We haz Asian against mousesports. Win against loss. Hope against frustration. Underdog against favorite. As even as the match between WhA and mouz was, as different was the setup of this game outside of the Dota 2 client. Afterwards, the task for WhA is easy.
It was the opener of day 2 at DreamHack Winter 2012, it was the opener of group C in the Corsair Vengeance Cup. The paths to Dreamhack of WhA and mousesports were troubling for both: While KuroKy and his German colleagues went from mouz to GD B-team to Zero to mousesports within a month, WhA had a H2k episode that could be measured in days.
Second chance against second try
While PaisY blurted the announcement of a new team, RMC had to talk about the implosion of H2k, a promising organisation for the Danish-German team. Watching the two teams play their game, a slight difference in the mindset could be seen: The typical underdog against favorite problem. mousesports had to win, WhA could only win.
Strange thing about that is, the two teams mousesports and WhA are not that far away from each other, skillwise. WhA has effectively compensated FATA- switching sides. mousesports still kinda has to show their lineup with paS and FATA- is working. And that was the way the game WhA against mouz went: Reverse Polarity and Sven against a pretty fat Faceless. It’s tough, but WhA got the better end.
LAN isn’t online: That does not only count for Na’Vi
Part of the reason was mousesports focussing more on the mistakes they made, WhA pushing themselves with the good moves they managaed to achieve. You could hear that if you went around the Dota 2 area at DreamHack. It’s still a LAN tournament. When it comes to tough matches, a lot of what it needs to win is momentum. And that was on WhA’s side.
Now this raises a simple question: Why didn’t mouz sign with We haz Asian? Why did a second chance to the team they had already decided not to send to Kiev in October? And another question: Who is going to sign WhA for Thor Open? The multi-game tournament in Stockholm is only two weeks away and WhA already qualified. In a recent interview, they said the financing of that travel is pretty much questionable for now, as H2k definitely isn’t available.
WhA.Tommy: How far will they go?
We haz Asian had a really rough road to DreamHack, now even expressing their thankfulness by adding ‘Tommy’ to their tag. WhA represents the real DreamHack spirit: It’s about the gaming, stupid. Dota 2 is fun, winning is fun, coming to a place with thousands of gamers and having three great days of eSports is fun.
But you got to play the game according to the rules, and that implies giving something back to the community. And it also implies complying to the rules of multigaming organizations who have made it possible to get the scene from LAN-party-underground style to an international business. In the end, of course, winning is the most important thing.
Thor Open travel needs to be clarified for WhA
Now mousesports is out of group C and out of DreamHack Dota 2. That is definitely a drawback for the big german eSports organisation. At the same time, with NoTidehunter and WhA, there are two teams in the playoffs without being under the wings of a clan.
WhA is only one best-of-three away from winning prize money at DreamHack. For third and forth place the win is approximately $3,700. This might solve the problem of financing: With their 4PL winnings, they paid the flights and trains to DreamHack, with possible DreamHack money, they might be able to pay the Thor Open tickets. From step to step, a new eSports story of success is starting. They ‘only’ need to keep winning.
