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

Winter: 'I wish there were organizations
like Mineski in Malaysia'
by Dexter "kurtcos" F

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]. 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.

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?
"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."

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

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

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?
"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.

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.He always laughs like a young boy."

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

Hmm, then are you the cool and calm player like Ice or the passionate and outspoken kind?
"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 Rapture Gaming, 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 Bloody Massacre (Filipino video editor) to translate what the team was communicating to one another.

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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."