Recently, due to a dispute between Mikasa and Newbee, Mikasa left Newbee. We take a closer look at who is Mikasa, and what was his role in making Newbee the TI4 champions.
Mikasa, Sydm, ??7, the coach of the winners of TI4 goes by many names, highlighting his history as a player to one of the most acclaimed coaches the Chinese Dota scene has ever witnessed, which spurred many Chinese teams to want to get a coach of their own. Recently, he has left Newbee due to a conflict between contracts signed between them and HuomaoTV and ZhanqiTV. He decided to dedicate himself to helping CDEC improve after relunctantly leaving Newbee.
"I cannot help but feel sad when leaving Newbee. I am very sorry to have to announce this bad news to everyone today! I left Newbee due to a misunderstanding. I take some responsibility for this misunderstanding as there were many problems which I did not address properly. I chose to leave Newbee, so do not push the blame onto anyone! I hope all my friends and fans who care for me will stop the drama caused by my departure, thanks! I am on way way to CDEC now :)." - Mikasa's Weibo statement on him leaving Newbee.
Who is Mikasa?
In 2013, Mikasa was the mid player for Vici Gaming, during his time there, he achieved little to no notable results. He was not a very outstanding player. Mikasa has mentioned in an interview that he did not understand the game well at that time and played badly, this when combined with his old age, compared to the new and fresh players on Vici Gaming, led him to be cut from the team.
A few days after being cut from Vici, Hao contacted him to see if he was interested in coaching a struggling Tongfu. After looking at Tongfu, Mikasa thought that they have potential and the determination to succeed and he took up the job. The next few months, Tongfu saw major improvements going from a no name team to a top five team in China, 3 - 0 ing Dk in one of their games. Many of the DK players attribute this to the work of Mikasa.
Tongfu went on to take part in TI3 finishing at a solid fourth place. After TI3, Tongfu was picked up by Newbee, but before any of the players were picked up, Newbee prioritized getting Mikasa before all the players. Mikasa was also well known for being able to calm Hao down when Hao would get angry, this showed the level of understanding he had achieved with the players of Newbee.
With Newbee's new lineup without KingJ and with Xiao8, Mikasa was able to once again fast track the team to fulfilling their full potential, under the leadership of Xiao8 which Mikasa told everyone to trust in, they were able to become the champions of TI4.
Coaching and Mikasa:
Mikasa believes in building a good atmosphere and a strong understanding between teammates, he thinks that a coach should always be there to ensure that players take practices and tournaments seriously. He also thinks that coaches must ensure that their players are all in top mental shape when they play, this was reflected during TI4 after Newbee's shaky group stage performance and dominating main event performance where Mikasa helped motivate and stablize the player's mindsets.
During TI4, Mikasa consistently told the team that as long as they make it through to the tie breakers they are all right. In order to boost their morale, he also anaylzed all of their games and advised them to stop flavor of the tournament heroes they were not familiar with and to pick heros they knew and played well. A few wins later, Newbee started to find their form and gave the dominating performance they did during the main event.
If you want to read more about Mikasa, there is an interview done by GodBlessMali. Click Here.
Follow Mikasa's Weibo
