal with them? For example, analyzing your opponents, creating certain strategies..
-"We basically watch their recent replays along with their vods, and after that practice our bans and picks."
You enjoyed your last victory against LGD not along ago (showmatch), but in tomorrow's G-League finals you will be playing with Musha as a stand-in. How will it affect your team's performance?
-"It won't, as Musha used to play professionally for DK as well, so in terms of skill it won't affect our performance. His synergy with the rest of us hasn't been too bad in the past few games."
Does that mean in official games xb will be playing, but in training games it will be Musha? If that is the case, what is xb doing while you guys are training?
-"Well, the recent training games have been with Musha replacing xb. The latter mainly handles banpicks and comes up with some tactics."
You reached Shanghai on Thursday, so what have you been doing since then?
-"We haven't been practicing at all. We'll be going to take some promo shots for G-League offline finals today."
Did anything interesting happen during the photo shoot?
-"Nope, except that when we were taking our photos this morning, LGD hadn't arrived yet. Everyone was rather nervous during the photoshoot, which resulted in a couple of awkward shots. It wasn't that bad for KingJ and I, but Musha really collapsed under the pressure."
How do you think this lack of pre-finals practice will affect your performance?
-"Since we have the finals tomorrow, we will head to a internet cafe to warm ourselves up. If we can find opponents to train against then we will do so. If not, we will just practice coordination and strategy."
Soon you will face LGD in what will be the biggest offline grand finals in terms of cash prize (150,000 RMB). This has led to some spectators remarking that each kill could cost you 50+ RMB. As your team's main carry, does this add extra pressure on your shoulders?
-"No, I don't think too much about it. I'll just give it my best."
How do you see the current LGD?
-"With regards to their recent performance in competitions, they are in amazing form. Everyone has a clear and defined role, their tactics are radical at the moment, they play very aggressively and they execute their strategies very well."
When you privately spoke to some of your friends in the media, you mentioned that KingJ and yourself had a long history of winning cash prizes. What do you speculate are your chances of winning tomorrow's competition?
-"I guess 50%. It's either a win or a loss."
Can you predict what are the most commonly picked and banned heroes in this competition?
-"The most commonly picked heroes are vengeful spirit, enchantress and venomancer. As for the bans, it would be the three brothers - invoker, doom, and ancient apparition."
Let's end this with a couple of shoutouts.
-"Thanks to everyone for supporting us all this while; as compensation, we promise to put a show tomorrow that will blow everyone away."
DK will play LGD tomorrow, 26th June, at 12:00 CET. Place your gosubets here.
Links
SGamer - Original Article
