Hi Zy, thank you for sharing your time with us. How are you?
Nice to meet you. It’s really my honor to have this opportunity to represent my team.
Congratulations for being invited into the TI4 China qualifiers. How do you feel about it?
As a new player in the Dota 2 scene, it is my pleasure to attend the TI4 qualifiers. Thanks to the recognition of Valve to my team.
Well, while your team name is sort of familiar for the global audience, not really much is known about your team itself. Can you tell us more about SPG.cn, like how was the team formed and maybe you can describe yourself and your teammates?
Our team currently consists of five absolutely new players, and none of us has gotten into a professional team before. Thus, all of my teammates are very young. I am 22 years old, the oldest player in the team.
The team's hard support is SPG.JDH.CN, whose play style is very creative and active and he gives us confidence. Our Carry is SPG.MY.CN, who has creepy farming skills.Then we have the Off-lane SPG.ZRD.CN and the support SPG.ZYP.CN, are both just over 16. We have a lot of fun with these two lovely little brothers.
I feel that internal atmosphere is very important to one team, and we do very well in this aspect especially when we have troubles in the games. All of us are try to help each other to solve it together.
Are you studying at the moment?
I am supposed to be a junior right now. But for the professional scene, I have suspended my education.
How did you guys end up playing under the Speed Gaming.China team?
Before joining SPG.CN, I have an online team for over half a year. I saw the great performance of SPG.INT, which impressed me a lot. At the beginning of this year, SPG sent an announcement wherein there will be matches and they will select five new players to form their new team. I joined the match, and I became one of them.
There was an internal trouble between the manager and players of the now defunct Speed Gaming's international team. Were you aware of that? If so, how did that affect your team?
I have little knowledge about that. As far as I am concerned, our team manager is not in charge of SPG.INT. So, there is almost no influence on us. There were good results in SPG before, but we are the SPG now. Non-stop studying and training is our way to be the top team.
I have to ask, how does your family and friends feel about your gaming career?
My parents are in favour of my decision. They understand my dreams and what I pursue. After getting into the professional scene, I made plenty of friends. Thanks to all for encouraging and supporting me.
How hard or how easy is it for a young and aspiring Dota player to be successful in your country, do you think it's harder/easier compared to the other parts of the world?
In China, we spend over 12 hours to training with others. I even think of plans to defeat my opponents before sleeping. For dota, I have given up my normal life but I will never regret it as I love this game.
Going back to the TI4 China qualifiers, what can you say about that tournament? Are there any teams that you are looking forward to facing?
I feel that its difficult for all the teams as there are only two out of ten teams going to the Seattle. About the team I want to face the most, there is no doubt that it is LGD.CN as they are the most powerful team in the group. But, every team are skilled and have their own hero (strategies) and drafts, so there is no one that we can ignore.
How is the team training for it, especially with a new patch getting applied not too long ago?
We normally have at least two best-of-three matches with the other professional teams everyday, which gave us much experience. We study new drafts rest of the time. Occasionally, we play MMR games for entertainment.
Talking about patches, many believe 6.80 as one of the better patches in recent time. What can you say about the new patch?
The draft has changed a lot as most of the imbalanced heroes have been nerfed. It is a great opportunity for a new team like us to chase the top teams like DK.
What can you say about the changes? Is there anything that you were really happy or sad about regarding the changes?
The nerf of the imba heroes: Ember Spirit and Terror Blade. Its also kind of awesome to the small change of TA’s trap, which made it feel smoother for me to operate this hero. Also, the buff of Tide hunter’s Anchor Smash gives this hero more chances to stand in the top games.
One of the many games played in the last patch was a match between DK and Titan, on which you and two of your teammates stood-in for DK. You guys actually did well and won that fight, 2-0. What are your recollections of that day?
Before the match, DK’s coach 71, Burning and MMY taught us and shared some experience. In the key moments of the game, Burning made the commands which led us to victory.
What can you say about playing with legends BurNing and MMY? Did playing with them made you play better, or it made you feel very pressured?
I am sort of nervous, which had me making some stupid mistakes at the beginning. When the game progressed, I got into a better state.
What is your opinion of SEA players (like ChuaN, Mushi and iceiceice), or foreign players (like Black^) in general , being invited and playing into China?
They are very skilled of course, and they bring to the Chinese dota scene some new strategies.
I'm sure you are aware that you are following big footsteps in the Chinese Dota world. Would you mind letting us know who is/are your favorite player/s (active or retired)?
As my role is Solo-mid, my idol is 430 and 2009. I like 430 for his detailed operation, and 2009 for his abundant opinion to the games.
Alright, thank you very much. Good luck on your upcoming tournaments. Any shout-outs and greetings you want to give to your fans?
Thanks a lot for my fans and friend. My teammates and I will try our best to be one of the winning teams in the TI4 qualifier. To my boss, Weir and Paul, thanks a for giving us the platform to fulfil our dream.
Source: Rotator and in-article picture taken from NeoTV, China qualifier taken from Dota 2.com
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