GGnet travel blog #3: Visiting Dota 2 Super League

Over the last week, dopeshow and I have travelled to various gaming houses in Shanghai and we'll be capping our tour with a visit to the Dota 2 Super League studio. It was also extremely lucky for us that our visit happens to fall on a date when iG will play LGD.cn to decide the second and third placers of the group.

Initially, we got a little lost trying to find the studio but while walking aimlessly near a bunch of building complexes, we saw Xiao8 and quickly ran up to him to ask for directions. He pointed us to a building called Motion Magic, it makes a lot of sense.

As soon as we stepped into the building, we were greeted by a huge Dota 2 Super League backdrop. I guess it's unusual for someone to be 190 cm tall in China (dopeshow) and people immediately started recognizing us. It might be because they saw us in the G-1 League. In any case, we were brought into the main studio and my first impression was wow. This was no tournament area, it was a real TV studio. Seeing all the different cameras they had and all those lights on the ceiling, renting the place must have cost a bomb.

It's quite hard to explain what we saw exactly, therefore we made this walkthrough video for you.

One hour before the game started, the players started pouring into the studio. First, they set-up their gears in the respective player booths before walking into the spectator area to chill. The atmosphere in the studio was not like anything I have ever seen before. The players were all very relaxed and talked smack to each other a lot. It was fun to see. At one point, Nic (LGD manager) pulled out a bunch of LGD posters and ChuaN held it above his head and claimed he would shout "LGD LGD LGD" if LGD were to win 2-0 against them (LGD won 2-0). All jokes obviously.

We sat in the very limited spectator area and watched the games on a 40 inch television. Nic brought some LGD fans into the studio making the spectator space even more cramped. Prior to this, I had never watched Gamefy's stream (mostly watched BTS) and all I can say about their stream is holy crap. #Productionvalue #Hardwork #Dedication. It's all the small stuff like camera backgrounds and switching the camera to the players during the drafting phase, instant replays and even team radio from inside the player booths. My mind was blown, as well as dopeshow's, I believe. I highly recommend you guys watch the next DSL game on Gamefy's stream.

Gamefy production team

LGD.cn ran a CK-Io combo effectively and took down iG in straight games. While the first game was a little closer and dragged out, the second game was just a landslide. If I'm not mistaken, the second game ended in 19 minutes. With the win secured, LGD.cn placed second in the DSL group and will be heading to the playoffs. Their victory also meant Vici Gaming's elimination. VG will be playing the relegation matches against For.Love and the last two placers of group B.

My plan was to interview Yao after the game but he was pulled aside for an interview with Gamefy. It's a normal procedure after each game. Once it was over, we caught up with them outside the studio and due to my shitty Chinese, I asked him questions in English that he could answer in Chinese. Fortunately for me, he understands English very well. After the interview, Gamefy interviewed me on my thoughts about my first visit to DSL although I highly doubt they will use that footage. After that, everybody scrambled to leave the studio since it was closing soon.

Why did you move away from the old house?

Well, last time when we live with LGD.int, when we were training, we don't just train with LGD.int but we train with other teams too and the atmosphere is a little distracting for us. Besides that, our choice of food and our lifestyle is also a little different, hence, it's better now that we are separated.

We went to their place before and we went to your place too. There was a lot of difference between the two houses. While Int's house had television and couch, your house had practically nothing in it except for computers and beds. Are you okay with this? Which one do you like better?

Their training and lifestyle is more relaxed and they received direct invitation for TI3, therefore their stress level is not as high as ours, and that's why they can buy some entertainment stuff such as the couch and the television. As for ours, there are two reasons for the lack of things inside. The first reason is because we just moved into this new base and haven't bought all the stuff. Second reason, we were also very stressed about having to go through the qualifiers to return to Seattle. We didn't have time to care about anything else but training all day.

Do you plan to buy a TV later?

We'll think about it after we get back from TI3.

Does your team exchange information with LGD.Int? After all, they are your sister team. Do you exchange information on a daily or weekly basis?

Yes, of course, after all we are sister teams. We often talk about our opponents' habits. In our old base, we will also watch them scrimming and they will watch ours too. Now that we are separated, they will give us reminders on opponents' playstyle but not as much as before. We still do yeah.

What happens if you play against each other?

Uh... We'll give it our best.

Anyway, you just won the TI3 qualifiers yesterday, securing the invitation to Seattle. How do you feel about that?

We feel that our efforts have been repaid because we were really training hard before this. Going to Seattle is every players' dream and we don't want to lose our chance. Qualifying for Seattle, we are very excited and confident.

The journey throughout the qualifiers is obviously very stressful for you. Who is your hardest opponent in the qualifiers?

I think the Chinese teams are more troublesome. Prior to this, we played in G-1 League and they understand us better. Besides that, their ability is stronger than the teams from South East Asia and there is a sense of difficulty when playing against them.

Earlier today (LGD.cn vs iG), your team ran CK-Io a lot. I didn't see you guys practice this hero a lot before G-1 League. What changed? How long have you guys been practicing this and your confidence level in these combo?

Yeah we didn't really practiced CK-Io much but through our scrims and replays watching, we came to understand and know we should play the hero. Today we realized our opponents showed weakness to this combo and that's why we pulled it out. Our recent form is also good and our confidence level is pretty high.

What about Slark? Nicholas (LGD manager) told us that your team never practiced Slark ever. So I'm not sure..

Before this, in our practice against LGD.Int and they used this hero. We feel that it's quite effective, so, we modified it a little and picked him up.

Let's talk a little about the 6.78 patch. The patch notes were released yesterday and it should be coming to the client next week. There were a lot of changes especially the drafting phase that will be 2/2/1 now. How do you think that will affect the game?

We haven't really discussed much about the new patch yet. However, I feel that the new drafting system will allow for a more diverse gameplay and the game might end faster because with minus one ban during the second phase, more heroes will slip through and might create new combos and strats.

Any new heroes that would be emerging or lose out in the ban pick phase?

(ReiNNNN explained the question wrong and therefore the answer isn't really relevant, he mentioned that he did not read up on the new heroes)

Well you used to play solo mid. Now that the bottle crow trick doesn't work anymore. How will that affect the solo mid play?

I think the rune control will be a lot more important now. Besides that, personal skills and damage taking control will really shine. Last time, there were room for error and the player can do bottle-crow non-stop. The requirement for solo mid player will be higher now

Accidentally asked the question in Chinese lol. Well that's all for the interview, anything you would like to say to your fans?

Thanks everybody for supporting us through our ups and downs. We will work harder in the future.

That is all for our trip in Shanghai. I know a lot of you were asking if we could drop by DK's place but that is all too unrealistic for now. Perhaps we can think about it in the near future. Thanks for tuning in as we got lost multiple times in China guys.