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General12 years agoGosu "GosuGamers" Gamers

Winter: 'I wish there were organisations like Mineski in Malaysia'

Razer Invitational, Malaysia: Winter, Yamateh, Ice, Mushi, xTinct
(Photo by GosuGamers)

Having just won the Razer Invitational Showcase and GEST last weekend, Orange are arguably at the top of both competitive SEA DotA and Dota 2. Yet, a new wave of competition awaits them at this weekend's ProDota 2 League and Gigabyte Dota Masters. Speaking up on behalf of the team in a GosuGamers exclusive is Litt-Bin "Winter" Chan.



How is the team feeling right now? Is there any secret resolution that the five of you made for this year that we don't know about?
-"We feel great, but we just lost to MSIEvoGT [when this interview was conducted, see match]. If I may digress a little, they used an Omni Knight and Obsidian Destroyer against our Necromonicons - Obsidian Destroyer dealt insane damage and took none against the summons. *laughs* We should have bought a Diffusal Blade on our team - that would have messed up many of their early fights. They just went out of control after that.

I guess our 'secret resolution' would mainly be team bonding. We want to spend as much time doing activities to enhance our chemistry - we want to catch a movie together, go to trips together, eat together, sleep together.. *grins*

Back in the Philippines, we learned that a team really has to trust one another to succeed.

Well, back in the Philippines, we learned that a team really has to have a lot of trust in one another to succeed - that was what we were lacking in when we compared ourselves to the rest of the Pinoy teams. That's when we realized we had to increase our team chemistry by doing a lot of activities together to get bonded."

Is this one of the team bonding activities?
-"*laughs* No, but oh, we actually went to watch Battleship together not too long ago - I was planning to upload the pictures and write a blog about it."

Who are you closest to in Orange, then? Who has been 'the one who was always there for you'?
-"I'm closest with xTinct and Mushi. *smiles*"

Talk about Kenchi and Frank (Orange's Manager) - what can you say about the two of them?

Frank is a man with a vision and he will stop at nothing to achieve his goal.

-"Kenchi is a very experienced and knowledgable person - he always helps us in solving a lot of problems that we are facing within the team as well as our personal issues.

Frank is a man with a vision and he will stop at nothing to achieve his goal."

Also, you're mostly the representative from orange doing the interviews, giving statements, so we don't get to hear about - say - Ice or xTinct too much. Tell our readers what your teammates are like personally. Any special nicknames or interesting moments you've had?
-"*laughs* They are all very shy - I'm joking of course. Nah, it's because I can speak English better than they can, so I always shoulder the responsibility of answering interviewers, etc.

xTinct is the oldest guy in the team, but his actions don't show him as the oldest one around. *smiles*

Ice is, as his nickname suggests, always cool as ice.. He takes care of his girlfriend Ana a lot.

xTinct is the oldest member in the team, but sometimes his actions don't show him as the oldest guy around. *smiles* He always laughs like a young boy. *laughs*"



Cybertime circa 06'-07': Mushi, Seanz, Winter, Monk3y, Net
(Photo by Winter)

How about Mushi? I think you have played with him since Cybertime five years ago.

As a teammate, Mushi is always pushing me to break my limits.

-"Yes, Mushi is the guy who was either been on my team, or on the opponents' team. Since I started competitive DotA, I would always try to out fox him in the draft if he was playing on the other side. And during the game, I'll command my team to make sure he doesn't do well.

But - as a teammate - he is always pushing me to break my limits. He's a very good leader and another person with a lot of vision."

Ky.xY looks like a shy guy who doesn't say much. Is he like that in your team?
-"No.. he is very noisy. People mostly talk to him in English, and it's hard for him to communicate in that language so it may seem like he doesn't talk much, but he's very talkative. I always help him out when he's doing interviews in English. *laughs*"

Hmm, then are you the cool and calm player like Ice or the passionate and outspoken kind?

I give my team damage aura with my battle cry.

-"*grins* I am the one who shouts the loudest for sure. I give my team '+9000% damage aura' with my battle cry. Well, Mushi and I do most of the talking during the game. Plus, when I shout, I don't mean any disrespect to my opponents. It's just to raise team morale."

Then I guess we all know how this came about. Let's go back to the India Gaming Carnival for a bit. How was it as a whole for you?
-"It was quite disappointing. The tournament was badly organized for an event of its scale and we were more than lucky than other events because our tournament finished quite early on. It was bad - there were no schedules, no brackets, nothing.

The people were there were nice and the food was good also. I like the spicy food there."


India Gaming Carnival, India: Ice, xTinct, Mushi, Ky.xY. Bottom - Winter
(Photo by Orange eSports)

Have you gotten the prize money yet?
-"No, not yet. It won't be so fast I think."

In an interview Ky.xY did with RaptureGaming, he mentioned that your team was quite confident about taking first place and that Trust would be the only strong team at the event.

To what extend do you agree with him?

-"Yup. We put it a lot of effort and were feeling confident from our trip to the Philippines. We learnt a lot of things there and adapted and improved our play style. We knew that if we put up a good performance, the championship title was ours."

What did you pick up from the Filipinos, apart from trusting your teammates?
-"We understood how to handle bottle crow and some of their drafts - they play differently and ward differently. About trust - when I was in the Philippines, I stood behind their team and I got BloodyMassacre (Filipino video editor) to translate what the team was communicating to one another.

Pinoy team work is superb and full on team fights are where they really shine.

During matches, I found out that they really trusted each other a lot. When someone said something, everyone follows without a doubt. Their team work is superb and full on team fights are where Pinoys really shine a lot."



I see, so if you had to sum up your experience in the Philippines using one phrase, what would it be?
-"Okay - good food! *laughs* I don't know. If you gave me a sentence, I would like to say this - I wish there were organisations like Mineski in Malaysia to develop our gaming scene so that we can have such a vibrant and healthy one like theirs."


Alodia's Birthday Bash, Philippines: Ky.xY, Mushi, xTinct, Alodia, Ice, Winter
(Photo by Mineski.net)

How is your team's relationship with their teams, players, fans, etc?
-"Very good. *laughs* We are all good friends. Many fans from the Philippines love Mushi and they love our team. We received a lot of support during our stint there - there were people coming up to our team for photos while we were at the shopping mall eating or buying stuff."

Oh, wow. Does Mushi get mobbed by Pinoys every second of the day there?
-"Yes, almost! *laughs* Even people from the mountains and Kampungs (villages) know who Mushi is. He is that famous there."

In China, DotA is a huge deal because people get paid. In the Philippines, DotA is a huge deal because people are passionate.

Anyway, now that you've been to two countries for two big events (GMPGL in the Philippines, GLeague in China), how would you compare the two experiences?
-"The environment in both countries are good - many fans and the game is a huge deal for the Filipinos. In China, it's a huge deal because people get paid and the game is a job for most professional players. Well, in the Philippines, it's a huge deal because of the passion of the players and fans.

Oh, and their bet matches - they always have bet matches (where real money is involved) to help teams improve."


G-League Season 3, China: Nicxh, Clanton, Winter, xTinct, Mushi
(Photo by SGamer)

Did you have bet matches?
-"Yup, we had bet matches when we were there. Our training games were mostly bet matches. We had anonymous investors for our bet match - we didn't have to pay our end of the bet, we just played. *laughs*"

Where is Yamateh, by the way? He hasn't been playing in most of your team's recent matches/competitions.

To all those people asking whether Yamateh is still a part of Orange - he is.

-"He doesn't play much DotA. He mainly focuses on Dota 2 - he played with us at the Razer Invitational in Malaysia. Well, his real life job prevents him from committing to both games and he prefers Dota 2 too.

To all those people who are asking whether Yamateh is still a part of the team, he is."

So when it's Dota 2, Mushi takes the back seat?
-"No, it's usually Ky.xY, and it depends on the situation."

In a separate interview I did with ShenGG (of InvasionRed fame), he mentioned that Mushi and you acted as mentors for the team before GEST and gave them feedback on their play.

Is it a frequent thing for you - being approached to coach other teams - since the pair of you hosted a couple of workshops in the past in Malaysia and Thailand?

-"Yes, we spoke to them a lot about how to manage their team. We were good friends with them and we wanted them to succeed. They're all talented young players - something that is hard to find nowadays in Malaysia - so we wanted to help them to just that, go up the ranks.

As for the workshops, we just wanted to give something back to the community after all our time we spent being a part of it."

To be honest, we didn't expect much out of GEST. We were happy so long as we played our best.

Okay, let's move on to GEST - did your team expect to place first against all those Philippine teams? What are some of your thoughts about the games you played last weekend?
-"To be honest, we didn't really expect much out of it since we didn't manage to make it past the group stage during GEST February and March. We just wanted to play our best and even if we didn't win we were happy with ourselves.

I think our hard work paid off as we really tried to come up with a way to counter the Filipino style of playing DotA, and it worked out well for us during the tournament. I am sure, no doubt, that they will be able to come up with something else to counter what we had given how competitive an environment they are playing in back at home. Their teams continuously play against each other, while improving and growing into better players out of it.

Now, I believe even Trust are planning to boot camp there."

What is the counter that your team came up with? Is it just the mass Necromonicons?

Necromonicon is a good item against the Pinoys.

-"We like to push early while Filipino teams prefer to farm, gank and engage in team fights. They are unfamiliar with teams playing push and buying Necronomicons improves our ability to push. It's a good item against the Pinoys."

Is that something you took from Dota 2?
-"Hmm, it's just something our team prefers to do I guess, and it fits us."


ca1039dd06b58d89cbd4ac164a9c2cff008204cb177cc6f93142f9b56f.jpg
Ice, Yamateh, unknown, xTinct, Winter, Mushi
(Photo credits - none)

Talking about that, what can you say about your sponsorship with ASUS?
-"We're very happy, for sure. Having ASUS will only give us extra motivation to strive and work harder."

We will play both DotA and Dota 2 as long as there are tournaments around.

Right now, do you have plans to participate in all twelve editons of GEST? Or will Orange eventually switch purely to Dota 2 like Zenith, MUFC and Aeon already has?
-"We will play both DotA and Dota 2 as long as there are tournaments around and the prize money is good. We will play all editions of GEST if possible, of course."

Okay, we shall close the interview with a last segment about Dota 2. 'In SEA, the only team who can beat Orange in Dota 2 is MUFC.' How far do you agree with this statement?

SEA Dota 2 is a fight between Trust, Mineski, MUFC and Orange.

-"No, I think between the four teams Trust, Mineski, MUFC and us, we can beat one another any day as long as we are playing at our best. I'm not sure about MSIEvoGT, but they are training Dota 2 also. Well, let's not forget Zenith and hyhy."



You have quite a big upcoming match against DK at ProDota 2 League. How prepared are you?
-"We have been practising DotA lately, but we will definitely switch the focus to Dota 2 these few days to prepare for the game against DK. We hope we had more time but we needed to follow our tournament schedule. It's been very packed for us. *laughs*"

I see that Orange is selling your team jerseys with customizable names. Tell our readers how they can get one!
-"More details will be on our team's fan page. Stay tuned. *grins*"


Razer Dota 2, Singapore: Ky.xY, Ice, Winter, xTinct, Bloody Massacre, Mushi
(Photo by GosuGamers)

Now, for that long list of shoutouts. Apart from your sponsors, are there any people from the Philippines, etc, that you would like to thank?
-"I would like to thank PMS.miele and PMS.angel from the Philippines for bringing us around for food, Marlon (Mineski's Director of Events) for always telling us to relax when we are stressed our after training with the Pinoy teams. *laughs* He has his own tone when he says "RELAXXX" totally Pinoy style.

I would like to thank Calvin Callagan (BloodyMassacre) for supporting us and helping us out with a lot of miscellaneous, administrative stuff there and all the Mineski staff (Chiro, Bruno and others I can't recall).

And all the Pinoy fans! Sorry man, I can't remember all of your names, but I really love you guys and appreciate all your support.

Shoutout to Pacific Revitalize - Lowy, Santino and your teammates. Shoutout to MSIEvoGT - Doc and the rest. Shoutout to Mineski Infinity. And lastly, a huge thanks to Ronald (Rhom) for taking care of us there and Kenchi, for whom our trip would not have been possible.

Shotuout to Mineski, the organization, for helping us out and allowing us to participate in GMPGL. Thanks to all our sponsors Razer, ASUS, Orange and Asashi.

Thanks to all the fans that are supporting us and we hope that we will cotinue to bring good results and good games for you guys. Thanks to my parents for being supportive in my pursuit of professional gaming."

Roster
Malaysia 'Yamateh' Ng Wei Poong
Malaysia 'Ky.xY' Lee Kong Yang
Malaysia Joel 'XtincT' Chan Zhan Leong
Malaysia 'Ice' Chua Chee Cai
Malaysia 'WinteR' Chan Litt-Binn
Malaysia 'Mushi' Chai Yee Fung



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Facebook - Winter

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