"You need to really try hard to play competitive Dota in China", - Arthur

Sometimes even the most ardent Dota 2 fan can’t know everything that’s going on in the world of professional Dota. We have many regions and, sometimes, we only know well the region in which we live. We know the rosters, strengths, and capabilities of the closest teams – primarily geographically. But sometimes, we know very little about certain regions. The language barrier becomes the main obstacle for spectators. After all, not every Dota 2 fan will learn the Chinese language to read Chinese social networks and keep up with all the fresh news. Today we talked to someone who has become a bridge between several regions. He knows a lot about Dota in China and Southeast Asia. He shares insides about Chinese Dota on Twitter and creates a lot of headlines for the news media. Today we had a talk with a streamer, journalist, insider, and podcaster from Malaysia, Leon “Arthur” Lee.

Hello, man. How are you? Are you ready for the DPC start? 

I’m good, I’m also waiting for DPC to start, it will be interesting.

I know you worked as a team manager and coach of Geek Fam. What roster was that? What year?

That was pretty early actually. That was literally the first team that I joined and it was also my first job in esports. It was January of 2019. There were such players in our team as: 

•   Tino
•   Alacrity
•   KyXy
•   Shanks
•   BrayanT

Almost all team was basically Malaysians and the rest were from the Philippines. 

As I know you’re also Malaysian. Where do you live right now? 

I live in Kuala Lumpur.

What is the hardest thing in Dota manager’s and coach’s jobs? 

It depends on everyone. As for me – I joined Geek Fam when I had not much prior experience. I had to learn everything from growing up. The other manager was helping me with some logistics and things like taking care and other useful skills. I had not worried too much about that. But I was an assistant manager of the team so I balanced between management and coaching. A good manager should always take care of the players, food, schedule, and other things which can help a team to be better. 

What languages do you know?

I know Bahasa because I live in Malaysia and this is my country. Also, I know English and Chinese (Mandarin) as a primary and also I know a few dialects of Chinese as well. But the main languages are still English and Mandarin. 

You give many insides and tell the EU and NA audience about Chinese Dota. I mean reshuffles and other stuff. Do you think that Chinese and SEA Dota is separate and even closed from everyone else?

Chinese Dota is more separated from the rest of the regions compared to Southeast Asia. Because we speak English in SEA and we are learning what is happening in Western countries. We in SEA are also integrated into Twitter and Reddit, again, because of English.

But in China, the situation is very different. There are a lot of things in China you can read in local forums and websites like Weibo. We need someone who will be the “bridge” between communities. We need someone who will be translating the different content. It’s very hard to understand what is going on in China for English viewers. 

Is the language barrier the only reason to not play in other regions for Chinese players?

I think I have not seen any Chinese player who moved somewhere to other regions. You can see a few Chinese players who play in NA teams but only because they are studying in the United States or Canada. Some North American teams have such Chinese players who are the students. The language barrier is the big reason because all Chinese players speak Mandarin. But it is not all. That Mandarin in China is so different from this language in other places. They have their own terminology, their own nicknames, memes. You need to be there, in China to play Dota with Chinese players.

So you should learn Mandarin with a Chinese teacher if you want to play with Chinese players, right?

Absolutely! By the way, Black^ was doing that when he played Vici Gaming. He had a Chinese teacher from there. 

Have you seen the PPD’s roster with Chinese players? It’s a pity it was just a joke.

It could be interesting if this roster would be real. But definitely, it’s just a meme.

Let’s speak a little bit about SEA legionnaires. These players are moving to different regions with pleasure. We know the experience of Mushi, MidOne. And now we have a Ponlo in Quincy Crew. Tell me about this guy.

Ponlo is my good friend obviously. He was my captain and coach. He has been grinding in SEA Dota for eight years. He was a player of different tier-3 teams or even tier-2 teams, but he has not had much success. But now he already found a good team, he has tanky MMR, he got a huge improvement in his personal skills and knowledge as well. He was a fourth position player all time and this year he switched to the fifth position. He also casted the SEA TI qualifiers, which help him a lot in understanding Dota. Quincy Crew will be his first tier 1 level team. I’m very happy for him. 

DPC season is coming. What are you going to do in DPC? 

I’m pretty ready for DPC season. I’m hoping to get myself into the casting scene for DPC season. I’m still waiting for offers. 

What region will be the most interesting to watch? 

This DPC is going to be so much more exciting for me in any region. There are so many storylines, for example, OG. Some players are retired but now we know that JerAx is going to play again. I would like to watch the games of CIS Rejects in EEU region because Ramzes’ performance is always interesting to watch. And also we have so many good teams in Southeast Asia. I have never seen SEA region was so competitive before. Globally I will say that this DPC season will be very fun to watch.

Let’s talk about Chinese reshuffles. The players of Team Elephant after TI said they will be playing together next season. What was going wrong? 

There were a lot of tragedies that happened with Elephant. I know that Elephant actually did very well in scrims at the bootcamp before TI. And then they had to go to quarantine because some players from other Chinese teams got COVID. Then after quarantine, their win rate in the scrims decreased. It was a transformation of the form from good to bad. They had not much confidence when they played The International 10 Group Stage so they were eliminated in Round 1.

Also, I think there were a lot of unfortunate events gathered for Elephant. Gathering these five players into one team is a very expensive thing, especially Somnus. He is a number one Chinese player after his performance at TI, he is the most wanted player. And then you need to get such legendary player as fy and also two the most promising players as Papparazi and Yang. Building up this roster is very costly. That’s why crowdfounder of Elephant, PDD, said at his stream that he didn’t see much return for the business. Elephant’s bad result on TI meant that it’s time to go forward. 

Who is this crowdfounder with the nickname PDD? 

He is a big figure in a League of Legends scene and he is one of the well-known streamers in China. He invested in a couple of League of Legends teams. He also played for IG LoL roster. He is a very significant investor and crowdfounder in China. And he crowdfounded the Elephant Dota team as well.

Who can dominate in China this season? 

First of all, you have to look PSG.LGD. They stay together after TI and there is no reason to not believe that LGD will perform well guaranteed. They have a very solid roster with a good coach. Invictus Gaming looks pretty strong too because they kept their core players. IG swap just one player. Kaka is leaving and Fade is coming in. The third strong team is Royal Never Give Up. I have a lot of expectations from RNG. I think they are one of the strongest Major contenders from China.

What about Xtreme Gaming?

I think it’s impossible that they will not go to Upper Division next season. I think the second season in China will be much more interesting. 

Fade for kaka is a good transfer for IG?

I’ve seen a lot of comments about it. As far as I know, only one player has a contract with IG organization after TI – it’s Emo. So, everyone else became a free agent. But IG did a good job and saved most of the roster and the players are staying with the organization. I think kaka wants to take a break. I’ve learned from different pro players steams it feels like kaka doesn’t want to play so many games training with the team. He is not a big fan of pubs, but he’s probably can play in relaxing mode. Maybe he will take a break and he can solve his problems with motivation. Fade has much more motivation to play now. He wants to be a really successful player and he can bring a lot of energy to his team.

I could never think that someone in China playing in relaxing mode.

I think in China playing is very hard and grindy. You need to scrim a minimum of three bo2 games every single day. And you have a 24/7 bootcamp a whole season and you can be back home only for two weeks after Major tournament. The other regions don’t bootcamp as much as China. You need to really try hard to play competitive there. 

What about SEA teams? What are your favorites this season?

I think BOOM Esports is the best team in Upper Division because the OMEGA got banned and now BOOM coaching by Mushi will be playing Upper Division. If we talk about Lower Division, I like Nigma Galaxy SEA and of course Talon Esports. DPC is looking pretty hopeful for Talon Esports because they will play bo3 games and it will be a lot easier for such an experienced and high skilled team than bo1 games. 

What do you expect from the favorites of last season, for example, T1 or Fnatic?

It seems like T1, Fnatic, and BOOM Esports are gonna be the top 3 teams looking for their rosters. The other teams made a massive roster shuffle. New young players need some time to adapt, especially TNC Predator. TNC has a new roster with three young core players and Febby is a captain. I think this roster need some time to grow. I think Fnatic is gonna do very well this season with Armel and Januel. Armel is probably the best player in the SEA region. Also, I’m very happy to see T1 sticking together because they improved their game so much, and also their young crew has a good relationship with the coach. I think they will continue to improve a lot. 

What about NA teams? Do you have a favorite? I bet it’s Quincy Crew.

Yeah, because of Ponlo, but my second favorite is Evil Geniuses because I’m a big Arteezy fan. I think EG will change some things globally because they have JerAx now and Nightfall as well. I’m very very surprised to see JerAx came back from retirement and then he’s playing position five for EG. Nightfall was a carry player and now he’s also going to NA to play position three. 

It seems Nightfall is speedrunning RAMZES’ career, isn’t he? 

Exactly! It feels a lot like RAMZES did last time. The same way from VP to EG. I’m just curious what Bulba and the rest of EG see in EEU players. Why do they think that this particular EEU carry player has the potential to be offlane. I’m just curious and intrigued about it. I’ve heard that EG is looking for personalities and Nightfall is one of the creative players who are never shy to try new things. And he’s not afraid of new things because going from carry to position three will be a new experience for him.

What do you know about Eastern Europe? Do you watch the EEU games?

I’m glad that Team Spirit decided to stay together. They have no any roster changes or retirements so they keep their TI strength. I’m really inspired by their story at The International 10. I think it is probably the best thing that can happen with Dota 2. Because after Team Spirit won TI we see so many young players are going to play for tier-1 organizations. When we see the situation when a strong captain wins TI together with four young talents it’s become a push to other organizations to think about going the same way. 

What about the other name tags like Na’Vi and VP? 

I’m glad that Na’Vi has Solo. He is one of those support players who deserve a lot of respect. The first time I saw his performance in Kuala Lumpur Major and he brings a lot of experience to the team. That was amazing. Virtus.Pro also has to new players and we can see that they are trying to go Team Spirit’s way growing new young players. 

By the way, new VP’s player, Pure is also 17 years old.

Crazy! That is crazy young, man! When I was 17 I wasn’t playing Dota 2. I returned to Dota 2 from Dota 1 when I was 18 but before that, I just played basketball all time, studied being a noob, being a nerd. It’s cool that there are a lot of young talents play Dota now. 

Let’s go to Western Europe. Some teams also changed their rosters. Which of them looks more hopeful? 

Team Liquid is my favorite in the region. I like this organization and the friendship between Blitz and other boys. And now they get two more brilliant players – MATUMBAMAN and zai. It seems like Team Liquid is the biggest winner of this roster shuffle in WEU. Alliance and OG have much time to teach their new young players. They have three majors before TI to show a good result. Both teams have great players like Loda in Alliance and Ceb and N0tail in OG who can inspire and teach the young players to look into the future. 

The last region we have to discuss is South America. What team has more chances to dominate? 

Beastocast will be playing the same roster. If the other teams will not much surprise us, Beastcoast will gonna be the best. They are more stable and experienced in playing together than other teams.