History of Kaipi (that I was apart of, what a long history team):
I was first invited to the team by Bone7. For some reason the guy was rotting on my friends list, I've never queued with him (tryhard dota solo queue emoness) or talked to him. Kaipi then still had Arise and Zizou (bone7, me , pieliedie). We did ok with this team, we could take some games off top teams every now and then but it was never consistent. It was very difficult playing with Arise and Zizou because they had attitude problems. Practice would always be randomly stopped because "we don't feel like playing or were tired," with many in game problems as well. Arise in particular had a really shitty computer. However, Arise is a good player and has changed a lot since then. He bought a new computer with half the JD open money we won and I expect good things from him in the future.
Like many other teams, we decided we had to have a roster change before TI3 qualifiers in order to succeed. Of course this ended up back firing as we ended up losing our spot in the qualifier due to this. That was one of the saddest days of my life. But regardless of how hard DotA has been for me, I knew that it would be hard when I first decided to pursue this path and that I still wanted to do this more than anything else in the world; so I was ok after that day.
We replaced Arise and Zizou with Arteezy and CWM. I have no regrets with this decision as even if we were to qualify for TI3, we wouldn't' achieve anything there. Even if we were gurateed a slot with Arise/Zizou we would not have taken it as any team that doesn't aim for the top should leave DotA. Rotting till TI3 isn't what we wanted.
Our new team had much more individual skill than before and we were doing fairly well. We got first place in the NA EMS qualifier regardless of the drama that followed, we proved that we were good. We also won multiple cups and got top 4 at Defense (top 2 with SingSing) with this roster. A lot of people questioned our decision of taking CWM but I don't regret playing with him. Although it didn't work out in the end as we replaced him with SingSing towards the end of The Defense, there definitely wasn't anyone better to play with at the time.
Although CWM was unbearable when he first joined the team, there was one thing that I liked about the guy. The guy was passionate about the game and although he didn't want to change, he would if it was for that passion. He improved greatly as a person through the months and as a player. Although in the end it didn't work out, I'm sure he has grown even more after being replaced.
Although SingSing has never been seen as a great player from Pros/Public. I've personally grown to respect him since the formation of QPAD. Whenever we play against QPAD, he would always show up on time for scrims (as silly as this sounds people never show up on time, fuck u guys!). Every time I ask him to 1on1 me, he would play. Although hes the biggest sellout clown on streams, you can tell from some of his interviews that hes truly passionate about the game. That's why I wanted to join QPAD when I was kicked from NTH, but Select was chosen over me and luckily because of this I found Pieliedie and Bone7 in Kaipi.
We were always impressed by Sing whenever he ringed for us on Kaipi when Arteezy couldn't show up for matches due to school. Although he was just a ringer, you could tell he really wanted to win, and was never edgy.
With SingSing/Arteezy/Me/Pieliedie/Bone7, our results were truly showing in scrims. My drafts became a lot better as my team truly trusted me and the picking phase became a lot less hectic. Arteezy will be like "pick me sf captain" and I'll be like with what? and He'll be like "I ain't the captain thats ur job." And that's how strategies like Carry VS and stuff came into play.
It was very hard to stay motivated since we wouldn't be playing at TI, where as every team was staying at a bootcamp practicing with TI in mind. But I really wanted my team to practice before TI because that's when other teams are trying their best, this was the best opportunity to practice. I'm proud of my team, we practiced as hard or harder than any team but Alliance. We were winning 70-80% of our scrims against every TI team except (NaVi (who raped us)/ Alliance (50/50 we barely played)/ and Mousesports (we never play)).
We didn't pick up RTZ just for the summer, the original plan was to play with him during the school year as well. As RTZ is a senior he could get a much light load, etc. However, this seemed less and less likely as time progressed and eventually we decided that it was impossible. I've been good friends with RTZ since august, he use to be an extremely hard working player all the way till March, then he just became normal >_>. Once he completes High School I expect a lot from him. Well if he stops being a Mama's boy.
Throughout the year I've learnt many things from RTZ and I've taught him many things as well. I'm certain that he has helped me grow as a player directly and indirectly. Honestly its been hard to play without him for the last few weeks, I will miss playing with him, but I'll get over it. ? He fucking sucks ass, hes actually the most unbearable thrower ever (I'lll try my best :x) .
Current Team Formation:
We were one of the first teams to start scrimming after TI3, we played with Qojva/Fata/ and AUI.
Qojva was with the Liquid guys a lot at TI and joined them instead. Liquid is very strong right now, I wouldn't be surprised if they won a Lan finally in the next few months.
The real decision came between Fata and AUI. Overall we were very impressed by FATA. However, it was very difficult to tell skill when we aren't necessary scrimming the best teams. Most of the best teams were on break or we couldn't tell if they were trying even if we won. When it came down to it me and Bone7 decided to take AUI over FATA because FATA felt uncertain about DotA and AUI truly wanted to join the team. AUI worked extremely hard to role switch, and was always eager to play. Another reason was that I've always respected AUI as a person and both me and Bone respected him even more from talking to him on Lan. After losing TI3 in that manner, he bounced right back and was already eager to play again.
Also, I asked my fucking team to make the decision together and all of them were like "iono u choose." Fuck you assholes I hope you all die.
Personally I don't think were very good right now, I think we have a lot of weaknesses as we have strengths, we aren't very stable. However what we have are 5 players that are all tryhards and with the right mindset I don't see what will stop us from getting better.
RattleSnake INT:
We will be playing like normal till after DH. That is, we will be attending Starladder (if we qualify), DH (If we qualify) and hopefully MLG Columbus (MLG ADAM PLEASE!!!!), and the NEXON Korean tournament.
Afterwards we will fly to China and stay for at least 6 months. However we may fly back to play in some major NA/EURO Lans.
The $200000 thingy is not our salary, its everything combined I think. Actual not too sure at all what that is really. Might be the cost of my organs when they harvest it once I get to china.
I think everything's gonna be normal once I get to China. Most likely I'll find a way to use twitter/yt/fb and twitch.tv. According to Pajkatt Practice ends at 10 am est, so I think I can choose between streaming between NA or EURO times depending on my sleeping schedule. I'll have to see then. For example if I wake up at 7-8 am i can stream till like 1-2 pm maybe.
To My Fans and about Myself:
I didn't decide to play DotA 2 because I was good at it. I didn't play DotA at all at the time for years, or own a DotA 2 beta key at all. I knew no one in DotA, had no one to form a team with or anything. I pursued DotA simply due to one truth. That I wanted to become a pro player more than anything else in the world. Why I do I just can't explain. And although my desperation to become the best has admittedly dropped from that of september-november 2012. I still want to do this more than anything else.
When I first played this game, I played only for myself. I cared but also didn't really care about what others thought about me. I never watched my own vods, checked comments for my games, visited any forum, basically rarely looking at anything about what people say about me except my twitch chat. This was further justified as I was very much hated by the twitch chat and was witch hunted by reddit.
However, recently there has been a surge of fans that have been supporting me. The EternaLEnVy thread on JD is actually so funny: http://forum.gamesports.net/dota/showthread.php?31993-EternaLEnVy
My fans are actually the most awesome of all. They made my twitch/twitter backgrounds. Help me with my moobot, my subscription icons, emotes, finding music, inviting me to music sharing sites and everything.
There are people out there that have a personal attachment to whether I do well or not, and I don't mean just my parents or friends but some fans. I no longer play DotA for just myself but also for my fans. I might leave some of you as my streaming times get fucked from China, but I'll try my best to maintain it.
This year I've failed and lied to all of you. I didn't attend TI3 at all. Looking back I don't think I was cocky nor do I regret saying my goals on stream. I wanted to win TI3, I didn't care how improbable it was, like how I didn't care about my chances of even becoming a DotA 2 pro. But it's not the same anymore, the desperation, the fire, the passion, the absolute certainty and trust in myself. There's absolutely no way I can say I'm not trying hard right now because that I will always be, but its not the same as when I first started doing this. I'm scared now of claiming that I will win TI4. It's not like I'm not trying hard right now, that would be silly to say. But it doesn't feel the same.
Hopefully China will refuel my passion. I want to say I'm feeling like I'll win TI4 right now but that would be a lie. So I'll save that sentence for later.
Shoutout to NRootn, TaurenCheiftain, Holy.Diver, and Wutupz. RattleSnake and my stupid team. Kizzles, Arteezy, and the Furiousnoob.
LuminousInverse and DPM as well.
Edit: Shoutout to Bulba, I gained so much respect for him as I saw his passion at TI3. I thought I wrote about u somewhere in the article
