They staged a huge upset in the inaugural match of the 2nd round of WDC qualifiers, beating fan-favourites LGD. AoL is a semi-professional team, but have the likes of AEG and the ZhongBao cup under their belts and have profressed into the last 7 of WDC qualifiers. The WDC commitee conducted an interview with side AoL's captain Ruo, who provides an insight into the life of a non-professional DotA player.
Thanks for accepting this WDC interview, could you first give everyone a self introduction?
-"Hello everyone I am Aol.ruo"
Firstly congratulations upon progressing past the first elimination stages, what does it feel like to beat LGD?"
-"Thank you very much, it felt good [beating LGD], it gave our confidence a major boost, but actually it was a really close match."
Can you give a brief introduction of your team mates?
-"xiaoba is our manager, I am the captain, other members of our team are Mrsj, Qucci, Hottt, Emv,、yeyeshengge and wobuguai."
How did the team first come togther?
-"Most of us met online, some of us met at LAN competitions, and some of us knew each other through CDEC. After playing together for some time we decided to form a team together."
How are your relationships like privately? Do you guys meet up often offline? Or are you all just internet friends?
-"We are mostly just internet friends, but occasionally we do meet up to compete in some offline tournaments such as AEG, ZhongBao cup etc. In the recent weeks we have been meeting up as a team in order to perform well in WDC."
Having competed in so many events, what are your thoughts on WDC?
-"The teams here are all of a high caliber, although at the moment we have 2 wins from 2 games, but I feel the following games will be tougher."
AoL is certainly a team of a high standard as well. Normally do you guys have a fixed training time? Have you ever thought of playing professionally?
-"Not really, we mostly play on our own and have no fixed training times. We are all working or studying, and we have members who quit playing professionally in order to concentrate more on studies."
Speaking of professionals, we have heard rumours that niuwa has a very secretive job, could you shed some light on it?
-"Haha, this question...When he is not playing DotA he is a gang leader, everytime we see him we call him 'The Boss'."
In order to prepare for WDC, did your team practice team-specific or secret strategies? And what changes has WDC brought to your team?
-"No, not really. We have been pretty lucky, learning new strategies along the way haha. I think WDC will train us as a team, because normally we are quite busy, we don't have time to train together, relying on competition experience. We would like to practice more if we have the oppurtunity."
Do you have any particular professional team or player you admire?
-"No, but I do admire are the semi-professional players. Because for us semi-pros to beat professional teams is quite a challenge, but it is not impossible, as shown by our victory over LGD!"
What is your aim or goal for WDC?
-"We have never really thought about it, we shall cross the bridge when we reach it, but of course we hope to win. Having sacrificed so much and spent so much time playing, our ultimate aim is to improve and play better, hope we can last till the end."
We wish you the best of luck, thanks for accepting our interview. Do you have any last shoutouts to your fans?
-"Thank you very much, we would like to extend our gratitude to all those who have supported us, we will try our best!"
Links
SGamer - Original Article