After placing first in the groupstage of ECL, PcGames.com.cn caught up with Zhi Cheng 'Lanm' Zhang of team DK to talk about his recent WPC-ACE win and various of other stuff regarding his team. The interview was uploaded to youku which ultimately got uploaded by dotaland with subtitles on Youtube.
Your thoughts on winning WPC-ACE
Of course really happy. I've played professionally for more than three years now, and this WPC-ACE title is my first major event win.
Did you have to pay for the monitor you broke?
I only wanted to - at the time I was really excited. I only wanted to slam my own keyboard, but when I picked up the keyboard, it dragged the monitor cord too, knocking the monitor into the table or glass, and it broke. The keyboard is provided by our sponsor; it was fine, just lost a few keycaps and I was too lazy to go looking for them. I just switched out a new one. As for the monitor.. from what I heard, the club paid it for me (laughs)
Biggest challenge faced in your career?
Not being able to attain results I have wanted all along.
The opportunity to join DK.
My thoughts at that time were that, for me to win an offline event, my teammates must have the same goals as I do. So I made myself a shortlist of people, which players have similar attitudes on the issue as I do, those that have the same desire to win, players that I would want to play with. DK fit these conditions, so I came. We discovered that we all have something in common: that we had not won anything satisfactory in the past two years.
Your goals for Redbull ECL 2014?
To make progress.. from strategies, to team execution, to become stronger in these.
Your new coach's contribution to DK.
Our strategies, plans, and training focuses are all connected to the coach
Thoughts on transitioning from carry to support.
Mainly it is being able to better understand what each role needs after playing each role myself. So, going from carry to support, working hard at playing support, in a lot of ways I know what is needed at different times. I go and do those things; it's easier to become a good support that way.
Thoughts on offline event trashtalking.
[In one example] both sides have our "international friends" - on our side we have Mushi, who was a former teammate of Titan's players. In that scenario, it's not really suitable to trash talk, not really easy to open up and say things. Our team doesn't really have any trash talkers, we are all pretty peaceful.
Who is your strongest opponent?
Every team has the potential to become a very strong team, as long as they overcome themselves.
Your auto-biographical story - when will there be a happy ending?
We'll see after I retire.
Hopes for 2014?
In 2014, I hope that we, DK, can achieve results at larger international events that satisfy everyone - for ourselves, our fans.
Lanm's Chinese New Year greeting.
I wish everyone a Happy Chinese New Year, joy and love, and thank you to each and every fan and friend of DK.
