posted by Tezzeret,
Going into The International 2013, the community had largely discounted my Orange.Neolution as a top contender in the tournament, thinking that they will finish in 5th/6th place at the best. But they shocked everyone by being the only Asian team to finish top three. After losing their winner bracket game against ua Na’Vi, they made the best run of any team in The International history, defeating us Dignitas, eu Fnatic, cn DK and cn TongFu in the loser’s bracket before succumbing once again to Na’Vi. Some have even argued that they could have given se Alliance an equally hard time in the grand finals as Na’Vi did. With such an achievement, I attempt to dissect their recipe for success.


Orange enjoying a light moment before their game

Individually Talented



Orange is by far the most stacked team in terms of talent in Malaysia and very likely the entire South East Asia region. Even though my Yee Fung 'Mushi' Chai may have came second in the 1v1 solo championship at The International, he is still regarded as one of the best laners of all time. Usually when last hitting and denying, players take into account the creep health, hero attack damage and attack animation before the killing blow is dealt but Mushi takes other details such as creep damage, creep attack animation and attack speed into consideration to get the most out of the laning phase.

This attribute was brought over to his two apprentices, my Kong Yang 'kyxy' Lee and my Chong Xin 'Ohaiyo' Khoo, allowing for a team with three excellent laners. The reason behind Mushi’s versatility as a player is due to the fact that he can swap roles with them at a moments notice allowing for an expanded hero pool and better execution of specific strategy.

A Dota team is nothing without support players and once again Orange managed to grab two of the best in the business with my Wai Pern 'Net' Lim and my Joel 'Xtinct' Chan Zhan Leong. They frequently sacrifice themselves in terms of economy and kill/death count in order to ensure their team’s success. Xtinct is known for his play of micro intensive heroes such as Chen and Enchantress, so much so that he has been the target of a team's ban on multiple occasion. Xtinct's Visage was such an important part of Orange's success that it has been dubbed the "Malaysian Dragon" by the Chinese Netizens.

Meanwhile Net excels in his positioning which is most evident when he played Bane against DK. During the final teamfight, he was able to move out of the way just in time to not get caught by Enigma's Black Hole. This allowed him to quickly cancel the Black Hole, preventing a potentially devastating teamfight for Orange.


Net canceling Black Hole before DK could deal the damage


It takes five to win and five to lose



As the saying goes, teamwork trumps skill anytime of the day, but what happens when five individually talented players can work together as one cohesive entity? Orange is a good example where talent and teamwork can bring a team far. From The International, we can see how well they work together, from Xtinct taking nightmare off of Net to deny first blood to the multiple successful wombo-combos that only a team that acts as one can pull off.

The true mark of teamwork is shown not when a team succeeds, but when a team fails. In their deciding match against Na’Vi, kyxy made a crucial mistake by accidentally denying the Aegis of Immortal. Under normal circumstances, kyxy would probably have been criticized heavily by his teammates but not on Orange. Mushi came to his defense on his Weibo account, saying that they did not blame him at all but rather put their success in reaching top three on kyxy’s performance throughout the event.

When I went up to Kyxy and Ohaiyo to personally congratulate them on their third place finish and console them of the unfortunate event, Ohaiyo himself said “Don’t worry, we are not sad at all neither do we blame him for anything.”


Xtinct taking Nightmare off Net to deny Na'Vi first blood


Versatility and Evolution



As mentioned by the analyst panel at The International, Orange is an evolving team. After a subpar performance in the first game of group stage against TongFu, they changed their drafter from Xtinct to Mushi, putting their absolute trust in Mushi to bring them success. They also went back to their usual aggressive playstyle with a dash of western flavour with the use of Nature’s Prophet and Naga Siren. They also took a page out of Alliance’s playbook with their early game buybacks to turn a lost fight to a winning one.

The Malaysians threw a curveball at DK when they went pub-mode and picked up Slardar and Shadow Fiend for the negative armour strategy which worked to great effect. This is followed by a Ursa pick to keep the air of unpredictability going. This speaks of the diverse hero pool that the team has with Mushi topping the chart at a staggering 19 heroes played during The International, even more heroes than some teams have drafted in the entirety of the tournament.

However one should not take anything away from the rest of the players who are just as versatile as Mushi. Prior to The International, Net has not been seen playing much of Naga Siren, but rose to the occasion when they decided to mix it up after the group stage. His Undying game against Fnatic deserves an honorary mention as well.

The same thing can be said for Kyxy whom took on heroes such as Slardar and Chaos Knight in different games, literally carrying the team to victory. Ohaiyo’s Nature’s Prophet may be the talk of the town but his Windrunner, Dark Seer and Weaver are equally as fearsome.


Orange with the Slardar and Shadow Fiend pick against DK


Preparation is the key



There has been a lot of arguments thrown around as to why the Eastern teams or more specifically the Chinese team did so poorly as compared to last year and why the Western teams did so much better. A common reason given is that they just did not prepare well enough. Comparatively, Orange played more official matches than any Asian team with the Chinese teams being limited on the tournaments they can enter by ACE and Zenith being selective of the tournaments they join.

Throughout the year, Orange has been one of the most active teams in South East Asia, participating in just about every tournament you can think of, be it online or offline. They even spent an extended period of time in China to train with the then best teams in China. During their stay in China, they also participated in tournaments such as the G-1 Champions League and the RedBull Electronics Champions League.

In addition, Orange scrimmed with Zenith and some of the Chinese teams on a daily basis. They may have lost 80% to 90% of the scrims as mentioned by kyxy and Ohaiyo, it kept the team on their feet and not get complacent in the lead up to The International. Although Orange did not show the fruit of their preparation in the group stage, they more than made up for it in the playoffs, going farther than any team ever had in the loser’s bracket.

To put it simply, they were just much prepared than all the other Asian teams. This put them at a great advantage when facing their opponents. In the words of TongFu’s Hao “Success is reserved for those who are well prepared”.

They had help



In 2010 when EHOME dominated the WarCraft III DotA scene, one common issue to come up in all the discussion is the one regarding coaches. EHOME.71 would run around copying down the draft of his team’s would be opponents and giving advice to the team prior to their games. This was seen as one of the reasons that EHOME was such a dominating force back then.

Fast forward to recent times, the usage of coaches seem to have fallen out of favour with TongFu being the only team known to have a dedicated coach in cn Tong 'Sydm' Junjie, formerly of Vici-Gaming fame. Orange too had a coach to help them out, albeit an unofficial one in the sense that he was not hired by the organization but did it out of passion for the game. Some of you may know him as my Colborn 'underminer' Wang, the admin responsible for the Asian DotA Championship a couple of years back.

While not in person, underminer supported Orange in spirit, with the help of my Wei Siang 'Papaxiong' Lee of my KingsSurf fame, they put together an elaborate draft map for Orange which takes into account Orange’s strength and weakness in addition to their opponent’s giving them an edge right from the start. They also gave advice to Mushi and co regarding item choices and skill builds before and after each game to further increase their chances at winning. Advice which Mushi have said echoes exactly with what he had on his mind. This allowed Orange to not worry about anything else aside from the game on hand.


Orange.Dota and Orange.CS after their meeting with the Ministry of Youth and Sports.


Moving forward



Orange’s run at The International 2013 also opened the door to recognition in Malaysia. They were granted an audience with the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Khairy Jamaluddin, to better understand what they do and their profession. During the meeting, they were presented with the national track jackets acknowledging them as part of Team Malaysia. Khairy also said that he will seek to give the eSports scene in Malaysia more recognition.

A couple of days later, the Malaysian League of Legends team, Kuala Lumpur Hunters also met with the Ministry of Youth and Sports, a proof that the government is serious about their promise to give a helping hand to eSports.

A third place finish may be a great achievement to some, but Mushi himself was not satisfied, always aspiring to get first place, even shedding tears when they lost the game to Na’Vi. At the after party, you could tell that he was clearly deflated from the loss. This is a mark of a true champion, never settling for less. I end this article with a short interview with Mushi and a quote from the Chinese netizens. "Wipe your tears dry, Mushi, you owe your fans a world championship."


Mushi giving Puppey a high 5 after the All-Star match


A short interview with Mushi



What are your or the team's plans after your third place finish at TI3?


We will not get complacent and continue with our training and attempt to win all the tournaments that we join.


How does it feel to be the one that changed the Malaysian eSports industry the most?


I feel very happy about it. It is very humbling to see a lot of people watching our games during The International at the mamak stalls (coffee shop) like they do with football matches. Khairy also updated our results on his twitter, so it's really cool to get some recognition.


During The International, how much help do you think underminer is with his drafting advice and gameplay advice?


He was very helpful because he sent us our opponent's hero draft and analysed them entirely. This along with some short discussion with him helped us a lot. He did all this without asking any benefit for himself, he just wanted to help a South East Asian team win. His help was extended to the rest of the SEA teams as well. I just hope our results did not disappoint him.


What are you gonna do with your prize winnings?


I was hoping to invest it on something, but I'm not smart enough to do so. Then I thought of bringing my family out for a holiday, but as a professional gamer, I hardly get such a long holiday. I need to get back to work in a week's time, so all I can do is just keep it in the bank. (Please don't rob me!)


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