EPTFirst of all to put things in contest and make more sense out of everything, the previous entries about DotA are here, and if you're interested in the details about my time in Starcraft II before that, this can be found here
NSL 3 playoffs
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/dePB0Pd.jpg)
My last entry ended when NSL 3 was about to start (that took place in January 2014), but I don't wanna spend too much time talking about it, I don't think it was that significant. We ended up playing against QO's team and my teammates were pretty nervous, so it didn't go very well and we got knocked out 0-2 in the Ro8 of the NSL 3 ; this was the NSL Zephyr won.
After our loss the team, and especially The Park, was in pretty bad spirits. The Park felt very guilty for it since he kinda screwed up the draft but I tried to comfort him and tell him that there's gonna other tournaments, that it wasn't all his fault. I liked the guy, he was a good teammate, always bringing good energy within the team, and talented at that.
I didn't really want to play with the same lineup anymore tho, and I assumed everyone felt the same way, we never really talked about it but to me after this result it made sense anyway.. so I had to look towards what's next.
Back to square one
I wasn't too sure what I was supposed to do at that point. I just kept practicing on the Korean server to both spot potential teammates and to put my name out there. I was extremely confident in my skill so I kinda expected people to notice me and opportunities to come, and I wasn't wrong. All the top players ended up knowing about me and I was getting quite a bit of respect as a player.
The KEL (Korean Elite League) that started around the same time as the NSL 3 qualifiers helped me a lot getting more exposed to the Korean scene after Tenbird invited me to it. Him and I met in Korean pubs and through The Park I believe, who was a close friend of his and subbed a lot for his team (Birdgang, which would become StarTale later). Most important, it helped me spot good players and potential teammates for later tournaments.
I was getting along with Tenbird quite well, and ended up hanging out with him and his crew after we watched the NSL 3 grand finals at the studio.
We had a talk on the ride back home about Korean DotA and where it's going when he let me know about the plans Nexon had in 2015 with the Korean DotA League (KDL). It wasn't official yet so I had to keep it quiet, but it got me insanely excited and I ended up more motivated than ever to keep training and trying to find a team to play it with.
It was an opportunity I had no intention of letting just go by and not do anything about, I had to figure something out.
The new Monkey on the block
I started putting even more emphasis into looking untouchable ; I've always had this mentality where I do not want to ever show weakness as player, and want to never have games where I do not have a big impact. I wanted other players to fear me and always question themselves against me just because they've never seen me powerless. This is how you gain an aura, and aura of invincibility that intimidates your opponents to the point where they play below their skill level against you and give you too much credit. And you can feel it when a player is affected by it, you become a predator. That's also what I used Korean pubs and KEL for.
Unfortunately I believe that it also got me in a situation where I did not seem like a friendly person, making it hard to find teammates ; I used to just play my games, own as much as possible and not say much, because again, fear comes from the unknown, I didn't wanna give away too much about me or my personnality. I remember Blitz telling me one day at the NSL that I seemed pretty unfriendly especially compared to my teammates who were really cheerful and it drove people away. In a social game such as DotA, it was probably my biggest mistake in handling myself, I was playing the intimidation card too much.
This is why after some time, I ended up talking to Tenbird about my problem. I asked him in his opinion who are the best free agents in the scene he can think and if he could help me get in touch with them. I already knew I wanted to keep playing with The Park, and the others who came up were Ranto (who played in QO's team) ksH, 4885 and Nace. I've already talked to Ranto and he really didn't wanna play competitively for now. The Park was pretty much in and 4885+Nace already knew me from KEL and Korean pubs, where I earned a lot of respect from them. I also respected them as players, and they had a pretty strong showing in the NSL 3. I ended up talking to 4885 about playing with me in a team for the upcoming KDL, and about my ambitions, that I was in to win and be the best. He was on the same page and Nace was pretty much following him, so we were 4.
We needed a 5th and ksH was the best option, but it didn't seem like it would work out, he didn't really have the motivation to play without Tenbird. We talked about it and I ended up suggesting we take my previous team's midlaner, Daepo, who was probably the next best option we had.
And just like that, after a few days Monkey Spanner was born.
Korean DotA League Season 1 Preliminaries
As soon as I finished building the team, I had a talk with everyone to agree on a schedule ; I insisted on us trying to practice every day as much as we could. I wanted us to crush everybody, so I explained to them that to do so, and win all of our matches, we gotta put in the time and there's gonna be no reason for us not to win everything.
During the 2 or 3 weeks leading to the start of the KDL, we practiced quite a bit and figured out what positions would work best for the team, and it ended up being :
- cArn- (me lol)
- Daepo
- Nace
- The Park
- 4885
Tenbird helped us practice whenever we were missing someone and was coaching 4885 and The Park in their support role, which helped the team improve a lot. We would also scrim against his team (Birdgang) quite regularly, which was a very good practice for us since they were much better than us. We rapidly were in a position where the tier2 Korean teams could not really touch us, so we were very confident that we would qualify.
The KDL qualifiers went as following if I remember correctly : there were 4 groups. 1st place of each group got into the Tier 1 of KDL. The 2nd place got in Tier 2, and the remaining teams were to play one last group to determine the last 2 teams to get in Tier 2. We got drawn into Zephyr's group (again) so we were already pretty worried especially since format was not clear (again).
To be honest, I surprisingly don't remember anything from the qualifiers. I just remember some of our game vs Zephyr because a lot of people were watching behind me and got kinda noisy when I got a blind sunstrike kill on Sexybamboe in the early game, during which we did pretty good but we missed our timing so we fuckin lost. They got in Tier 1 by winning our group, and we went on to secure our Tier 2 spot and successfully qualify for the first season of the KDL.
There was one thing though that was bothering me and the team, and it was the lack of commitment from Daepo ; he would often miss practice so most of the time we would be playing with either Tenbird, or another guy I've met through him/KEL. He used to hang out with Birdgang players and in KEL, and really caught my attention because of how he played. He is now a close friend of mine and is gonna be playing the TI5 qualifiers soon ; his name is Tudi.
I knew he wanted to come to Korea at some point, he was friends with a bunch of the Korean DotA players, so it's been something he wanted to do for some time. I've talked to him about joining my team but he wasn't sure wether he could come or not, and even if he did he was supposed to be playing in QO's team, so it wouldn't work out.. or at least it wasn't supposed to. I kept telling him to join us to play the KDL and eventually, after seeing how we meshed together as a team, he decided to do it and play with me instead of joining QO.
Because of his lack of commitment, Daepo was obviously the one who was getting replaced, and all off sudden the role distribution would make much more sense. Nace was originally a mid player, and Tudi is an offlane player, so we could put Nace to mid and have Tudi offlaning. Daepo wasn't really a mid player that I trusted that much, whereas Nace was way better and had my respect.
It was perfect. However, Tudi couldn't get to Korea in time for our first couple matches, so we had to keep practicing with Daepo whenever he was here, and we obviously couldn't tell him he was getting replaced before we played the first matches.
And with these first matches would start the one of the most thrilling periods of my time here in Korea.
The beginning of an era
The week leading to the KDL opening, we just practiced as usual whenever we could, but also had to attend a photoshoot to get a bunch of pictures they would pick from and use for their production :
+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/VZZhRpW.jpg)
We were heavy favorites going into our first match, which should make us be careful about the kind of draft they could be bringing to the table, but we weren't. We ended up drafting ourselves in a corner against a pushing strat aiming to finish the game quickly before our skill difference can show, and in these Serpent Wards days it was extremely hard to stop.. especially with Daepo's very poor performance.
Embarassment was the name of the day. Embarassment and shame because we knew how bad they were compared to us but we were too careless and we got punished for it. But we made sure to make up for it in the next match a week later where we completely stomped the next opponents, marking my first televised win in Korea... and our last game with Daepo.
We let 4885 talk to him and let him know that we will have to drop him, and a couple days later, Tudi arrived in Korea, marking the real birth of Monkey Spanner.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/q1h3G33.jpg)
cArn-, Tudi, 4885, The Park, Nace
He stayed at my house the whole duration of his stay of about 1 month ; we got him a sleeping mat as well as a monitor (I already had a 2nd PC he could use), so we could both practice from home. Just us two living and practicing together helped a lot for both of us to improve and share ideas, so I can imagine how much it does for a whole team living together (although I already knew that from Starcraft II).
We would also often just chill and watch matches from other tournaments and do our own commentary on it. These were really fun and productive times.
Tudi's first match would have us play by far the biggest threat of the season, so it was most likely the game that was gonna decide who takes 1st place in Tier 2. Our opponents were EoT Hammer.. also known today as Rave.
I remember that game very, very clearly. It was at a time when Lycan was ultra top tier pick alongside Shadow Shaman, Invoker etc.. so we decided to bait them into getting Lycan, which they did since they were on Dire and Jeyo plays it a lot. But we were not worried about Lycan at all, in fact we were pretty confident, we would often draft naga/disruptor support duo against it and had ton of success with it, and in this case their DK pick as an answer to the Naga played right into our hand and allowed us to confidently lastpick Nace's best hero in the Viper. This way, with a Lycan having to deal with Tudi's Timbersaw and a Viper vs DK matchup all lanes were pretty much already won. We were very confident in our chances. Our line up would be Doom, Viper, Timbersaw, Naga and Disruptor against their Lycan, DK, Nyx, Visage and Dazzle.
The early game went very well for us, I was playing safelane Doom and had my arcane boots/mek ready at the usual 8min mark which came into play as soon as I picked it up to rescue 4885 and get a counterkill on their DK. The game was going perfectly according to plan, with any of the Jeyo shenanigans getting completely shut down by our support duo, while I was having a monster of a game, getting 6 slotted by the 35min mark.
But then .... as we were going for the final blow, the pressure got to me. We were cleaning some of their heroes in their base and trying to finish the game, but our bot lane was pushed. Lycan TP'd in there with a deso/necro3, DK bought back and TP'd too, and they went for our throne. Meanwhile we were fighting the rest of their team in their base, but Tudi saw what was happening and tried to TP, but got stopped by their Nys, which forced him to suicide at the ennemy fountain to buy back and defend our base while yelling repeatedly what I thought meant "Go throne go throne !" while he actually meant "they throne they throne !"... So I was there, hitting stuff that doesn't matter in the ennemy base instead of TP'in back to defend, clean them up and push for the win. By the time I realized how badly I choked, the throne was half HP and it hit me : we lost. We fuckin lost. Even if I TP now there is no way I can stop them. The whole game just flashed before my eyes as I watched our throne collapse. We outclassed a team that was supposed to be way above our league, from the start of the game until the last few moments.... but not the very last moments and it cost us everything.
And in my eyes, it was all because of me. I looked around in despair, trying to make sense of what just happened, asking Tudi why the hell did he tell me to go throne, why did he not tell me to come back... but he was trying to tell me that they're killing us, and he shouldn't even have to do it in the first place. I just couldn't believe that I just let that happen, that I let the pressure get to me in the heat of the moment. That very moment that would haunt me every night for the next month.
That single event goes to show how communication, even between people who speak the same language but aren't necessarily natives, can be an issue, because of accents or whatnot. It also goes to show how much emotions of factors outside the game can impact results and performances, and could explain plays/misplays that would be otherwise not make sense from the outside perspective.
My team and I packed our stuff and we walked out of the booth. My mind was still blank from what happened and I heard Tenbird walking to us, clapping, smiling and seemingly really excited. He was telling me how what we just did was insane, that he was proud of us and that we should be proud of ourselves for putting on a such a show with so little experience as a totally newly formed team, and against such opponents.
I tried to listen to him and get a hold of myself, but it was impossible, this was the worst way to lose. It wasn't a loss where we got outplayed and the ennemy team was better than us at DotA. If anything that game we showed that we were better than them, and that I was a pathetic choker. That's what my mind was drowning in, it took me a while to recover from it.The fact that I was the one to lose us the game made it unbearable for me.
I thought that was it, that it was our chance to shine and that I fucked it all up.. but little did I know, there was more to come.
