Ant talks about Post-ESWC feelings.

[SoloZ-]

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vzzNIRRU-_Y/SLbUX5IkbuI/AAAAAAAAALI/jT6JMnOtDfY/s400/mekszenithrp0.jpg

Singapore - Ant talks about his feelings towards ESWC 2008, in Asterisk's zEn|th blog. Below u may find whether he actually expected Zenith to win ESWC, his take on the current standard of Asian teams, and lastly his sentiments towards the current Zenith team & how they might possibly fare in the future.

As much as I would like to blog about all my experiences in the previous month, it's probably no longer relevant. I've been feeling a mixture of happy and surprised this week. For me, my feelings about the current events at ESWC date back to up to two years ago. It goes deep into the archives of this blog.

I'll state flat up that I did not expect Zenith to win ESWC. Not because I feel the other teams are good, but because frankly Zenith has not been performing, and didn't exactly improve much. Joining them the last few days before they headed out to ESWC, there really wasn't much change in their playing, not much improvement either, except that they were more or less broken and willing to try anything - including, wisely, giving Tofu more say.

But all this I can't judge, since I'm now an external observer.

Perhaps the western teams were slightly too overrated. Perhaps a gap evolved between the Asian and western teams when they decided not to mix around with each other too much anymore, and with teams like EHOME stepping up their game, the rest of Asia was forced to do so as well. Perhaps Zenith simply went in with nothing to lose, having suffered the worst streak of defeats that any team named "Zenith" has EVER encountered, and with that attitude managed to give their all and win.

Or probably, perhaps, it was that the strategical advantage was reversed.

I have worked all my life for this day and I have met with disappointment after disappointment. IHCS and MYM's and all the international tournaments... well, refer to past entries 1 year back and earlier. I would like to think that sending Zenith to ASUS and Dreamhack did something in contributing to bringing an international DotA LAN tournament closer, but it's something I think I say just to console myself. There was a big problem in the Zenith European Tour, and that was strategy. It was not that we had an inferior strategy (perhaps, but not totally), but that we were not confident of what strategies to use, resulting in very very inferior quality of play due to strategies we simply couldn't pull off (and weren't theoretically pull-off-able).

And there was that thing about Magnus. More proof about being totally unprepared strategy-wise. Skill-wise, I believe that even the lousiest of us (me) with 2 months of no practice (me) could stand up to any member of the opposing team in the European tour. And really, on hindsight, it was just screwed up.

Cue more dissing about us losing in LAN. Shit happens. This more or less seals us in for more dissing and doom for the next year or so since we did lose. So at least this ESWC should break that seal that I sort of tightened over the last 2 years.

So I'm very damn happy that Zenith wins, heck, any Asian team would do, but Zenith even more so.

Of course, a lot of questions pop up, like 'would this happen if I was there?' and 'COULD CONSCRIPTION COME AT A WORSE TIME?'.

I would say that Asia is on strategically higher ground right now.

Would I dare say what is in for Zenith? Chances are they'll ride on morale and do well, or perhaps they'll get even cockier and screw up even more. I told Wei Ming (gamesync) after Zenith lost to |sc that Zenith is a team that, despite the change in lineup, rides on a wave of ups and downs, and simply were riding on a down period. ESWC might be a break in their 'down' cycle, or might be the start of their 'up' wave. Either way, I dare to say that the current team will lose their 'up' cycle soon. The strategical advantage doesn't hold for very long.

I'll be honest here, when I say that there are a lot of things that I DON'T respect the current Zenith team for. Don't get me wrong, winning ESWC doesn't gain much in the respect field.

But it does make me very happy.

And in a way, it justifies the two years of work I've put in for the name. So for that at least, I can thank the current team Zenith, for once, finally, like I used to thank the old Zenith when I could work for them and see results.

-Ant

Source: [Asterisk zEn|th (http://www.from-a-to-z-.blogspot.com/)]

[furryfish]

hi soloz, we would prefer if you could just provide an excerpt rather than quoting the entry wholesale, unless you had some agreement with ant?

btw, its Asterisk Zenith. not asterik.

[SoloZ-]

Edited. Sorry for the typo.

I quoted the entry wholesale because i felt that it was a very good post and should be read through fully to foster better understanding. If you have any further questions feel free to talk to me. :)

[weee]

~_~ fight for net traffic g0g0

[waii]

it was a post of confession

[moshimoshi]

and if ant has a problem with this post?

[SoloZ-]

Well he has no problems so its okay. :)

[guoheng]

hi soloz, we would prefer if you could just provide an excerpt rather than quoting the entry wholesale, unless you had some agreement with ant?

btw, its Asterisk Zenith. not asterik.

ya lo agree with u...

[Deadpeng]

anyone who has played dota for long may agree that Dota besides being a matter of skills and experience, is also about LUCK, especially among evenly matched top teams. Zenith's victory exactly how much luck there was, heaven knows.

[Ant]

It was a rather personal post, so it's less article-like and very blog-like, so might not be suitable for a forum. However, I did agree that any post I made could be reproduced on dotasg and I still have no problems with that.

[guoheng]

anyone who has played dota for long may agree that Dota besides being a matter of skills and experience, is also about LUCK, especially among evenly matched top teams. Zenith's victory exactly how much luck there was, heaven knows.

Zenith won eg, mym, pandemic,ks and literally owned teg. Luck? woah then they must have bribed heaven alot. No, the thing is zenith did their homework, studied the replays of top teams and thus applied a counter strat, they went prepared, adding on to this European teams are unfamiliar to the strat of asian teams, for example the usage of visage. They don't know how to counter it. The match against ks is all about farming, they knew who farms the most will win the game, and thus did something almost no one had done before which is the imba stacking of the nc near roshan every minute from around 40/50+mins(i think). I must say that is very very wise of them who thought about that, after clearing that batch of nc luna's gold jumped from 1.5k to almost 3k and after that went to roshan 1 eagle horn out. This is not luck this is skills + experience + brains + teamwork. +)
GJ Zenith

[foxsg]

hehe, stacking ancients is a fun idea. :D

[desecrate]

they want the bloghits la..^^

[kira84]

yea, but i actually thought ks would knew abt the stacked ancients as there was a watcher station near there by ymt's nw.

[DOTASG_PAPA]

It was a rather personal post, so it's less article-like and very blog-like, so might not be suitable for a forum. However, I did agree that any post I made could be reproduced on dotasg and I still have no problems with that.

Thanks Ant. Love ya!! :D

[dArrenoloGy]

anyone who has played dota for long may agree that Dota besides being a matter of skills and experience, is also about LUCK, especially among evenly matched top teams. Zenith's victory exactly how much luck there was, heaven knows.

joke
mayb u shld go next eswc and we can see how much luck u have :D
:Banane07::Banane06::Banane29::Banane40:

[dArrenoloGy]

yea, but i actually thought ks would knew abt the stacked ancients as there was a watcher station near there by ymt's nw.

bad time to engage
zenith was owning at that period in the game
i tink =x

[siicklyretarded]

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[paperdoll]

wadever Ant post = good read!

[ngtes]

This is a forum and i'm entitled to free speech, and so for my say I feel some parts of ant's post was rather inappropriate.
Given by the large popularity of the zenith-asterisk blog, it increases the significance of my point.
But well ant too has free speech so he has the right to say what he said.

As he said in a movie "The girl next door"
Is the juice worth the squeeze?

[Deadpeng]

Zenith won eg, mym, pandemic,ks and literally owned teg. Luck? woah then they must have bribed heaven alot. No, the thing is zenith did their homework, studied the replays of top teams and thus applied a counter strat, they went prepared, adding on to this European teams are unfamiliar to the strat of asian teams, for example the usage of visage. They don't know how to counter it. The match against ks is all about farming, they knew who farms the most will win the game, and thus did something almost no one had done before which is the imba stacking of the nc near roshan every minute from around 40/50+mins(i think). I must say that is very very wise of them who thought about that, after clearing that batch of nc luna's gold jumped from 1.5k to almost 3k and after that went to roshan 1 eagle horn out. This is not luck this is skills + experience + brains + teamwork. +)
GJ Zenith

I mentioned about the luck that any team had a bit of chance to win given that they are all top teams. Of course there had to be a bit of luck, i did mention it was not wholly luck, did i?

[ruixiang]

Man, I've played dota for 4 years and honestly I don't think you quite understood the message of ant's post.





I think the moderators shouldn copy and paste others' posts from other places, and it stands on the issue of respect.
It pretty much is the same reason why we're told in school not to photocopy a full book of Study Guide, or to copy our friend's project and pass it up to our teacher as our own, even if he lets it.
Again, simply out of respect.

Yup. What u say may true. But i guess Ant allowed it.. So, no prob at all.

[Dot-Dotrk]

looks likke got hidden meaning in the ant pov .. haha .. quite glad to see alot of young fellows are joining the tourney.. some of them simpily look underage..dotasg_papa still loook... welll the same.. mayb i'm just getting old. :o

[ruixiang]

looks likke got hidden meaning in the ant pov .. haha .. quite glad to see alot of young fellows are joining the tourney.. some of them simpily look underage..dotasg_papa still loook... welll the same.. mayb i'm just getting old. :o

I still look as handsome as ever!

[DarK)MaG3]

Its amusing on how DotaSg and some people find this a valuable read. Whereas i dispose off this opinion-based article with >95% inaccuracy and from a guy who knows almost nothing about the current Zenith.

[ruixiang]

well he is afterall an ex zenith.. There must be some truth in it. Unless someone from zenith(lyk u!) voice out urs =X

[Ant]

As I said, I'm an external observer. As a matter of fact, I doubt this article can have any inaccuracy at all because it states are personal thoughts and feelings.

As I said, this was a very personal post-thing-thing, and not at all forum material, but I have no problems with it being here because public domain material is public domain material anyway.

Naturally any team I'm commenting about has every single right to disagree with any opinion I post, but this is possibly the most blog-ish post I've done so far, nothing intended on any other party. It's just me me me me!

[ZyHinoX]

gg. War of Words

[Rukia]

with ant = dreamhack no.3 and asus playoffs
without ant=ESWC Finals Champions

but without ant=no Zenith

[iceicebaby]

with ant = dreamhack no.3 and asus playoffs
without ant=ESWC Finals Champions

but without ant=no Zenith

save 2.7k and buy a mystic staff maybe, +25 intel is good.

[SG_Lancelot]

save 2.7k and buy a mystic staff maybe, +25 intel is good.

nice nitestalker and tb at summerfury.

[Deadpeng]

lol i watched the replay, the pulse from necrolyte chased a weaver for nearly 2min

[eugene19888]

Well this is supposed to be a free for all thread afterall!

[B|a h x 3 `]

Man, I've played dota for 4 years and honestly I don't think you quite understood the message of ant's post.





I think the moderators shouldn copy and paste others' posts from other places, and it stands on the issue of respect.
It pretty much is the same reason why we're told in school not to photocopy a full book of Study Guide, or to copy our friend's project and pass it up to our teacher as our own, even if he lets it.
Again, simply out of respect.

did ur school teacher teach u how to smoke ?? :Banane27::Banane27:

[s[ky]h4rtx]

did ur school teacher teach u how to smoke ?? :Banane27::Banane27:

blah always like to shoot his friend in forum .HAHAHAHAHAHAA
queen u smoke @@ . gg bad boy

[KeN -]

did ur school teacher teach u how to smoke ?? :Banane27::Banane27:

did ur fren teach u how to smoke???:Banane27: :Banane27:

[s[ky]h4rtx]

did ur teacher teach u to dye ur hair in school?

[Zyinc]

with ant = dreamhack no.3 and asus playoffs
without ant=ESWC Finals Champions

but without ant=no Zenith




with rukia = lots of bananas :Banane17::nanahump::Banane29::bananadoggywow::Ban ane50::):Banane06::hititbanana::Banane28:

without rukia = no bleach.

without rukia = posting at dotasg would be meaningless to the thousands.

rukia can you reply me more please?

[[N]aS[QtPiE]]

Lucky I just finished the hot chocolate before reading ^^

[moshimoshi]

I mentioned about the luck that any team had a bit of chance to win given that they are all top teams. Of course there had to be a bit of luck, i did mention it was not wholly luck, did i?

u didnt have to caps the word LUCK in ur post and i think u are a retard

[DOTASG_PAPA]

Please refrain from personal attack.

Moshimoshi, we have been observing you for a while and most of your post seems to be trying to pick fight, now is temporary ban as a final warning before you are permanently ban.

Please post in a mature manner and refrain from any personal attacks(s).

Help make DotaSG a nice place for all. Make love not war!!

[streamofhonour]

Eh. Personally i think that SoLoZ should not have copied the whole entry wholesale and pasted it in dotasg.I know Ant himself has said it was okay,but i agree with shawn that it doesnt seem to respect the current zenith. Its like trying to incite a war amongst Ant and the current zenith. I know Ant meant no malice in his post,but there was certain thorns and barbs directed against zenith and this shouldnt be made public. How would the current zenith members who had finally made a name out of themselves in the international ESWC,winning over teams that were once their greatest opponents (e.g MYM,TeG) and come back to singapore to see someone trying to downplay all their hard efforts?And of course,Ant was voicing out his own opinions like he stated(PERSONAL!)

I don't mean anything here Soloz, but i think this topic should be closed quickly to avoid the clash between Ant and Zenith members,which is already happening now.

Lastly,MAKE LOVE,NOT WAR!

[SoloZ-]

Hi streamofhonour.

Firstly, it was already made public when ant posted it on the Asterisk blog. I was blog hopping happening to come across it and thought it would be a nice read, an ex-zenith's perspective and thoughts on the current Zenith winning ESWC, which is no doubt a great achievement that people would like to know more about. Thus, i made the decision to post this here for our fellow gamers.

Once again i don't see any flame war escalating in this thread, so unless that happens, i will not make any move to close the thread. Try and look at the post from an objective point of view instead. If you or anyone else has any other questions feel free to direct it to me. :)

[streamofhonour]

If thats your stand,well i have nothing to say but i got to agree with you then. I just think that this thing is quite a sensitive issue to talk about publicly...

[Rukia]

Soloz is good mod..don give him pressure already..he is 1 of the best mod in dotasg...almost everyday he put his effort to put good article in dotasg..kudos to soloz^^

[eugene19888]

Being a mod is like so much things to do >.<

[DOTASG_PAPA]

DotaSG is here bring article to the community, anything that look interesting we will publish for our users reference.

It's just an article, there is no campaign launch or movement here what? So don't make a mountain out of a molehill. Our intention is purely bring Dota/Game related info we can get our hand on and share with all of you.

Ant is our good friend and he has also expressed he is ok with it already. So why are the rest of you here bugging my crews? Like this how are we to bring any interesting news to the community in the future right? And since he posted in his team blog where public can access with high traffic I am pretty sure he is prepared for this.

My media team here help out here as volunteers all for their passion for the game. Please give your support instead of shooting them down. If you are here long enough, you should notice their merits for the latest cool article updates and event coverage.

Make Love not War okie.

[streamofhonour]

dotz...... lol

[YupiGummyBear]

So if some senior editor writes an article in the straits times about how useless ex convicts are and how they should never be given a chance to reintegrate into society but rather banished; and you chance upon such an article and you felt people in society should be more wary about the things happenning in society you would print such articles and launch movements on such an issue and let society know eh?
:) Right.

well if u believe that ex convicts are useless just after reading an article without any thought, then i guess you are too shallow.

rmb that this is a forum.. not a politically-right-thread-only-place.. any article or topic thats worth discussing or sharing can be posted here. how the readers view it simply depends on each individual.

[ngtes]

Well, big boss has the say.
Peace.

Btw yupi i think you dont really understand what I meant.

[YupiGummyBear]

oh well. maybe i got it wrong. lol.

anyway peace.