SJQ: 'It'll be an uphill battle.'

G-League season three, China's biggest offline DotA event, will soon take the stage as the new year kicks off. Representing WE in this interview is Crystal, who talks about his expectations of facing DK in the semi-finals this Sunday at 08:00 CET.

Thank you for accepting this interview. You must be busy practicing these few days. How is training coming along?
-"Hello, I'm WE's Crystal. Apart from training, we usually play pubs. I would say it's working out pretty fine; we work things out as we go along."

In the semi-finals, you will soon face DK. Have you trained with them yet?
-"No, and I don't plan to practice with them at all. Personally I feel that if we did spar with them, our odds of winning would be only one out of five. On the other hand, if we do not play with them at all, our odds would be fifty-fifty!

Since our overall standard is much lower than DK, our only hope of winning would be to play our best when the time comes, and given that they are not too familiar with our style of play, our chances of winning would be better.

It's best of five - it'll be an uphill battle so all the more I feel we shouldn't be practicing with them!"

With so many offline competitions in China as of late, many big Chinese teams are scrambling all over the country - have you encountered a situation where there wasn't a team to practice with?
-"Yeah, I guess so, hence we have been playing with the two DT teams alot recently."

Do you think you still have a long way to go as a professional player?
-"Of course! I feel like such a noob right now. I feel like I have de-proved alot, and I guess that's because I haven't been playing for quite some time."

How do you feel about the format of the semi-finals being best of five?
-"I guess it benefits the more experienced players [teams], since they can take advantage of the number of games to get a better sense of their opponents. It's not too favorable for us though, since we are still a young team."

We practically don't see you trashtalk at all at competitions. How do you view it as a practice?
-"I feel it's rather immature. When you're at an advantage, you don't keep your cool, and when you're not, you explode at our opponents - what's the point? Professional players are all either playing for the glory or the money. There's no sense turning each game into a bloodbath - a few shouts of "nice" will suffice."

Though DK lost out on the championship title at two consecutive offline events (SMM, ECL), you still do not seem confident of taking them down.
-"Although I am looking out to win, I can't say that it's a guarantee, so I'm keeping my mind open to failure/defeat! Maximize our strengths and take advantage of our opponent's weaknesses - and hard work will be all we have to put in to win."

Final shoutouts?
-"I would like to say a big thanks to all our supporters and our sponsors!"

WE will play DK at the semi-finals of G League Season 4 this Sunday at 08:00 CET. Click here to place your GosuBets.