Sylar: 'I won't retire until I win a world championship!'

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INTERVIEW: LGD.Sylar

*Legend:
[text] = Editor's note

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Hello, Sylar and thanks for accepting this interview. This is a question I usually ask at the start instead of an introduction - tell us something interesting about yourself, something that our readers at GosuGamers will not know. *smiles*

-"Hey. Well, I'm a rather uninteresting person; I seldom do interesting things. However, I like playing Dota 2 with my girlfriend though. *smiles*"


Fair enough. There is a surprising lack of material about you on the Internet. I think our readers would be interested to know what kind of a guy Sylar is like in real life. How would your girlfriend describe you?

-"I'm quite the nerd in real life. I like to fool around and make jokes with my teammates. We tease one another too. I guess she would think I'm quite noob, because we always get trashed when we play pubs together. *laughs*"

Did you try telling her you're a professional gamer? *grins* How did you start playing DotA? Did you play other games as well?

-"I guess I got into computer games under the influence of my cousin. I lived with him when I was a kid and I always saw him play games on his computer. He would always try to get me to play with him.

Nope, I don’t play other games beside DotA, and the first time I was exposed to DotA was two years ago. Back then I was still playing Real Three [Literal translation, DotA lookalike game] and in one of the game forums someone had shared a post about EHOME’s victory at ESWC 2010 over DTS.

It was then I decided that I wanted to take a DotA world championship title for myself!"

Well, you're on your way. I believe you’ve been in one team other than LGD in your entire career, which is World Elite. How did you get spotted by WE?

-"Oh, I was playing with an online team in a practice match against DK. 2009 [WE coach] was an observer in the game and he decided to pick us up after that to join World Elite."

You definitely had big shoes to fill when you replaced the legendary ZSMJ after his retirement. What would you say is your biggest challenge starting out at LGD and playing at such a high level?

-"I guess the pressure on me to perform was huge when I joined LGD. Frankly I still lacked the experience then and I was afraid that that there would be miscommunication between my teammates and I during the games. It all panned out well."

I wish you good luck in LGD then. You are a relatively new player to the scene in China. Where do you see your future in the game? How long do you plan to remain as a professional gamer?

-"I’m not sure how long I will continue playing eSports, but seeing as I’m still young right now I have a feeling that there’s a good few years in store for me still. I won’t retire until I win a world championship!"

Right, I also notice you have a peculiar habit of playing with tissue paper on your mouse. Why do you have this habit and when did it start?

-"I had this back when I played Real Three [Literal translation, DotA lookalike game]. It's a personal thing - my hands tend to sweat alot when I play and it affects my performance so I have to use a tissue paper."

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On LGD Gaming

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Let's talk about LGD. Describe your 'home base' for us!

-"Sure. Our base is in a small district in Hangzhou. Our apartment has three floors - the first floor is where we train and the second and third floors are split into bedrooms for us and LGD.int."

Now that you mentioned LGD.int, how have they adapted to Chinese culture and practices so far?

-"Oh, we have a language instructor teaching them Chinese and us English now. Whenever they're eating and we notice that one of them can’t use chopsticks properly, we'll call him a noob! [Original: ‘noob’ was in English] We usually communicate in English but I’ll get my captain to translate for me. *laughs*"

Okay, then if you had to choose, who would you say is the friendliest player in LGD.int?

-"We're all good and close with one another, but we [LGD.cn] all like to tease Misery during our training matches. Whenever we kill him we'll shout “Oh, M, M, M, M, Misery!” [Original: MMMMMisery was in English, probably a reference to MMMMMonsterkill voice clip in DotA]"

I have something to ask - when pictures of the LGD.int boys were shared on GosuGamers, there was a funny comment posted saying that it was going to be hard for 1437 (Theeban Silva) to pick up girls in China. Is this true? *grins*

-"I don't go to bars with them so I'm not really clear about that. *laughs* I don't think I've ever seen him visit a bar before though. "

"LGD is a conservative team who only picks up on the strategies that other Chinese teams innovate, but then plays it to perfection." How would you respond to a statement like this?

-"I guess I don't really much to say about that, because our team is indeed rather conservative, especially in our playstyles and lineups. We’ll make the necessary arrangements to improve ourselves as a team."

Hmm, your team appears strong against teams they are familiar with but tends to buckle against teams with highly unorthodox playstyles. At SMM 2011, it happened with Mineski. At The International, it was Na`Vi. Why do you think this is so?

-"I had a large part to blame for our loss to Mineski at SMM. I played a horrible Anti Mage then, and in those two games we were using the '4 protect 1' strategy which resulted in our defeat.


At The International, I think it was because ddc and I accepted Dendi's treat [Ferrari made a similar reference in his interview]. It’s the curse of Dendi! I swear I’m not going to accept anything from him next year!"

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On The International

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If you had to sum up your TI experience in one word, what would it be?

-"Loss. It was a loss of spirit, among other things."

I asked this of Ferrari and Burning too. In your opinion, what was the reason why Na`Vi was able to defeat the top three Chinese teams to win the Upper Bracket?

-"Actually, Na`Vi was much weaker before main event and before they played DK. It was only after a full day of adjustment that they grew so much in strength. They understood how to play against the Chinese favorite, Naga Siren, and that was how they were able to consecutively take out the top three Chinese teams (LGD, DK, iG) in the Upper Bracket."

Why did that same reason not work out for them in the finals against iG?

-"iG figured out Na`Vi’s plan by the time of the grand finals. They banned Lycanthrope and Anti Mage while picking either Lone Druid or a strong dual-core lineup for themselves against Na`Vi.

Na`Vi, on the other hand, decided to use a lineup that we had frequently picked against them in training - Dragon Knight and Naga Siren - so iG was quite clear on how to deal with that lineup already before the game started."

I noticed you were rather shy in Seattle (compared to your teammates). Were you close to any international team or player there?

-"Bulba! The solo mid player from Evil Geniuses was really friendly and nice to us. The whole LGD team was quite close to him, and I still talk to him on QQ [Chinese messenger] every now and then."

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On the competitive scene

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Rank the top three teams in Asia right now.

-"iG, LGD and DK."

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On G-1 Champions League

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If you compare your team’s current lineups and playstyles with those from TI, what would you say has changed and why?

-"At The International, our team blindly insisted on one playstyle, and that was ‘4 protect 1’. The only time we did not use ‘4 protect 1’ was if we were able to get our hands on Chaos Knight and Naga Siren - in that case we’d run a dual-core lineup.

In the current metagame, there’s so much emphasis on teamfights so our lineups right now should reflect that and not remain like that in Seattle where we would try to drag every game as late as possible."

This Saturday, you will be playing against iG in the semifinals of G-1. What do you think is a weakness of iG that you would exploit?

-"Well, there's no prominent weakness, but in my opinion, their playstyle is too focused on ganking and being aggressive. If we can cut down on the mistakes they make or even pull off one to two key counter ganks then I think the match will be a much more even game."

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Conclusion

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Good luck for your match! After you do your shoutouts, say something in English for our readers at GosuGamers.

-"I would like to thank our sponsors, Taobao, Razer and LGD hot sauce.

M, M, M, M, Misery!!!!!"